It's Soccer Time

It's that time of year again, soccer season. Nate is on a team called the Vipers. Every team in his age group is named after a species of snake, which is right up Nathan's alley. Nate's team won this game 2 - 1. Nate is such a cutie. :)

Labor Day Weekend

On Sunday we had a barbeque with our neighbors. This is our next door neighbors backyard. We took out a small section of fence between our yards. Their yard had the jumper and a baby pool and our yard had the playground and a slightly larger kid pool for the big kids. I made snow cones for the kids. In the picture are Cassie, Emily, Olivia, Nathan and JJ. Lucas is out of frame and Lexi and Andrew hadn't arrived yet. Everyone had a great time, especially the kids who jumped all afternoon and well into the night. Don't tell the jumper company, but the kids kept jumping into the pool and then straight into the jumper and made it a slip and slide.

First Day of School

August 27 - Today was the first day of school. It truly is "the most wonderful time of the year". Actually I wouldn't mind summer at all if I had more money. I simply could not afford to take the kids out and do all the things they wanted to do. I think I will try to put money aside all year just for summer activities. I was so tired of them complaining that we didn't get to do anything that I made them a scrapbook that I call "shut up, this is what you did this summer". I don't actually say that out loud to the kids. It ended up being about 25 pages long. I only made 1 page per destination, i.e. even though we went to the beach three times I only made one beach page, etc. I'll try and post pics of it later. Emily donated her long hair to Locks of Love the weekend before school started, she had been wanting to do it for close to a year. After we got the kids settled into their classrooms, the neighborhood moms (4 of us) went to a nearby scrapbook store woohoo!

August 26 - Ice Skating

We went ice skating on just about the hottest day of the summer. It was 107 degrees outside and I was freezing at the ice rink. This was Olivia's first time out on the ice. She wasn't having a good time until another skater let her use the walker. The rink only had two of them. I can't believe the rink wasn't packed. I guess since this was the day before school started, not too many people thought to get out of the heat.

San Diego Zoo

I drove the kids down to the zoo on Monday. We went with our neighbors Chrissy and her kids Cassie and Lucas and with Stacy and her son JJ. We got to see all the animals that we don't normally see at the Wild Animal Park. Nathan loved the all the snakes. I was especially creeped out by the insects. Bugs should just not be allowed to be as big as my fist. We saw the polar bears, a hippo, two pandas (mommy panda and new baby were off exhibit for now), a two week old flamingo (it was white and sooo fuzzy), various cats and exotic birds.

Auntie Sue got Married!

We went to Northern California for Auntie Sue's wedding. August 4, 2007. Also Nana Dora's birthday. Emily and Nathan were in the wedding as flower girl and ring bearer of course. The reception was a kick-back bbq in the backyard. The kids swam in the pool for hours. By the end of the night I had plenty of pictures we will be laughing over for years to come. I got Papa dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld, Nana and her sister laughing until they were beet red, and Sue with a beer tucked into her cleavage. I think that one is going to be our christmas card this year.

Sky High - July 24, 2007

Our neighbor Cassie had her 7th birthday party at Sky High, an inflatable wonderland for kids. Emily and Nathan are beating each other with giant q-tips. Olivia gave it a try too, but couldn't pick up the q-tip high enough to swing it at Emily. Needless to say, the kids all had a blast and really wore themselves out. Happy Birthday Cassie.

Bryce Canyon

Mommy and the kids went on a road trip to Utah again this year. We went to Bryce Canyon this time and did quite a hike down the Navajo Loop Trail. We went down a steep 1/4 mile trail down to where there was a rock slide last year and could not go any further. I had Olivia on my back in a backpack, so that added an additional 35 pounds. Luckily for me when we got to the bottom, she wanted out and she actually ran back up the trail. I had to keep yelling at her to stop and wait for me and to get away from the edge. She thought it was quite amusing to stand about three switch-backs above me and look at me from the very edge. That girl is going to give me a heart attack. Emily on the other hand stayed with me on the way back up and kept checking on me every 10 feet. "Are you okay mom? Want some water mom? Do you need to rest?" She's very sweet, but I wasn't that pathetic. I held my own quite nicely thank you.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a quiet 4th of July this year. The kids' Uncle Doug & Aunt Mel came over as well as Grandma & Aunt Nene. We BBQ'd and then had a fire and smores. The kids went to bed by 8pm and Mommy & Daddy packed for the kids trip with Daddy to go see Nana & Papa.

Beach Day!

We went to the beach Sunday. Yeah! Olivia did not want to go at all. She kept whining "No Beach!" She loves the pool, but the ocean scares her. We convinced her to go by telling her there would be lots of sand to play in. This day was the first time she let daddy take her not only near the water, but they went in the water up to Daddy's waist. She loved it. She even went for a ride on the boogie board and was not upset when she wiped out and rolled through the waves getting covered in sand. A good time was had by all.