Stomp Rocket and Mustaches

We are officially in the birthday season.
O's BFF, L just celebrated her 4th birthday, which means O and Fifi''s is only two weeks to go.

 
 During our pregnancies, E and I hoped that the kids would be buddies and sure enough, they are the next generation of giggle twins.

When I asked O what he wanted to get L for her birthday he instantly told me, "She really liked the stomp rocket that I got for my birthday last year. Can we get her that"? He always blows my mind when he pulls something like this out of his memory bank.

 

So a stomp rocket it was.
Here it is in action....

While the kids jumped and send the small red and yellow rockets into orbit, the adults were entertaining themselves with other things...sticky mustaches to be exact. We were cracking up how we instantly looked like our dads. 

Happy Birthday L,we love, love, love you!

IG in SD

Translated, Instagram in San Diego

I really need to get my own ipod/iphone device.

Snagging A.'s when he isn't looking can sometimes bring out the 3 year old in both of us.

"MINE"

I also wonder how often he looks at his camera roll and rolls his eyes.

However, these shots should make him smile... at least I hope.

Almanor

Camping, for the second weekend in a row. It means a lot of laundry, a lot of dusty dirty kids. But it also means family fun and good memories for the O and Fifi in the making. I can see why I our friends make a week out of going up to Lake Almanor, a weekend really isn't long enough.

We rolled in on Friday night and got set up and settled in to camp. The kids were hungry and tired from the week so we didn't' make it long at the camp fire.

 

Saturday morning we rolled out of the sleeping bag early and got coffee and eggs cooking and slapped the kids in their swim suits and sun screen.

The mud play started early. How could it not when the water is only knee high for well over 25 yards out? I try hard to let the kids just be 'in it' when we are camping. Not worrying too much about how dirty they are getting. It's a lot easier when the lake is there to rinse off in when it's time.

The dads took turns on the kayaks. Andy was so proud of his silly dog tricks.

The kids floated around in about 2 feet of water and had the best time squirting each other and dumping buckets of water off the side of the 'boat'.

There was a lunch time complete with a  dance party, complete with cherry juice.

Shot through the heart and your to blame...

 

And then I put my camera away because I needed some float time and cooling off.

I brought it back out again after dinner.

These are some priceless shots, if you ask me.

What a great crew of kids there was. Everyone got along really well and had so much fun.

The ride home was hot and more hot.

Good think for the Polka Dot stop in Quincy, CA.

soft serve, baby. soft serve.

 

someone is tiiiiiired.

I got an ice-cream headache I ate this so fast. I had to, it was melting so fast it wasn't even funny!

One weekend I want to take a drive on my own so I can stop and snap photos of all these great barns and abandoned buildings...

Until I get that figured out and organized... these are the shots your gonna get.

I didn't really want to go camping this weekend. I have had a nasty cough and we haven't been home for one weekend yet this month. But Andy talked me into it. I caved and really, once we are out there, I am okay with it all. Or have to be or I will be miserable. I am glad we have such great friends and that we are getting the kids out camping so much. They love it. It's a crazy full summer,

Face Painting

The week before we headed up to the cabin for the pre-Fourth weekend, my Dad-in-law went over an itinerary he had in his head for Saturday.

He had it all planned out, down to the hour, what we would be up to and what the kids would be doing.

 

I giggled to myself at his ambition. Had he forgotten that there was going to be 6 kids (actually 7 with the addition of a cousin from my bro-in-law's family) under the age of six, plus 8 adults and 4 dogs wandering around the joint?
Keeping everyone on track can be a chore in and of itself. But I nodded along with his ideas.

I totally loved that he had so many fun plans smashed in for the one full day we would all be there. 

One of the things he had on his "bucket list" for the day was, "Face paining, I really want face painting.Would you mind doing that again this year?"

 

Needless to say, Grandpa Mike was the first in line when I pulled out the paints.

The rest just snowballed from there.

I was pretty bummed out when I opend my new fancy face paint kit to find that someone had stole the 6 stencils and one of the brushes from the box, but I made due with what I had.

 

Despite this sleep boy look on the boy's face here, O has asked to have his face painted nearly every day since last Saturday.

Face paint is officially a part of summer 2012!

under glass

I am betting, when my in-laws agreed to let us live here, 

they never bargained for "happy baby" to be part of the living room decor.

bubbles

Two weeks ago, it was bikes-bikes-bikes.

One week ago, it was all about the sidewalk chalk

This week, oh this week has been drenched in bubble juice.

Tiny and big, iridescent orbs of happy.