A visit from uncle Sean

The precise Art of the "Animal Tamer"

Sean came to visit for a month in March....It was so fun to have him around!! Kandace surprised us all and came out to visit us the last week that Sean was out here. Sean has created this game that my children love called Animal tamer. This game has forever endeared Uncle Sean to Jack and Charly. I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures, so I had to included them all so that you can get a feel for the "Art of the Animal Tamer" (this totally beats a day at disneyland in my kid's book!)

Before we get to the animal taming....I included this picture of Sean and Kandace and Violet.

I remember this dinner, we were celebrating Jim's birthday. We had a lot of fun that night with Sean and Kandance....Jim and I talked afterward about how much we enjoyed being around them that night....there was and has always been a nice eb and flow with them... so easy.

And now the the animal taming:

I love this picture because all three kids are under attack. Jim & Violet, Adam & Jack, Sean & Charly!


Walking on uncle Seans "abs of steel" (yeah right ;))

Tick tock

The animals fight back!

Getting trapped

Victory for Uncle Sean!

Jim's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jim!

I am writing this months later so my memory is foggy...We celebrated Jim's 37th birthday this year! Wow he is old ;) Truely I must say that Jim is my best friend. For Christmas I bought Jim a mini plan of season tickets to the SDSU basketball games. The last game happened to be on his birthday.....not to mention they won the game and became Co-champions with BYU in their division. That was a really exciting game that neither of us will ever forget! (Pictures below).

Kids made Jim's cupcakes

Proud of their work and begging to eat them.

The traditional birthday donut.

What could this be?

Not to old for a nerf gun.

After the game we rushed the court....we felt like college students again!

Singing the fight song

Proof that we are actually on the court!

Look how close we are!

I believe this is DJ Gay (point guard)

That was some of the most exciting two hours. It being the last game of the best team SDSU has ever seen and mostly seniors. I will never forget the stadium rocking when all the students jumped up and down and chanted "I believe that we will win, I believe that we will win......."

I think Jim had a great birthday...just the way he would have wanted it!

Stuff Jack likes to do

Play mobil vs. Lego guys

In a match of Wizard Chess

We have recently set up all of Jack's toys down in the garage for his own playroom (to keep Violet away from all the small pieces). He can spend hours down there just pretending...so I thought i would take a picture of what he likes to do. This time he decided to play wizard chess (from Harry Potter) and set up all the playmobil guys and lego guys. Another time I walk down there and he had all his pirate lego guys set up very deliberately...mind you the pirate guys with their scruffy beards and patches of their eyes, swords and scruffy beards....a ruthless looking bunch. I asked Jack "What are you pretending?" He said, "Mom, these are the 12 Apostles."

Hahahaaa!

He is also big into playing basketball in the garage right now. I move the car and he sets up the hoop. He has been inspired by all the SDSU basketball games we have been going to!

I love you mr. Jack.......you make me smile.

A house full of kids

Lunch with friends!

On Tuesday we had our playgroup at our house for lunch. Nothing I love more than the sound of kids running around my house having a blast. We had some playing downstairs in the garage on the bouncy house and playroom, some in the office (another playroom), and some upstairs. All were running around having a great time. There were probably about 12 kids (my house is small), but all were just having a great time with each other and their were no complaints! It was really nice for the moms, we just got to hang out and chat! I love having a house full of people.....it makes me happy. Happy day.

The Whaley House

The Whaley House

So my kids have been begging me to take them to the Whaley House. The Whaley House is an old historic house in Old Town San Diego that is said to be one of the most haunted houses in the US. No...not spiders and cobwebs and goblins and ghouls....but a lot of paranormal activity. Charly has a love for spooky things and was so excited when she found out we were going to the Whaley house today. I thought the kids might be disappointed because there really isn't much to see there, but since the museum is half off this month....we decided to go. It was also something fun to do with grandpa. Well, at first the kids seemed kind of disappointed because they thought that they would just be seeing ghosts flying around inside or something but then I took some pictures and you can see the "paranormal" things that showed up on my camera. The kids were so excited about this....Charly also claims to have seen a ghost floating inside the kitchen.

In front of the Whaley house with Grandpa

Notice the "orb" in the picture by the chair. We did not see this with our naked eye.

Here is a close up of the "orb"


This weird streak ended up in the photo....ghost perhaps?

A close up of the ghost in the nursery.

The nursery

We spent some more time walking around Old Town and we let the kids dip their own candles.

This is Charly dipping her dolphin candle. Jack had an owl candle. That was fun for them.

So do I believe in ghosts you ask? YES! I am not sure what we are actually seeing here, but I definitely think there is some kind of paranormal activity going on in that house. I can't answer why or how or even what.......I am not sure what those orbs actually are that we are seeing, since ghosts in my mind would look like humans.....but there is something to all this and so many questions I want to ask when I die and go to the information desk. Hmmmm....so many thoughts are coming to my mind....tell me what you think? Of course Jim's family was quick to tell me I had dust on my camera....interesting how I have never had that problem before even on the same day and only in the Whaley house......

Nonetheless.....we had a great time with grandpa.....we sure love him a lot and were so glad that he could come down and spend the day with us! We are so lucky!

Willy Wonka

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

On Friday I got to go with Jack's class to see the play Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Last year I read that book with my kids and we loved it. We laughed so hard through the whole book.....so I jumped on the chance to go see the play. It was a delightful little play done by a kids professional outfit. I was really impressed with how good some of the actors were and the stage setting. I am especially grateful to my dad who cam down from OC to help take care of the girls for me so that I could go.

This was my group of 5 students: Shelby, Emma, Ava, Jack & John
John is Jack's best little buddy this year

Two peas in a pod

I thought this picture was cute.

So glad to spend the day with Jack and his classmates.....it is always fun to see the dynamics of his class.

Candy Candy Cotton Candy!!

Cotton Candy!!

So this morning I woke up and it was one of those days where we had nothing on the docket.....just to have fun with Charly today and be home and not have to go anywhere. So I asked her what she wanted to do and she said "we haven't had cotton candy in a long time, let's make cotton candy." My first reaction was "yeah right" since I think cotton candy is disgusting and that is the last thing my daughter needs....and then I thought.....why not? Lets try something out of the box and I was sure I could find a recipe for homemade cotton candy online. Sure enough I did and this is how it turned out:

Ok, so maybe nothing like cotton candy...but it was really fun to make.....and each little strand was as sharp as a glass shard....but still yummy to eat (well sort of if you like cotton candy).
Not so fluffy like the cloud stuff you buy at the fair.

But we had fun. And Charly was sneaking bits of it all day. I had fun with you boo.