Cute pictures from Vasona

Our baby sitter Danielle "Dani" texted me these cute pictures from Vasona Park on Friday. Her sister watches my friend Shawna's son, Trent. They get all the boys together on Fridays which is so great - they have a blast. Good thing it's 2 babysitters to 3 boys - they are a HAND FULL.

Kyle's First Field Trip

Kyle went on his first field trip with his Action Day / Primary Plus class. I took the morning off, and Sean and I went too. We visited Uesugi Farms Pumpkin patch. The weather was great- 80's. Kyle took the bus and Sean and I drove behind in the car. We had so much fun meeting Kyle's friends and..... hay ride, corn maze, learning about pumpkins & bees, riding the train and having lunch together. What a great day!

Sanborn Again

We took the trailer to Sanborn park again - less than 24 hr trip but well worth it. I did a quick grocery run before I met the boys up there and found these great $2 bug collecting kits. They spent the first hour chasing and collecting bugs, even managed to contain a baby lizard. We played out on the big grassy lawn and then enjoyed a BBQ dinner, drinks, a movie and early bed time. Morning was a slow wake up, doughnut holes & fruit (yum!) and then a 2.5 - we move slowly, up hill hike. Boys loved playing in the hollow redwood trees (aka volcanoes) and picking up rocks, leaves, and other misc forest stuff. They even found a little stage they decided to sing and dance on - while mom and dad watched "their show." Love the shot below of them checking their maps. Fun times....

Spidey!

We're having fun getting ready for Halloween. Last weekend the boys and I stopped at the Halloween "Spirit" store and adopted a huge spider. The boys are so proud of him, and can't wait to get home from school to visit their spider.....

Sanborn! Right in our own backyard....

I'll keep this short because I don't have a cool photo to post with it. But, we decided to take the trailer overnight to Sanborn park in Saratoga. So fun, we parked the trailer (w/full hook ups) and spent Sat afternoon hiking the nature trail, BBQ'd, went to bed early and biked and hiked Sunday morning too. Kids loved playing in the burnt out redwood tree, aka "the volcano." Literally took us 15 mins to get home. Sometimes the best trips are the most spontaneous and convenient.....

Surprise!

What a great surprise today! At lunchtime today, my co-workers and I headed to "house of pizza" next door to our building and when I walked in, the boys were there with flowers and a card waiting for me. Shawna had arranged with our babysitter "Dani" to have them join us. Totally made my day......

Birthday Time x 2

Boys had a fantastic birthday party - Dinosaur themed. Hard to believe they are 4 and 2 already. We celebrated at Oakmeadow park with friends & family...and a train ride. Tomorrow night (on Kyle's birthday) and eve of Sean's birthday, we'll have dinner - my mom is making yummy pulled pork sandwiches and we'll eat the rest of the leftover birthday cake.
It's nice that we can celebrate both boys, and because they are so close - they play with each others new toys. Big hits this year will be dinosaur train set, new pirate Thomas the Train set, Dino Train characters, baseball pitching machine, Star Wars helmet and pump up missile.
Sean's gift to us (tonight) was his first "poop" on the potty. We randomly put him on the toilet tonight, and were thrilled...light at the end of the tunnel.
Sean moves up to Room G next week (potty training room). Kyle is still enjoying preschool with Ms. Laura - he runs in and hugs her around the legs in the morning. She loves the fact that Kyle, although quiet most of the time, will sing Karaoke in the classroom when she puts on "Dynamite."
Boys are so fun, and so funny. Kyle - Mr. Sensitive, Sean - the Comedian.

Summer Vacation

It's been weeks since I last posted. I thought I'd be better about it this but time, but days/weeks go by too quickly. I don't want to see summer leave us. Summer was great as a kid; but it seems wonderful again with my own kids.
I took the last 2 weeks off of work. We were lucky enough to have a full week in Tahoe (thanks to the Burg's) and then the 2nd week was spent doing a variety things (Happy Hollow, the mall, read & saw the movie "The Help.")
Tahoe was about reconnecting with family (hubby & boys), catching up with friends (Michelle & Cameron), and just being lazy, eating & drinking way too much and relaxing (mostly by the lake). We literally woke up every day to decide what time we should arrive with all of our beach gear to the Lake Beach across the way (2 min walk). We were right by my favorite restaurant Sunnyside, so a few afternoon Chardonnays were had there as well.
The boys had such a blast - Kyle really got the hang of swimming (w/a life vest on), and loved "crock-a-dadding" which was crawdad fishing involving a bucket, a net, a line, a alligator clip and a piece of salami. These poor guys were caught and released 20+ times - a little dazed by the end. Kept the boys busy for hours.
Sean loved the rocks, and throwing his super ball into the lake for Kyle to fish out. He ate his way through vacation and also enjoyed sword fighting on the deck with everyone that would engage.
Big hit was watching the original Wizard of Oz. Boys watched it start to finish 3 times and were quoting it by the end of our break.
Chad and I relaxed, got a good tan, had many happy hours, ate lots of junk food, went to bed early and loved watching the boys go nuts over everything.
I was able to go for a run most mornings, which helped me avoid slipping into vacation lethargy.
The pictures really say it all.....

Two peas in a pod

More pictures from the weekend!

Finally feels like summer around here....

Such a nice weekend here; the rain has hopefully left us for a while. Saw a lot of family this weekend which was nice. Vicki, Scott, Olivia and my mom had BBQ Friday night. On Saturday Sean and I did a run (w/the bob stroller) and then we did a family hike/bike up in Los Gatos. Saturday night Chris, Shannon and Lily arrived. We got to take Lily for the night while Chris and Shannon did dinner & a movie. We love Lily!! All 3 of them played so hard and had such a good time.
This morning Mom came for a spectacular brunch that Shannon prepared. Later today we took the boys up to my favorite childhood destination - Garrod horse farms. Even cooler now (as an adult) is the Cooper-Garrod wine tasting room they have on site. Didn't get to do that but took the kids to the stables to see & pet all the different horses. A number of horse owners even introduced us to their horses. Lucky for us one unknown cowboy took Kyle into the stall and showed him how to feed his horse carrots off the palm of his hand. Boys got a huge kick out of that experience.
Next we went over to Saratoga Springs, played on the bouncy houses and spent lots of time exploring the creek. On the way back we brought the boys to the cemetery in Saratoga my Grandmother May is buried in. Unfortunately did not have flowers to leave (next time), but was glad we could pay a visit. As the boys say, we enjoy our "adventures."

How do you keep two boys out of mom's hair?

It's Monday morning, mom's home and boys are "challenging." Decided to set up our tent in the backyard to keep them occupied. Problem is Kyle keeps zipping up the door while Sean is in there and then Sean freaks out. They are at that age; takes a lot of patience. We are excited to have Luke, Jared and Lane Newman over this afternoon for play date. I'm excited to finally catch up with Annie!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Last week was another intense week at work, many long days/hours but I am (hopeful) that while things will remain busy, the worst of it is behind us (for another year!). This weekend we enjoyed a BBQ with friends on Saturday night (lots of kids, lots of wine....I promise it's not as bad as it sounds). Today I gave Chad a break, took the kids down to Aunt Vicki's to visit with Aunt Lori and Sarah. We went for a 3 mile run while Kyle rode his bike (& Sean in jogger), and Hannah & Sarah walked with Vicki. It was a beautiful loop in San Martin. Finally a day without rain. The phenomenon this year is called June-uary because since the beginning of the month it's been raining - global warming I guess.
Lori and I got away for couple hours while Vicki (so graciously) watched all kids while we ran to a couple of wineries. Very fun. Rest of the day was lazy.....so nice. Here's a picture of Sarah, Hannah and the boys along with Hannah's new kitten "midnight."

Little miss Lily

Chris, Shannon and Lily stayed the night last night. We don't get to see them often enough; for some reason our busy lives and a 45 minute drive between us limits our visits....go figure. We were lucky enough to get them all to ourselves for an overnight before they left for Vegas.
The boys adore little miss Lily and she is truly the cutest thing. I'm pretty sure Sean hugged her 50 times. The boys made sure she spent lots of time in their new play house and kept her very busy. They were so sad to see her leave this morning and Kyle kept saying "I want to go on vacation with Lily." Then came the "we miss Lily," and the "we don't want to go to school today, just stay home with Lily." Such fun cousin time...need to do it more often.

One person's trash....

We had a nice Memorial weekend. Spent Friday night and Saturday in Capitola with Michelle and Cameron and then stayed at home for the duration of Sunday & Monday. Tahoe got 2 feet of snow so Chad spent Sunday at Kirkwood - a day of solitude he needed.
Today we were driving home and around the corner I spotted a pile of plastic - dirty and covered in spider webs..but resembled a kids log cabin.
I went home but it kept calling me so I ran back with Chad's truck and loaded up. Chad, Kyle and I scrubbed it with soap and water and then put it together. The end result was a real treasure and totally free!!! Kyle and Sean were so excited, what a thrill. One person's trash is another's treasure. Fun filled family weekend!