Concert in the Park

We walked to the park on Thursday night for our first concert in the park for the summer.  We had a nice picnic, listened to some Celtic music and enjoyed the beautiful night.

Lego Time!

Julia likes to play with the Legos with her big brother.  Climbing in the Lego box is a fun activity as well!

Swim Lessons

It's hard to get a good picture of these two!  We have been attending swim lessons every day this week and will continue to do so for the next three weeks.  Alex has made leaps and bounds of progress this season thanks to some lucky one on one lessons at the Campo pool.  I expected the lessons to be crowded, but lucky for us in our 4:00 time slot, Alex is the only student in his level and Julia has one other classmate.  I decided that afternoons would be preferable to the mornings which we have done for the past few seasons and that was a good decision!  It has been sunny and the pool has actual felt very nice, compared to brrrr cold!  Alex has taken to fully submerging his head in the water sans goggles, which is great.  Julia is liking the water and practicing her kicking and splashing techniques.

Arrrrrgh....

World's Cutest Pirate!

End of Year Gift

I neglected to post of pic of this nice end of year gift from Alex's teachers, Miss Jennifer and Miss Jaime.  I thought it was so creative and a great keepsake.  They put together pictures which they took of Alex throughout the year and then made a word cloud to describe him.  It's laminated and we can put all of our keepsakes from the year inside of it.  Thanks for being such wonderful teachers, Miss Jennifer and Miss Jaime.  We will miss you next year!

Vacation Bible School

Alex attended Vacation Bible School last week at MVPC and had a blast!  It was quite the production, with 310 kids in total.  All kinds of singing, crafts, recreation activities, snacks and stories.  It was a full week of fun, with a program on Thursday night for the parents.  Thanks to all who volunteered to put on such a great week!

Our Garden is Growing!

First harvest of haricot verts from the garden, last Friday.  I'm thinking that we should plant some more, since they seem to be quite happy.  Alex actually tried them and liked them, which is a first.  He likes lots of vegetables, but always says that he does not like green beans.  When we harvested these from the garden, he decided to try them and was surprised to find that he likes them!

Father's Day at the Beach!

On Saturday, we took Daddy to the beach for Father's Day.  We went to Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz and had a lovely day.  The weather was really hot here, but it was gorgeous at the beach.  Alex and Julia had a great time playing on the beach, collecting seaweed, playing in the sand and having a nice picnic lunch.

Things are looking up in the car travel department too, as we were able to get all the way there and most of the way back without crying.  In fact, Julia slept most of the time in the car.  Yay!  We stopped at our favorite taqueria on the way back for some dinner to round out the day.  All in all, lots of fun!

Sillies in the Pool

It was a really hot weekend, reaching the 100 degree mark, so we pulled out the inflatable pool which we bought for just these kinds of days.  Alex and Julia enjoyed it, although the water was a bit chilly.

Playdate

Another Birthday Cake Photo

I hadn't downloaded these photos from Julia's birthday night celebration.  Thought this was a cute one!

Garden Girl

Julia loves to be outside so much!  She likes crawling around and exploring everything, playing in the sandbox and helping with the gardening.  Such a cutie pie!

Our Little Readers

Julia has recently discovered that she can climb onto the chair in Alex's reading nook and grab books off of the bookshelf, so now if she goes anywhere near the room, she makes a beeline for the chair.  The other day they were both having a nice little reading session in Alex's room.

First Birthday Party!

It was a gorgeous summer day yesterday, when we had friends over to celebrate Julia's first birthday.  We had a nice little garden party, complete with bubbles, music, balloons, lunch and cake.  Julia thoroughly enjoyed her day and by the time she had her cake, she could barely keep her eyes open.  Thank you to everyone who could join us to celebrate her special day, and thanks for the generous gifts, as well!

Last Day of School!

 Alex with Sydney and Cole enjoying popsicles

 Alex giving Luke a ride on the trike

 Some of the kiddos set up a carwash

 Alex and his wonderful teacher Miss Jennifer

Alex and his wonderful teacher Miss Jaime

It is hard to believe, but school is out for summer, as of last Friday.  We had a picnic to celebrate the last day and enjoyed some good food and fun times with friends.  It is amazing how much the kiddos have grown over the past nine months.  They play so well together and are very comfortable at school.  Miss Jennifer and Miss Jaime have been fabulous teachers and we will certainly miss them!  Summer plans include some summer playtime at Miss Jennifer's, swim lessons, vacation bible school and playdates with friends.  Happy Summer!

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Julia celebrated her first birthday yesterday!  Can you believe that?  I sure cannot!  We are having a little party on Saturday, but Daddy brought home a cute cake and some mylar balloons last night to celebrate.  Julia liked the balloons alot, although she would have preferred that they did not float.  She was a bit frustrated and kept telling them to come down to her, as you can see in the photo above.  She had her first taste of chocolate too, and she seemed a bit puzzled by it, given the look on her face.  Happy, happy birthday to our super duper sweet girl!

Who Needs Toys?

No need for extra toys when you can just add your play food to the kitchen tool drawer.  These guys both love playing in the kitchen while I make dinner in the evening.

Peaches!

On Memorial Day, we went out to Brentwood to go cherry picking, but I think there were lots of folks from the Bay Area who had the same idea that weekend, because many of the orchards were picked completely out of cherries and the few that still had cherries were jam packed with people.  After trying an organic strawberry farm which had also been cleared out, we found an orchard with early white peaches ready, so we picked a box of those.  We enjoyed them all week and I made some peach jam to save for future months.  Yum!

Xena

Xena doesn't get alot of attention on this blog, so here's a picture of her, just in case anyone was wondering.  In this photo she was lying on the dirt patch which has now become a flower bed.  David and Alex took out the shrub in the background last weekend too, so we'll post pictures of how it looks now sometime soon.

Silly Girl

Julia was having a lot of fun the other morning, putting Alex's pajamas on her head, pulling them over her face and then taking them off.  The peek a boo game went on for quite awhile and she was so cute!