memorial day weekend

on sunday the weather was so nice we decided it was time to pull out the blow up pool. the kids had a blast playing in the little pool with bodhi. they loved it. it was really nice to have to sit outside with them and watch.

we had a busy weekend with lots of house guests starting on friday. by monday afternoon everyone had gone home and it was just our little family. we blew up the big pool so mason could spread out while swimming. it was fun. miles and i started planning our next big project. a tree house. yes. we have lots of plans for this summer. it is almost here. i can't wait.

flag ceremony

the whole family woke up super early to go to mason's school. they were having the kindergarten classes sing songs at the flag ceremony. it was so cute. they all wore paper top hats and sang yankee doodle boy and you're a grand old flag. they did a great job and mason was super excited to see us there.

open house

we got to visit mason's kindergarten class today for open house. it was so cute. i love all the artwork and crafts that they do. everything is just so sweet. mason was so proud showing us all his work hanging up around the class. he is such a sweet kid. they had a whole farming theme with lots of artwork about growing things and farms. they planted carrot seeds.

i really love mason being in kindergarten. i am getting sad thinking of him moving on to first grade. he will be in school for a longer day. two hours longer and i will miss him. i really like his teacher. she was cute and told me she will really miss having mason in her class. she said she will have to pick dahlia for her class when she goes to kindergarten. that would be great. i enrolled dahlia in preschool for next year so we have a year to wait before she can be in kindergarten. she missed the cutoff date by 22 days. that is fine with me. i am not in a hurry for these kids to grow up. they can just stay little.

pirate ship

mason made this cool pirate ship from legos today. i was so impressed i just had to take a photo before he wrecked it. he is just so clever with his creations. i loved the little details like the guy getting ready to walk the plank, the cannon barrels stacked up, and the sail and flag he made out of paper. nice job mason!

school fair

yay. the school fair. we had so much fun this year at zena's school fair. the kids were super excited to go. it was perfect. there were not too many people there and the weather was just right. mason and dahlia loved the inflated obstacle course and of course eating lots of cotton candy.

connor is still really too young to enjoy the fair. he was getting cranky so i left mason and dahlia with my mom and christina and took him over to the playground. he had a blast playing on the slides. he was so cute. i like that he is at an age where he can go on the slides by himself. jen and kira joined us at the playground.

the only downfall of the day was that mason and dahlia had too much sugar. they had cotton candy and a snow cone. mason was so hyper that he would not stop talking the whole drive home. he had a really hard time falling asleep. he was still awake when we got home and i could hear miles in the bedroom with him saying "mason stop talking, mason stop talking, mason stop talking." it was kind of funny.

mothers day

i decided to have a little mothers day party at my house this year. mothers day is always tricky because the mom's don't want to do any work but we still want to get together to celebrate. we used to go to a restaurant but with so many little kids it doesn't really work out very well for us anymore. so this year i thought i would host something so we could have a nice lunch together. i thought i could keep it simple. i really don't know what i was thinking. i always forget just how much work it is to have a party.

miles and i invited our moms and all my brothers and sisters. it was nice to have a family get together. we served grilled chicken and shrimp, panzanella salad, corn on the cob, and autumn rice. christina made a yummy trifle for dessert. all the food was delicious.

we had a pinata for the kids that i filled with necklaces, whistles, kazoos, toy coins, and a little candy. they had so much fun trying to knock it down. the kids also set up a lemonade stand. their aunt susie made cookies that they sold with lemonade for a quarter. it was very sweet.

the party turned out very nice. my kids were crazy cute and made me homemade cards and little paper houses. i just adore them. i hope all the moms were feeling loved on mothers day.

sand box

we finally put some sand in our sand box. we had filled it up for mason's fifth birthday party and after a year it was a disgusting mess so i cleaned it out and it has been empty for at least six months. i was super excited about filling it up again. summer is coming and the kids love to play in the sand. miles doesn't like all the sand that ends up in the house but i say who cares. they are only young once. i like that they are happy to play in a sand box. why would we deny them that joy because of a little mess? besides, miles doesn't clean up around here anyway so i don't really know why he would be complaining.

he was a good sport though and took the kids with him to the hardware store to buy the sand. the kids had a great time helping him put the sand in the box. as soon as he poured it they jumped in and started building sand castles. i am excited about summer. we are going have so much fun here.

mothers day crafting

dahlia and i have been super busy this week making mothers day gifts for her grandmas and aunts. for our first project she painted these adorable girls and flowers with water colors. i took the paintings and then scanned them and printed them on transfer paper which i ironed onto canvas grocery bags. we plan on giving the bags to her aunts. i think the bags are so cute i plan on making one for me too.

for our second craft project we cut out paper flowers and used double sided tape to create a pop up mothers day card that looks like a bouquet. it is so pretty. the instructions are on martha stewart's website here. of course all this crafting has taken much longer than i thought it would so we are way behind schedule for our mothers day party. oh well. who needs sleep anyway.

making cookies

we had a fun weekend baking and decorating lots of cookies. dahlia decided she wanted to make sugar cookies so we baked them on friday and spent saturday morning decorating them with the boys. we didn't really stick to a theme for the cookie cutters. i just let the kids pick their favorites from our collection. i think i need to get some new ones. they seem to be using the same shapes over and over.

miles helped to decorate them with us. connor loved the frogs. dahlia of course was partial to the shoe and crown again, and mason still loves his train and sailboat cookie. for some reason the kids seemed more interested in eating the frosting than decorating the cookies so miles and i ended up doing most of the work. i know. it's a tough job.

huntington library

we took the kids to the huntington library today. we ordered our free tickets a month ago. wow. it was so beautiful. jen, ray, bodhi, and kira met me and my kids there. we only had three hours to look around and really that is not enough time. i'm not sure what was different about this visit but i was completely taken with the place. so were the kids. it was overwhelming to be surrounded by all the beautiful flowers. i wasn't really expecting to fall in love with it but there i was wishing i could stay or come back whenever i like. it is just the right time to see and enjoy all of the flowers. simply gorgeous.

the kids of course wanted to go to the children's section and see the rainbow tunnel right away. they had so much fun running around in there. it was pretty hard to keep track of them. they were all running in different directions. that was fun but dahlia fell down and hurt her knee so she wanted to leave. why i don't carry bandaids is beyond me. i really need to stock my purse.

i was so impressed with how much the kids loved the gardens. they really had a blast seeing the fish in the koi pond and walking everywhere. i was thinking i should get a membership. i don't get out with them often enough. at least in a completely natural setting plus it was such good exercise for me. it is a little expensive though. jen and i are hoping they do a groupon again. that would be perfect.