new toys

yesterday and today were very exciting days at our house. we got a new swing set for mason and dahlia. yay. we decided that we would either go away for a romantic weekend getaway or use the money to buy a swing set for the kids. hmmm. funny how my life has changed. we bought the endless adventures playcenter playground from little tikes. it is so cool. i am looking out my kitchen window at it while i type this. we decided on this one because it looks nice and doesn't need the yearly upkeep that a wooden set needs. we already have some teak furniture that needs sanding and finishing yearly. i can't imagine miles having to do that for a playset also. so yes, it is plastic. i kind of feel bad about buying a giant plastic playset for them, but the plastic is recyclable. sorry earth. i am a crap "green" mom. oh well, we love it. i am hoping it brings them many many years of joy.

miles had fun putting it together. we all hung outside watching and helping him. mason ran outside first thing this morning and slid down the slide in his pajamas. miles finished assembling it today. the kids loved playing on the swings. i can't wait for my niece zena to come over on saturday to play with mason. they will have so much fun.

surprise, it's a train

miles and i surprised mason this morning with a new train set. it is an early birthday gift. we just couldn't wait to give it to him. i know his birthday is not until october. we are bad. this all started with the lego percy train we bought him at legoland. of course mason was very upset that percy did not have any tracks that fit him. hmmm. so miles went to the lego store just to get a small set of tracks and came home with this huge train set bought on clearance. yay. we were just like little kids last night setting it up after he went to sleep to surprise him this morning. he loves it of course. he will be getting the rest of the train set for his birthday. yes, this is only part of it.

legoland

we met jen and ray at legoland yesterday for another day of fun. it is jen's last week at home with bodhi so we are hanging out everyday. hurray. we had never been to legoland so it was cool to do something new. mason had so much fun. we took turns taking him on rides. the park has an interesting style. they really make all the rides look like they are made of legos. it was fun. there is a large display of many famous cities and buildings recreated out of legos.

i really wanted to go out for mexican food and margaritas afterward, but the kids were exhausted. maybe next time. summer is almost over and i still have not had a margarita.

8 months

dahlia is 8 months old today. we stayed home and did housework. boring but necessary. i took a photo of her helping with the dishes.

i weighed her after her bath today and she weighs 17 pounds. she is crawling all the time now. her new trick is standing. she loves to stand, and has started climbing up on all the furniture. of course with climbing comes lots of falling down, so i am a nervous wreck with her climbing on things.

she has not been eating very much lately. she doesn't seem to like her baby food. i should really make homemade baby food for her. she might like it better.

lunch in the marina

we went to visit jen, ray and bodhi today. we all went to lunch at one of my favorite places. it is right by the boat docks in the marina. i love to eat lunch and stare at all the sailboats. i always pick out my favorite and make a wish to own it one day. i have a long love affair with sailing and boats. i told miles i am going to buy a boat for my fortieth birthday. mason seems to share my love for boats and i am so excited to have a future sailing partner. miles has never been interested in sailing. mason took this picture of the boats. not a bad shot.

history museum

jen, christina and i took the kids to the museum of natural history today. i loved it. i was so impressed. i thought it would be boring, but it was really cool. mason and zena had a great time. there was an outdoor butterfly exhibit where you could walk through tons of live butterflies flying all around you. it was so pretty. they also had a table set up outside the exhibit where kids could draw butterflies and make butterflies out of colored tissue and pipe cleaners. mason and zena made their own butterflies and were so excited. it was fun to watch mason get into the crafts. i can't wait to do some projects with him at home. i think he is finally old enough.


the museum itself looked just like that movie night at the museum. it was so funny. i kept thinking the animals were going to come to life and chase us around.


there was a discovery center that had live animals. the turtles here are real. i have no idea how the little one climbed up on the big one. i guess he was trying to reach the escape latch on top and needed a boost.

carnival time

yesterday my sisters and i took all the kids to the fair. how weird is it that i had never been to a fair before. sure, i have been to the tiny school fairs, but never the county fair. wow. it is huge. i had so much fun. it was such a trip. there is the weirdest food i have ever heard of. deep fried snickers, deep fried twinkies with strawberry and chocolate sauce, texas donuts the size of your head. it was so funny. i thought my sister was making it up when she said there would be deep fried snickers. that is so gross. we managed to make it through the fair without eating anything bad for us. jen was a bit disappointed. she wanted to be a little bad. it is after all the fair. we saw the animals and mason rode rides. i let him go on the rides without a (gasp) adult. i was a little bit (lot) paranoid. zena rode with him and i stood on the side praying i mean waving. the rides looked a bit sketchy to me. they had paint chipping and rattled around a lot. that would never be allowed at disney. he lived though and had a great time. i can't wait to go back.

pirate party

yesterday was my niece zena's seventh birthday party. my sister threw her a large pool party with all her school friends. there were about 20 kids and 30 adults there. mason and dahlia had a great time. there was a small blow up pool on the grass next to the large pool that mason swam in. after most of the kids had gone home, we let mason and dahlia play in the jacuzzi. mason loves to swim. i really need to sign him up for some swim lessons. the party turned out great. i was really worried about someone drowning, so we had a designated lifeguard at both the kiddy pool and large pool. we rotated the lifeguards every half hour so they could enjoy the party also. we were all completely exhausted when the party ended. we got home at six and just relaxed.

today we are going to my parents house to celebrate the rest of the july birthdays. july is a big birthday month in my family. three of my five siblings are born in july. my brother-in-law ray and my niece zena also have their birthdays in july. whew. it's a busy month.

birthday at dukes

today is ray's birthday. we went to lunch at dukes in malibu to celebrate. i love going to dukes. they have the best view of the ocean, and it is really laid back. the food is simple. nothing fancy. i had a super yummy shrimp and crab salad. mason loved watching the waves. it was so nice to go in the middle of the week when it is not crowded. i was sad to leave. i love people waiting on me. ahh. nice.

we went back to jen and ray's house for champagne and chocolate cake. yum. i love this birthday tradition. mason was so excited to have cake and ice cream. no champagne for him. happy birthday ray.

visiting the pier

today the fun continued with a walk to the pier. ray's sister drove down this morning to see bodhi and spend the day with us. we took all the kids to the pier. it has been a while since i have visited the pier and i forgot about all the games and rides. of course mason and dahlia fell asleep on the walk there. i was so excited for mason to see the pier and then he just crashed out in his stroller. i was glad that he woke up before it was time to go back home. zena was having so much fun playing all the games. she won so many stuffed toys we had to load them up in the stroller.

miles won a teddy bear for dahlia doing the basketball toss. thank goodness it was a small one and not like the giant spongebob that he won for mason when mason was a baby. we don't have room for another large toy.

a trip to the pier wouldn't be complete without ice cream so we stopped for gelato on the walk back home. it was so good. mmmm. i wish i had some right now.

4th of july

yesterday was a great day. miles and i took the kids to jen and ray's house to celebrate the 4th of july. christina and zena were meeting us there also. we got there at 2:00 and walked to the beach. it was a short 6 block walk. so nice. mason and zena loved playing in the waves. ray and i spent most of the time in the water with the kids while miles, christina and jen watched the babies under the umbrella. i forgot how much fun it is to play in the waves. i usually just sit on my towel and relax.

ray dug a big hole in the sand and mason jumped in. ray then filled in the hole and buried mason up to his waist. jen announced that this was a very dangerous thing to do, and he could be killed. "people have been killed ray, people get in a hole and the sides collapse and then they are buried alive" so funny. when did jen become so paranoid?

we walked back to jen and ray's for dinner and then drove to see the fireworks. it was an easy 10 minute drive to the fireworks. i was feeling lazy and didn't really want to go, but i was so glad i did. mason loved them. he was laughing and pointing. dahlia even seemed to enjoy them after the initial shock.

the best part was when we got back to jen and ray's and all the kids fell asleep. amazing. we opened some wine and all sat around the table talking and laughing. everyone except for miles who was sacked out with the kids. it was so fun to have a sleepover at sisters.

crawl baby crawl

dahlia decided to surprise us all and crawl for the first time today. i guess she wanted to show off for her aunties and uncle ray. she only moved a little bit, but she did it. hurray.