Spring Break in San Diegp

For Spring Break Grandma Ann met us in San Diego for a week of sun, surfing and Disneyland. I drove the kids down to San Diego alone. Which was so much easier for me than when Daniel drives with us because I did not have to continually turn around to help the kids. As soon as we arrived in San Diego we headed for the airport to pick up Grandma Ann. Our timing could not have been better!!

Then we went to Costco for some groceries and dinner.
The next morning we organized our things and then went shopping to look for dishes. Ann know I have grown tired of my blue dinnerware and thought a great anniversary gift would be new dinnerware. I did find a set I loved, but of course it is out of print. One the way to the dishes we stopped in a children's store and Ann bought each of the kids a present...or two!
After Lula's nap we went to Belmont Park. The kids had a great time on the bumper cars, sailboat ride, submarine ride and carousel. Well, Olivia did not like the carousel as much as she use to. Which made me sad because that means she is growing up.



One fun fact about Belmont Park is that Poppie Mike worked here when he would visit San Diego for the summers during high school. I added a picture of Belmont Park from Poppie's era...just kidding.

Lula loves Pico

Todd and Sam's birthday dinner

Before dinner we got to rest on the new couch and play with Pico. We love him, but Daniel is, of course, allergic to him. By the time we got home he was sniffily and wheezing.

Todd's birthday is 2 days after Sam's so they usually have a family birthday dinner together. This year Andrea hosted us at her house. As usual she made a yummy dinner and dessert. The meat was so good poor Todd had every little time to eat b/c my kids kept requesting more meat.

Sam opened some great gifts. Thanks everyone. The Miner's gave him a cowboy costume complete with chaps, a vest, hat and boots. Sam came out the next day dress completely backwards. The chaps were over his neck and one arm and the vest was over his chest and open in the back. I gave him a little cowboy giddy-up lessons and he was good to go.

Sam's 5th Birthday

Sam's birthday will always be on General Conference weekend and this year it happened to be on Easter. So this year we celebrated it the week after. Sam had a few of his friends come over. I tried to get the kids organized to play some games, but they would not have anything to do with it! Oh well. The kids did organize their own tug of war.

After not playing games we broke open the pinata.

Then the kids enjoyed the candy and we went for the cake and ice cream. Thanks to the Dots gum drop in Sam's mouth he can't give the camera a very good smile.

Sam had a great day. He gave each of his friends a big ball with their name on it which he had written. After opening presents the kids had free playtime with Daniel in the backyard.

Easter time

In my opinion the egg dyes have changed since I was a kid. I can remember sitting at our glass kitchen table just WAITING FOREVER for my white egg to turn a deep turquoise color. But now, the egg doesn't even need to be in the dye for a minute to turn the egg the deep color. I feel like my kids have been robbed of the skill to sit and wait with your arm at a funny angle so they can dye 1/2 the egg one color and the other 1/2 of the egg another. It is so easy now. Everything is so much easier than when I was a kid! (Oh Drama!!)

Oh well, we still had a great time dying eggs just with our own little family.

Very opinionated

Lula might be my most opinionated child yet. If she sees something she wants and she doesn't get it...she freaks!!! Some items wouldn't surprise you, like cake from the birthday party, cookies, or milk, but her latest must-have item is her new bicycle helmet. We were trying them on for size at REI last night and she HAD to have it!!

newly found...

makes it as good as new. The kids found these stickers Grandma Ann sent us and had a good time doing whatever with them.

Sam and Liv keep the stickers on their noses until shower time, but Lula, Chloë and I did not like the way it felt. Oh well it was fun at the time!

New trailer for Sam

Well, technically it is not for Sam, but he really wanted it. Sam always wants to ride his bike to school, but that is hard to do with the two little girls, so a bike trailer was the only way to get Sam to school on his bike with the girls.

Actually, I wanted the trailer so I could exercise and take the kids on rides. Last year I joined a swim team, which was great, but I felt like I was away from everyone for so long. It was good exercise for me; I might start it again. But for now I will take the younger kids on bike rides while the older kids are in school. In the picture below dad and the kids are putting it together for FHE. Our theme for tonight's FHE was Work, Play and Pray together (3 Nephi 18:21). We worked together to put the trailer on my bike so we can play and then we had a closing prayer!

****WARNING**** the picture below may cross the line for some manly men (cough,cough) Daniel.
You may or may not have noticed that we are gender unspecified around our house when it comes to some things, meaning Olivia wears her boy cousins' jammies and pants, Sam wears his sister's jammies and Chloë and Sam share pink and blue undies, Olivia likes Thomas the train and Sam likes Strawberry shortcake. So I did not think it would be a big deal for Sam to ride the bike as seen in the picture below. But apparently I have gone too far... Daniel does not want Sam to ride a pink bike. He (and Sam) plan on painting the bike this weekend! I am not sure how Daniel plans on masking the sparkly hearts on the BANANA seat or the heart tire tred! By the way, Sam LOVES the pink bike. When we arrived at school he said, "Teacher, do you want to see my new pink bike?" Then when school was over he said to his friend, "Hey James, do you want to see my new pink bike?" Maybe the fact that he LOVES his new PINK bike so much is what makes Daniel cringe.

By the way, this bike is a hand me down from a friend. I did not let Sam pick out a pink bike at the store.

then and now....

While looking at my pictures from Happy Hollow I found some interesting pictures.
By the way, I think our first trip to Happy Hollow was the beginning of my blog.

This picture was taken on March 22, 2010. This is Olivia and her good friend Miles.

The picture above reminded me of their St. Tim's preschool graduation picture taken June 2008.

Then Kelli took this picture at Happy Hollow today.

We had switched places from 2008. Now Kelli is pregnant and I am NOT!
Look at the difference in Chlover and Josh.

Happy Hollow

No school... let's go to Happy Hollow! I went with my friends, Mandy, Kelli and Jenny and their kids to this great little park that just reopened after 2 years of renovations. We were quite the group. Sam enjoyed some BOY time.

The kids were anxious to get on every ride.

While we were there we ran into some of Olivia's friends from school.

What better way to spend the day than with friends and family!

Happy Hollow is a good mix of zoo animals and rides.

Daniel and Tom's birthday party

Last year for Daniel's birthday we went to Sky High Jump. So this year we thought it would be fun to have a small party. But after each inviting a few friends we have almost 20 people! So much for small.

Here is Mandy and the birthday boy Tom.

Lindsay and birthday boy Daniel.

Daniel did a great job bowling and I did the opposite of great. I think I got the lowest score and Daniel got the highest! Daniel also challenged some people to a game of air hockey.

Yeap...

they look alike...

same eyes, same nose, same smile, same eyebrows, same chin, same happy disposition

Here I am with the birthday boy!

Birthday Boy #32

Now that my hubby is a cake snob I had to make him a cake from scratch. Looks like Lauren and Chloë love it. You can see the cake cooling in the background. One thing I loved about the cake was that is was much thicker than a box cake, so it looked very tall when frosted.

When dad came home from work we were ready with balloons and a cake. Sam picked out the green balloons and Clover picked out the pink balloons. Sorry dad, all ideals of manliness go out the door when kids pick out the balloons!

Here is Chloë and her dad's great smile. This is one reason I married this wonderful birthday boy- he has a great smile.
I love you!

Then it was present time. I gave dad his gift in the morning because I was so excited about it. Daniel is getting private surfing lessons for several days! Looking at the new additions to our library Barb and Mike got Daniel for his birthday, you can judge for yourself what kind of politics Daniel loves to read about. He loves these kind of books!

Daniel was also excited about the rest of his gifts. He is in desperate need of a new suit (he is still wearing his mission suit from over 10 years ago) and work clothes. Both our moms and Mimi contributed to his clothing fund and now he is ready for some new clients.

Now I just have to get him into Macy's to be fitted!!!!!

Guess who is a cake snob??

We had the Miner's over for a Thai coconut chicken soup dinner in celebration of Andrea and Daniel's brithdays. We always love it when the Miner's are able to come over.

This picture just cracked Andrea and I up. Daniel was holding the baby and he and Todd were talking and eating their yummy cake. I think Daniel was telling Todd how great the cake was. (Daniel has become a cake snob! He really prefers the taste of homemade cakes over a box mix.) Meanwhile the baby is going crazy practically DYING for a bite of cake. This picture below captures the baby's feelings perfectly!! I quickly put some cake in a bowl and gave it to her and the ravenous look on her face left. It was so funny.

Cyndee's baby shower

Olivia's first grade teacher, Cyndee (not even Miss Cyndee-they are so informal), is ready to have her baby any time now. As room parents, Kim and I decided to have the kids tie dye baby shirts and burp cloths for her baby. The kids had fun making their shirts and I think Cyndee really thought it was cute. She seems very sentimental about the kids and loves the personal touch from each of her students.

update:
Olivia's teacher had her baby girl on Tuesday the 16th, 9lbs 6oz!

Piko and the RED couch

Here is the famous tourquious couch in its new cover... a red red, make no mistake!

The other new arrival at the Miners is Piko, the dog.

He is so soft and cute. He weights 2.6 pounds and we all love him, except Daniel. He is such a party pooper. Don't you worry little family of mine, we won't let dad spoil our plan to have a family dog. Someday we will have a cute little dog like this...or maybe a big huge guard dog.

This morning we drove across the Coronado bridge and spent some time at a park on the island. The kids just enjoyed walking around, playing in the fountain and looking at the water.


Then we went on a small boat ride back to the main land. Barbie met us their with the car.

Then we drove to the Point Loma lighthouse and looked around at the tide pools, which prove to be stressful with 4 young kids walking along a cliff.