4th of July

We had a fun and pretty busy fourth of July this year.  We started out by going to the summer dollar movies.  The kids love this and I think we are going to try to go most weeks this summer.  We saw "Chipwrecked."  Bob and I didn't think it was that great, but the kids were pretty entertained.

Once we got home and ate Bob and I got to work.  We spend hours painting both the boys and girls rooms white.  I hate painting!

When 6:30 rolled around we went to a friends house for a potluck and fireworks.

It was pretty fun!  We didn't get home until pretty late and the kids were excited about that.

4th of July

On the Fourth of July this year we went to a neighbors house for a bbq and fireworks.  It was so fun to have to not worry about staying out late with babies.  Although a friend brought her newborn and I just wanted to hold him the entire time.  It just isn't the same when it is someone else's child.  

Bob took this picture of the girls.

Before it got dark the kids had fun coloring with chalk and riding bikes in the street.  It was one of the coldest 4th of Julys I can remember so I had my sweater on most of the time.

By the end of the night Leon was exhausted.  Actually Bob was too, and I felt bad because he had to work the next day.  But he was nice and stayed the whole time for me.

They even had a fire to keep us warm and roast marshmallows.

Thanks Kelli for putting this on!  Kelli is always really good at planning things and inviting me places.  I'm not nearly as good at that, but I'm happy to have her as a friend.

Egg Decorating

We tried a couple new techniques this year while decorating eggs.  I bought a couple things last year after Easter for practically nothing and saved them for a year until now.  One was this spray paint thing.  It was pretty messy and not worth it.  I'd prefer the traditional dipping in colored water.  Tucker did think it was fun though.

Another thing we got was this cute egg holder and paint set.  The kids loved this one!  It was their favorite.  I think it was worth it because they just really loved to hand paint the eggs, and even leon could do it without the egg rolling around.

The last new one we tried was metallic paints.  This was the easiest, all we did was put a couple drops of paint in a baggie, add in the hard boiled egg and mush the paint around it.  No mess, and the colors were pretty.

Below are the final eggs.  Definitely kid quality.  Some years I like to see make some pretty eggs myself, but I didn't feel like it this year.

Thanksgiving Dinner

I have so many things to be thankful for especially this year and of course my family is probably the main one.  Since coming to San Diego I've got so spend a lot of time with the kids.  We don't really have places to be or scheduled things to do so we pretty much get to do what we want all day long.  And since we barely know anyone it is usually just us all day every day.  I feel closer to them and I think all this time together has helped us get along better.  Bob got Thanksgiving off work and it was really nice to just stay at the house all day and hang out.

I took a few pictures of us making dinner.

I think we only have ever made Thanksgiving dinner one time before because we usually go to my moms house.  I really wanted low key and easy so it was all pretty much out of a can or premade.  Below you can see Leon concentrating on the legos.  Its hard for him to get those pieces to go together the way he wants.

We ended up having some people over and it was fun.  I feel inadequate inviting people over for dinner because I'm not the best cook, but the company was nice.

Here I am cutting the marshmallows in half because the recipe called for mini marshmallows but we only had jumbo.  My hair was really frizzy that day because of the ocean and I'm not making my best picture face.  But it is the only one we took of me that day so I wanted to post it anyway.

And the kids putting the marshmallows on.

I hope you all had a great day too!

We're Off to See the Wizard

We had a blast for Halloween this year!  After reading "The Wizard of Oz" and watching the movie the kids wanted to dress up as characters from the movie for Halloween.  It worked out perfectly because everyone got to be what they wanted.  Penelope wanted Dorothy, Tucker wanted to be the scarecrow, I thought Leon would make a great lion and he was happy about it, and Scarlett asked to be a princess so she got to be Glinda.

I was able to buy Penelope's and Leon's at Good Will and make the rest from things we had around the house.  Overall I probably spent $25 and most of that was on Penelope's costume.  That's pretty good for six theme costumes.

They were cute skipping down the street together.  I tired to get them to sing the song but it never quit worked out.  Leon wasn't fast enough and they didn't know the words well enough.

Penelope made a great Dorothy and we already had the perfect dog.

Leon wore his costume many times before Halloween and loved growling at everyone.

Tucker said his costume was itchy so I let him take it off for some of the pre Halloween events but for the night of trick-or-treating he had to wear it.  I didn't make it for nothing!

Scarlett got lucky with her costume because we are in San Diego!  It was in the 80s on halloween and a warm 75 when we went trick-or-treating.  No layers this year!  We went to a park carnival thing during the day and I couldn't handle the heat.  It was strange to be trick-or-treating with short sleeves and no coat and not even a hint of a chill.  Last year we were so cold the kids did last as long as I wanted.

Here is the whole gang!  Bob was the tin man and I'm the wicked witch.

We went to this great neighborhood where the houses really went all out.  About 90% of them participated and many of the people were sitting on their front steps waiting for trick-or-treaters.  The houses were even close together.  This is our first year where all the kids could walk well and keep up.  It was great!

Father's Day

I love holidays and Father's day is such an important one!  Being a parent now I can better understand how much dads do for their families.  And Bob especially is like a machine.  He gets up before 5am so he can get home early to be with the family.  But he doesn't just get home and lay on the couch, he starts making dinner or doing random projects that need to get done.  He really doesn't stop until the kids are in bed at about 8 every night.  Often times he is even trying to cheer me up because I get grumpy from my long days with the kids.

I am also very lucky to have a great dad and father-in-law who not only are great to me but are wonderful grandparents to my children.  They both like to play with the kids and are always willing to babysit and help out when we ask.

For Father's Day this year the kids and I made this video for bob.