Thursday, June 30, 2016

The unexpected start to summer (June '16)

This month brought in a lot of unexpected challenges that are pushing and growing our faith.  We also had our beyond amazing beach trip.  Of course we managed to squeeze a little fun in-between as well! 
Ezra could not be more excited to have a shirt like daddy's!  He was half awake in this picture but they still are so adorable!
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Before we headed to the beach we squeezed in a our good friend's 5th birthday party!
It was where Zoe takes gymnastics so Ezra was super excited to get to try everything too (instead of just watching).
The kids had a great time playing around and enjoying some treats.  So glad we got to join in the celebration of one special little girl!
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We have been having such a fascinating time watching caterpillars turn into butterflies in recent weeks.
But we had to release them before we headed off for the beach.  They must have sensed how much Shiloh loves animals and one briefly rested on her finger.
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On a bit cooler evening we enjoyed joining the Hayward cookout (which apparently I did awful job in taking pictures as this was the only thing I captured - along with a few mosquito bites).
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Oh zoo night...how my kids seem to love you so!  Despite the heat and the tears from Zoe (poor thing is still to thin for the safety harness to climb the long anticipated rock wall), we had a great night.
Lauren got to have fun along with us!
I always adore seeing how my littles take in the magic of the carousel with it's beautiful lights and luring music....it is a must do for sure!
I even got in on the action....squeezing in with Ezra during one round.
Cousins were also there and we got to double the fun!
Our first time seeing the sea lions did not disappoint!
They were awesome and it is so fun how they will swim right up to you in the window for a closer look!
I would have loved to stay inside a bit longer to enjoy that perspective but my littles were ready to roam!
Seriously soaking up the LJ time, as I know this season will not last long!
Ezra loves him some Aunt D!  And getting to ride the train!
During the cousin riding round I got booted off....thanks Zoe.
Here's to sweating it up next month again!
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My little Zoe on her daddy/daughter date!

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The art museum with friends!  It is super busy this time of year, but they are well prepared!
Zoe is always so sad when she cannot join us when she is in school.  I left Ezra at my parents house (since we were still staying there and I knew of the messy activity to come).
I mean these two!!!  The activity was to make self portraits....hence the mirrors!  
It didn't take long for them to express their personalities!  Zoe was not into it.
They started out well. 
 But it is just to tempting to really get into it!
And into it they did!
I love Zoe's reaction here...as she is truly just a one finger messy kind of girl.
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Zoe lost her first tooth!  Big day for her, and she shared the news with anyone that we came in contact with for the next several days.  We discovered that her adult tooth had already started growing, so daddy had her bite down on a apple to get the wiggly one to come out.  One big bite was all it took!
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"Fireworks" at the library story time!
While I know it is not cooling off anytime soon....I sure do hope that the unexpected slow down and we can start settling into this summer!

Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Extended Grandparent stay

So the night before we had planned to leave for the beach we discovered that our air conditioner was leaking through the celling (thank goodness this did not happen while we were gone).  We knew that it was going to die at some point (and held on to our home warranty insurance in hopes that it would for years until we could not anymore last year).  So it was not a huge surprise but deflating none the less.  In trying to look at the bright side of things, I explained that we would just sweat through our final packing and arrange to have it looked at as soon as we returned in a week.  I hoped that the extreme heat would not damage anything but we did move the plants to the basement. 

However once we returned, the man that we had been referred to and thought we had an appointment with would not contact us back.  Add in the stress of Beach leaving to go out of town and the temps in the high 90's there was no way we could stay there.  Thankfully my parents live so close, have room for us and are so accommodating!  They had already spent a week around our energetic children that I'm sure they needed a break but never once complained.  Two weeks later and another trusted company found, we were finally back in our home with a complete new AC unit (and huge bill).  
Throughout our stay, though, we had some fun adventures together!  
This amazing blueberry farm was perfect for the littles, as they could pick too!
Although some pickers lasted longer than others, they were all pretty good sports.
(Getting 3 kids to look at the camera, not play in the dirt or eat blueberries is next to impossible!)
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What do you do with hundreds and hundreds of blueberries?  Well we froze a ton, ate another ton and  some awesome treats were made!
Danielle made this wonder for father's day!
The dads (and us all) were very pleased!
It was plate licking good!
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During the summer the Marionette Theater has a special performances at the library. We waited to take a picture afterwords but Ezra refused to look at the camera and would not take his eyes off that hare out of fear.
So we tried just a girl picture.  They always do a fabulous job and I enjoy seeing all that creativity.
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One evening after baths it was blueberry Popsicle making with Grammy.
So simple yet so good.  They were beyond excited!
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The next afternoon they got to dig in....Ezra is not a huge fan of super cold things and wasn't sure what to think!
But I say he enjoyed himself!
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One Saturday we had some fun a family expo....getting there when it started so not to face a big crowd.  We hit the bounce house first.
Then we had some amazing face painting!
Shiloh never wants to get hers done but decided before we left that today she would!
Ezra waited patiently in line....determined to have one too!
The girls were pretty excited when these characters came by!
Another booth had some fun animals that the girls were brave to hold!
Little dragon loving!
The kids ended the event by getting on stage with the Zumba instructors for some dancing and stretching!
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One of the best days by far is Poppy Camp.  Where Poppy spends hours setting up his inflatables to make a great morning/afternoon spent in the shade of a hot SC day.
All kinds of fun kid combos and I had a good time taking pictures and making movies.
I love these slowed down moments of bonding time!
The littlest littles may have been encouraged to hold hands for this picture captured by D.
Another fun one of hers!
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The movie theater does a couple of dollar kids movies a couple of days a week during the summer.  I'm pretty picky about what they watch but there were a couple that I felt we could do.  So the kids did great watching their first theater movie, HOME.
It was a joy that mom could join us as well!
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Another bonus was that the kids got to have pets while we were staying at my parents.  They so loved the dogs (and it made me wish I was not allergic to them) and it reminded me of my childhood love for them as well!
It was supper sad news when we found that Diva had to be put to sleep, at 12 years-old.  Zoe balled for over 15 minutes and Shiloh attempted to comfort her, explaining that she was in heaven.
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My parents are amazing hosts to have us there for so long.  I don't know what we would have done with out them!!  It was just hard on this momma who was going through a detox, overwhelming food illumination, and lack of her grounding structure.  However, we built many fun memories that we can always look back on!