Happy Birthday Teresa!

I know it was a few days ago, but I've been sick and we had a reunion to attend and host, so I haven't had time to post. I still don't have time, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of Teresa on her 12th birthday. She had a really great day, Thanks to all those who helped make it so nice. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's 12.(We are off on Wednesday to another family reunion. I will post lots of pictures of everything when we get back, and hopefully I'll be feeling better before the vacation is over :P )

The morning always starts with a special breakfast on the special birthday plate with a candle. Then we went to the free movie and then to Baskin - Robbins for that free birthday scoop.

Inside the box was the 12th piece to the precious moments birthday train. The flowers are made out of socks

My mom had gifts for Teresa the whole day - the Rex you see was one of those, and you can see the cute little panda bear train piece

Teresa blowing out her candles.


The cake is a copy of the invitations I made, I'll add a pic of that later

The cake didn't make it to the party, I saw it tipping and decided to get the candle shots sooner rather than later - and I'm so glad I did. We had friends and family over for a BBQ - hamburgers and hot dogs, and of course, cake and ice cream. The weather was nice enough we were able to hang out a little outside - which was really fun for me, we've never had grass in the back there until this year. Teresa got tons of really fun stuff. She's been on cloud nine since then, new clothes, new accessories, some toys and we bought her a new camera.

Father's Day

Last year for Father's Day the kids bought their dad a beach chair and we took him to the beach. We had so much fun, he requested it again (minus the beach chair). Saturday we packed up and headed for the beach. It turned out to be a perfect day! We went to Oxnard, the place we went 2 weeks ago. It was SO nice, the sun was out and it was almost warm. There weren't very many people either. We had so much fun playing in the water(which wasn't cold) flying a kite, and playing in the sand. I think this should become a tradition!

Nathan dove right in to the water. Usually we play in the sand for awhile and then attempt the water. But the water was so nice we didn't have to wait. The kids got pretty wet, so ended up cold, but that's to be expected with the wind blowing.

Playing in the waves

My cute kids!

Flying the kite - it tried to get away at one point, but it was rescued

Jonathan buried Nathan in sand while Teresa and I took a potty break

Our little sandcastle, this is the remodel

This is crazy! At the beginning of the road the sand is piled higher than the cars

Kern County Musuem Fun!

They had a special event at the Kern County Museum on Thursday, so we dug in our "summer fun fund" (which includes change we find, a $20 we found, and recycle money) and had some fun. A lot of different vendors and businesses were there with things to give the kids and some games. It was nice, the kids had a lot of fun, and the weather wasn't too bad. Here are some pictures from our day.
Nathan and Teresa outside the museum

Sporting their visors they made

They had a super old oil pump - press a button and it moves

The Blaze and the Condors were there with the mascots

The Police department had a boat to climb on and lots of water safety goodies

And of course, there was a bounce house

T-Ball Game

Okay, so game isn't the right word for it. They are still just 3 and 4 year olds. But they had a good time. Each child would bat, while the other team chased the balls, then they'd switch. They did that 3 times, and that was the game. Here are a few pictures Teresa took of Nathan playing his "game"

Playing first base

S-WING!

Run!

Good game!

Some veggies

A few of our veggies :)
The tomatoes are getting big, but still green. The pumpkins and cantaloupe have taken off and blooming.



And the sunflowers are HUGE!!! Remember the last picture about a month ago? Here's another taken today. They aren't getting quite enough sun to get flowers yet. Looks like some of them will bloom soon.

It's hard to see how tall they are with the green tree in the background, but if you look close you can see they are over 8 feet high

We Love the Beach!

Michelle suggested we sneak away to the beach. Saturday was the only day both families had free until the end of July. First we stopped at our usual beach, Ventura, but it was SO crowded. Some event was going on, so Ty and Michelle suggested we drive a little south to Oxnard. Turned out to be a great idea! The sun didn't come out, and it was a little cold, but we didn't care much. We had a great time anyway.

This is the life

Teresa was trying to fly her kite, it just didn't get windy enough. Next time!

Some cute ones of Luke

Ty's castle, and the boys sitting on what's left of Ty's castle. At one point they were completely surrounded by water on their little castle remnant isle.

Michelle had this great idea to put our camera's on burst and timer to see if we could get a shot of all of us playing wave tag. It was fun, and we got some good shots. She has a picture on her blog too.

Gym Class/Softball game

Nathan has been going to gym class for 11 or 12 weeks now. He is LOVING it! The trampoline, the balancing boards, the bars, the pit, everything! I took a few pictures today and a video.



I left the fall in there, because it's so Nathan, he tumbled off and climbed right back on(he wasn't hurt). He's usually pretty good on the bars. Toward the end he does a flip on the bars by himself, but I only caught the tail end, then he claps for himself.

This morning was also the 6th graders vs. Staff Softball game at Teresa's school

Go 6th Graders! ------------------------Teresa and Hannah

Mr Durbin, the principal at bat -----The rest of the school sat and cheered. At first they were cheering for the staff, but then some 6th graders got them to cheer for them.






The staff won - but Teresa said they cheated