koi fish and carrom

we went to a birthday party for dahlia's friend from preschool. dahlia has her favorite friend that she met on her first day. as luck would have it i happen to love her mom. she is so fun and nice. that is the way you always hope things will go. she and her husband had a little birthday barbecue for her daughter today and our whole family went. it was the first time i had been to their house. it is absolutely lovely. they have the most beautiful and peaceful looking koi pond right in their backyard.

the kids had so much fun playing on her new swing set. it is really nice. they just finished landscaping their backyard so everything looks so nice. they had these really fun wooden carrom games for the kids to play with. mason loved that. it was a little bit too advanced for connor, but he had fun trying to play.

the food was delicious. grilled burgers and the best bruschetta i have ever tasted. we had lots of fun.

peek a boo

silly kira. who knew playing in the hamper could be such fun.

owl party

yesterday we went to a birthday party for our friend's daughter madeleine. they always throw the best parties. the decorations are always so pretty and the food is delicious. they also happen to be super fun to hang out with so it a win win.

jen and ray came with bodhi, kira, and zena. the party was of course a blast. they had a bounce house in the back. my kids took off their shoes and right away jumped in. this year they had an owl theme for the party. she had paper lanterns decorated like owls, and tons of balloons. there were owl shaped sugar cookies and graham crackers that looked like owls with marshmallows eyes and a candy corn nose.

there was a craft station where the kids could make little owls out of foam stickers. tons of sweets were everywhere. cake pops, cake, cupcakes, candy, cookies. there was a bit too much sugar sitting around. luckily my kids were too distracted by the bounce house and little cars to indulge.

we stayed super late until connor started crying. we always stay just a little bit too long. for party favors they each got to pick out a stuffed owl that she had made herself. they are just adorable and just a little bit different.

after the party we all went back to our house and had a big sleepover. the kids snuggled with their new stuffed owls and fell asleep. it was adorable and such a fun day.

happy birthday miles

it is miles birthday on tuesday but we decided to celebrate today. we invited jen, ray, and their kids over for a little barbecue. i got some steaks and shrimp for a mini feast. we had a delicious dinner with asparagus, cucumber salad, and roasted potatoes.

miles has been working six days a week so he was happy to have a day at home and relax a bit. we all enjoyed being outside. it was fun to chat with jen and ray. the kids of course were thrilled to have their cousins over. now that we are back in school and have all our after school activities i long for those lazy summer days. happy birthday miles! hope you had a fun day.

wrinkles

this week was dahlia's turn to have the kindergarten stuffed animal "wrinkles" for the week. she was so excited and happy to take him home. every day this week she gets to share something about herself. wrinkles gets to spend the whole week at our house. mason did this with a different "wrinkles" when he was in kindergarten so dahlia was happy to have her turn.

on monday we turned in a poster with pictures of our family and a list of things she likes and doesn't like. she also shared five things that tell something about her. she brought: the movie "blue lagoon", tap shoes, swim goggles, a metal from the little gym, and dahlia seeds.

on tuesday she shared a picture of her favorite stuffed dog "plum."

on wednesday she was supposed to wear her favorite outfit. she wanted to wear her gymnastics outfit but it also happened to be picture day so she picked out a pretty pink dress instead.

on thursday she shared her favorite toy doll named "orange."

today she got to share her family. miles, connor, and i all went to her classroom to meet the class. they asked us questions about our favorite vacation place and favorite kind of car. it was very sweet. i thought it was funny that miles was actually worried about going to her classroom. he had stage fright.

we had a busy week with wrinkles filled with dahlia's favorite things. we took wrinkles with us to the discovery science center, the soup plantation, movie night outside, the mall to buy dahlia's costume, dance class, and gym class. today she had to bring wrinkles back to school and the teacher picked someone else for him to go home with for the week. we were sad to send him back. wrinkles is very loved around here.

marshmallows and movies

it was a perfect day today. the weather was so nice. we decided to grill dinner outside. the kids ran around and played in the tree house while miles cooked the chicken. when he was done we let them toast marshmallows for smores. they loved it.

after dinner and bathes we went back outside for movie night with the projector. connor got to pick the movie so we all watched spiderman. it was a nice way to end the weekend.

legos, legos, legos

we had a great time today at the discovery science center. they still have their lego castle exhibit up and mason and connor were in heaven. they spent some time building their own tiny castle downstairs before we got to explore upstairs. in the back room they had an amazing lego city that you were only allowed to look at. it was pretty impressive and reminded me of the creations at lego land.

we also spent time at the rocket launch, recycle sorting game and eco shopping center. zena was with us and all the kids were being so good. we met christina at the soup plantation for dinner after the museum closed. it was a perfect visit. yay for saturdays.

preschool started

connor started preschool today. the first day is really just an introductory class and the parents stay with the kids the whole time. it is only for an hour. they get to meet their teachers and see the classroom. they have the opportunity to meet some of their classmates.

connor is in the red door classroom just like dahlia last year. he has the same teacher she had. i am so happy that he was familiar with the classroom and it didn't seem scary at all for him. we will see how he does on thursday when i just drop him off and leave.

he enjoyed looking around the classroom and then playing for a little bit on the playground. it was hot so we didn't stay long.

i had a really rough day. mason woke up last night screaming that his ears were hurting. i only got an hour of sleep because i stayed up consoling him. i took him to the doctor today and they told me he must have swimmers ear. miles met us there to take dahlia to dance class and as soon as we got in the car mason threw up all over. it was so gross. it got everywhere. man. i took him home and cleaned the car. miles picked up the ear drops at the pharmacy during dahlia's dance class. they cost us $160.00. i can't believe how expensive they were. it was a long day.

cloudy beach day

today was labor day so we made plans to hang out with jen, ray, christina, and all the kids. we traditionally have a camping weekend at our house complete with granola and tie dye t-shirts, but it has been crazy hot and just miserable here so we canceled that.

we decided to go to jen and ray's house instead and all go to the beach. it was a bit cloudy and overcast but a million times nicer than sweating at my house. the kids started out by flying kites. this activity is very fun but can never hold their attention for more than five minutes. luckily there was an ocean to jump and play in. they all spent hours playing in the water.

connor and kira were so funny walking on all fours pretending to be crabs. dahlia, mason, bodhi, and zena all loved jumping in the surf. they stayed in the water until their lips were turning blue. christina and jen finally convinced them to come back to our towels and help build a giant sand boat. this was very funny. they were jumping in the "boat" and pretending to drive it.

we cleaned up after the beach at jen and ray's house before cooking a delicious barbecue chicken dinner with corn on the cob. school starts tomorrow for connor so we didn't stay too late. it was a great labor day.