Summer Days in Winter Time....

The weather this weekend has just been fabulous. Warm and sunny, blue sky perfection. So Karen, Todd, & I decided to spend the afternoon at the park with all the kids. It was even warm enough for popsicles. Yum! It's funny though... this park has so much land that is NOT part of the playground and those areas seem to be the ones that attract the kids the most. Sure, they spent some time on the swings and slide but much less so than the time spent wrestling in the grass, climbing on the boulders, going on mini hikes, and even dancing on the tables! Whenever Emma gets with all her cousins I rarely hear the dreaded words "I'm bored." Instead, they all seem to make their own fun despite the wide age range. It was a great afternoon.

Dino Days!

We met up with Sophia and Baron and their Mommies this morning to build at Lowes. The kids all got to create dinosaurs. I think Emma & Baron liked running around and roaring at each other best of all. Those 2 are definitely a handful when they get together!

Whale Watching, Take 1

Last summer I found us a really good deal on a whale watching trip. It was half price for adults and free for the little ones since they were, well, little. But time got away from us, as usual, and all of a sudden the vouchers were about to expire. So we headed out this weekend with our friends to check it out. Mom & Al were supposed to join us as well, but neither of them were feeling well. So it was just us and our friends. The weather has been poor this week but, luckily, the rain stopped while we were out. But the seas were still choppy and, after barely making it out of the bay, the captain of the boat decided that the waters were too rough and he turned us back around. We did see some seals in the harbor, and we all got free vouchers to come back another day, so it wasn't a total waste. We then decided to still make a day of it and rode the ferry over to Balboa Island for lunch. We finished up the afternoon by letting the kids splash in the waves. It was sooo cold, but they all had fun. Then we changed their clothes, bundled them up under blankets in their boosters and headed home just as the rain started up again. Perfect timing.

Brrrr.....

Being that we had today off from work, Karen & I decided to take the kids up to the park by Mom & Al's house to have a picnic with Grandma. Tim was up there doing some work too and had Bubby there helping him, so he joined us too. It was sooooo cold though! The kids were bundled up, but it sure was chilly today. We still played for an hour or so though.

Happy 12th Birthday Mikayla!

Mikayla turned 12 years old last week. Can you believe it? Time is going way too fast around here. She asked for a skating party again this year and it was a lot of fun! As far as the little ones, TJ did much better this year - probably because his father backed off and actually let him skate without hovering as much. Emma, on the other hand, actually did better skating LAST year. Lil weirdo. She is just more scared of things lately and she was so worried that she was going to fall out on the rink. She did well on the carpet though and also really enjoyed dancing to the music. In fact, at one point she and I were out skating on the rink and a certain song started. Emma freaked out and started telling me that she needed to get her skates off NOW. I thought something might be hurting her so I rushed her too the side and quickly undid her skates. Once she was in her stocking feet I asked what was wrong. Her response, I kid you not, was "Mom! I can't shuffle in skates!" and she took off shuffling down the carpet! Goofy kid!

Back to the Grindstone

Emma and I have had a WONDERFUL 3 and a half weeks off for Christmas break but, alas, all good things must come to an end. I had some concerns about how this morning would go since Emma has been on "vacation mode" for quite a while and sleeping in till almost 8 every morning. But she is always my trouper and was up at 6 am with barely a complaint. So its back to work and school we go today. And the best part is that we have a 3-day-weekend next weekend! The promise of an extra day off coming up always helps to get us through the week. :)

Mikayla made the team!

We are so proud of Mikayla around here. She went out for the school basketball team... and she made the cut! Very cool, especially for her first year of middle school.

Farmer's Market Morning

We met up with Jen, Charlene, and Hayden early this morning to check out the Farmer's Market in Rancho. The girls LOVED the samples of various fruits and veggies and a I found a good deal on some strawberries, some new hairbows for Emma, and some pomogranite seeds. It was awesome... a whole tub of the tasty seeds, already out of their pesky shell. Genius. Emma & Hayden put a pretty good dent in those though when they decided they needed to have a mini picnic at the playground. Oh well, that's a pretty healthy snack at least. And, can you believe what Emma was wearing today? Shorts & a tank top. In the first week of January. Goodness, we love living in Southern California!

Festival of Lights

We went down to Riverside to meet Karen after work and went ice skating for the first time this evening. Or, more specifically, EMMA went ice skating for the first time. Me? Not so much. WAYYYY more unstable than on roller skates. I took two steps out onto the ice and said, "Nope, not gonna happen." Emma did really well though. She was a bit wobbly but hung tough. Then we all had a nice time walking around and checking out all the displays in the Festival of Lights.

Fun with Friends!

Today we met up with some friends to go to the cheap theater to see Puss in Boots and then we all had lunch at McDonalds. The ironic part was that everyone always laughs because I usually have TJ (& sometime Mikayla) with me but today it was just you and I. But our friends who only have one kid each brought an extra kid along with them! So you had a lot of friends to play with but Mommy had a relaxing day only watching one child. :)

New Year's Baseball Game!

In the morning, we headed out to the local high school field for a "friendly" family game of softball. We even got Mom out to go play. It was a lot of fun, despite realizing how incredibly out of shape we all are. It was also REALLY hot out. Almost 90 degrees... on JANUARY 1st!!! Either way, it was a lot of trash talking, a little bit of athletic skills, and a LOT of fun. We are going to try to make this an annual event. And we were still home in time for the Raiders vs. Chargers game at 1pm. :)