It's the simple things....

To me summer is all about the simple things.  Going to the beach, cooking out in the back yard, watching the kids ride their bikes or color the driveway with chalk....  the list goes on and on.  I am always amazed at how much fun my kids have with a $30 inflatable pool.  Splashing and cooling off are fun to do, but Juliana and Tyler LOVE to jump!

Beautiful Girl...

I have a girl and her name is Juliana and she is beautiful.  I know every parent thinks their kids are beautiful, and I am no exception.  Juliana is 8 years old and turning into a beautiful young lady.  It's hard to believe how big she is getting.  It seems like just yesterday she was my little girl:

Now she's so grown up:

Changes are happening...

It's been so long since I have updated.  The end of the school year is always so busy, and this year was no exception.  Tyler had an Author's Tea, he read a story he wrote on his own.  It was about Lizzie the Lizard, she was struck by a big wave.  He was so adorable wearing his "fancy" clothes standing in front of an audience using the microphone.  And Juliana had a third grade concert.  They sang, they danced, and they played the recorder.  The dance was my favorite part.  They were all matched up with a partner and then switched several times through out the song, it was fabulous!

They also had field day.  They both always say it's the best day of school.  I think that's because there is zero learning they do that day.

They are now in the 4th and 2nd grade!  They are both excited about summer vacation, but looking forward to school starting again in the fall.

My silly boy.

I have a boy and his name is Tyler but we call him "meatball".  Why meatball you ask, well he's just silly and meatball is a silly name.  Actually his dad calls him that most, but Juliana and I have definitely caught on to the trend.  He makes me laugh all the time and he loves that.  He can just make a silly face or say something that doesn't make sense and I can't help but giggle.  Sometimes when he says things that are not appropriate, it's hard for me to tell him to stop or punish him, because I can't stop laughing about it.  When we were in California he made up a song, "Boobies for breakfast", he's six and that's just wrong, but boy oh boy, I couldn't stop laughing!  Whenever there is a camera around he is always ready to be silly, these are a couple of examples from this past week.

Maybe, just maybe he gets a little of that from me!

                   

Life's too short to take seriously all the time.  I think there is a little bit of "Meatball" in all of us!

Mother's Day number 9!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my 9th Mother's Day!  Where has the time gone?  Everyone told me it goes fast, and I've cherished every moment with my children I possibly could, but it's still flying by.

It was a great day, I love nothing more than the homemade gifts my kids give to me.  This year Juliana made me a card with a poem in it, it was great!

She also bought me a candle she decorated herself:

Tyler made a tile at school, he was very proud of his artwork, he said it's flowers in a vase coming out:

And then there's the balloon, the balloon that is still with me and probably will be for weeks to come:

                         

Yes indeed, it was a great day to be a Mom!!!

May I have this dance.

Stephen and Juliana headed off to their fourth annual father/daughter dance put on by the Girl Scouts on Saturday.  It was a "candyland" theme, so we made our accessories out of candy.

The wild, wild, west...

Okay, so it wasn't so wild, but it was definitely exhausting.  We flew approx. 6,000 miles, drove 500 miles, and stayed in 5 hotels (plus at a friends house).  But I must say, even though it was exhausting, it was fun and super memorable.  We went for a total of 11 days including two travel days and got to see so much.

We started off in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Our plane landed in Vegas at 11:30 pm (that's 2:30 am our time)!  The kids both slept about 2.5 hours on the plane and I was super worried they would have trouble waking up, but boy was I wrong!  They both woke right up and were so excited.  By the time we got our luggage and picked up the rental car it was about 1:30 am (Vegas time) and they were still up.  We drove down the strip a bit and enjoyed the lights and then to our hotel.  By the time we checked in and were in our room it was 2:30 am (that's 5:30 am our time) and the kids were still awake and happy!  Unfortunately we were not happy with our hotel as it was smokey and knew we'd be checking out in the morning.  Luckily we found a fantastic hotel to move to for our next three nights in Vegas.  It was a suite and had a huge pool (with a beach) and a lazy river.

Here are the kids swimming in the pool:

While in Vegas we visit many of the hotels.  There was so much to see...  we saw The Venetian, MGM Grand (with Lions), The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus, Luxor, The Excaliber, Bellagio (and the dancing fountains), The Flamingo (with the Flamingos), New York New York, etc...  We also visited M&M World, Coke World, and a huge arcade.

And of course no visit is complete without a visit to the Las Vegas sign:

Also while we were in Vegas we visited Red Rock Canyon, it's about 20 minutes from the Las Vegas strip and really pretty.

After our stay in Vegas we headed toward The Grand Canyon.  On the drive to the canyon we went right over the Hoover Dam.

And here's a picture on top of the dam, we put the kids in different states, they thought it was pretty cool.  Juliana was in Nevada and Ty was in Arizona.

Then it was off to the Grand Canyon.  It took about 4 hours to drive there, but it was well worth it.  We also checked into hotel number 3 in Arizona.

They had the friendliest squirrels there too!

After the Canyon we drove towards California, we drove about 5 hours to Barstow and spent the night.  The next day we continued our drive to Los Angeles and arrived in Beverly Hills around 3:00 (and stayed at Hotel number 5).

After spending the night in Beverly Hills we spent the day in Venice Beach, where we watched people at the skate park and walked the boardwalk and then played on the playscape at the beach.

Finally we were headed for our final destination of the trip.  We visited our very close friends, Rod, Susan, and Kayli.  The kids were all so excited to see each other and immediately ran upstairs to play.  Steve consumed many, many Taco's from our favorite Mexican place, Albert Taco.  We spent time at the park with them and then at a children's museum, it was the perfect end to a great (and busy) vacation.

Kayli's cousins spent the day with us as well.

Hippity... Hoppity...

Easter's on it's way.  Well it's not on it's way anymore because it's already passed.  As a child Easter was always my favorite holiday.  It was so much more relaxed than than Christmas and always what I looked forward to most.  This year was extra special because it was also my 34th birthday.  It's only the second time my birthday has fallen on Easter.

Juliana was up at 2am, coming into our room to check the clock.  At one point she climbed in bed with us for awhile, but she kept squirming around so I sent her back to her room.  A couple hours later Tyler showed up in our room too.  I was able to hold them off until 6am, and then I could hold them back no longer.  Every year since Juliana was born we always have Steve go downstairs with the video camera so we can capture their expressions when they see their baskets and all the hidden eggs.

Here they are waiting to go downstairs:

And with their baskets (we went green this year and used reusable shopping bags):

And of course after the egg hunt they had to sit and count the eggs (and loot):

Every Easter I like to get some pictures of us all, it's fun to look back on how much the kids have changed (and Steve and I too).

We headed to the Arruda's for the day and the kids got to spend time with their Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.  There was another Easter egg hunt for the kids, and this one gets quite competitive.  It was such a beautiful day and fun was had by all.