Adventure Playground

One of the many items of fun on our "To Do List" while we were in California was to go to Adventure Playground, or as the kids call it "Mud Park".

Wearing cut off jeans and borrowed shoes Claire was eager to jump on one of the Tom Sawyer rafts. Last year she figured out how to use them right when it was time to go home. She needed no help with year as she pushed her raft through the 2 feet deep puddle.

Lance found a great pair of Nike shoes in the pile and jumped on a raft as well. He handled that raft with great skill and took his task very serious.

He took a break from the raft and tried his hand on the mud slide. Although he made it more of a mud skid as he used his feet to wiggle down the steep slope.

When it came time for Jack to take a ride on the rafts Lance was all to glad to show Jack exactly how it was done. Eventually Jack tired of the work and went along for the ride.

As the raft become more and more waterlogged it started to scrape the bottom of the pond.

It was fun watching all of the kids cross the rope bridge and all the different skills that they enlisted. Each time Lance went across he tried a different technique.

Jack took it slow and steady and did it over and over again until he could make it across in record time.

Then it was off to the wood pile to create tree houses and what ever else they could make with a hammer and 4 nails. Claire was very proud that hers looked like something she recognized...hum.

Once again Lance was a great big brother in showing Jack exactly how it was done.

What a great day to spend with cousins and to become as dirty as you could (in fact Mommy encouraged it!) I wish we could have more days like this!

First Days

They did it...they made it to 1st Grade and Kindergarten. And they were both bubbling with excitement! We took a first day picture to show how much they have grown from year to year.

Don't worry Lance you will pass her up someday!

Claire is such a sweet girl and I found the perfect dress to let her shine. She was so excited to put on her first day dress that she put it out weeks before. Look how big she has grown from her first day last year!

Lance was given a new watch as part of his "1st day of School Countdown". It just matched his big kid look. He woke up with the sun and asked every 2 minutes if it was time to go. Yeah, he was a tad on the excited side.


We left the apartment 20 minutes early because he could not stand waiting any longer! To stretch out our wait we counted to steps across the bridge and the rungs on the fence around the school.


Lance used his hand to aid in the counting.

This Kindergarten thing in hard work, but Lance will figure it out in the end.

All Wet!

What would a trip to California be without many visits (entire days) to the pool. Grandma's pool is 2 blocks away and Aunt Karen has one in her back yard. We all went from NY pale to CA bronze in no time.

When we first arrived going to the pool was at the top of the list. We meet the cousins at the pool and the swimming party turned into much more. Tyler became the "water bus" and swam around the little pool. When he arrived at the desired Lance would yell, "This is our stop!"

Tyler was very patient and continued to let the 3 water babies take a ride on his back.


At Aunt Karen's house swimming lessons were a number 1 priority, having Ben throw the kids across the pool was the bonus.

I am not quite sure who had more fun...the thrower or the thrown.

Jack got braver and braver as the month progressed.

He would ask me "Mommy, I want to swim from you?"

Claire was the little Mermaid. She swam from one of the pool to the other, she did the back stroke, handstands and back flips. But the best was how she would cover her eyes with one hand and hold her nose with the other...a sign of true talent.

Rules of the Game: Climb on the green floating crocodile

Hang on as tight as you can tight as you can

Before Ben tips you over

New game: Ben steals crock from a 6 year old and two 5 year olds and makes them chase him around the pool.

Kids win!

Summer in Cali...

As much as we love NY we needed to escape the humidity. So the kids and I packed our bags, kissed Daddy good-bye (he was nose deep in Greek) and jumped on a plane to Grandma's house. She was very excited to see us although I think she forgot how loud and messy we are. Since we could waste no time we loaded our calendar with fun field trips.

Our first outing was to Wild Rivers. They have carload deals on Monday nights, so we put as many little ones as we could in a 12 passager van.

Jack and I went on an adventure and slid down the slide together. The face full of water was quite a surprise at the end.

Claire and I jumped around in the pool to keep warm as the sun went down.

Claire loved being the Princess and sitting on top of her tube

while she floated down the lazy river.


Lance loved the being in the tube, being out of the tube, being in the tube, being out of the tube. For him the lazy river was anything but lazy.



In the end we were all purple, sleepy and ready to go home to Grandma's.

Lance 5...

Lance never was a little baby. Weighing in at 10lb 4oz at birth and then improving that with thunder thighs that you just wanted to sink your teeth into...heaven. But 5?! How did that happen. He was just this sweet baby that looked at you with his deep blue eyes and he would get you do anything.

Now when I look into his eyes I still fall in love, but I also hear his mischievous giggle and wonder what he up to now!

Being here in NY we have let the kids choose several NY attractions to tour on their special day. Lance chose to go to the Fire Fighter Museum, FAO Schwartz and our favorite little book store Bank Street Bookstore.

Being August it was a typical hot and humid day in the Big Apple. We took the train to lower Manhattan and went into the Museum that was a former NY Fire station. The displays were amazing and very kid friendly. Lance fit the "Handsome" firefighter profile perfectly.

He had so much fun trying on all the different out fits and seeing how the trucks evolved from being pulled by a horse to what we have today. He pulled us around and had us read all the signs on the wall that explained about the equipment.


They had a simple but touching tribute to NY Firefighters from 911. This was a helmet that was found in the rubble as the clean up was occurring at ground zero. It was interesting to see the reverence that our kids gave the rooms dedicated to these heroes.

Lance enjoyed just hanging out on the fire engine.

Nana and Katie made a special visit for Lance's birthday and brought fancy cupcakes. Lance could hardly contain his excitement.

Is this a sign that his eyes are bigger then his stomach?!

What a wonderful day to celebrate the birth of our little Lance. We are so glad that he is in our family. His contagious laughter adds to our lives.