March 2017

Dad's 80th Birthday Bash

We started planning dad's 80th birthday party back in January.  We wanted to throw him a surprise of a lifetime and I think that's exactly what we accomplished.  Family from Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Seattle flew in to be there for the party, not to mention lifelong friends who were also in attendance.  The biggest miracle of all, is that we managed to keep it a secret from both mom and dad.  We threw the party at the Wyndham Hotel Downtown and had a DJ, a slideshow of old and new pics and all of the children shared a favorite memory of dad.  It was one amazing party/family reunion and none of us will ever forget it.  Dad was so happy to have us all together and there is no doubt it was one of the highlights of his life.

The night before the party, we headed down to the hotel and had dinner with all of the family who had flown in from Utah.  We ate at La Piñata in honor of Uncle Jimmy.

Setting up for the event was a lot of fun.  We walked downtown in the morning and grabbed supplies for the tables and decorations.  

It was a group effort to get everything ready.

All the siblings with dad.

All the grandkids, except my children who were off running wild!

And of course, this happened.

On Sunday we had a brunch for everyone to say goodbye.  Such a great weekend!

Fun at Lake Poway

It started warming up in March which meant we spent a lot of our time outside.  We made it to Lake Poway for some paddle boat fun and while we were out there, we spotted an amazing waterfall.  Due to all of the rain that fell this winter, there was an abundance of waterfalls near the lakeshore.  We decided to come back another day and explore the waterfalls.  We had so much fun ignoring all of the "keep out of the waterfall" signs and playing in the water.  These are my favorite kinds of days.

King of the Boat

The boys had so much fun splashing around in the waterfalls.

Mom even got in on the action!

Foster Starts Soccer

We signed Foster up on a 4x4 Soccer Scrimmage league, The Bobcats.  It was hilarious.  Three and four year olds playing soccer makes for some good comedy.  Foster liked most of the games but it was sometimes a struggle to get him to go and to play the entire game.  There were many occasions when he would walk up to his coach, hands on his hips and declare "I'm out of gas."  But he ended the season on a high note playing the entire game without complaint and doing really well.  He even got player of the week during the season.  We are proud of his effort and his willingness to play.

Player of the Week!

January 2017

January

Kindergarten class picture.

James turns 6!

I can hardly believe he's 6.  He is growing so fast and I'm so proud of the boy he has become.  He started kindergarten with a lot of anxiety and fear.  Over the past six months, I have watched him become more and more confident.  He no longer struggles to go to school, is making great friends and according to Mrs. Greenan, he even gets a little rowdy sometimes.  We are so happy that he feels happy at school.  He even said he would rather go to school than to Disneyland.  His favorite things about school are morning read, making little books about dinosaurs, going to the library and K milers.  He is quickly become a strong reader and is working hard to improve everyday.

Dad visited during lunchtime and brought James' favorite In N Out.  He lost a tooth that day during lunch.  It should be noted that he has lost 3 teeth in In N Out Burgers! 

Mom and James had a special date at the Natural History Museum checking out the Ultimate Dinosaur Exhibit.  

James loves going to our local plant store because of all the dinosaur statues.  He made me take a pic of him with this one.

James and his buddy Hudson on his birthday.  

James' favorite dinosaurs are Spinosaurus, Parasaurolophus and Indominous Rex

James being oh so cool at the Safari Park

James and Foster on a hike at Lake Hodges

Here are some stats on James:
Favorite Food: In N Out Burger (he has lost 3 of his 4 missing teeth in an In N Out burgers.)
Favorite Friends:Hudson McEwan, Jacob Whitehead, Charlie Circuit and Jack Davis.
Favorite thing to do:Play dinosaurs in his room.
Favorite place to go: He loves to go to Target to spend his allowance money.
Favorite Movie: Jurassic World
Favorite TV Show: Dinosaur Kings
Favorite Treat: Chocolate brownie or chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake pop or chocolate donut.
Favorite Toy:Dinosaurs.  His favorites are Indominous Rex and Spinosaurus.

James is a very sweet little boy.  He measures his love for us by spinosaurus or blue whales.  Ex:  "I love you more than 750 spinosauruses and 550 blue whales."  We play a game every night where we see who can say the bigger number and be the one that loves the other more.  James wins most of the time although I'm pretty sure he could never love me as much as l love him!
Disneyland has been fun this year because he can go on all the big boy rides.  His favorites are Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones. And of course no trip to Disneyland is complete without a chocolate cake pop at Pooh's Corner.

James loves his family and loves making other people happy.  He works hard so that we are proud of him and we are always proud of James.  He makes good choices and tries to do the right thing which makes Scott and I so happy.  We love watching him grow and gain confidence.  We know he was meant for our family and we're so lucky to have him.

We celebrated James' birthday with a Dinosaur Party at our house.  The kids made dioramas, ate pizza and cake and cracked a piñata.  James just kept saying it was the best day of his life, I believe him.  He was in heaven.

Jack Davis, James, Hudson McEwan and Jacob Whitehead

James requested a blue dinosaur cake and that's what he got!  

James got many wonderful presents from his friends, most of them dinosaur themed.

Making dioramas

Anna, Foster, Leah, Hudson, Jacob, Jack and Charlie watch as James cracks open his piñata.

February 2017

Valentine's Day

The boys gave out pirate Valentine cards with chocolate gold coins and a bag of Pirate's Bootie in each one.  

We celebrated Valentine's Day with a fancy dinner at home.  Mom made Valentine coolers (cherry 7Up, grenadine, cherry, whipped cream and a licorice straw) which are now a family tradition.  The boys loved passing out Valentine cards and treats at school and came home with bags of treats of their own.  They each had school parties and mom and dad gave them a box of Sees candy.  Mom and dad gave each other a box of Sees candy too so we had about 4 pounds of Sees candy.  Sadly it all got eaten.  Mostly by mom.  Dang it.

President's Week/Ski Week

We love the random week off we get in February.  They call it ski week and apparently people actually go skiing during ski week...weird.  We stuck around town and had a great time enjoying some adventures of our own.  We made a trip to the Safari Park which was a treat because James doesn't usually get to go with us now that he's in kindergarten and at school everyday.

Silly Boys

They each got to pick out a treat.  Foster had cotton candy and James had chocolate ice cream.

They both insisted on this photo, that was a first.

We also went with the Warren's to Point Loma's public market and park.  We had a great time watching the planes fly over us and climbing the rocks that bordered the bay.  We love spending days with the Warrens.

These four had a great time playing on the playground together.

Watching for airplanes.

Foster and Charlotte are quite the duo.

We even made it to Disneyland.  It was crowded but worth it.  We went to a special annual pass holder section of the park where the boys did crafts and Foster and I took a pic with Sheriff Nottingham and Prince John.

Foster was a little worried about Sheriff Nottingham.

Foster and I rode the carrousel while Mi Ani and James rode Dumbo.

Main Street at Night.

And last on the ski week itinerary, we took the boys bowling for the first time.  The Thompson family joined us and the kids loved it for about 20 minutes.  Then they were ready for some pizza.

Ski was awesome, we had so much fun and we didn't even have to ski.

Honorable Mention

Foster and his frog

We had some crazy weather in February, lots of heavy storms.  Some so heavy that the creek was overflowing.  One night Scott and Foster braved the rainstorm and went out to explore.  They came back with this little frog.  Foster had so much fun looking for frogs and being out in the extreme weather with dad.  James and I were cuddled by the fire, most likely watching Jurassic World.