Casa de Fruta

Today we ventured to Casa de Fruta to meet up with my Grandma to have lunch and celebrate her birthday.  We love to meet here for many reasons but one of them being that the kids can play at the park for a little while after we are done eating. 

It is truly amazing how much kids can remember at such a young age.  Austin remembers every time we come that there is a train that he can climb and play in.  Through all of lunch he kept saying that he wanted to go out to the train.  It kind of reminded me of the seagulls in finding Nemo, "Mine. Mine."  But instead we heard, "Train. Train."  Haha!

There is a train and carousel ride at Casa de Fruta but we have never been on it with the kids because it has never been open when we have gone.  Today was different, everything was going so we took advantage.

The kids played at the sluice.

Rode on the Casa de Choo Choo.  It was VERY hot.

Rode on the Casa de Carousel.  VERY HOT!!!

Then stopped for a well deserved treat. ICE CREAM!  Did I mention it was hot?  I am surprised we didn't melt.

It was really hot and we were all tired and feeling a little icky when we left but had a lot of fun at the same time. 

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Rainbow Loom Rainbow Dash

Yesterday we finally had the Rainbow Loom Play Date that Payton had been requesting all summer.  I am so glad so many of her school friends were able to make it.

Anyway, toward the end of the play date Payton and her friend, Emery, started following a tutorial to make a pony on the loom.  Today we finished it.  Payton did hers all on her own and Lincoln directed me in the creation of his black Rainbow Dash.  :o)

Payton did really well on hers, only had a couple of mishaps.  First mishap was when one of her cap bands broke when we started taking the pony off the loom.  It was one of the first bands we put on which means the whole pony would have come unraveled if we hadn't been able to tie up the rubber band.  Crisis averted.  Second, somehow we missed that she forgot to loom some of the bands on the one side of the loom, this was discovered after we had already started pulling the bands off the loom.  Fortunately, I am a master at fixing this kind of problem. We were able to reloom what we had take off, unloom the pony up to the point she had forgotten, then reloom.  Another crisis averted.  Haha!

Rainbw Loom Play Date

Payton has been begging for this play date all summer.  She really wanted to get together with her friends and do the rainbow loom.  I wondered how it was going to go, I knew we were going to have all levels of experience with the girls, some who are just learning the very basics and some that can pretty much just make any bracelet you can find. 

I guess I really didn't have anything to worry about, as everyone got here they went straight back to Payton's room and started playing all sorts of things, starting with dress up.  They were all so cute running around in costume.  It wasn't until after they had eaten lunch that anyone was ready to loom and really if I hadn't brought it up I think they would have just continued paying school or whatever it was that they were playing.

Instead of everyone one learning one type of bracelet they decided to all work on their own bracelets.  Payton did teach Dorie how to make a single, Mariam and Lincoln worked on another kind of bracelet, and Emery worked on her rubber band rope that she has been working on this summer.  After a little while a few of us started making a pony from a tutorial until parent's came.

 

 

I was so excited that everyone got along and seemed to have a great time.  I hope we can do it again before school starts.

Our own little dare devil.

We took the kids out to ride bikes in the church parking lot.  Unfortunately, we were asked to leave by the facilities people.  Boo!

 

We ended up taking the kids over to a park next to a bike path.  Some of the kids were done riding and some were just getting started.  Haha!

 

It turns out that Lincoln is afraid to ride his own bike but not Austin's.  Whatever.  At least he is on a bike, right? Today he had in his head that he wanted to ride down some hills.  So I took him over to the path and let him ride up and down a small hill on the path.  He would go zooming down and then work so hard to pedal back up.  It was so cute!

 

She jumped!

Payton jumped off the board!  She finally worked up the courage to do it and did it many, many times.

 

Today we stayed for open swim with some friends.  Toward the beginning of open swim Payton called me on a promise I made to her last week if she would go off the board.  I told her that if she went off the board I would too.  Well, I couldn't back out.  I did it!  I haven't been off a diving board in like 15 years.  It was lots of fun.  After I went off she asked if she could go off too.  She did with me catching her.  I was shocked!  Excited!

Later on the kids were playing a mermaid princess game and had to show bravery to earn gems in their crowns.  One of the acts of bravery was to go off the board.  All of the kids went off again and again. I ended up catching kids off the board for the next 45 minutes.  It was so tiring but fun at the same time.

 

After I got out, I realized that I never got a picture or video of her doing it.  So I asked her if she would go off again so that I could take a video and pictures.  She agreed excitedly and said, "I love going off the board!"  Hooray!

 

Baby Steps

Today Taylor convinced Payton to sit on the diving blocks.  Then we convinced her to stand on the blocks.  Then she jumped of the block while standing on the grips for a back stroke start.  Then we somehow convinced her to jump off the block.  Big steps happening here.  Big big steps.

A Busy Day

You could say that I may have over booked us for the day.

We started by going with my friend Jessie and her kiddos to Bernal Park to see the 4H chickens and bunnies then to Dotties Pond to see the turtles.  We saw so many turtles today, even saw turtles sitting on top of other turtles.  Crazy.  Also saw a cool dragonfly.  I had to take a picture of it because we just read a Winnie the Pooh book about someone seeing a dragonfly and Pooh thought they saw a dragon fly.  Anyway, it was cute.

 

From there we left and went immediately to swim lessons and then left from there and went straight to a play date at the park with some school friends.  At the park the kids got creative with all the dry pine needles.  They made a huge "bird nest", then they put all the pine needles in the slide and slid down pushing them all down the end.  They had so. much. fun.

The kids were so tired when we got home.  Haha!

Daddy's Home

Payton went off the board!  Well, kind of.  Her teacher dropped her off of the board and her head didn't even go under.  Haha!  At least we have baby steps happening and we are so proud of her.

Daddy got to stay home from work today and we decided to head down to Gilroy Gardens after swim lessons.  We had heard that their new water area was open.  Unfortunately, we were mistaken and the opening was postponed until Saturday.  Boo!

We made the best of it though and had a great time going through the rest of the park.

Both Payton and Lincoln rode on the Rattlesnake Roller Coaster and Austin would have too if they would have let him.  I was actually really surprised by Payton, she has refused to go on this ride every other time we have been here until today and she loved it.  Dave said she wasn't even scared.  Maybe I will get to ride on the big roller coasters with my kiddos eventually.  :o)

Water!

A fun day, finished off by having dinner with Amma and Papa Don at Chili's.  Gotta love that Queso Dip!

The Library

Please do not judge me but I have never taken my kids to the library.  Thankfully my friend Jessie invited us to go with her and her kiddos this morning and I jumped at the opportunity.  We have been wanting to go but wasn't sure how it all worked.  Sounds silly doesn't it?

The kids were so excited.  we got there a little before it opened, you would have thought we were waiting in line for the new iPhone or something the way they were all lined up with their noses to the glass.  Haha!  They had a great time and were so excited to look at the books they chose.

Swimming lessons are going well.  The kids are becoming more and more comfortable in the water and Payton was even convinced to stand on the board with her toes over the edge.  Nice job Payton!

 

When we got home we decided to make stuff from paper towel and toilet paper rolls.  Lincoln decided to make rockets and Payton decided to make a castle.  So glad Amma was over to help out.  Both Payton and Lincoln did a really nice job.

Lincoln started soocer!

Lincoln has been looking forward to playing soccer all summer.  Even begging to play.  I would have even signed him up for an earlier session but with vacations I thought it would be better just to wait.

Today was his first day and he loved it.  He had such a great time.  He was hustling the whole time.  If the coaches said it was time for a water break he sprinted to get his drink, guzzled down some water, then sprinted back. 

I love seeing him so excited about it.  I think Dave is too.  Michelle has said on more than one occasion that watching Lincoln is like watching Dave when he was little.  Future soccer star people.  :o)