Whirlwind California Adventure

We decided somewhat last minute to make a quick trip to CA (part business/part fun). We covered a lot of miles in 6 days and the kids proved (again) to be great travelers. We spent an afternoon with our dear friend Nancy in San Francisco and the kids got their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Samuel and Anna couldn't resist gathering up the plentiful sand dollars that were scattered about the beach . . . they decided they must be rich! It was cold and windy so we stayed in our "go out to lunch clothes" and didn't plan on getting IN the water . . . you can probably guess how well those plans went (especially if you have children!) Fortunately, we had some extra clothes in the van! Watching the kids squeal with delight as the waves taunted them, tickled them, chased them and sometimes wrestled them to the ground was priceless!

Our Anna girl!

Tonight, we enjoyed an early birthday celebration for Anna's 5th birthday (she turns five on May 24th, the day we leave town for Taylor's wedding and east coast trip). She's been so eager to be old enough to go to open gym time, we thought it would be fun to invite a few friends to join us and make it part of her celebration. We had some quick fun at the house first ~ making sparkly princess crowns, eating dinner, playing dress-up and decorating cupcakes (which Anna voted for instead of a cake) and then headed to the gym. It was a super fun time! Somehow we didn't get any pictures of open gym time =( . . . we ended up running out of time at home, so after open gym ended, we opened gifts and ate ice cream cups out in the parking lot! (hence the picture of the happy, sweaty, birthday girl eating ice cream!). I can't believe our littlest blessing is almost 5 years old already.

Another half birthday celebration

We celebrated Daniel's half birthday this past weekend. In typical Daniel fashion, it included Arby's curly fries! Daniel beat us at cards while he munched happily away on his lunch, then we went to JumpStreet (an indoor trampoline park). We spent the majority of our time there playing dodgeball. Daniel is GOOD at dodgeball! Super fun (and super sore for the parents the next day!). We rounded out our time with a quick trip to Dairy Queen for a chocolate dipped cone! Fun time with a super fun 8 1/2 year old!