Birthday Girl

Saturday was Megan's fourth birthday. How in the world did my sweet baby girl turn into....well, a girl??! I know she hasn't been a baby for a while, but dang...four just seems so big all of a sudden. When she got up in the morning I told her happy birthday and said that I thought she definitely looked a little different today and maybe even a tiny bit bigger. She smiled. A few minutes later I found her inspecting herself in the closet mirror in my room. She had to see for herself. :)
We headed back up to Pete's mom and dads for the day.


They needed some help building a shed for their well and so we went to help, and have a little party for Megs too.
Jake and cousin Hannah played all day together. They had so much fun! They spent all morning pounding nails into old wood and then all afternoon catching grasshoppers and butterflies.


Megan spent most of her day with Faith. It was great. Faith is just about old enough to babysit (almost 12) and really seemed to be good with just watching her all day.


In the late afternoon we got down to the birthday party. I made (or tried to anyway) red velvet cupcakes. Only they turned out to be pink velvet because I ran out of red food coloring! Oh well, they were pretty good anyway.
Megan just loved when we all sang Happy Birthday to her.


I didn't bring any candles and Grandma didn't have any bday candles so we used what we could find. One giant candle did the trick. :)


Opening presents:


Then we decided to take an afternoon stroll with the dogs through Grandma's neighborhood. It's just beautiful up there!


And that's about it. It was a really nice weekend. I do wish we could have stayed longer (again) but it was nice to just get away for the day.
My favorite picture from the day...I just love it! We were missing 2 cousins though...I wish it could have been all 6 kids.



So looking forward to the weekend in Santa Cruz!!!

Ten Random.

Well hello blog.
We have been SO busy lately. Going and doing and schooling and going and doing more. I've been wanting to blog it all though. I really want to. Because I haven't scrapbooked in months and the blog is the next best thing, I suppose. But I dunno...both blogging and scrapbooking and even editing pictures just seems like *ugh* such a task lately. Like one more thing to do. I don't want it to feel like that. But for now...I think it is what it is. But I'm going to try and make a better effort to get in here and write things down.
Anyway, here's what's been going on:
(photo's are random from the last month or so)



1. Summer is finally here! at least for a day or two. Yesterday was 98* (shocking!) today is still about 90*. I love the heat and this weather makes me happy. ( I know, feel free to slap me) Buuuutt...yes there is a but...heat without A/C is not quite as enjoyable. Because it rarely gets this warm in the Bay Area, no one puts A/C's in their homes. Being outside in the heat is one thing...but not being able to escape it a little by going inside, is another. Our living room was stifling last night. Just miserably hot. And we have leather furniture, so we were all sticking to it. eeeww. I would go out and buy a fan, but it's going to be back to the 60's by Friday so I'll be pulling on the Uggs and sweatshirts again. :)
2. This is our second official week of homeschooling. So far it's going pretty well. I'm not gonna lie though...we've had our moments. But they have been very few and far between. I am not regretting my decision at all to do this. I know that this is absolutely right and necessary for our family right now. Will we go back to traditional school at some point? Maybe yes, maybe no. I really can't answer that now. I do get a tiny twinge of jealousy/sadness when I hear of all the other kids going back to school. Just a tiny bit. I get sad for Jake because he really does miss his friends and he LOVED school. And I get a little bit jealous because I know what it's like to have that quiet time all to yourself while the kids are gone at school. But honestly....I haven't had that moment all summer where I've said, "good grief! isn't it time for you to go back to school??!". Not once have I even thought it. I've really been enjoying our time together as a family and with homeschooling, the opportunities are so much more plentiful.



3. What I need to keep reminding myself though, is that I want this to be an enjoyable experience. And that we are doing this for Jake and Megan. And while they do need to actually learn (I'm NOT into un-schooling...at all), I don't see any reason why it can't be fun and enjoyable. And it should be, right? That's the cool thing about homeschooling...we get to pick everything we do and if we don't like it.....we just pick something else! :)
4. The kids took swim lessons a few weeks ago. It was their first time. They loved it. Jake actually was moved up a level right away. I was surprised since he'd never had formal lessons before and he used to be sooo scared. But he's totally not anymore. :)
5. Jake turned 7 on the 15th. Megan will be 4 this Saturday. How do I have a 7 and a 4 year old? How is it even possible that Megan will be in Kindergarten next year???? She's just a bayyy-beeee!





6. Pete got his truck broke into the other day. Another reminder that we are not in Kansas (or the valley) anymore. It sucked. Like a punch in the gut, man. They took his phone, sunglasses, some random crap, tools...and his brand new hunting bow. For reals. But I guess that's what you get for not locking up. Live and learn.
7. Pete's parents moved the same time we did...up to the mountains. The kids and I took a short little trip up there last week. It was so nice! I wish we could have stayed longer. They're new house is so homey feeling. I really do miss seeing them often. But now when we do go, it's like a vacation :)
8. Speaking of vacations...we're going to Santa Cruz next weekend for a short get-away. I can't wait! Just the four of us this time, in the same little cabin we stayed in with my dad last October. Since we haven't really done much this summer in the way of vacations or camping or anything like that, I'm really looking forward to it.
9. I thought I had so much to say and now here I am struggling to come up with 10 things.



10. Oh! I thought of something! My mom was here a few weekends ago. She and I spent the entire weekend cleaning out some of my yard. Finally. We worked so hard. My mom is amazing. She just keeps on going! No one had done anything around here in years and it showed. We spent all day Sunday cleaning out just one flower bed. There must have been at least 10 years worth of oak tree and eucalyptus tree leaves in there. It was not fun cleaning it out. But we did it. And it looks so nice! Thank you mommy! When are you coming back...cuz we got a lot more work to do! ;)
Happy Wednesday.