My Funny Funny Noses

Last week was jam-packed with summer fun, the culmination of which was the kids both sleeping over at a friend's house on Friday night (yes, read: date night for Joe and I).

A bunch of friends met up at the local splashground playground for a play date. How cute are Jake and Sam giving each other rides on the big wheel?

The plan was that after the play date, Jake would go home with Sam and his family for a sleepover. As I gave Jake hugs and words of warning to mind his manners, I jokingly told Sam that I really wanted Jake to lose his other front tooth before the permanent one replaced the front tooth he recently lost. In other words, I wanted to see Jake with both his front teeth missing.

Flash forward to later that evening, while Joe and I were enjoying are date, blissfully shopping at Sam's Club just the two of us after an early bird dinner at a kosher restaurant we both love (yes, we like to live it up!) and I get a phone call from Solinda, Sam's mom. Apparently, the boys had taken my request a little too seriously and Jake allowed Sam to push his foot up against Jake's mouth and to both of their surprise, the tooth (which  was loose but not THAT loose) fell out. 

My wish was granted and the tooth fairy, whose job has not been made easy by Jake, paid a visit to him at Sam's house that night.

Meanwhile, Jadyn went to her BFF Riley's house and was treated to a movie out (Brave), shopping afterwards and swimming. Mind you except for staying over at a family friend's house once and overnight with her cousins once, this was her first sleepover at a friend's house. 

Flash forward to later that evening and I get a text from Riley's mom. Apparently, Jadyn was scared, couldn't go to sleep and wanted to come home. I felt bad as Kristy had been trying every trick in the book for awhile to no avail. So Joe ran out and picked Jadyn up at about 11:30 p.m. No harm, no foul. She just wasn't quite ready. The reason she gave us the next morning was that she was afraid of Riley's Monster High dolls but I am not 100% convinced of that, this coming from the girl who has seen all the Harry Potter movies and plays zombie games on my phone. 

So it turned out to be an eventful night of lost teeth and not quite sleepovers. But most important, both the kids had fun with their friends and Joe and I still got our date night, so it's all good in my book.

Summer Bucket List 2012

Now that it is officially summer, I would like to share the list of things I am hoping that we get to do this summer. Nothing too earth shattering. Nothing too different than last year. But I still like having it written down and sharing it. I had the kids each write a paragraph naming the top 5 things they wanted to do this summer. Then we brainstormed a list on the white board. This is what we came up with. Underlined are the things we have already done. Stars are the ones the kids had in their paragraphs.

Visit our local museum
Visit Discovery Children's museum **
Go to a baseball game (minor and/or major)
Miniature golf
Bowling
Movie theater - Madagascar 3, Ice Age 4, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3, Brave.
Drive in movie theater
Going out for frozen yogurt
Concert(s) in the park
Movie(s) in the park
Library summer reading program
Visit local animal shelter
Swim lessons
Knott's Soak City *
Palm Desert Aquatics Center
Swimming in our pool (A LOT)
Swimming at high school pool or spa pools *
Beach (hopefully at least twice) *
River ( A LOT) check out new areas along the river **
Sunburst Splash park
Play dates with friends
Sleepover with friends *
Grilling and eating outside on the patio
Family movie nights
Family game nights
Family dance parties with glow sticks
Water balloon toss
Fireworks
Sleep overnight in a tent
Stay in a hotel *
San Diego Zoo
Legoland **

Father's Day 2012 at Lost Lake

While our whole family loves the river, it has been Joe's happy place since he started going with his family as a small boy. So what better way to celebrate Father's Day than to take the boat out and enjoy a day at the river?

Although to change things up a bit, we did go to a new location on the river. At first we were a little unsure if we were going to like it but it ended up suiting our needs and turned out to be a good find.

Even better, Joe stepped from behind the camera and let me take this great shot of him and ALL his babies, Kuma and the boat included. The water was pretty low in some spots in the early morning so Joe broke out this oar and the kids were fighting over who got to paddle the boat into the cove.

Then Jake decided to swim across the cove to climb this hill made of small rocks. It was absolutely precious when Kuma decided to follow Jake and proceeded to doggy paddle all the way over there.

Later, Jake took Jadyn over there and they demanded to photographed on top of the hill.

After hanging out at the cove, we explored up river, floating down and finding this awesome spot called Shell Beach. I guess on busier days it can get kind of congested with boats and some of the younger folks can get kind of crazy (think Girls Gone Wild on Spring Break) BUT on this particular day we almost had it completely to ourselves and it was perfect.

The kids and I also got or made Joe special Father's Day cards and I prepared a basket with some of his favorite snacks and drinks. Joe is an amazing father and I hope that we gave him an amazing day.

While she was here

My mom, Grandma Kelly, came to stay for a week long visit. It was SO nice to have her here longer than usual. She got to see more of what life is like with the Funny Noses (both good and bad) and the kids loved spending time with her, not to mention that her and I got to have some lovely mother/daughter heart-to-hearts.

Right before she came, their were a few end of the school year activities of note. During the 1st/2nd grade 3rd trimester awards assembly, Jake received the Star Reading award.

He also received the Spelling 100 award. He was one of only two students in his class to receive both awards for all 3 trimesters. Last year in first grade I really saw an improvement in his writing abilities. This year, I would have to say his biggest improvement was in reading, although he still prefers math and science as his favorite subjects. I can't believe he will be going into THIRD grade.

The kids also had field day at school and this is always such a super fun, albeit exhausting day (maybe even more for me as a volunteer than for the kids). Here is Jake doing a sponge relay and getting thoroughly soaked:

And Jadyn "having a ball":

Things we did while Grandma Kelly was here visiting:

Take her with us to the river:

Go to the baptism of Jake's longtime friend Sam. You heard that right folks. Not what my mom was probably expecting to do during her time with us. Go to church!. We took these photos before we left. It's not too often we all get dressed up. The baptism was lovely.

Celebrate the end of the school year with dinner out (taken at the fountain outside the restaurant).

Have cousins Madison and Ethan over for a marathon sleepover that included tons of summer essentials like swimming, sno-cones, pizza, popcorn, movies (in 3D no less, Bob's Big Break), more swimming and laying out afterwards and popcicles.

And what my mom missed? The day after she left we heard that Ethan had come down with a 24 stomach virus. That Friday afternoon, we were IN LINE to get tickets to see Madagascar 3 when Jake exclaimed that he was starting to not feel well. Deciding not to chance it, we left the theater and went home. Thankfully so because Jake barely made it inside before the puking commenced and continued for the next 12 hours. Poor guy. Luckily, it would appear that Jadyn was spared.

So in conclusion, the school year is over (yeah for summer break) and we had a very nice visit with Grandma Kelly (yeah for more time with her).

Kindy Promotion

Jadyn had her end of the year kindergarten promotion on Monday morning. They sang several songs and came up to get their diplomas. It was really super cute and between preschool graduation and dance recitals, Jadyn has becoming pretty comfortable preforming in front of a crowd. It was also special because my Mom's visit just happened to coincide with this event, so Grandma got to watch the promotion as well.

With her "letter" partner Kaden:

 Receiving her diploma from her teacher, Ms Graham (LOVE her!):

With her BFF Riley. Their "future's so bright, gotta wear shades":

Our end of the year gift to thank Jadyn's teacher was this dry erase marker bouquet (thanks to Pinterest). We also gave her a gift for the little guy she is expecting this September:

Afterwards, Grandma Kelly, Jadyn and I all went out to celebrate with manis (Jadyn) and pedis (mom and I)

We then topped it all off with lunch at Applebees. It was a very fun day. AND, I can't believe Jadyn is now a first grader. Where did the year go?

The end of another baseball season, or is it?

This last week both the kids had their final games of the regular baseball season. And both kids had really great seasons, having fun and improving their skills.

Jadyn continued to hit the ball off the tee, run the bases and field the ball. After some initial bribery, she continued to slide into home *most* of the time for the remainder of the season. She is excited to be moving up to machine pitch all-girl softball next year.

Here she is sliding into home for the last time at her last game with a huge grin on her face. I am certain that the team mom got some great pictures of her and will be including them when I receive copies:

Here is Jadyn receiving her trophy from Coach Joey, who was so great with the kids and made the season super fun:

It was a little easier to get pictures of Jake in action because I was usually watching from the dugout. Here are some of my favorites of him hitting, wearing the catcher gear, fielding and running home:

I have to say I met a lot of great families this season and enjoyed serving as team mom for this silly group of boys:

Here are both kids posing with their bobble head trophies (the league decided not to have closing ceremonies this year):

BUT the big news is that although the regular season is over, we are not done with baseball just yet as Jake was drafted to play on one of the All-Star teams representing our town in tournament play. We are so proud of what a great season both kids had and although it will be a time-consuming endeavor, we look forward to seeing Jake continue to play. Go Yucca Red!

Just a little bit of Ketchup

I've managed not to get behind with the big events - our awesome experience at the air museum on Memorial Day and Jadyn's sixth birthday, but I have a little bit to catch up on......

The week leading up to Memorial weekend was Spirit week at school. The kids chose to participate in a few of the dress up themes, like twin day:

(Jadyn with her BFF, Riley)

Or, in Jake's case, triplets:

 (Jake pictured with friends Dominic and Krish)

Favorite sports team day. The kids both decided to represent their current teams. Otherwise it would have been Angels gear ALL THE WAY:

Career Day. Show off what you want to be when you grow up. They both chose the same as they did in the fall for Red Ribbon Week, Jake a Marine and Jadyn an artist and art teacher. Doesn't Jake looked thrilled that I asked to take a picture when dropping them off at school? I am interrupting his recess time:

Friday night of the long weekend, they finally showed the Avengers at the drive-in. The weather had gotten unseasonably chilly and windy but it wasn't too bad and the movie was awesome. And the best part of going to the drive-in is that Kuma gets to come along and snuggle with us in the back of the SUV:

Oh and are we noticing something different about Jake in the above picture? Like a very visibly missing front tooth? Well, both Jake and Jadyn have the same front tooth loose. Jake, who normally waits until his teeth are so loose they fall out while eating or even better, while sleeping, was not going to let his little sister be the first to lose a front tooth so at dinner one night (I think it was Tuesday), he gave it a good yank and to everyone's surprise he had actually managed to pull it out:

Saturday, I got the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids. I took Jake to get his hair cut and then for a frozen yogurt date afterwards:

I then helped Jadyn get ready and took her to a classmate's birthday party. It was a really cute Hawaiian theme and all the girls got grass skirts, leis and flower headbands, which Jadyn now loves to dress up in:

By Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the weather had started to warm back up. We headed out in the morning for a hike at Whitewater but (and this is why we never try and do anything on long holiday weekends) the parking lot was full. Apparently everyone had the same idea! Instead we had a very nice lunch with Joe's grandma Anita, Ken and his parents and then once we got back home, the kids went for a swim. Seriously, I don't think we have ever gotten so much use out of the pool this early in the season!

Now I am all caught up and ready for the end of the baseball season and the school year. It is a busy, busy time of year and I LOVE IT!

Glamour Cats and Wuggle Pets

The night before Jadyn's birthday, her last day of being 5:

And after wearing a crown and bringing fun snacks to share at school, the birthday girl chose Applebee's for dinner because she wanted to have the staff sing to her. She quite enjoyed the sundae they brought to her:

If that wasn't enough, she got to bring cupcakes and birthday treats for after her t-ball game on Friday night and both kids had their best friends spend the night Saturday night (here they all are enjoying Sno-Cones):

But the big day was Sunday when we had her birthday party. Jadyn is still all about puppies and kitties and since she had a puppy party last year, she decided she wanted to go with a glamour cats theme this year - a collection of party supplies that includes adorable kittens wearing crowns and posing with lots of hearts and flowers.

At first I wasn't quite sure what to do with the theme as far as party activities but ultimately we decided to let all the guests create Wuggle Pets and I do believe it was a huge hit with the kids. Here is Jadyn making hers. It is basically a similar concept to Build a Bear. You insert stuffing and "magic dust" to bring the pet to life, crank the stuffer machine, add the personality charms of your choice and zip them up. Then you give them a hug and repeat the phrase "Snuggle and huggle my Wuggle pet" and they are yours forever.

Each guest went home with their Wuggle pet, a birth certificate and some kitty stickers in this box, which coincidentally looks like a smaller version of the kind of box you usually use to transport a newly adopted kitty:

Then since the weather was warm, we let the kids go swimming and gave them all water blasters. They had a blast to say the least and some of the adults got in on the action with the result being that they got pretty soaked:

Of course there was also the more traditional birthday activities like singing to the birthday girl and cupcakes:

Upon discovering I had used candles that re-light after being blown out. My friend Rose got about a dozen pictures of Jadyn's many funny faces during this process. It was hard to only pick one:

And presents!

By the end of the party, everyone seemed to have had fun and we were all exhausted, even Kuma who found a comfortable spot to nap under the table while Jadyn opened gifts.

I would definitely have to declare the party a success and thank everyone who came and helped us celebrate Jadyn turning six.