Good Bye Next Door Neighbor

Our neighbor Ellie, one of Olivia's best friends is officially moving today.  We are going to miss her and her family very much!  We've been so lucky to have such wonderful next door neighbors.  Olivia and Ellie play so wonderfully together.  They both love to dress up, play barbies, do artwork and just use their imagination together.  The greatest part is they never fight or argue!!  Having Ellie over is so fun for Olivia and nice for me.  So today while Ellie's mom packed the last of the house up we kept Ellie for a few hours.  The girls and Nathaniel painted pictures, molded play dough and just enjoyed the wonderful weather in our backyard.  It's so nice to see Olivia developing friendships with such wonderful little girls.  We are super glad that the Ellie and her family are only going to be 15 minutes away and that we will still be able to see them though not as frequently.   

Unconventional Memorial Day - Driving Range

Kaleb skater gone golfing

JJ getting ready to drive the ball

Nathaniel sitting patiently 

Not so patient any more but still behaving

Olivia trying the one handed swing

We spent Memorial Day doing more unconventional things this year.  The day started with a family breakfast of crepes topped with our family favorites; peanut butter and jelly, nutella and strawberries with whipped cream.  After our delicious breakfast, the boys, Kaleb and JJ went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 while Olivia, Nathaniel and I played hide and go seek and colored.  Once the boys got home and reported on how good the movie was we played outside for a little bit, playing balloon volley ball and then we had shredded chicken tacos for lunch.  After lunch JJ, Olivia and Kaleb went swimming at the Carmel Valley Recreational Center while I put Nathaniel down for a nap and cleaned up the house.  Once the kids got home and were showered and bathed we headed out to the driving range to hit some golf balls.  This was a brave task to accomplish with a toddler in tow.  Nathaniel behaved pretty well despite the fact that he now wants to explore and walk everywhere.  And Olivia kept herself pretty busy too attempting a few shots herself with the plastic golf clubs that has been used in the backyard for years as a bat, hammer, hockey stick, basically anything but golf clubs.  I started out pretty rusty in fact, I almost hit a real golfer on one of my first shots.  Kaleb was cracking up.  But once I relaxed and remembered my first principle of golf; take a deep breath before each shot and just loosen up.  I had a blast and did pretty.  I hit a few long shot for me.  Over 175 and they wee even straight! This was quite surprising since I hadn't touched a golf club for almost ten years or as I like to refer to as BC (before children).  It felt so good to return to something I enjoyed doing before kids.  It also motivated me to want to go out and try again and even perhaps with a little practice and time go to a real golf course and try a real game.  After our golf adventure we went and had dinner at Red Robin.  The day turned out great for not really having concrete plans.  And for ditching our original plan of beach or BBQ at Heather's.

How to Entertain Six Kids

I was running errands with JJ when suddenly I was asked for a big favor.  My friend needed me to watch his two daughters while he played at a gig for an hour.  I was at first concerned because I was at lunch with JJ and Nathaniel and we were enjoying our time together planning our summer.  And I still needed to go to the grocery store while JJ got his hair cut.  Then we needed to pick up Olivia from preschool and then we had  scheduled a house showing for 2.  But, my friend was in such a bind and so I agreed.  As soon as we pulled up to the drive way we were greeted by Paloma and Sophia (my friend E's kids) and then our next door neighbor Ellie came out of her house running to Olivia to see if she wanted to play.  Oh my I thought instantly, that's a lot of kids with only an hour before the house showing.  Then I thought, since I already had an additional two kids why not add one more and make it three.  At first, I had no idea what I was going to do with so many kids but as soon as I walked through the door my mind was made up - keep them outside.  As we opened the door to the back yard I remembered we had the sandbox full of dinosaur bones from Olivia's party.  So, the girls all ran out to play museum.  Olivia and Paloma were Paleontologist while Ellie and Sophia were the Curators.  It was so cute to have the girls come up with such an elaborate plan.  Once I could tell they were getting tired of the museum I had just enough time to come up with the next source of entertainment - water play since it was such a beautiful day.  I filled two buckets with soapy water and red food coloring and I proposed to the kids that they could paint the playhouse.  Wow, they bought into my plan and it was magical!  The kids were busy painting for at least an hour.  After awhile I brought out refreshing  pink lemon aid, pirates booty and granola bars.  After snack, I had the kids walk up to our greenbelt for parachute time and then some racing to get some energy out.  Once I had them nice and tired (see most kids were laying down by the end) I brought out the play dough.  Three hours later E comes to pick up the girls and so does K our neighbor.  The kids had a blast!  And the truth is I had so much fun facilitating their playtime too!  At times I wonder..should I have been a preschool teacher? Or should I open up my own preschool?

Olivia, Sophia, Paloma and Ellie painting the play house

Ellie and Nathaniel

Paloma 

Olivia and Nathaniel working together

Sophia having fun!

Story time at the Encinitas Botanical Garden

Song and dance time

Ladybug exploring

Bubbles

Riding the dinosaur

Could she be any happier?

Dino dig and play site

Dinosaur playtime

Climbing the treehouse

Keeping up with big sis

Every Tuesday the Encinitas Botanical Garden has Storytime.  We'd been wanting to attend for months and at last the weather was perfect, everyone was healthy and time finally was on our side.  OK, we still arrived late but enjoyed all the activities.  Best of all, JJ came with us as well.  We arrived too late for the main event - story time but the kids still got to participate in parachute time, songs, planting and ladybug exploration.  After, the main activities we explored both The Children's Garden and the Treehouse.  Olivia and Nathaniel spent a good amount of time exploring the train area, the dinosaur sand play and bubbles.  What an amazing place and perfect day!    

Balboa Park

We took abuelita to Balboa Park to hang out Sunday afternoon.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon, the weather was warm and the kids were ready to explore a different part of the park.  We first checked out the World Beat Center and walk in but nothing was going on as far as performance, then we hit the Centro De La Raza and they were having a private performance.  So, naturally the hits saw the playground and we stopped for a few hours of some creative fun time.  Kaleb found a rail to boardslide.  I never thought I'd know what that meant but I do now that I have a skater boy.  Olivia found a few dinosaurs in the sandbox to play with.  And of course we couldn't keep Nathaniel off the slide.  

We then walked around the park and enjoyed the sites: beautiful cathedrals, gardens, and street entertainment.  My mom and I were craving burgers and by the time we were on starve mode from all the playing and exploring we ended up at El Prado, a restaurant I've been wanting to check out.  The burgers were delicious and expensive $17 but worth it!!!

Kaleb's boardslide

Olivia playing with a long neck

Nathaniel playing on the slide

Abuelita and the little grandkids

The day was extremely fun!