California in June - Part 2

So the main event - Buggy's graduation! We all got ready to go and see Buggy get her diploma on Wednesday! There were so many people however, we had a very difficult time finding her among the rest of the grads - they all look the same! And afterward trying to find our family was even harder.

But we found them, and got pictures.

And then more swimming time! Eben and Kivi got very brave and kept jumping off the top of the waterfall into the pool.

That night, Peter, Mamacita, Dodie and I all worked Buggy's grad night party as chaperones. The only thing we had to do though was ride on the bus and make sure all our kids got back on the bus at the end of the night, well, next morning. Once we got to the party we were able to do all the fun things the kids did! But I'm old, I got tired way faster than I remember getting at my grad party.

One of the days we went to the beach in Laguna. We buried the kids in sand. Bubba was a fish.

Kivi was a mermaid and Eben was a shark. Opal did not want to get buried or go near the waves.

Kivi and Eben ran away from them with Dodie.

But in the end, the one girl who got swept out to sea about 4 years ago returned to the waves and mastered them with a bogie board! Go Kivi!

Back at Poppie and Nonnie's we did more swimming. Jasper even swam around a bit without a life jacket. And Berg swam around without a bathing suit. I love how Jasper is pinching his booty while Eben is trying to pour water over my head. My crazy boys!

After Buggy's big grad party on Saturday, we headed back up to WA with a short stop for breakfast on Sunday at my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom's house. Both of my cousins were there with their kids too so it was a fun little reunion for a couple of hours.

California in June - Part 1

On June 17th we headed back down to CA for my sister, Buggy's, high school graduation. I cannot say it was a pleasant drive. The kids did as well as can be expected for a 2 day journey (with no stops this time). I did not do so well. I felt so nauseous - especially on those horrible winding roads and in traffic - and I was not pleasant I'm sure. At one point Peter stopped the car and let us all out although there was no where for Berg to crawl around, which was all he wanted to do we when got out of the car. So he crawled around a dirty gas station floor while Peter gave us (me) a little lecture about how the trip would not go any faster if we complain. But we got there. Actually we got to LA in record speed and then what should have been a 30 minute drive distance wise, took 4 hours sitting in traffic!

The kids with Poppie and Dada on Father's Day. We went to the church I grew up in on Sunday, although it's completely changed since I moved away and almost unrecognizable. We were still able to say, "hi" to some family friends.

The kids spent most of their time playing in on and around the pool. This time it had water in it! And Opal "helped" Nonnie by washing all her windows. Berg was so happy to have figured out how to get outside all by himself.

The next day my cousin Fifi had a birthday party for her new pony, Little One. It was such a cute and gentle thing and all the kids got a ride and cake!

Kivi feeding Little One a carrot.

More carrot treats by the pony cake.

Taking turns getting a ride on the pony.

My friend Lindy and her two kids came to the party too and the kids had such a great time all playing together we met up again for some swimming time at Poppie and Nonnie's a few days later.

Just a cute picture of my twins at the party:

Swimming in the pool with Dada! A lot of swimming went on that week. It was hot!

June Pictures

It's already been too long, so I don't even remember all the goings on of June. But thanks to photos I can recall some fun things:

Of course, shows! Many, many shows are performed here daily. This one was of the three princesses and then a solo performance by Opal - a song called Butterfly.

A happy Berg inside his playpen. We tried a new rule of keeping Berg on the carpet upstairs. So whenever he crawled off the carpet we'd just put him in the playpen. But really liked the playpen and he liked to crawl even more, so the plan didn't really work. After our CA trip at the end of June, we put the playpen away and just let him crawl all over, teaching him what he can and can't touch. We're not big fans of baby-proofing over here.

We are in support of teaching the kids how to properly handle large weapons.

We hosted our small group at the Lake Louise Fishing Derby. Sadly, they didn't stock the lake with fish this year so no one in our group caught any fish. But we had a good breakfast on the beach and a fun morning paddle boating and playing the sand.

I finally got Berg's 4 month baby picture printed and framed on my Grandpa's old lenses that went with his huge stand up accordion style camera. But now I have nowhere to put them all. I've run out of wall space so they're sitting on the mantel for the time being.

Kivi's Ballet Recital

Kivi had her first ballet recital on June 4th! She was so excited and ready to do this dance, especially since she got to perform on the stage of the Pantages theater in Tacoma. And the cute mermaid costume was pretty fun too! We took all the kids to see her perform the dress rehearsal the day before since tickets to the actual show were so much money. And they loved watching their sister dance. The night of the performance, Kivi and Mama went through the labyrinth behind the stage and got Kivi all ready, putting on her costume, fixing her hair, and applying tons of make-up - per Miss Jo's instruction.

She loved it! And had to look at her transformed self in the mirror striking all sorts of poses.

Her class before the performance. They were the littlest ones.

Kivi posing for me on the stage after the show.

She's so cute! And she did such a great job! Afterward, Grandpa and Grandpa gave her a rose and we took her get a strawberry shake, which she couldn't finish because it was almost 10pm and she fell asleep in the car.

Here it is, it's very short, but so cute. Kivi's the fourth tallest in the line.

Baby Berg's First Owl Birthday

Since Bergie was our Baby Oly in the womb we decided to have Oly's Owl Party in honor of his first birthday. Plus there are so many cute owl things all over right now it's hard not to get sucked into the owl cuteness. I had to make these adorable owls I saw on the internet, but when I realized I photo copied the pattern way too small, we turned them into finger puppets and decorated the tables with them.

Auntie Tonya, Madison and Emma helped me cut all of the fabric and we were able to make this "Happy Birthday Berg" banner out of owls too.

Bergie's smash cake. Which he ended up really smashing all over the ground. He threw it on the grass!

All the little owl cupcakes that my cousin Fifi helped me make. My mamacita, Mimi and Fifi all came to celebrate and visit with us.

We had a fun time celebrating our littlest man. We kept it simple and had pizza for dinner (I grossly underestimated the time lasagna has to cook). We played a count all the owls game. There were about 97! Team Eben and Ella won. Then we had cake and ice cream and Berg opened presents. Short and sweet just like our Berg.

Happy Birthday to Berg!

Grandpa made him his own owl bird bath out of mosaics!

Everyone watching Bergie eat his own cake.

He was very generous and shared with both Dada...

and Mama!

And then the owl cake flew away.

Happy Birthday Bergie Boo! You melt our hearts everyday! You are so fun to cuddle and love and figure out what you want - since you refuse to learn sign language! You are adventurous and strong spirited. We pray you will use both of those traits and all your talents to glorify God. We thank Him all the time for giving you to us! We love you!