My girls...

I spent Friday hanging out with Emma & Mikayla. Big or little, old or young, Emma sure does love her cousins! We started the day with a trip to the library where we met up with Hayden and Sophia. Mikayla is good with the little ones (when she feels like it) and she held an impromptu story hour for the girls. They loved it! Then I took the 3 of us to lunch at Shakeys & out for free bowling. We finished up the day with a stop at the grocery store and then headed home for a nice movie/ nap time. When Emma woke up, we painted suncatchers. She was very proud of herself and all the colors she put on her Tinkerbell. Can't ask for a much better Friday than this one!

Fun with Friends!

Thursday was a very fun day for us! Soon after we woke up, I took Emma & TJ to meet up with Hayden, Jen, & Charlene at the local movie theater for an early showing of the new Disney movie, Cars 2. The movie was pretty cute and the kids were very excited to go see it. Unfortunately that excitement seemed to wane after about an hour for Emma. I can't really blame her... the 1st Cars movie is more TJ's forte than Emma's too and, besides that, I think a full 2 hours is a bit long for a movie aimed at young kids. Anyway we still enjoyed most of the movie. After that, I quickly ran home to pick up Mikayla since she had gotten dropped off at the house after we had already left in the morning. Then we stopped to pick up some pizzas and headed over to Jen's house for lunch and swimming. Jen had finished building her new deck on the side of her pool and it looked great! She did an awesome job! We had a wonderful time splashing the afternoon away and did a great job of tiring out the little ones. Emma went down without a problem at bedtime and TJ actually passed out for the entire night at around 6pm! He must have been wiped! And anything that can exhaust a preschooler has to have been a successful day!

Forest Falls 06/28/2011

We didn't really have any big plans for Tuesday and, since I was still watching both TJ & Matthew along with Emma, we really needed to get out of the house! So I piled them all in the jeep and we headed up the mountain to meet Grandma & Al and do a little hiking in Forest Falls. We only spent a couple of hours up there but we had a pretty good time. I think the hike, although short, was a bit taxing for a couple members of 0ur group, but we all made it to the water and back in (mostly) one piece. The only major complaint of the day was the bugs! I had forgotten insect repellant and there were millions of little sweat bees and biting flies swarming around us. Matthew & I seemed to get especially bit up in comparison to everyone else... I guess we must just be the sweetest smelling of the group! :)

A refreshing afternoon...

After we finished berry picking on Monday morning we were all a bit hot and dusty. My cousin Cindy lives near the berry patch and she invited us all over for the afternoon. We had a delicious meal of grilled carne asada fajitas and a wonderful time swimming in the pool. The kids thought all the water toys were very cool. Matthew was quite the "pool surfer" in fact! She has a beautiful house and backyard and we had a great time visiting as the kids played and splashed.

Temecula Berry Company!

It's blueberry time again! Technically, its almost the end of blueberry time this year. So Mom & I headed out to Temecula with Emma, TJ, and Matthew bright and early Monday morning. The bushes had been picked over quite a bit, as compared to last year when we had visited in mid-May instead of late June, but we were still able to get quite a haul. I think we each filled a bucket almost all the way up. And some of us (EMMA!!) probably ate at least a bucket's worth as we picked. She pulled the same scheme as last year... fill her bucket a little, ask to see mine, comment on how it is SO much fuller than hers, ask to swap, commence with eating the berries Mommy picked. Lol. She's a smart cookie, that one. Uncle Orland, his daughter Cindy, and her son Brahm came out to pick berries with us as well. Brahm & Matthew got along wonderfully and it was a great (albeit hot) morning!

Old Glory!

Emma & I went to Lowes on Saturday morning and she built a waving American flag. It's got a straw flagpole attached to a wooden base but we think it looks more like a boat at the bottom. So she has decided that it is her "flag boat!" We met Sophia and her Grandma Kathy there and the girls were very excited to see each other, as usual. They did a great job building and the finished products were pretty cute!

Ocean Beach!

We spent Thursday down in San Diego. Jen and Hayden were planning to head down to Ocean Beach to visit some family and they invited us along. And, since Erin was in Vegas anyway, we offered to bring Sophia along too. So I picked up all 3 little ladies from their sleepover at Erin's and headed us over to Jen's. Then we packed up and hit the road. The girls got to watch movies during the drive, which they all enjoyed and it seemed to make the time pass more quickly too. Unfortunately the weather didn't exactly cooperate and it never really warmed up. We still had a lot of fun watching the kids playing in the water and Hayden's older cousins were great too. Ashley turned all of the little girls into sand mermaids and helped them dig holes and build castles. I love the sound of the waves crashing and the smell of the salty air but, after running in the waves a bit, the girls were all shivering and we decided to head back to John and Car0lAnn's to have a picnic in their courtyard. Compared to our usual day trips to the beach, it was so nice to have a bathtub available so I could bathe the girls and wash all the sand out of their gorgeous tresses. It ended up still being a very nice afternoon. The girls played with Hayden's cousins and her Uncle John and cajoled him into giving them piggyback rides and building them castles/ cat houses/ traps, depending on the current game. By the end of the day, all 3 little ones told us that they were not tired as we piled back into the car... within 15 minutes they were all sound asleep, and stayed that way for the entire ride. It was a great day.