Yet another hike

Another trip to the waterfall. This time with more grownups and more kids...


The water is still falling...

But the main event seemed to be climbing and sliding down the hillsides...

A rare quiet moment...

After a little more hiking off trail and a king snake viewing, the little ones were rushed home, dirty clothes removed outside and put straight into showers to avoid any possible poison oak outbreaks.

Give kids a little water, a little nature and lots of dirt and you have very happy campers!

Mother's Day

Some miscellaneous photos from Mother's Day. Breakfast in Bed...


Brunch at Papa's and J's...

Waterplay...

Making soup...

A's Birthday

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we attended a birthday celebration for cousin A. It was a sunny but breezy day. Lots of out door fun.

A and Conner had a blast being silly together.

Ben's Birthday Party

Last Friday, we joined some of Ben's school friends for his Birthday Party up in Napa. It was a paint you own pottery party.

Conner painted a cupcake...

Aidan chose a dragon...

The Pottery place was at the women's house. It was a beautiful setting among the vineyards, ponds, hills.

Cupcakes and old fashioned fun happened outside.

And of course, present opening.

Ben's actual birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ben!

It's another hot one..

It was another scorching weekend. On Saturday, Conner attended a birthday party where the ice tea and water was going faster than the cake! Look at all those rosy faces...

So Sunday, we counteracted the heat by hitting the beach. Early before the crowds arrived. We stayed there pretty much all day...

Enjoying the sand...

And water...

And I was reminded that no matter how hard you try, sand gets into everything. Including your camera that you took extra special steps to avoid!

Thursday in the Park

Last Thursday, we rode our bikes over to the amphitheatre park in our neighborhood. This was a big accomplishment in itself because we haven't been able to get Conner to go further than around the block prior to this.
We went to watch Euan and his coworkers play soccer which they do every Tuesday and Thursday.

Later that day, Aidan had Soccer Kids. I think the grown-up Soccer game really rubbed off on him. He was all over the ball and yelling, "Get in their Faces" to his teammates. At least there were no four-letter words coming out of his mouth.

How does your garden grow...

We've been talking about it for a long time and we finally did it, planted a veggie garden. We got the garden kit from the school auction along with seeds, a composter and kid's gardening tools. Euan put it together the weekend before last. We took advantage of the break in the rain to visit the nursery and plant on Sunday. It was a family affair. The kids got really into it. Conner rushed out this morning to see if anything had grown over night.

We planted a wide variety of things. I'm no gardener, so we'll see what turns up. Hopefully, we'll get to enjoy something by end of the summer. Fingers crossed!

A little conversation...

We've had a very rainy last few days. Friday afternoon, our wonderful neighbor took my kids and her kids on a long rain walk. I surprised the soaking kids with a fire and hot chocolate when they returned. It was nice and cozy.