An Early Summer

Summer came pretty early this year and the kids took full advantage of the 90-degree weather to try out their new pool from Grandma. It has a little fountain on the alligator's head. I'm sure we'll be using this a lot this summer.

Birthday Fun

The Birthday Fairy made a stop for Ben's 3rd birthday. Ben is such a joy to have in our family. He is full of energy and loves to make his parents and sister laugh. He loves to sing songs and is surprisingly good at picking up the lyrics and beats. He loves all things sports and Spider-Man. He also loves to play with his Thomas the Train toys and read books. He can recite the book Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? He will only wear his new Mickey Mouse flip flops but is still getting the hang of them. He is usually kind to his sister "Chi Chi" and loves to play with her, but is learning the fun of teasing her too. He refuses to sleep in his bed and sleeps right by his door instead. He still needs his blue blankie and sucks his thumb (poor buck-toothed boy!) He loves to play the memory card game and put together puzzles. We love him very much.

I asked Ben what he wanted to do for his birthday and he decided he wanted to go to the bounce house. Luckily we worked it out so cousins could join us. They all had a blast. Below is Ben, Natalie, Rachel, Nick and Elizabeth. (It took a little while for Kate to warm up to the idea of a huge, scary slide. Ben would only go down on the one side.)

After the bounce house I decided to take the kids to Round Table Pizza. Ben's and my birthday are five days apart so it was kind of my party too. So Ben got his bounce house and I got my Round Table.

That night Grandma Morden, Aunties and Taylor came over for presents then the adults went out to dinner at Outback. Yummy. Ben was very excited about his presents, especially his new basketball hoop.

I was very spoiled for my birthday this year because the fun went on for three more days after this. The next day was Saturday and that morning I got to go run on the American River Trail with Cherie. I think we did about 4 miles. Then that night after a friend's reception Cherie and I went out to sushi at Mikuni's. It was fun because it was Cherie's first real sushi experience. It was so good. On Sunday (my actual bday) I had a nice day at church then had a BBQ with the family. Then on Monday night I got to go out with some friends to Macaroni Grill where my beautiful and talented friend Suzette sang Happy Birthday to me in Italian (You're awesome Suzette!). Then we went to see the movie 17 Again, which I really enjoyed. It was a very good birthday weekend!

Easter Fun

Yay! I love Easter. Little kids are so much fun! Rachel kept begging to be able to see the Easter bunny when he came to hide the baskets and eggs.

Rachel got to search for her easter basket after we came home from church and had quiet time. Ben fell asleep, so he had to find his basket later.

Ben is just barely awake and still has the thumb inserted and the blanket in hand.

Robyn and Kim and Taylor came over to have the egg hunt in our backyard.

There was no shortage of candy and desserts around here and everyone ate until our tummies hurt, but it sure was fun!

Scavenger Hunt!

Cherie and I took Rachel, Ben, Elizabeth and Kate to the Arden Fair Mall for a scavenger hunt. They had a list of things to find and they had to take a picture of them. Here are a few of the pictures:

Mickey Mouse

chocolate

cinnamon rolls

And finally ice cream!

The kids were pretending they were in a rainstorm so I decided to pull out the camera and some of the shots turned out pretty cute.

As a side note: This is the only time in Ben's three years of life that he has voluntarily put on a jacket.

New Cousins!

My youngest brother Joel and his wife Nicole just relocated to California from Washington State. They lived with my sister Cherie in Lincoln for a few weeks until my brother could get a job and an apartment in San Jose. My kids have not been able to spend much time with their cousins Ethan and Sam, so it was a nice chance for everyone to bond. Here are a few pictures of our time together.

At Cherie's house playing games (shocker!)

Fairytale Town in King Arthur's castle

Arden Fair Mall

Stockton Children's Museum

The kids and I went with my friend Suzette and her kids to the Stockton children's museum and it was so much fun. This is Rachel, Aubrey, Jack and Ben.


There were these tiny little drinking fountains just right for Ben and Aubrey. It was so cute watching them drink to their little hearts content!



We spent a good amount of time in the arts and crafts room making fun little creations.

Rachel's efforts to make a toilet-paper-roll man.

There was a fire truck, ambulance, helicopter, police car and motorcycle, city bus and above you see a construction truck complete with hard hats.

Ben is the checker at the little grocery store. Such a fun day!

Fun Day in Old Sacramento

We took the kids to the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento for the first time. We weren't sure how they would like it but we all ended up really enjoying it.

However, the first big room that you come to in the museum has a large train and a wooden tunnel and for whatever reason Ben was scared and refused to go into the room. "I wanna go home!" But you have to go through the room to get to the rest of the museum. So after several minutes of assuring him it was okay I suggested that he close his eyes until we got through the room. So here is a picture of Ben shutting out whatever monsters he thought were going to get him.

This is the offensive train. Okay, the wax figures were a little creepy.

On to the second room and everyone is happy. My kids defintely love trains!

On the "moving" passenger car.

On the second floor they had a good-sized Thomas the Train play area for toddlers. Rachel and Ben had a great time playing there.

Rachel kept following the moving Thomas round and round the track. After the museum we got some ice cream in Old Sac. It turned out to be a very nice day!

We had quite a bit of rain in February and one day we had a beautiful rainbow. This Bryan and Rachel out in our front yard.