Irina’s First Beach Trip

Last week we went to the beach with some on my family and a few friends I haven’t seen in years.  It was a quick trip, and we didn’t stay long because it was one of the hottest days of summer we have had so far!  But it was long enough to have some fun in the sun!

(She got to come out and enjoy the sun for about a minute or two)

The Boys Turn 3!

Last weekend we had a birthday party for Elijah and Jack over at Josh & Steph’s house. The boys both turned 3 within a couple weeks of each other, so we just had one big birthday bash. It was great! Steph and I both agreed we got to enjoy more of the boys’ birthday this year then in previous years since we shared the party load. Josh & Steph threw a great party, and even got the boys a bounce house!! Thanks for hosting guys, it was a big blessing to us.

Here are just a few shots of the birthday boys:

Jane Austen Parties

For those of you who wondered what in the world a Jane Austen Party even is, I thought I would post a picture of one.  This is my friend Katie and me, about 12 years ago, at a Jane Austen party hosted by a friend who lived on the Presidio in SF.  I have no idea why I’m not smiling in this picture, but anyway- you get the idea.  I made my dress, it was supposed to be in the style of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood’s in Sense and Sensibility.  Over on the right is Anna, look how little she was!  I think she made her dress too!

Here is my friend, Tami, who also made her dress. I don’t know why we had the idea of her posing in the tub… it’s just that the house was so much fun, and had cool features like a servant’s staircase and a clawfoot tub. So, we wanted a picture of Tami and the clawfoot tub…together apparently.

Not all Jane Austen parties require dress-up, but it is especially fun! We just got together, had some amazing food, watched some movies, and enjoyed Jane Austen.

Visitors and Wilder Ranch

I missed my weekend poll last week because we had out-of-town guests staying with us. They have 2 daughters close in age to our kids and so the house was busy busy busy with lots of laughter and playing. We took a trip out to Wilder Ranch, and got lucky that there was also a school group there. (Normally I wouldn’t think that was lucky, but because they were there it was a living history day!). So the kids got to see the goats up close (one out on a leash), saw the horse and carriage, the blacksmith, played with the bubbles, etc. Usually during the week all that stuff is put away! We took tons and tons of pictures, so if you want to see them all just click on one of the pictures and it will take you to the picasa album.

Elena was fascinated by the “goaks”:

All the kids- Lilly & Grace, and Elijah & Elena:

Elijah and Lilly thought it would be a great idea to try and climb this tree…

Their confusion when we told them NO:

The kids watching the horses:

Halloween

So Halloween is not so big in our house, but this year the play group we have been going to had a little costume party for the kids on Friday.  Not being very big into it, I just dug around the kids’ drawers until I found acceptable items.

Wondering which toys to play with:

Enjoying her cupcake:

Showing off his muscles:

The girls enjoying their food:

Sara’s little cowgirl, also enjoying the food:

Stanford

The other week our friend Danny was in CA, and we were able to meet him at Stanford University and spend the afternoon with him.  We had a nice picnic lunch, checked out the Rodin Gardens, and walked around the campus.

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.

Godfather

Danny came for a visit this weekend, and Elijah was able to re-meet his Godfather.  Elijah of course gave him the stare down for the first few minutes, but then really warmed up to him.  They had a great time together, and we had a great time with Danny as always.

Old Pictures

So I kind of went crazy scanning old pictures the other day… I don’t even have that many, just the ones my mom put in an album for me when I got married.  But, if you haven’t looked at them yet, you really should.  Some of them are so classic!

 Old Pictures

Thanksgiving 2.0

So, we had TONS of leftovers and decided to host a Thanksgiving 2.0 with some friends.  Just so you can appreciate how many leftovers we had, it was enough to feed 11 adults and still have more leftovers.  It worked out really well, and this might be the start of a tradition.  It was great to have all the thanksgiving food, but with minimal effort!  Here are some pictures from our fun time, I put in 2 group pictures because together they contain all the people who were here.