Manresa

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I headed out to Manresa where Bob & Anne had gotten a campsite for the night.  We weren’t able to spend the night (Nick got sick) but we did have fun hanging out and pretending we were camping until it was time to go home.  But we did decide we would be going there more over the summer, I thought it was a great spot for kids. Nice open campsites with lots of space, and just a short walk down to the beach! Here are a few pictures from our time there.

Collection

Here is a collection of pictures over the last week or so:

Playing outside during Patrick’s Confirmation.

They have recently been able to take baths together, and they love it.  They would ideally like to take baths numerous times a day.  Even Elena will crawl into the bathroom and pull herself up on the tub and try to get it.

I cut Elijah’s finger pretty bad this week (I was cutting him cheese, he got excited and grabbed it before I was done cutting it, ouch!) and so he had to keep his finger clean for a couple days while it healed a bit.  He ends up using his hand to push food onto his fork so we had to cover it with a sock.  He was not to keen on the idea until he saw that the sock had a frog on it, then it suddenly became lots of fun!

We went berry picking this week, and while I don’t have any pictures of that, here is one of Elena enjoying the strawberries.  She loves them and will yell at you if she sees you eating some and insists you share with her.

Swimming in the big pool

Besides our little kiddie pool, we also have a bigger one that I set up because it fits me a little better.  :)  Elijah likes to have room to run in it, and also to feel like he is actually swimming (he still isn’t, but it’s big enough for him to practice his kicks and stuff).  I am also posting these pictures, because I found out my cell phone camera wasn’t even set to the highest resolution and I wanted to see what the difference between resolutions is.  Picture 1 is low res, picture 2 is high.

“Tricky!”

Elena’s new talent, pulling herself to a standing position.  Elijah deems is “tricky”:

She’s pretty stoked with it:

Santa Cruz Wharf

Elijah loved the wharf, and was so excited to find a “no-nocular”:

He was thrilled just to run and jump around, yelling “check it out!”

He loved seeing the Sea Lions:

Especially these cute baby ones:

Elena liked it too, especially when the Sea Lions started barking. It made the little dock we were standing on vibrate!

Little Princess

Lizzy and Jake were over the other day playing with the kids while I tutored Daniel.  I turned around to see this:

She was pleased as punch to be carted all over the house in such style.

Daddy’s Clothes

Elijah LOVES to wear Nick’s clothes.  He will go to the drawer, pick out a shirt, and have me put it on.  He thinks he is so cool.  He usually picks Nick’s Sesame Street Shirt (yes, he does actually have one) but this time, he was super excited to find a PIRATE shirt!!!

Monkey Girl

Those of you who have seen Elena in the last few months know that she has picked up a certain way of exploring/playing with her toys.  She likes to use her feet.  A lot.  She will grab the toys with her feet, and then hold them there while she then bats at it or pulls at it with her hands.  The other day I caught her with a wallet between her feet, while her hands were busy pulling out all the credit cards (You can get this done much faster if BOTH hands are free to pull them all out!).  So here at a couple of pictures of her being very flexible and coordinated with her feet!

Airplane

These pictures aren’t the best, but I thought they were cute anyway.  Elijah really likes being an airplane now… he used to be terrified of it.  We are trying to slowly show him that being on someone’s shoulders, or playing airplane, etc. is not cause for screaming and grabbing onto the person for dear life.  He is getting there!  :)  Now he loves doing this with his Dad before bedtime.

Tea

Anna came up with the brilliant idea of having all the ladies of the family go out for tea at the Bloomsbury Tea House in Capitola.  We got to go this last Saturday, and had a lovely time.  It is such a great little place, I was able to have cream tea and Anna and I agreed that we felt like we were back in England.  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon!

All the Ladies:

First Mother/Daughter outing:

We all got to pick our tea cups:

Chewing on the silverware:

Elena took a nap on the bench covered with pillows, it was quite comfy:

Gillian was so excited about having a tea party: