Beau's Birthday!

Beau turned 7 !!! Our little boy is 7!!! We had a great time celebrating! We surprised him when he woke up with the present he's been asking for forever....a snake...an albino cornsnake to be exact. "What were you thinking?" you may be asking, and yes we ask that too!

Breakfast in bed, Water stuff, Cake, Friends, Snake... what could be better?? We love you Beau!

Ugh...

I am so struggling with having a good attitude this summer! I want the kids to be able to play by themselves without needing me to provide them with entertainment!! I think we (Travis & I - not society) have spoiled them by always taking them places and planning activities for them so when there aren't any "planned" activities they resort to trying to kill me by nagging. I am trying to teach them something new which is...play with each other and think of your own thing to do. I am not a cruise director! Furthermore, I have been doing them a disservice by always providing their fun and will not continue to do that on a daily basis. Ah, the venting is over. Hopefully.

Sitting up!!!

Travis is trying to help Theo learn to sit on his own! He's getting it!

Please don't grow up anymore!

Ok, whatever, I know the kids have to grow to indicate they are living - but I hate it!! The big boys are growing into huge people and learning things about the world that make me sad they know. They wrestle with more fervor now and they don't let me squish them all the time, only sometimes - - WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! But they are so loving to their little bro! They adore Theo and think every little thing he does is fabulous and totally indicative of a genius baby. If they could just stay 8 1/2 and almost 7 forever that would be awesome because this is the biggest I can accept. And Theo better stop growing up too.

LOVE THESE GUYS!! Theo looks a bit unsure of his future ;) and Maizie... a whole other story... WE ARE BLESSED!!

July 4th Fun

July 4ths in Long Beach always ROCK!! This is one thing super cool about our neighborhood - the Bike Parade! The kids decorate their bikes and get to ride down Country Club Blvd. with their neighbors and friends while others wave from the side of the street. It's just awesome!! Attempting a family pic with no one's nonsense...

Someday we'll get one with everyone smiling and looking at the camera and not having grumpy faces!! Beau & Maizie are eager to ride!! This is Maizie's first parade where she gets to ride her own bike! The princess bike debut!

After the parade we went to our friends' Wes & Michelle Turnbow's house a few blocks away and had some good fun in the sun. It took Maizie 3 starts and stops to get all the way down the slip 'n' slide but she finally arrived at the end!

How many kids can you fit in the kiddie pool?

Tons of fun!!

Fun Weekend Together

We tried to do a couple fun things this past weekend! Here Travis is trying to get our 6 1/2 month old Theo baby to walk! Good luck with that dear!

"What do you want from me Dad?" We took the kids to Irvine Lanes on Saturday because KIDS BOWL FREE!! WOOHOO!! We had an awesome time!

My serious bowling face. And yes, it was Theo's nap time so he was in the carrier for our first game.

Go Beau!

Here's our first score sheet! It goes from top to bottom : Big Daddy (Travis), Super Mom (me), J Dog (Jack), HGJK (Beau), Maizie (Maizie). I LOST our first game badly! Bowling with the baby carrier is not easy folks! But, Jack beat Travis and Travis had no excuse.

Go Maizie!

Her balls took FOREVER to get to the pins!

Wade Family Pros!!!

Better game for me & Trav - poor Jackie couldn't get it together on the second game.

Then on Sunday we went to a concert at the Rancho Los Cerritos down the street from our house. It was great! Jack & I making puke faces.

Beau & Theo with our neighbor Ruthy

The Wartime Radio Review band - lots of Swing music and old fun stuff!

Travis & Maizie doing some dancing! Great end to the weekend!

End of the School Year!

I think the idea of blogging is to journal more than once a month or two because then you don't have to cram it in one post. But because of my awesome ability to put things off, there is this one post that encompasses about a month or more of life. Yes...

We are a reading family mainly because the library is free but also because I like to read therefore everyone will read. Beau loves to read to Theo (a captive audience) and reads him everything including this Black Lagoon book with no real pictures in it.

Jack's baseball season is finally over which is great..er I mean sad. He really loves playing baseball even though their team won only one game all season. He may just be in it for the snack afterwards. Beau's 1st grade class did a special concert for the parents which was adorable. Beau takes singing very seriously, it's quite endearing.

The end of AWANA for the year!! Maizie graduated from Cubbies! She is no longer a preschool girl, which we'll get to later.

And Jack got his award for completing all the Sparks books and is now graduating to the TNT class!! He's learning so much and looks forward to AWANA every Wednesday! Beau did a good job in Sparks too and has one more year of it. Unfortunately no pics of his success because he was having attitude, which I'm sure no one else experiences but us!

Maizie's preschool did a concert too! She's on the left in the front row - super cute!!

6 months old! We're saving this pics to show to his girlfriend someday.

Maizie & her BFF graduating preschool! We have a kindergartener now! She was adorable in her cap & gown and soaked up every bit of the attention and excitement.

Beau getting his honor roll award! He's a really hard worker and we're super proud of him!

Travis & the kids and dog. This really is the best picture that I could get of them which is so sad. 2 out of 4 kids are looking at the camera, well out of 5 if you count Pico.

Theo's first Star Wars toy, let's see how he likes it!

And in the mouth it goes..poor Anekin.

Hopefully this summer has tons of fun in store and lots of opportunities to be together as a family! Pray patience for me!