OC Vacation - Week 1

We had a great week of vacation! Eric's family came in from Kentucky for the week and my very good friend from college and her family (The Simon's) came from New York, as well as my parents, my sister and Abby! Wow! Lots of people and lots of fun!

Vacation kicked off with a family party for Jacob's birthday!We went bike riding on the boardwalk a few mornings which also meant donuts thanks to Grandpop!

The weather was perfect so.... lots of beach time! Thanks to Kristan, some yummy treats were also found on the beach!

Allison and Grandpa playing ball

Jacob, Allison, Tessa & Frank

Cameron & Allison

We can't forget kayak voyages! (Eric and David)

Our evenings were spent either playing games or going on the boardwalk.

Kaitlyn & Jacob on our new favorite ride!

Kaitlyn, Eric & Allison

Jacob & Tessa

Frank & Allison

Patience Please

*** UPDATE ***

As most of you know, we are on vacation. I do not have a reliable internet connection and am not able to post very regularly. Don't worry though.... soon you will have lots of reading material as we've been very busy making lots of memories and having tons of fun! I'm beginning to back track so please read on below!

OC with Friends!

Today our friends, the Davis family, joined us in OC for a full day of everything OC has to offer! We spent the day on the beach - which was beautiful! After cleaning up and some pizza for dinner, we went on the boardwalk for lots of rides! Thanks to the Davis girl's Allison went on her "dream" ride - the swings! She has wanted to go on them but her over protective mother has been too over protective to allow her to. In case you can't tell by the picture, she was in heaven! Everyone had a great day and needless to say - quite tired!

My 2 Pirates!

My parents gave Jacob a "Pirate Voyage" as part of his birthday present. So, today Jacob & Eric took the voyage. Pirate Voyages is a privately owned boat excursion out of OC. When you arrive, you get your face painted and any other "tatoos" you would like, an eye patch, and a bandana cap. I was just along to see them off on their voyage and to take pictures. Once on board the pirate ship, all the "pirates" signed their flag and hoisted it up the mast. The "pirates" that were running the voyage were all dressed to play the part of a pirate. As the ship set sail, they followed a map to the hidden treasure which was marked with an "X". The booty was pulled aboard and divided among all the pirates on board. Before returning to dock, a "bad" pirate planned a sneak attack on the ship and a full out water war broke out with super soakers and water cannons! I'm happy to say that both of my pirates made it back to land safely and had lots of fun!

Party Time!

Today was Jacob's "friend" birthday party! He's been planning this since oh, about June 17th, 2007! :o) His theme this year was a Pirate Pool Party at our swim club! He had a blast with all his buddies swimming, playing ball, snacking and swimming some more! We also had a pinata, however, I've decided that 8 year old boys have passed the age limit for pinatas! We barely got through the line with one hit per boy before the thing started to fall apart! I was just praying that all the kids got at least one hit although I'm not really sure they cared much about taking a swing at the pinata or were just excited about the falling candy!

Although the weather didn't provide us with brilliant sunshine, the party was great! Since the weather was questionable, the pool was empty with the exception of a few other families and except for a short period of drizzle, the rain held off! By halfway through the sun was out and it was a great afternoon!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Today is Jacob's 8th Birthday! I'm not quite sure where those 8 years have gone! I can remember holding my little (o.k, not so little) baby boy swaddled in a blanket just like it was yesterday! Today he is maturing into quite the young man (such a young man that we wear the same size shoes!)! If you were to ask him what some of his favorites are he'd say...swimming, basketball, soccer, friends, playing outside, video games, and the color orange.

For some reason I had a hard time grasping the fact that he no longer needed a carseat since he is 8! Jacob on the other hand had very little trouble with that point. It just seems so unnatural to me since it's something that he's been using since he was born! The first time in the car without the carseat he said he liked being able to touch the floor with his feet!

Regardless of when their party is, we have made a tradition to take the kids out to eat on their exact birthday so that the day feels special. Jacob choose to go to Friendly's tonight. The meal was complete with favorite foods and an icecream sundae!

After dinner, Jacob opened his gifts from us and from Allison. I'm pretty sure he really enjoyed his day!

Happy Birthday Jacob - we love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School's Out!!!!

It's officially the last day of school and I officially have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader! Wow.... Where does time go? I guess you could say that I'm graduating onto a new level also as I'll have more time on my hands come September than I have in a very long time! Don't worry... I'm sure those hours will be very well spent! :o)

First Ocean Voyage!

Today Eric took his "new" toy out in the ocean for the first time. If you remember a few months ago, I mentioned that Eric purchased his long time dream toy - a 2 person kayak! Although this wasn't his first voyage, it was his first in the ocean! You may also remember that my kids had 2 very different thoughts on their level of participation. Allison was more than excited and Jacob was a bit hesitant. So today Eric put his life jacket on and Jacob was more than eager to go and wouldn't wait. So off they went. Jacob was taking cold waves right in the face on their way out past the breakers. They made it out and back and smiles were on both of my boys faces as they truly enjoyed their voyage! Allison was very eager to get her turn - that was right up until the life jacket went on! Reluctantly she went out for a short time and was less than thrilled! So Eric took Jacob a 2nd time - less waves in the face this time! As the boys were heading back toward shore - in pretty shallow water - they took a wave at the wrong angle and flipped it. I was thinking "well, that does it - Jacob won't be out on that again", but to my dismay, he was all smiles when he came up and will tell you that flipping was the best part! Who knew they would change their opinions so drastically!?

Bridge To Brownies!

Tonight Allison crossed the bridge to Brownies. Basically this was a symbolic excercise to graduate from Daisies to Brownies. She won't officially begin Brownies until September. This has been a fun Daisy year and Allison has enjoyed meeting all the girls and making new friends! Thanks to 2 wonderful and dedicated Brownie leaders, all the girls from her Daisy troop as well as about 6 - 10 others will be in her Brownie troop next year!

Finny & A New Home!

When we acquired our goldfish a couple of months ago, I didn't think that we would still have a goldfish! I know that's a horrible thought but I've always heard that they don't live long and they are just "throw away" fish! So, after a couple months of having to clean out the fish bowl every few days, we have moved on to bigger and better things (and I do mean bigger!)!

So.... here it is ... our new fish tank and an additional fish to keep Goldy (Allison's fish) company! Jacob was finally ready to get another fish so meet, Finny! I think he stands a better chance survival with the larger tank!
They seem to like the new tank and hopefully after all this effort, they will still be swimming in the morning! I'm looking forward to not cleaning the tank any time soon! :o)

Kindergarten Field Trip

Today Allison and I spent the morning on her class field trip. We went to a local farm for a hayride, tour of a greenhouse and radish picking! Great kindergarten field trip with lots of educational opportunities but did I mention that it was 100 degrees today with extreme humidity to make if feel something like 105!? Man, was it hot! I was forcing poor Allison to constantly drink her water so she wouldn't dehydrate! All in all, she had a really good time! The moms were counting the minutes till we could get back to school and get into our air conditioned cars!

So now we have a bowl full of radish that I'm not sure any of us will eat. The farmer told us to fry them in some olive oil and make them into chips. He said they were really good that way and much better for you than potato chips, so we may try that - I'll let you know! :o)

Allison with the radish she just picked

So do you think Allison has had enough?

Heat Wave!

We are in the midst of a terrible heat wave. These temperatures are unusual for anytime during the summer but definately not the normal for June! I hope this is not a sign of the upcoming summer! We hit 98 degrees today but with the heat index we were feeling like 105! Jacob and Allison's school is not air conditioned. I didn't quite know whether to send them but by 11 am when I picked Allison up from Kindergarten, I decided to get Jacob as well! I'm really glad that I did - I found out later that they gathered most of the school into the air conditioned gym to watch movies for the rest of the afternoon. They called a 1/2 day for tomorrow due to the severe weather conditions. Fortunately the weather is supposed to breaking tomorrow night with some storms.

Since our pool is not open yet, I decided to "spluge" and get the kids a slip and slide. I was at Walmart and found one for less than $8. After the heat of the day today I hooked it up and the kids went wild on it. I wasn't sure if it would be a hit or not but it was a good cool down for them! The down side was that once it was hooked up, I had to sit in the heat and supervise! Even if it only lasts until the pool opens full time next week, it was well worth the $8 investment!

Another Performance Day!!!!

Today was yet another performance day for the kids! Pretty soon, they are going to need a booking agent! :o) As I mentioned in earlier posts, the kids both participate in our church's children's choir. Today they performed at all 3 services. They had to be at church by 7:45 am. This was a bit early considering our long day yesterday! We literally rolled Allison out of bed w/ just enough time for her to get dressed and get her hair done! Jacob, of course, was up in plenty of time but Allison would have been very upset if she missed this opportunity so she went!

The kids did a great job and had a blast. They especially liked singing "Lean on Me" where they had an opportunity to do some free style silly dancing! By the last service at 11:30, Jacob was coming out of his shell and "getting down"!

Recital Time!

Today was Allison's 3rd recital. She absolutely loves dancing and loves performing. This year has been especially fun for her because she has had many opportunities to perform because she has been on a dance team. Tonight's performance was bitter sweet. Sweet because it was the end of another dance year and time for a break. Bitter because Allison's dance teacher, Miss Libby will not be returning next year. Allison has danced with Miss Libby for 3 years and we absolutely adore her! Miss Libby will be greatly missed! The girls also had an assistant this year, Miss Andrea, who is a senior in high school so she too will be missed a ton next year! Allison's class danced to a Disney Princess song called "Dressed for Tea". A very cute dance and the girls did a wonderful job! By then end of the day - 2 performances in fact - they were all very tired!

She will again be on the dance team next year and most of the girls she danced with this year will also be dancing again so it will be fun to reunite with them in September.

2nd Grade Field Trip

Today was the long awaited field trip that Jacob has been so excited about. All four 2nd grade classes boarded the school buses and ventured out to the Museum of Natural Science. It was a really hot day so all the moms were thankful to be going to an air conditioned museum! Having never been there before, I was quite excited to go and see what all was there. There were replicas of dinosaur sketatons, we went digging for fossils, and saw lots of animals - even touched a snake, and walked through a butterly garden. I think the butterfly garden was my favorite exhibit although the fossil digging was pretty cool too!

All Fired Up!

Last night Allison's Daisy troop went to a paint your own pottery. The particular place we went to was working with the local food bank and this activity was more or less a community service. We paid a small fee for the girls to paint a bowl. The finished bowl will then be sold for about $4 - $6 more and the profit will then go to the food bank to help provide food for those in need. The girls had a great time creating their masterpieces and painting!

UGH!!!!

So, I didn't figure I'd have even one second for my blog before next week but I do....

It seems like as each waking hour goes by, one more thing breaks! I spent yesterday trying to "fix" Allison's recital costume so that the irritation doesn't cause her to break out in hives by the end of the day Saturday! That wasn't the quick fix I thought but I after just about devoting the entire day to it, I think we've got it under control.

Last night in preparing for today, we were getting the video camera ready - you know making sure it was charged and had a good tape in it. We are (or were) video taping Allison's dress rehersal since we are not allowed to do any photographing or video of the actual recital. Did you catch that I said WERE? Yes, that is because our camera just broke! Just like that broke! Perfect a few weeks ago, but now totally broke! So... I guess that we won't be taping dress rehersal! :o(

Went to bed last night with normal water. Woke up to tea coming out of my faucets throughout my whole house. Tea party anyone?! Guess what - boiling water does not take the discoloration away! Thought I'd try it but after 25 minutes of boiling, it still looks like a pot of tea! Anyone want to come over for a tea party?!

So...now I'm off to a 2nd grade field trip w/ Jacob - a day with 2nd grade boys should be just what I need for my frustration! :o)