Beer and a rescue…

I know how it sounds but that’s what happened today. We went to my parents house and spent a nice time in the pool with local cousins and faraway cousins visiting from Seattle. At one point during the afternoon, Noah and Ryan decided that they were playing (Uncle JP and Uncle Chris) in the toy Jeep. They ran to the cooler and grabbed some drinks (sodas, I think but it may have been water bottles earlier) and they brought them to the Jeep. I asked them what they were doing and they said “we’re drinking beers in the Jeep” and “we’re working on it” as they held up their drinks and showed me their tools. Funny boys.

Then Ben and Marissa were playing rescue in the pool. Ben was the lifeguard throwing his innertube out into the pool to Marissa and pulling her in to the side.

The boys playing their uncles

Ben making a rescue

Third section...

This morning Ben tested for 3rd section in his karate class. We went in at 11:50 so that he could be pre-tested (they don’t test unless they show that they are ready, so they give a pre-test first). He was with a group of 5 other kids. During the pre-test it looked like he had forgotten all of the moves, but we had practiced last night and this morning and it looked to me like he knew a good deal of them. So, he went through all the moves that he remembered and couldn’t help himself from looking at others to help jog his memory for how it started. They thought he was cheating. He just has wandering brain syndrome and needed to know how to start the move.

So at the end of the pre-test they grouped some of the kids together whom had shown the instructors that they were ready and then Ben and another kid were in another group…to be tutored because they thought that he wasn’t ready. So, the head instructor asked them to show him a move, they did it, then another move and they did it. He jokingly said something like “you were trying to fool me into thinking you weren’t ready” and decided to test them separately. Each boy had an individual scorer for himself. Each kid there passed their test and Ben was last to find out if he passed. He needed 95 points to pass and he got 95 points!

So he surrendered his belt and they will dye another section of it black. So now he has 3/7ths of his belt black ☺ Way to go Ben!!

Musical...

We went to see When Elmo Grows Up today with our homeschooling field trip group. Boy was that fun. Daddy took the day off and we went to the show. The kids have been waiting for this show for months, they remember how fun it was last year. Every time they saw the commercial for it on TV they would ask when we are going. Last year we bought the show soundtrack and have been listening to it almost non-stop, so we are excited to get a new CD. The show was great and kept everyone’s attention. Everyone stayed awake this time and really loved it, last year Noah fell asleep halfway through it-he was only 18 months old and it was naptime. Today’s show was great. I think we’ll try to go again next year…if there is a show!

Waiting for the show to start

Posing with Elmo

Hot...

Today was hot and we spent a good deal of the day in the house with the A/C on. Ben and Hannah drew and cut with their scissors and Noah spent some time in the tub. See the goggles? He loves them on his head like that…from morning till night they stay on his head.

Fair...

Today we went to the San Diego County Fair. We decided to go for a few hours and go back another day. So we spent a good part of the day with the farm animals. We loved going around and checking out all the goats and sheep. Ben watched a woman spinning wheel spinning wool onto a big bobbin. I know he was checking out the mechanics of it.
We watched the pig races and boy were they funny to watch. We cheered ‘our’ pigs on in the different categories and watched as they all raced to their prize…an oreo cookie! We took in the heifer contest and saw them give some blue ribbons out. We went into the sports section and they kids tried roping the steer horns. It was great. They were a little bummed not to go on any rides (yes, we made it out without going on any rides) but we’ll be back.

Ben in the wheel of the monster truck out front of the fair

Pig races...go piggies!

Builder…

Ben loves to build and here is one of his newest projects. He makes at least one thing per day and this is a motorcycle that he could actually fit inside if he didn’t weigh as much as he does. If he weighed about 12oz he would be able to do it. Otherwise it collapses underneath him. He is quite the builder and can configure his K’nex into just about anything!

Good-bye Party...

We met with our friends this evening for a little party. We don't know if we'll see them before they leave for Florida next week so we took a little time to have a little party with them. They were so nice to buy us dinner and cake for their goodbye dinner, all we brought was watermelon (which everyone loved...especially the watermelon monster, Noah). The kids had fun playing all over the place, we brought bikes on three wheels tonight and they all had something to ride. They would ride some and then they would play and race together. One of the daughters (there are 3 daughters), Anna, loves dogs and she must've pet 20 dogs as they walked by tonight. It was cute! They brought tennis balls too and the kids had fun tossing them around and to each other. Ben tried to make rules for the ball tossing game but no one wanted to listen to him. He got over it.

We've enjoyed their company over the past 7 or 8 months. Our kids love to play with their kids and I've really enjoyed the other Mommy conversation that didn't always focus on the children. We will miss them but hope to keep in touch with them across the country online or however.

Have a great trip across the country!! We'll be thinking of you!

Big Rock...

Today we went to the park with our regular Monday playgroup. It was a quiet day with only a few friends there with us. When we have been to this park before the kids have played on the park structures but today they weren't interested. They went straight to the creek and collected the moss and algae to make their 'houses' that were in a corner of the park in some palm trees. They pulled it out of the creek and hung it to drip a little on a fence railing, Then they transported it to the trees and made a bed. They loved it. And no they didn't lay in the bed of algae.

Noah had fun with being able to go into the water with his boots on and splash around. He went through 3 pairs of shoes today with the green ones being the last and the most appropriate for wading in water. The others were holey boots and crocs...not good for trying to keep your feet dry, which he was. And today was the first day we left the house with him in underpants, and he made it dry all day.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Today we relaxed with Daddy. Both of our Dads were out of town so we had just one to focus on.

This evening we went to the beach in Coronado. The weather was perfect, the water was cold. Ben and Hannah aren't phased by cold water, they jumped right in and splashed around for a long time. Noah took a little time getting used to the fact that we were at the beach. We stood at the edge for a long time watching the other kids while the waves splashed on our legs. Ben and Hannah found a castle that was built by someone else, as the tide came in, the water was washing it away. They tried for a long time to save it. It takes a lot of energy to save a castle that is crumbling into the ocean. They got all sandy so they went back in the water to wash off.

After the beach we went to the ice cream shop for some ice cream to take home for after dinner. The kids ice cream didn't make it home. They still ate some dinner, which means that they were quite hungry after all that jumping around in the ocean.

All in all I think Daddy enjoyed his day. He is the best Dad to our kids. They love when he plays monster at the park (Mommy doesn't do that), he takes them on hikes in the mountains and bike rides around the bay. He lets them spray him with the hose and climb all over him when he gets home from work. He lets them help him do 'work' around the house and he teaches them to build with tools in the garage. He reads to them and helps teach them when he has time. He gives them cookies. He's such a great Dad. They love him so much.

Creative...

Getting creative and making father's day cards for Daddy. Ben and Hannah LOVE to do arts and crafts, I try to make it available for them at any time. They get so crafty and make some nice things. Today they made envelopes and cards to go inside. When we have more room (when we move...whenever that might be) we plan on having a craft room.

Dress up...

We went to a friends house today for our regular playgroup. Oli (her house) has a trunk full of dress-up clothes and princess dresses that she shared with everyone...and yes, she had enough so that everyone had one to wear. The kids had so much fun! It took me a long time to get them out of the room to go home.

Noah had fun with his friends too. He wasn't interested in dressing up but he did play with Eliza and Dylan. He loves to play with friends and seems to play nicely with them too.

Worried...

Ben is totally into learning about earthquakes, volcanoes and the solar system these days. We went to the library yesterday, I got them some library cards and they were great in the library. I guess that was what was needed. It's been a LONG time since I've taken them to the library. So they chose all the books that they could carry in their bags and they could check them out on their own cards...good deal! Ben checked a lot of books on volcanoes, earthquakes and the solar system. He's also got a couple of Christmas books in there and a few funny ones we read in the library. Hannah picked out all of the board books and she really wants to learn how to read them, and some of them she can! Noah didn't pick any out but Hannah and Ben picked some out that he'll like.

Daddy made a comment about Ben was being safe by having a flashlight under his pillow in case there was an earthquake. Now Ben thinks that we are all going to fall into a hole. So we are learning all we can about earthquakes and volcanoes but it is still pretty puzzling. We will get to the bottom of this though. 

We went to the park last night with some good friends (who are leaving the state in less than 3 weeks, booo hooo waaaahh) and as we were leaving Ben wanted me to make sure that they knew what to do in an earthquake situation. He is very concerned since it is all new to him. He really wants everyone to know how to be safe in this type of emergency situation. So don't be surprised if he brings it up with you :) or your kids. We'll be putting emergency kits together soon...maybe this weekend.

Lazy...

We didn't go anywhere today. I didn't feel good so we stayed home. We kept busy though. The kids are learning about how to keep house. They have terrible cleaning up habits so we worked on that quite a bit today. It gets to the point where all the toy bins with a million pieces are out with the pieces spread all over the floor and out on the patio too! Ben and Hannah move from one thing to the next so quickly that they don't even think of cleaning up before they move on. Sometimes all the toys are incorporated into one big game. So we did a lot of cleaning up today. 

Then they went and built something in the grass in the back yard...

Ballet...

Tonight we went to the ballet. Marissa started taking ballet this year so we went to watch her end of the year performance. It was great and the kids were perfect. We were a little worried that sitting for 2 1/2 hours was going to be hard, but we forgot about intermittences :) We also were able to sneak in a cooler (not that small) of snacks so we were set! The breaks were nice with the little children in our group. They had time to stretch their legs and talk. Not one had a melt down in the theatre.

They all loved watching the dances, the best performance was the pirates. Our children are really into pirates and pirate ships lately so that was super cool for them to see. The other favorite was the little 2 year olds dancing, they were dressed like ladybugs and just adorable. Marissa did a great job on stage (for her first time) and danced beautifully :) We couldn't take pictures during the performance so here are a few from during and after.

Hannah, Devony (Marissa's best friend) and Ben waiting for the ballet to start again.

Noah and Ryan (with truck in front of his face)

Marissa and her fans

Gloomy day...

Noah woke up with a really bad cough this morning so we stayed at home instead of going on a walk down by the river. By the end of the day though it had rained so we spent a good part of the day indoors. We worked on various things that I've posted on our homeschooling blog, so we kept busy. We did get outside for a couple hours this afternoon and I got some nice flower pictures.

Ben decided that he wanted to learn how to roller skate today. We dusted off the Little Tykes skates that Hannah got for her birthday last year, adjusted the straps and got him armed with elbow, knee and wrist guards. He loved it. He especially loved going faster than I could run backwards and slip between my legs landing on his bum. He was a little surprised to learn that Daddy and I have rollerblades in the garage (we haven't worn them in many years). I think he's interested to learn how to ride them. He had fun today.

Harvest...

This morning we decided to harvest our sunflowers. We planted a bunch or seeds in October and only have 3 plants left today. We started with two of them. Ben was very excited about it and got right to work. He remembered doing it last fall because he went straight to the thing we scraped the seeds out with last time. It only took a little while to get the seeds out of the flower, they were ready to be harvested. But then took forever to separate the seeds out from the dead leaves and flower parts. I love doing things like this in the garden because now, Ben loves raw sunflower seeds. He wouldn't touch them before. We roasted a bunch of them and snacked on them too and they love those also but the raw were better (we might've baked them too long, they're quite crispy). We also saved some seeds to see if they will sprout when planted in soil. We can't wait to see if we can grow more big sunflowers from the seeds we saved! We are going to give a few to the birds but we'll also hand some out to some friends at playgroup. We love sharing, especially from the garden :)

Hannah picking seeds out

Ben scraping the seeds out

The seeds used to be in here

The seeds... yum!!

Big rock...

We went to Big Rock Park (in Santee) today for our regular playgroup. Today is one of the little girls birthdays and they were going to bring cupcakes. We got there early and the kids started playing and running all over, I guess they needed to get out of the house. People started to show and the kids ended playing all together near the little stream. They collected algae together and piled it all over a stump, went rock hopping, waded in the water and played nicely. Thanks to Oli, Ben learned about algae. No one knew about the cupcakes for a long time. We sang to the birthday girl, ate a cupcake and headed home.

Noah found Eliza (his girlfriend) and was busy playing with her for the rest of the time we were at the park. He loves her and I think she loves playing with him, two peas in a pod. So cute to watch them run around together.

Noah and Eliza (yes Noah has swim goggles around his head)

Not many are brave enough to get in...

Oli teaching Ben about algae

Firefighter...

Noah always pretends that he is a firefighter and that his trike is the fire engine. Today he was learning about the tracks he made with the water on the sidewalk. He rode back and forth along the sidewalk for a long time, watching all of his tire track marks as he went. Then he stripped his clothes off and wanted to go on the Slip 'n Slide. Unfortunately it was getting late and cooling off so we couldn't get it out tonight but perhaps tomorrow.

Noah intent on driving

And behind him you can see some of the flowers that we planted last weekend. We plan on planting lots more to really fill it in, stay tuned!

Done...

Well, it's all finished. We planned a weekend project and actually finished it in a weekend! I will not claim that I did all the work because that is FAR from the truth. Corey did 95% of it, the kids kept "helping" him along (& he'd go back over it) and I helped when I could. Yesterday we ran into a couple of snags with the project when we ran into thick roots all over the place and had to cut (umm.. ax) through them. What a pain. So the final picture is not here but the patio extension is complete!

So the kids don't have anywhere but the side of the house to dig in now. Poor them, but at least the patio won't be covered in dirt any more! :)

One more step closer to completing our planned projects for this old house!