Blondie Turns 9

This year we were away for Sean's birthday. He didn't mind at all! We were with two of his good friends at the river. We had a cake, sang Happy Birthday and he even got a few surprise presents. The majority of the things we got him were left at home. Didn't want to fill the car more than we had to when we packed up!

Here's the birthday boy right when he woke up.

Birthday jump 

Not the best cake but about all we could find at river 

 RIGHT when we got home, car still packed, opening his gifts from us.

His special gift from friend Damon. A limited, signed Torii Hunter card. Yes, that is an excited face. I think it's actually a silly face but he was thrilled to get the card. Thanks D!

Happy 9th Birthday to a very special little guy!

My children + Fake moustaches =

Each summer Nanny and Grandad have pictures taken of all the Grandkids. Unfortunately, earlier in the day the kids went to the US Open and were given fake moustaches and tattoos. Not sure they got quite the pictures they were hoping for but they are hilarious.

Mario and Luigi...still watching surfing

Let the fun begin

Muscles and moustaches 

When in doubt, use it as a unibrow 

Finally no facial hair but Peanut has her fake smile.

I think after all the craziness they were able to get a good group picture of all the kids.

Pool Fun



Happy 4th of July!

We had a great day yesterday! It started with Iain and Sean walking in the local parade with Indian Guides and ended with fireworks.

Before the festivities

Hanging out enjoying the day 

Silly goofballs!  

I think Sara took this picture.

I slowed the shutter speed on the camera and starting getting shots like this. Sparklers are cool!  Sean had little circles.

Sara had squiggly lines.

Iain on the other hand went for the big ones...

...and some crazy eights! Those little lines are the sparks flying off. 

Double fisted!

 This firework was called Rain Dance. They decided to 'rain dance' behind it. Not sure if the humor comes across in the shot but believe me, it was funny! (Click to see bigger) 

We had a great day! The weather was perfect, had fun with friends and ate lots of yummy food!

Happy 4th to you all!

Disclaimer: all children were supervised in the making of this blog post.All fireworks were lit by adults and we had buckets of water around within reach at all times. Both boys have been taught how to be safe around the lighting of fires, fireworks etc. (Thank you Indian Guides)

Misc Pre-Summer Pictures

I was looking through some pictures this morning and thought I would just post a few. These pics all make me smile.

Love these boys and their jerseys. A few times they had games on fields that were next to each other. I would stand in the middle and cheer for "Collins" or yell "go #2" and it worked perfectly.

Picture from the last week of preschool. Yes, the horse is real. His name was Oreo and he liked to be pet. No, we didn't drive to Yosemite for the day for the pic! :-) Gotta love green screens.

The boy's school has an end of year carnival every year. Sara won two goldfish within the first 5 minutes. She was so proud! Unfortunately, neither scaley friend even made it 24 hours!

At the carnival kids can pay tickets to have someone put into 'jail'. (It's a western theme carnival.) Some girls from Sean's class paid to have him arrested. Sara was talking to him between the bars trying to figure a way to break him out! He did his time and was released after 5 minutes.

Here Iain is receiving the GPA award I mentioned a few posts ago. He dressed up in his best shirt, can you tell. ;-)

Futures so bright she has to wear shades

I have never been a fan of Preschool Graduations. I find them to be a bit silly actually. That being said, Sara just graduated from Preschool and it was the cutest thing ever!!! ;-)

They gave all the kids caps and glasses to wear. The theme was...you guessed it "Futures so bright they have to wear shades"!

Good Bye Elementary School

Last Thursday was Iain's last day of 5th grade. The thought of him now being a Middle Schooler is very odd to me. He's still suppose to be little! What happened?

His last day was filled with 5th grader only activities. There was a group of four moms (me being one of them) that planned for months to make this day special for the kids. We raised money, planned, ordered and stressed :-) to make this day perfect for them. We succeeded if I do say so myself!

Relay Race #1 - Wearing very big shorts, a bathrobe, pink feather boa and sparkly purple sunglasses. Every 5th grade boys dream!

Having fun

We had a little party crasher!

Relay Race #2 - running walking with a bean on the spoon and dropping it in one of the compartments of an egg carton. (Yes, they each had their own spoons) ;-)

Amazing fashion sense huh? After this picture, he went and played soccer with his friends, in the boa! :-)

Iain had a great year. The 2nd to last day of school he received an award for being on student council and another for maintaining a 3.5-3.9 GPA for 4th and 5th grade. (He had one B+ in 4th grade that kept him out of the 4.0 club.) He did amazing and had a great time doing it!

We're very proud of you Iain!

End of baseball...well kind of

This regular season of baseball has come to a close. Both boys had a great time. It always seems like it's going to take forever to play 20 games each but it goes so fast. At least for this baseball mom!

The next few pictures are from closing ceremonies. Trophies, food, fun, crazy kiddos! Good times!

The next two pictures are from TOC, Tournament of Champions. The top two teams in each division go on to play other leagues. Both boys went to the tournament.

I love this picture. It's really hard to get pictures of actual contact with the ball. I did it! Woo hoo!

Birthday Boy turns 11 doing what he loves

Happy Birthday to the most amazing 11 year old ever!

Iain had a very fun weekend filled with what he loves most...baseball. His tournament team had their long awaited weekend filled with l.o.t.s. o.f. b.a.s.e.b.a.l.l. We were there at the fields for 6 hours Saturday and another 6 hours on Sunday. See, I meant it when I said lots of baseball! Here's a picture of him leading off (remember the dirt pics? It all paid off!) The kids on the teams we played were HUGE. Let me clarify, by huge I mean when standing side by side, Iain was below the shoulders of some of the players. I'd guess close to 6 feet tall and about 200lbs. One of the kids had a moustache and beard. No joke!! Not sure where they grow 12 and 13 year olds like that but not around here. Iain is by far the youngest on the team and was very flattered to be chosen for it. That being said, he has chosen to not go back. He would prefer to play kids his age and hopefully a few lbs less!

Sara walked around painting people's nails. Men and women. Her clients were all willing. At one point she was charging $1.00, we had to put a stop to the little entrepreneur.

Dinner at Nanny and Grandads. 

Sara was in a spectacular mood, can you tell!? :-)

We love you Iain! We are so proud of you!

Baseball hat

This afternoon Sara asked Iain if he would play baseball with her. He said yes, but asked her to put a baseball hat on before they went outside. This is what she came down looking like.

What a perfect baseball hat! She's all girl!

T-ball 101

Letting out a loud cheer when she hit the ball!