Cali!

We made a quick trip to Cali last week so Eric could attend the annual Academy of Endodontics meeting that was being held this year in San Diego. Eric was busy all day with his meetings, but my sister and I had a blast entertaining the kiddos. It wasn't super warm, so although all I wanted to do was play at the beach, we had to come up with alternate activities.

We went to the strawberry fields and picked strawberries one day. There were so many berries we barely made it out of the parking lot before our buckets were full. The stand workers should have hired our kids. They could have picked all day! Except they might have lost money on Paige and Andrew. Every berry they picked went right in their mouths (or mine, see Paige feeding me a remnant of hers here).

Such happy little field workers!

Enjoying the fruits of their labors!
We went to Sea World since it is one of the only attractions where we we can handle 6 kids on our own! Legoland and Disneyland are out without dads to help with the babies.

What is this face on Logan? He is such a goof!
Even though Mason really wanted to go to Legoland, he did get to go on the little rides at Sea World and as you can see, that made him happy!

We went swimming at Chris' parents house because they allow kids in their hot tub (unlike Kirsten's HOA). We needed a warm swimming hole since the air wasn't super toasty!
But even with the hot tub, the kids wanted to brave the cold pool and went down the slide a few times. Good thing Uncle Chris was brave for them - I wasn't!

I met Eric downtown one night to reunite with the residents Eric worked with at Temple. I don't know why this picture saved so tiny, but I wanted to include it. It was great to see everyone (minus Ina) again!

April Birthdays

Paige and I are lucky to have birthdays four days apart. Mine was the 8th and can be summed up by the picture above. Logan sustained his first "requires medical attention" injury. He apparently ran into a picnic table at preschool and came home with a band-aid on his head. When I took the band-aid off (because blood was dripping out of it), I knew Scooby-Doo couldn't make this one better. The picture doesn't do the wound justice - it was deep. So, after much debate we ended up with dermabond instead of stitches, which sounded good at the time, until the doctor told me he shouldn't sweat or get it wet because it could compromise the healing. That's a little hard for a 4 year old to do in spring weather! Other than a lot of time at the doctor on my birthday, it was a good day - the kind of birthday a 32 year old mother of 3 should expect!
We celebrated Paige's birthday a day early since we are leaving for CA on the evening of her actual birthday. We invited some friends over for cake and Paige LOVED having her little buddies here to play. When you ask her how old she is, she will tell you "Three." She does not like to recognize the number two. When she counts, she skips number two, and when you tell her that she is not three, she is two, she will then argue that she is five. You can't convince this girl of anything that she doesn't agree with!
It was also my friend and neighbor Brooke's birthday so we made a special adult cake for her too. Happy Birthday, Brooke!
Paige had many helpers to lick the frosting off the candles!
And open presents!
Playing ring around the rosies on the trampoline. I had to keep kicking off the big kids (mostly boys) to let the girls play their games. I just love seeing how differently the little boys and girls play.
Paige and her buddy, Hannah.
She loved the new baby she got that she can actually feed. She wouldn't even take her eyes off of it for a picture! We are so glad to have this little girl in our family. She adds so much laughter and joy to our lives. Happy Birthday Paige!