Super Summer Swap - Thank You!

Our Super Summer Swap packages have arrived - yippee!!!



Sawyer's package arrived while we were on vacation, so I kept it hidden from him until we could get settled back down and unpacked (mostly because I didn't want to add to the vacation mess we hadn't put away yet. Actually, it still wasn't all put away yet, so excuse the random clothing and package of tp in the background of the pictures!). I gave it to him on Tuesday after school, and he was SO excited to have something of his very own to open. He kept asking me, "Is it mine? Is it from Bekah?" He had so much fun putting Bekah's package together, and from the way he was talking about it, you'd think that Bekah was one of his nearest and dearest friends that he's known all his life!

His favorite thing in the package was a pack of dinosaur foam stickers, which he promptly opened up and dumped all over my bed ;)

He was thrilled with the activity books, and he was especially excited that one of them came with a sheet of stickers. He liked the book about colors the most, because it has his most favorite activity in it - drawing lines to match up pairs.

I couldn't get a picture of everything that came in the package because he kept grabbing stuff away from me, but this is most of it :) There were also the dinosaur stickers and some really cute shaped crayons that actually managed to survive the 104 degree heat without getting too smushed and unrecognizable!

Thank you Bekah!!! We loved your package of goodies!

Sutton's package from Andrew arrived yesterday, and he couldn't wait to open it. He ran inside from the mailbox and didn't make it more than three feet inside the door before he tore into it! Sawyer was more than willing to help him open it and take everything out, since he's a seasoned package-opening veteran now ;)

We had fun going through the "My First Words" flashcards, and I was amazed that he actually knew almost all of the words on them. I thought for sure he would get tripped up on some of the words like nest, mushroom and snail that he doesn't use very often, but the only three he had trouble with were Earth ("moon"), quarter ("money") and wind ("bubble bath" LOL).

He got the word flashcards (which also came with a sheet of stickers), marker/watercolor paper (which he promptly claimed as "Mine! Sawyer no use it."), Thomas stickers (which made him squeal with delight, "My choo-choo stickers!"), and his favorite thing of all - a dolphin squirter. He really loved everything in his package!

Thank you Andrew!!! You were a great Summer Swap Pal!

Hopefully our pals receive their packages soon too! We can't wait to see if they like their goodies as much as we liked ours! Thanks again Bekah and Andrew (and their mommies, of course!) :)

Tahoe Photos

We had a great time in Tahoe - in "our new little house" as the boys called it. It was surprisingly hot there this weekend (91 degrees when the average July temp is 76!), but we still enjoyed every minute of it. The boys definitely didn't want to leave! No matter how many times we reminded them that we were just on vacation and that we were going back to our "real big house" after the weekend, Sawyer kept telling us that "we moved out of our old house" and that we were going to live in the cabin forever. I'm sure he would have loved to stay in Tahoe for at least another week or two!

The first thing we did was hit the beach to see if the water was cold (it definitely wasn't!)

Aaaaah, so nice to be on vacation!

Nothing like swings, sun, and sand at Regan Beach!

Hiking the kid-friendly Rainbow Trail at Taylor Creek

View of Mt. Tallac across the meadow

Sutton loved hiking!

Time for a hiking break! Sawyer was totally exhausted at this point *insert whining and begging to be carried here*

This kiddo would have happily hiked all day long

We spent a long time off the trail at Taylor Creek splashing around and throwing rocks

At the mid-point of the trail there is an underground cavern where you can watch the fish swim around in the creek through a glass wall. This time of year there were very few large fish, but the boys still thought it was really cool to see a few rainbow trout swimming around. Apparently in late September the whole creek is usually filled with spawning bright red trout.

We hit up a craft faire where the biggest hit of the day was the rubber band gun shooting booth

Naturally we came home with a rubber band gun and target of our own!

They both have pretty good aim (and thankfully they both caught on right away that they're only allowed to shoot at the targets)!

Time to relax and hang out in "the new little house" for awhile. We rented movies - Balto for the boys and Transformers for the grown ups.

Sawyer really liked the kids' bedroom that they stayed in.

The boys brought mini LED flashlights so they wouldn't be scared to sleep in an unfamiliar room

Back to the beach for a fun-filled sunny Sunday!

There were SO many geese on the beach, and they kept coming right up to our beach blanket looking for food. The boys took it upon themselves to become official goose chasers, and they had a lot of fun trying to scare them away.

I also have a cute video of the boys playing in the water, but I need to edit it a bit since it's pretty long...I'll post it up later!

Family Vacation Time

Lake Tahoe here we come! We're heading out this afternoon to spend the weekend in Tahoe - yay! This is the first family trip we've taken that doesn't involve going to visit any relatives, so I guess you could say that this is our first "official" family vacation. I'm SO excited!

Last summer Mitch and I went to Tahoe for Jessi and Erik's wedding, and we spent the time saying over and over again "I bet the boys would love this," so we decided to head back up there this summer. We're only staying for the weekend, but the car is jam packed with beach gear and suitcases. I wish we could stay longer - especially since there was so much packing involved to even get us out of the house! We spent all morning stuffing the boys' backpacks with mini notebooks, colored pencils, stuffed animals, books and blankies to take with us. I let the boys each pack their own backpack of fun stuff, and then realized I needed to do some serious editing when I noticed that Sawyer had stuffed three fuzzy dress up hats into his backpack, and Sutton had shoved one (still turned on!) walkie talkie into his bag LOL

We're renting a two bedroom cabin in South Shore, right near some of the best beach and hiking areas, and I absolutely can't wait to sit in the sun and enjoy some time away from it all. Of course, some of "it all" is coming with us in the form of two crazy and energetic munchkins, but I'm hoping they'll be having so much fun that there won't be too much bickering between them, and we can all have a great time and enjoy ourselves. Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Friday was my 31st birthday - yup, I'm officially IN my thirties now, despite the fact that most people think I look no older than early 20's (thank you to those folks who keep on telling me those lies lol). I spent the morning with the boys and our best girl friends. Holly got me the best present ever. A couple of months ago we were shopping at the Gap (coughKidscough), and I found a yellow flowered skirt that I completely fell in love with. Alas, they didn't have my size in the store or online, and since it was already on sale they weren't going to be getting any more in stock. Booo. Little did I know that their power of "No more" was no match for Holly's skirt finding skills - she managed to track down one last skirt in my size and have it shipped to her for my birthday. She also found a yellow tank top to match it, and voila - my most favorite (and heartfelt!) birthday present! LOVE it!


I seriously couldn't wipe that ridiculous cheesy grin off my face!


Posing for our mandatory birthday self portrait


Later that afternoon I dropped the boys off at my parents' house for the night, and Mitch and I headed to the wonderful world of Ikea for our birthday date night. I know that most people probably don't think of a trip to Ikea as a great date, but I delight in every minute that I can shop and browse large stores kid-free! I managed to blow most of my birthday money in one fell swoop, but I came home with new lamps, bath rugs, a 25 cent clearance puppet theatre for the kids (and everyone else's kids that I know!), a cake decorating kit, these woodland animal cookie cutters, and a few other odds and ends. Best of all...a gigantic slice of Ikea chocolate overload cake! It just wouldn't be a great birthday without having my cake before dinner!



We wrapped up the night with dinner at Chili's followed by more late-night kid-free grocery shopping at good old Walmart. Like I said, getting shopping done without having to tote the boys along is definitely worth spending my b-day at Walmart ;) I had a fantastic day, and I want to say thank you to everyone who helped make it special for me! xoxo

Letter Swap - New Jersey

I've been meaning to post this for over a week now, but we've been so busy I haven't had time to catch up on my blogging. My apologies for not getting this "thank you!" sent out sooner!

We signed up for a few swaps this summer - a couple of fun kid swaps and a couple of letter swaps. The first letter that we received was from Lulu in New Jersey. Sawyer opened the letter and was so impressed that Lulu had drawn a picture and written his name just for him. She also sent a picture she had drawn for Sutton, some cute stickers and coloring pages of New Jersey. We printed out a US map so that I could show the boys where their swap pals live, and after giving the map some perspective by showing the boys where they live (Northern California) and where Grandma and Grandpa live (a 6+ hour drive away in Southern California), Sawyer was amazed that "Lulu lives very, very, VERY far away!"

We're sending a big thank you all the way from California to our new pal in New Jersey!!!

New Art Posts at MonkeyGeorge

I posted two new kids art projects over at MonkeyGeorge. The first is Salad Spinner Spin Art and the other is Shower Curtain Play Mat. Lots of pictures, I just didn't have time to cross post them into both blogs today :)

Books, Books & More Books!

Our house is terribly overrun with books, specifically childrens books, and to tell you the truth, I couldn't be happier about it! I'm thrilled that the boys are spending more and more time curled up on the couch or in their bedroom flipping through countless pages of their beloved stories. In an effort to expand our literary influence, the boys and I have been spending a lot of time at the library lately trying to work our way through the School Library Journal's list of the Top 100 Picture Books - I was amazed that when I first looked at the list we had only read 19 out of the top 100! Unfortunately, our library has been super busy this summer, so we've only managed to read another five or six off of the list because many of them have already been checked out, but we have picked up one or two (dozen!) others to read while we wait for other books to be returned.


A few of our current library books. Honestly, I think we have about 20 books checked out right now!


The ink drawings in this book, "The House in the Night," are AMAZING! I've added this book to my personal favorites list :)


Today Sutton and I went to check out the book selection at Goodwill while Sawyer was at school, and we managed to score a few really cool books (and a salad spinner for an art project that I've been wanting to do for a long time!) for just a couple of bucks. My favorites that we picked up were two vintage books called "Caps For Sale" (#17 on the top 100 list!) and "This is Yellow and This is Red" both from 1968. I just love the illustrations in older childrens books, probably because they remind me of the books that I had when I was a child.

The boys are both fascinated with "The Human Body," another one of the treasures that we picked up today. It has a bunch of really cool overlays that show kids how different parts of your body work. They both like the page that shows a girl eating an apple and the apple going down into her stomach and intestines. The idea that there is a bunch of stuff underneath their skin is completely new to them, and they're really interested in learning all about it.

So, yes, we have more books in this house than I know what to do with, but fortunately we also have a huge built-in bookcase and two inquiring little minds who can't seem to get enough of them. For a book-loving nerd like me, it's one of the greatest things I can think of :)

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

[Guest Blogger: Mitch (aka Daddy)]

Today was the first trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo for all of us. All of us boys that is. Momma, a.k.a. Heidi, had a bunch of work to do today for her comp audit next week so she had to stay home. We met Jolie and Jonathan there around 10:30 am, and we didn't leave the park until almost 8:00 pm. The boys definitely had their fill of rollercoasters, rides, games, sugar and wildlife. Sawyer was bummed that he wasn't tall enough to ride some of the rides that he really wanted to ride. We had a long fantastic day, and the boys should be sleeping well tonight!



We met Jolie and Jonathan in the front of the tram line in the parking lot. It took a minute for Sawyer to warm up. He wasn't sure what was going on.


On the tram. Sutton eventually switched seats and sat next to me because it took a minute for him to warm up too.


Once we were inside it was all wide eyes and big smiles. Everyone is watching the people get on a water ride.


They both liked all the cartoon characters walking around even though they weren't sure who they were. I can't find old school Looney Tunes on DirecTV.



Finally, the rides! Sawyer and Jonathan are having a blast on the airplane ride.





I had to accompany Sutton on some rides because of the height issue. Here we are on our Jeep safari.

This is the first ride the boys went on together. They had a blast!

The penguins were going crazy over the stuffed whales that the boys had. They kept swimming right up to the glass and poking it. Sutton was squeeling with joy.

Inside the butterfly exibit. They had many large (and I do mean large) butterflies flying around.


Their wings are pretty, but this bug is nearly 4 inches long. The insect part is a little creepy. The boys thought so too.

More LARGE butterflies.

Sutton was showing us how they "match"

The shark exibit was amazing. There are some tanks outside that had these little sharks.

Sawyer liked this rollercoast so much that we rode it twice in a row.

A cute lion.


It's Thomas town! Yes, we did ride the train. And yes, the boys loved it.

They also loved the Harrold the helicopter ride.

Sawyer is big enough for his own helicopter. You can control them up or down.

Jonathan has his own helicopter too.

After Shouka the Whale drenched us at the whale show, we went to look at her in her tank.

Both Shouka and a dolphin would swim right by the glass for some amazing views.

Jonathan and I are in the front seat of the Boomerang.

Half amusement park, half zoo. Fun for everybody.

Jonathan, Sutton, and myself were the only ones brave enough to touch the fish and feed them to the seals.

Jolie and Sutton hung out together and had a great time.

Jonathan is feeding the dolphin.

After an hour of waiting, we are finally next in line for Sawyer's first big rollercoaster - Tony Hawk's Big Spin. He loved it!