Quadrennial Celebration

Every four years, billions from around the world join together to celebrate one of the true gems of the Earth. Of course I'm talking not of the Olympics, but Brooke's birthday. She turned 4 last week, and we had a grand celebration. Tracie and I trapped Brooke in her room. This was harder to execute than it looks mainly due to Brooke still being awake at 10 at night. Crepe paper does not equal quiet either.

Tracie repeated it during nap time, so a full day of fun.

Mid-afternoon photo op. We have cute kids, who at least like to pretend to read. Connor likes kid stories, Brooke prefers more action oriented stories like The Bourne Identity.

Opening presents when Dad got home from work. Brooke was all business. She definitely understands the concept of receiving gifts.

All smiles before some homemade mac and cheese for dinner and a trip to Cold Stone for dessert. Fairly low key on her actual birthday, but we stepped it up the next night.

Tracie made a coconut raspberry lemon cake, since that is what Brooke wanted for her birthday (ok, maybe she just said cake, but this is what you get when Tracie is in charge!)

See, Brooke is very excited to consume it.

We had the Kelleys and the Cowans over for sliders and home-made fries. Delicious. The kids had a lot of fun with the water table in the back. They weren't sure if they really wanted to come in for cake.

Definitely an inverse correlation between age and level of wetness. Connor, hope you enjoy being the youngest!

The cutting of the cake.

Friday night we had the Simmons over for dinner. Sadly they are moving back to Texas, and we wanted to send them off with a Chinese feast. The food was delicious, the company was excellent, and we wish them the best of luck. Here's a behind the scenes look at dinner prep with Tracie.

Family Reunion #2

Family reunion #2 brought us to UT.  We met up with Will, Kristin, and fam and hung out with them for a couple days.

It's been awhile since we've "hung" out at good 'ol University Mall.  Doesn't seem like we're missing much.

Aunt Kristin broke out the glow sticks before the sun went down but the kids still had a blast having a dance party.  Even Connor got his groove on.

Then we headed up to the Troy's parents house and spent another few days hanging out with the whole fam sans Taylor.

The kids played a mean game of Chutes and Ladder.  The adults learned that you definitely want more ladders than chutes.  The game took forever.

 Connor stayed on the side lines and tried not to disturb the game board too much.

It's never too early to start with the card games.  I actually think they played a real game of Go Fish.  Now we just need to teach them how to play Speed and they'll totally be set.

The big kids got to have a night out.  We hit up Market Street Grill and decided to try the oysters.  Wasn't too shabby.

After my piano recital and girls' camp mid-June, my family's reunion beginning of July, Troy's reunion last week and scout camp sandwiched between we are finally home for good.  That is until the end of August when Troy and I head off to Toronto because HE PASSED HIS LAST EXAM!!!!!!!  He has to take a final FSA course to complete everything that's followed by a banquet so I thought I'd tag along and see the sights.  I'm so proud of him and all that he's accomplished in these past several years.

Now for the next few weeks we can relax and chill and hopefully get back to our normal routine. 

Family Reunion #1

Let the photo dumping begin!!!!

Connor's growing up and getting ready to move up to forward facing.  Yay!!!

Celebrated the 4th a day early hanging out with the neighbors.  Anywhere there is a car or tricycle or bike hanging around you'll find Connor there also.

Hung out at a the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.  Brooke loved the idea of driving a big jeep.

Also riding the tricycle and obeying road rules.

Hopefully this little traffic jam isn't a thing of the future.  There were times she had 4 bikes waiting behind her.  Yikes!

Like I said before, if there is an empty bike around there Connor will be also.  Gotta love the helmet.

Connor found the creek.  Got a little wet.

Brooke found the creek.  Got a little wet.

Connor found the shooting fountains.  Got a lotta wet!

Brooke found the shooting fountains too.  Got a lotta wet!

Loved the swings at the park.

Channeling her Olympian gymnast self

Starting to train for the Tough Mudder.  We I am in trouble.  Big trouble.

Loved the unlimited supply of watermelon.

At my family's reunion (just in case you might have mistaken it for Troy's).  Connor hung out by the wading pool majority of the time.

Brooke hanging out with her cousins once removed ???

Car = Connor.  Besides the wading pool he could be found here.

How do you get a bunch of little kids to sit still for a picture???  Give them fruit snacks.

All of my nieces and nephews minus 2.

Now add in my cousins and their spouses minus 2.  Couldn't get a pic with all my aunts and uncles but just add another 19 people to the mix.

Loved this family pic.  Notice Jason.

Now notice Sierra.  Gotta love the babies in the pic.

We had a fabulous reunion.  I love that my family (immediate and extended) are so close.  Can't wait to do it again in another few years.  Should make another great family picture.

Fun At Home

With the crazy high temps we had last week we tried to figure out how to stay busy and have fun at home.

I'm always curious as to what Brooke does to keep herself busy during quiet/nap time.  The other day I found her lying on her bed reading her books.

The next day, I found her fast asleep right behind the door.  Don't know how she finds that comfortable but she slept there for about 45 minutes.

 We've been utilizing our cool basement.  The kids are a big fan of the exercise ball.

 And dad as their jungle gym.

Just thought I'd add an up close pic of Connor boy.  You can't tell but he does have a nice layer of fuzz covering his head.  Maybe he'll have super-light-brown-almost-close-to-blond hair as he grows older.  Asian blond kids!!!!



Ketchup/Catch up...Potato/Po-tah-to

This whole month of June seems like it's been a blur.  We started the month off with my semi-annual piano recital.  My kids did awesome and it's great to see them progress.  We're finally getting into some exciting songs and I think the kids are starting to show enthusiasm for what they can accomplish.

We headed up to the Powell's to celebrate London's b-day.  Seems like the kids were way more intrigued with the new toy then actually celebrating.

 Can't believe that a year ago we were celebrating the births of these two.  Crazy how quickly time passes.

Last week was girls' camp for me.  It was kind of crazy and hectic leading up to it but I had a lot of fun with these girls.

Kind of weird to think that I'm old enough to be leading these girls.  I realized that one of the sweatshirts that I had brought up was older than some of the beehives.  Yikes!!!!

 One of the most memorable experiences from camp was watching the 4th (15yrold) years yike in from their 3 day hike.  They started Tuesday morning and hiked through parts of San Isabel National Forest and finishing off hiking into our camp.  They hiked approx. 30 miles in 3 days carrying 30-40 lb. packs.  To see them hike in was a pretty emotional experience especially knowing that some were super nervous and not confident that they would be able to accomplish such a thing. 

After they hiked in, we celebrated their arrival with a board breaking ceremony.  The girls and leaders had made a board that listed their goals on one side and the obstacles they'd run into on the other side.  The girls then karate chopped their way through the obstacles to reach their goals..  It was pretty cool to see their reactions once they realized that they had done it.  Trust me...very emotional. 

The whole week was fabulous and for the past 2 days since I've been home I've had camp songs running through my head.  Every time I start singing one Brooke just stares at me like a crazy woman.

Life at home is starting to get back to it's normal routine...

Like Brooke drawing on her door.

Then learning what the use of a Magic Eraser is for.

 Reading in the reading corner.

Trying to survive the triple digit heat.  We'll probably be making a record tomorrow with 5 consecutive days of record breaking heat in the low 100s.

We've had a fabulous month but the crazy/busy-ness isn't over yet.  Stay tuned for more summer fun!!!!!