Birthday Parties!

It was time once again to celebrate Barbie's birthday because finally all my sisters were in town.  Andrea and Valerie arranged for us to make our own Straw Sandwiches.  They were great.  Even the kids were choosing the rye bread and sauerkraut.  Above is a picture with Barbie and Mike with the grandsons.

 

 

Here are some of the granddaughters.

Happy Birthday, Mom! These desserts sure were yummy.

 After Mom's final birthday party we celebrated Mimi's 90th birthday.  Mimi had her closest family join her for dinner at her favorite Italian Restaurant, La Fontanella.  Her youngest daughter, Sally, was unable to make it out for the celebration.  Below is my Mom's brother, Walter Reed II, with his son, Walter Reed III...aka, Walter and Reed.

 Next we have Reed with his mom, Chris. 

 Here I am with my mom.  We had a nice dinner.  I was full after the yummy appetizers.

 Then Mimi's niece, Lori, and husband came.  Lori's mom is Mimi's sister, Patty.  Lori and my mom are close in age, look similar, and are good friends.  While growing up, many people thought Mom and Lori were sisters.

 Then Todd and Valerie were sitting together.  By the way, if you think we all look so dashing, it is because we just finished taking our family picture.  There were 27 people in the picture; it was quite the task.

 And here is Mimi's sister, Patty, and her husband, Uncle Dick.  Daniel and I were the last to arrive for dinner.  The only 2 seats left were one next to my mom and one next to Uncle Dick.  I just laughed to myself, gave Daniel a kiss and said, "Have Fun!"  Then after dinner Uncle Walter started harassing Daniel about his dinner partner.  You see, Uncle Dick has had a lot of life experiences he loves to share plus he can't hear very well.  So the conversation one has with Dick it totally one-sided.  You end up hearing about all the wonderful things he has accomplished!  But Daniel is very, VERY kind and respectful.  He just sits, listens, and asks more questions.  Daniel is a saint!

 After dinner Kate and Mike W. made Mimi the HUGEST cake I have ever seen not made at a bakery.  It wasn't just some yellow cake mixes thrown together.  It was very impressive.  Mike said it had something crazy like 3 dozen eggs, 5 pounds of sugar and several bags of lemons.  It was a delicious, dense lemon cake. 

Happy 90th birthday, Mimi!  We love you.

First day of school for Sam and Olivia

 We arrived home from Phoenix and 10 hours later Sam's first day of kindergarten and Olivia's first day of second grade began.  Class starts at 8am.  I really like the early start, we will see how the kids do. 

 

Sam was very excited to go.  His teacher is Mrs. Sherman.  She is in Mrs. Engelhardt's room which is the same room Daniel had for kindergarten.  I am sad Mrs. Engelhardt is not at Bubb anymore.

Olivia was very excited to see her friend Sophie, unfortunately they are not in the same room.  Olivia's teacher is Mr. Franklin.  It is said that he is the best 2nd grade teacher and one of the top 2 teachers at Bubb.  All the kids just love him.

Mogollon Rim

When I was younger my dad would always take me camping.  He would come home from work and say, "Barb, I'm going camping with Lindsay." He would gather his things and we would go for an overnight campout.  I always had such a great time.  Usually we would not have a plan as to where we were going, but one camp spot we did visit more often was near Young, AZ.  A campground called Canyon Creek.  The most memorable part is that the road crosses the river. 

So this summer we decided to go camping with the Wilsons, and Mitchells when they arrived.  

Here is Kate and Picco.

We arrived late at night.  After setting up our tents and making a small fire we sat and played guess the prophet game.  It was a great evening.  It the morning the kids went off exploring.  The kids were good at staying together, but we decided Daniel should go with them.  That was a great idea.  The kids got to see a lot and we got the campsite cleaned up.

Aaron was the last to get up.  He always needs his beauty sleep.

Seth was up and helping all around.  I think he feels at home camping.  Seth helped take down the tents, clean up and cook breakfast. 

Here is Lu's breakfast!

This is the whole camping gang.

After we got packed up we headed to the creek to play in the water and then we decided to go see the fish hatchery.

 

This is the famous Road I remember from my childhood.  I loved driving thru the creek.

The boys went way up the river looking for a bunch of somethings.  The water was quite cold!  It took some getting used to.  Kate and I stay with the younger kids hopping rocks near the road.  I love hoping rocks.  I could do it for hours. 

We love Mimi

Every afternoon while Lauren took her nap we would go play cards with Mimi.  A few days we ended up watching the cooking channel.  That was actually very relaxing.  Everyday has been so great.

Happy Birthdays!

As soon as we awoke in Phoenix we headed for a swim in the pool. We love it here more than anything!


After a great morning swim, lunch and a nap Leslie, Kira and MadZ came over for a birthday party for Mom and Lauren. Leslie found a fun cake that was tasty and happy, but more importantly Leslie found chocolate cupcakes, with white frosting and red roses. That was the kind her cake Barb's dad use to have for his birthday. What a fun tradition to try to keep. Here is Barb and Lauren sharing their cake!

Blow girls blow!

We took this opportunity to take a photo shoot with the Mitchell girls.

After our birthday cake celebration with the granddaughters. Then we took Barbie, Mike and Mimi to Pinnacle Peak Patio for dinner. We had a great steak dinner and listened to a country singer on their outdoor patio. The weather was great!


Chloë wanted to go to the bathroom so we went and this is what we found. Cow stalls.... The setting was great, we enjoyed the rattle snake, cacti and saw dust on the ground.

We had a great birthday celebration for Barb and Lauren. I am glad I had her on your birthday, mom. We love to celebrate with you.

Paint with Friends

We have been gone a lot this summer, which I love, but the kids wanted to see their friends. So we had them over the day before we left for Phoenix.


The kids were very creative with their art. I love seeing the kids grow up. Sam and Olivia painted scenes and did some more modern art!

Capitola Beach

I had such a great time at the beach with the kids when I went with the other mom's from the ward, I wanted to take Daniel on a Saturday. So of course we had to invite our friends, the Gardners. They are our friends that are always willing to take the kids anywhere for a good time. Andy jumped over the waves that would crash on the beach while Daniel followed Lauren around. Susan and I sat on the beach and just talked. It was so relaxing.

Chloë decided to come rest on the beach with us.

The Gardners brought a bunch of sand toys. One of which was a shark truck. It was the coolest truck ever for a day at the beach. Sam pushed the truck up and down the beach making tracks in the sand. What a boy!

Finally Lu came and sat on my lap and just rested until we were ready to go. I think she actually feel asleep in my lap.

Just around the house

I thought I would share some of what happens day to day.

Lu has been taking her diaper off ALL THE TIME. So we had to duck tape her jammies on her at night!

We have been baking a lot. Olivia likes to help me make dinner biscuits from scratch. They are really quick and very good!

Sam usually sleeps with the older girls, but tonight he was bugging Chloë so we made him sleep in Lu's room. When Daniel and I went to check on the kids before we went to sleep this is what we found!
Sam moved the lamp and managed to plug it in BEHIND the crib!??

Family day

We had a great Saturday today.

In the morning, we met the Gardners at the Sunnyvale farmer's market. After shopping around for a while and buying some fruit, we sat down in the shade for some lunch and to talk. The kids got kettle corn and balloons. I ended up buying these beautiful dahlias.

Daniel and Sam found this HUGE glider plane at the store and had to have it! The plane was as big as Chloë, but that did not stop her from taking her turn.

I feel very blessed for all that I have...great kids, a fun family, a great job for Daniel and a testimony of God's church. Thank you everyone for your constant help and prayers!

p.s. happy pioneer day!

HPTB annual Giants game

I can't think of anything better than ribs on a summer day just before a ball game.

After a great dinner with some of Daniel's co-workers and now we are headed off to get ready for game time. The weather was perfect and the kids were angels during dinner. We ate most of the food we were given...and there was a lot!!

Of course, dinner was just the beginning of our food for the evening. As usual we had cotton candy, soda pop, a bite of garlic fries that went around, and the famous fresh churros! ....I think we might have had some ice cream and kettle corn, but this seems like so long ago, I can't remember.

This was supposed to be a beautiful mother daughter picture until Varun decided to pose! He is one of the associates at the firm. We sat with his fiance and him. They are a lot of fun! We even talked them in to going down to the churro stand.

We had a great time at the baseball game. I don't even know who won, but we had fun. By the end of the game the kids were not scared of Gigante- they even went and sat by him to watch the game. It was fun to see them imitate him. I hope this is a tradition the firm will continue to do.

Berry Picking

This Saturday we went to the Gizdich farm to pick berries. We have been driving to the coast weekly to go to the beach, so the kids did not mind too much. We started in the black berry patch. Lauren had her first black berry and LOVED it. Too bad most of it ended up on Daniel's back!

For some reason Liv likes to wear her hat backwards so the straps are in her eyes, then she had to wear the glasses, but not over her eyes....she is growing up with her own style!!!

Everytime Lu would see a strawberry she would say, "Look, I deed it!"

After some luck with the blackberries, we headed over to the strawberry fields. These were much more fruitful! All the kids got so excited when they found a strawberry because they were hiding under the leaves.

I don't think this smile is me, but I like the hat and the feeling I had this day, so I included this picture of me relaxed and enjoying the sun.

At first we were picking small ones, but the kids learned to be selective in the berries they picked because there were plenty of big ones. We found so much joy in each big (or not so big) strawberry!
The signs where you pick up your berry picking basket said we could "Sample a berry, but no grazing aloud". I must admit by the time we made it to the end of our first strawberry row the kids were grazing...so we had to leave!

But we didn't want to..."Look another strawberry, maybe I should taste it???"

By the end of our berry picking afternoon, the kids were filthy dirty. They all had sandles on, but their feet were still dirty. I love this picture of Lu, it captures the afternoon, dirty feet, dirty face, happy taste buds and tired eyes.

Birthday Party Crashing

Olivia was invited to a birthday party at Sky High Jump, (we went there for Bob's birthday). I was just dropping Olivia off and the other kids really wanted to jump. I thought it would be a lot of fun for them. So after thinking about Olivia's feelings I decided if we kept our distance from Olivia it would be fine to let Chloë and Sam jump. I thought they would only last a half hour or so, but they jumped and jumped for almost 2 hours!

The birthday girl's mom was very kind and let them have some ice cream cupcakes that were left over. I am glad I stayed to let the kids jump and I am grateful that Olivia did not mind sharing this fun activity with her siblings. (I did keep them away from her, so she did not feel like we were crashing her party)