Morning and Night

This is just how we start and end our days.

But where's Jacob?

Oh, there he is.

Just Yelp for Help

Last year, we had a ninja party.  But then we noticed that our little ninja was randomly attacking strangers in the grocery stores and on the streets.  Amanda wisely concluded that our surrogate parent, the television, should model more positive behaviors for the kids.

So this year, the little ninja wanted a Paw Patrol party.  He got some cool paw patrol gifts.  He got this cake that almost looks right.

He's also been into Dragons Love Tacos.

And Amanda's amazing Visiting Teacher, who is better at remembering all the kids' birthdays than I am, got him a Pikachu hoodie and a bunch of party supplies.

We're always partying, but how much more can we party when there's really something to party for?

 L'chaim!

Mothers' Day

The kids came home from church with these cute Mothers' Day magnets...

... and we'll zoom in on Elinor's...

Isn't that what mothers are for?

day to day

The other day Jacob and I walked to the store for some lunch. Jacob did his best to keep me entertained while we were eating.

And then, just this past Sunday, I found these on my phone. I don't know how she does it!

She has a talent, she does.


Today we went to a bike park in San Jose with some friends. It was super hot, but a lot of fun.

Gotta love this golden age of parenting we're in right now.

Breath of the Wild

So, this new Zelda game came out a couple of months ago and the family is OBSESSED. Elinor has it worst. And it just so happens that her very best friend at school is totally into the game too, so that is all they talk about at school and on playdates. I decided to fuel the obsession and buy them these matching shirts. I'm not totally sure why.

They're cute though, right? The kids, not the shirts.

Spring Break!

Spring break this year started with a bang... the literal bang of Caleb's face against a pole on the playground.

I apologize for the scary face. He would not pose normally. Anyway, as you can see, he chipped his front incisor pretty good. We are headed to the dentist tomorrow to see what we can do about that.

Later that day we headed to Picchetti Ranch for a hike with some friends. Elinor and Jacob M. managed to catch a few tadpoles which we took home to watch slowly die. Turns out we are not great tadpole caretakers.

Super cool old farmhouse with informative plaque out front.

I think everyone is feeling the approach of summer!

Tuesday we stayed home for doctor's appointments and catch up.

Wednesday we went to Castle Rock per Elinor's request. She wants to have her birthday party there, crazy girl!

It was super cold, but beautiful. Very green and mossy from all the rain we've been getting.

Climbing on rocks - every kid's favorite pastime. 

And Thursday? Well, Thursday I went a little crazy (sorta the same disease I was afflicted with over winter break) and drove the kids an hour and a half south to Pinnacle National Park. It was AMAZING. 

We did the Bear Gulch hike. It was perfect. So many rocks (talus piles?) for the kids to climb on and explore. I'm pretty sure Elinor was training to be Link in the next Zelda game.

The trail led to the Bear Gulch Caves, which were of course, so exciting for the kids to explore. They had packed flashlights earlier, which they gleefully whipped out when needed.

Once we made it through the caves we headed up to the reservoir.

It was such a fun surprise to turn a corner and be greeted with this beautiful vista. 

We ate lunch up by the reservoir. The kids dipped their toes/legs/torsos in the water while we rested.

Headed back down the trail, doing their best to avoid a puddle.  I'm thinking it was a lot of effort to go to after basically dunking in the reservoir.

More Zelda training. I love how lush and green everything is right now! So different from 2 years ago.

The visitor's center had this funny "Match the Scat" game for the kids to play here. That rubber "scat" sure looked realistic.

We spent some time working on the Junior Ranger requirements before taking the oath, receiving badges, and then heading home.

The drive home was very calm. We stopped for milkshakes and the kids watched a movie for most of the way. This adventure was definitely one of my crazier ones to attempt solo, but I am so glad we did it. Everyone had a great time and it was surprisingly not super stressful for me. I sure feel lucky to live near so many National Parks!

Seussical

Emily has been loving drama lately. Luckily, she is a sweet girl herself, so her drama participation is all part of a positive, creative enterprise. So far she has been in Alice in Wonderland (as a flower), Peter Pan (as a fairy/mermaid), and Seussical the Musical (as the mayor's wife). She is looking forward to being in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this summer and then Mulan in the fall.

Seussical has been her favorite so far - all the kids have every song memorized. It was so much fun to go see her perform at the end of March.

Great job, Mrs. Mayor!

Headed Back

Something about me not everyone knows is that I love being in school. Our family has gotten to a stage where the kids are becoming more independent (Jacob starts kindergarten in the fall!) so I decided to think about going back myself. I sent out a few applications earlier this year, feeling intimidated because the schools around here are so high caliber, but luckily received some good news a couple of months ago: I am starting a master's program at Stanford this fall! I am so excited to begin. Also excited that the weather around here is so gorgeous, making outdoor study sessions with the kids running around the yard especially enjoyable.

A Last-minute Adventure

Did I never tell you guys how our winter break ended? It was bananas, even by my standards. I figured we couldn't let the break pass without doing something adventurous, so decided to head out to the Jelly Belly Factory. It is quite a drive, so before we left I told all the kids, "Hey, why don't you guys pack some pajamas, swim suits, and extra clothes in case we don't make it back tonight." I texted Joseph and told him we were headed out, not sure when we would be back. And then we left.

The Jelly Belly Factory is in Fairfield, a good 1.5 hours away. We made it there without incident, but were very happy to finally pull into the parking lot.

We entered just as a tour was beginning, so we put on our hats and jumped right in.

There were all kinds of pictures and sculptures made of jelly beans. And, apparently, Jelly Belly owes a large part of its success to Ronald Reagan, so there are tons of portraits commemorating him.

Super cool to see the process, and all the robots and machines involved.

A fun interactive computer game that the kids loved.

Apparently, two other families from church were there at the same time, and they saw the kids but I didn't find out until Sunday. :(

After the tour we bought some treats and Belly Flops and then sat at a table to figure out what to do. It was pretty cool to see all this, but not really exciting enough for the kids. I was on the fence about traveling further, but they really wanted to so we decided to go for it. We piled back into the car and headed to Fort Bragg. It got dark quickly and who knew the road would be so treacherous?

Beautiful, but so scary at night time. And long! Like 20 miles of this. Thankfully we made it all in one piece and checked into a room, which I had hastily reserved while still at the Jelly Belly Factory.

We went out for pizza and then headed to bed. The kids settled in, and after a lot of horsing around finally fell asleep. I slid in between Jacob and Elinor to sleep afterward.

The next morning we ate breakfast (gotta love the complimentary continental breakfast!) and then checked out of the hotel. Next on the agenda was Glass Beach. It was so great to be at the beach again after several months of not going.

We wandered around for a bit, not totally sure of what to expect.

We asked a local who was out walking his dog and he pointed us in the right direction.

I was honestly underwhelmed, but the kids could have stayed there all day.

And the glass was pretty cool.

It was a crazy last minute adventure, but so fun. We headed home that afternoon and were home in time for dinner with Joseph.

It's always a treat to drive across the bridge!

I've gotta say, these kids of ours are at such a perfect age right now. Everyone buckles their own seatbelts, dresses themselves, can communicate, can walk, and can eat regular food but they're all young enough to be enthusiastic about family adventures. They were all such good sports for coming along with me on this hair-brained spur-of-the-moment trip.

extracurriculars

Jacob has been into Ninjago for a while, and is pretty sure he's going to be a ninja when he grows up, so we thought it best to enroll him in karate classes. We found this great karate place just a couple of minutes from our house and Jacob has been loving it.

Fingers crossed that this teaches him discipline and self-control instead of increasing his already violent tendencies.


We have had a lot of trouble finding a sport for Caleb. Then we were watching this video one day

And decided to look for parkour classes in our area and guess what! It's a real thing! So he started taking these classes in San Jose and has really been having fun with it.

I had a cute video of him in class, but it's not working well with blogger for some reason.

It keeps the family busy, but I am really happy Caleb has found something that he likes so much.