we love fish

we went back to our favorite place today. the long beach aquarium. i never get sick of watching the fish swim around. the kids love playing outside in the little playground with the giant water-squirting squid sculpture.

i have a new iphone that i got yesterday so i tried out the camera on it. it takes pretty good pictures. i am still learning how to use all the features. i am so excited to have a smart phone. it looks so cool.

this is a busy week for us. we leave on sunday to go to our annual river trip. there is lots to do. tons of shopping and packing. miles is not going to the river with us this year. his job does not give him any paid vacation time so we just can't afford for him to take the week off. the kids have really been looking forward to this trip so i am going to take all three kids by myself. yikes! of course my family will be there to help but i still am a little worried.

zena's mermaid party

zena turned ten this week and her mom threw her annual pool party to celebrate. it was a great party. the kids were talking about how they couldn't wait to swim at zena's party. this is the first year that i actually went in the pool with them. i usually make miles go in the pool during parties and i stay on the side holding our youngest child. now that connor is old enough to get in the pool with me i got to swim too. i pretty much was in the pool for the whole party. i loved it. i even got to take mason and dahlia down the slide. it was so fun. i was kind of hoping they would want to go down it a bunch of times but they were happier in the hot tub. they had the hot tub set to a warm bath temperature and the kids were in heaven. they insisted on swimming without their floaties. they are getting so brave. a little too brave for auntie jen whom was sure they were going to drown any moment. i was keeping a close eye on them and they were still wearing their swim vest so i wasn't really worried.

i think zena had fun at her party. she swam with us a lot and got tons of gifts. we were there for almost five hours but the kids still cried when it was time to get out of the pool. i think they could have stayed in there all night. of course they were fast asleep as soon as we got to the freeway. it was a great day. happy birthday zena.

hanging in o.c.

what a busy day we had today. i took the kids to orange county and we met jen, bodhi, kira, and zena at the discovery science center. it was super crowded but the kids didn't seem to mind at all. after a couple of hours there we all went to lunch at corner bakery. mason has started eating ham sandwiches and i am pretty sure it is because of the movie ponyo. whatever it takes to get them to eat new things is fine with me.

after lunch we met mom at christina's house and she helped to watch kira while the other kids all went swimming. it was a perfect day for a swim. mason and dahlia are really brave now that they have started swimming lessons. they wanted to swim without their floaties but i don't think they are quite ready for that.

sleepyhead

oh my gosh. this is just too cute. connor completely sacked out after a day of swimming in the backyard.

it reminds me of this picture of mason when he was two.

vivian's party

we went to our friend vivian's third birthday party this weekend. it was a really fun party. there was swimming in the backyard pool and a jump house in the front. they also had a cupcake and cookie decorating station complete with lots of frosting and sprinkles. they even had a cute water table set up that looked like a pirate ship. so many interesting things to do.

miles wasn't with me so i skipped the swimming part and we stayed in the front with the cupcake decorating and bounce house. i was worried about watching three kids in the pool by myself. the kids didn't seem to mind much. they had a great time bouncing. dahlia loved the cupcake decorating although i think she really just wanted to eat the frosting. the kids all got to take home a little apron as a party favor.

after we left the party we went to christina's house to swim. i felt bad that they missed out on the pool at the party. zena and christina went swimming with us so it was lots of fun. we stayed until five and then headed home. such a fun summer day.

susie's birthday

today is my sister susan's birthday. jen and i decided to drive down to orange county with the kids and celebrate with her. the park near my mom and dad's house has free concerts on thursdays during the summer so it was the perfect place to meet.

susan and her boyfriend doug were there. my mom and sister christina and zena also met us there so we had a big crowd. it was so fun. we brought take out for dinner and had my cherry cake for dessert. the kids were super funny dancing around to the music. the band was playing caribbean music so i loved it. it makes me feel like i am on vacation.

for some crazy reason the kids were wide awake when we got home. oh no! no relaxing for me today.

cherry chomper time

i finally got around to making that cherry cake today. it is delicious. the recipe i use is from martha. dahlia and connor were great helpers. they pitted all the cherries using our beloved cherry chomper. we actually made two cakes. one for us and one to bring to my sister susan's birthday celebration tomorrow. yum yum.

4th of july

happy 4th of july. what a great weekend we had. yesterday we drove to santa monica and stayed the night with jen ray and the kids. my other sister christina also met us there with her daughter zena. it was a big group. the kids had a blast. we enjoyed yummy fish taco's for dinner and the kids watched their new favorite movie ponyo. connor is a bit obsessed with that movie lately.

today we spent at the beach. yay. i love going to the beach. we all walked there together and hung out for the day. the kids were so funny running from the waves. mason and dahlia loved playing in the ocean. connor was a little scared of the waves and preferred to build sand castles by our towels. we all took turns carrying buckets of water back to the towels for them.

when we were completely exhausted we started the walk back to jen and ray's house. for some reason the walk back always seems longer. why is that? miles and i each ended up carrying one kid. whew! after taking showers we relaxed and had hamburgers for dinner. miles and i decided not to stay for the firework show. the kids were so tired and it would be a long drive home. dahlia doesn't like the fireworks anyway. she thinks they are too loud.

after we got home we decided to drive up to the hills around our house and look at the fireworks around the city. it was fun. kind of cute to sit in the car and look at fireworks. i thought it was the perfect ending to our holiday.

hanging out at home

lately my favorite days are the ones that we never leave the house. the kids have so much fun just playing in the backyard and i get to hang out with them. i love it. today was just that kind of day. miles took the car in to be fixed so we had to stay home. the kids had fun playing on the swings and swimming in our new pool. yes, another new pool. i know i am spoiling these kids but i really could not decide which pool to get and they were both on sale so i splurged. i am so glad i did. this pool is much more shallow but has more space to move around. it also has a cool slide. i think i might like it better than the other one. we do plan on spending lots of time in our pools this summer so i think they were a good purchase. i loved watching them play today. i think it was the perfect way to start the holiday weekend.