It's Great to be 8! Birthday Party

 Breakfast in Bed!! Lydia loves breakfast in bed! She got pumpkin bread, nutella and strawberries, yogurt, and tropical punch.
I had to kind of throw it at her while I was busy getting ready for her party. Decorations, food, last minute pinata paint. Thank goodness I had Mimi and Hilarie here to help!

 All the kids got into the theme!

 Notice the coconut bra!

 Preparing the tropical drinks.

 Mimi made a gorgeous treat table!

Zoe was in charge of all the games. We did hula hooping, limbo, a tacky tourist relay, and lots of food! For details, of course you can look at my craft blog.

8 years later

 When we first moved to Boise some ten years ago we had some friends that we always got together with so that the friends could play. After, who knows how many moves, and eight years later we got to see them again! They were in town and we got to spend the morning together.
After some initial weirdness, they hit it off again and had a delightful time! Even the youngest girls who weren't even born last we met up were able to have fun.
Yeah for friends and for social media (I know, I know) that lets us keep up with peoples lives so that it is easy to pick up again after this many years!

Old friends

While in Utah the boys headed to see the Real soccer game. So, the rest of us got out the firepit, s'mores stuff, chocolate chip cookies, and had ourselves a dance party. The house next door was having a wedding reception complete with DJ and we enjoyed all the tunes they played. Zoe and Izzy, bustin' a move!

New friends

These darling boys hit it off. So glad we don't have to MAKE them be friends. They worked it out on their own!

you reap what you SEW

 This summer Zoe and her friend, Alexis, decided they wanted to learn to sew. We learned all the basics then came up with some projects they wanted to do. First, we made corn heating bags. Then we made swim suit cover ups

Visitors! Part one

 My dear friend, Kate, and her girls came for a visit this last month. What a treat it was! They got to stay for a full week and it was just delightful!

 They had tons of fun, and adjusting. This picture shows more of the adjusting.

 Finley loved Zoe. and Zoe loved Fin.

 This picture is so cute to me. Here are these girls, being silly (which is something I LOVE about both of them), being happy, and being friends. I am so happy that this is the second generation of friendship. Pretty cool.

 We had some lovely weather!

 fun at the zoo

Did I mention that Kate and I have been friends for-ev-er? Like more than twenty years?! What a treasure to me. It was so great to talk parenting, old times, new discoveries, and just enjoy each other and each others kids.

Felix's Candyland party

Felix's passion right now is games. He loves board games. It is all he wants to do. For his birthday we decided to do a Candyland party. True, it seems a bit girly, but he loved it. It is candy, right? What kid wouldn't love it?

We are off to deliver the invitations to all the little friends in the neighborhood.

The cake was SO fun to make and really quite simple. Other than the candy road it was just a matter of sticking a bumch of candy into the cake-bam-crowd pleaser!

 Candy pinata. The cellophane held the pinata together until everyone got a few good smacks at it.

 

Zoe made a rainbow road and the kids took turns drawing color cards (from the game) moving from square to square until we got to the different activities.

My lovely family with the birthday boy.

There were quite a few older kids there, so we assigned each older kid to a younger kid so that they would have to help the little kids get candy before they could get any. It worked out great!

Felix had so much fun! He was actually under the weather and not feeling too well. But he really enjoyed himself and didn't get over stimulated, which I thought was inevetable. In fact, one of his friends came a little later and he took her around and introduced her to everyone!!!I was so impressed!
More about our darling boy in his birthday post.

Spring has sprung

 We live in a relatively rural area and it is so fun to look around and see all the newborn calves, foals, sheep, and goats. Our friends live on a farm and are so nice to let us come look at their animals. They got some day old ducklings and some bantam chickens so we had to go look at them. They are so tiny and adorable!

 We also had to go say hi to their alpacas and goats.

 Liam's favorite thing is climbing their willow tree.

Liam told me later, "sometimes when we go to some people's houses I feel like we are going to Roaring Springs!(a waterpark)"

Indian Wells Tennis Tournament

 

 I find that recapping a trip very difficult. Either I am going to give way more information than you want and it will end up being a journal entry or else I could just post pictures and you could wonder why I posted them. Let me see if I can shoot for somewhere in the middle.

Travis and I flew to Ontario, California after pulling a lot of favors from friends and family to help out with the kiddos. Our friends, The Clevelands picked us up at the airport and by way of Hadleys Fruit Orchards for date shakes (delicious) and a quick peak at the Cabazon dinos we got to Palm Springs. We were staying at a time share there.

We went for a very long walk Friday morning and enjoyed the palm trees and beautiful scenery. Although it was chilly when we started, the day proved to be rather nice.
John had to leave to be with Hannah for a surgery and we missed him, especially Travis, but he got to come back the next day.

Travis managed to see a few matches and enjoy himself on Friday without John. Misty and I got to shop around. We went to some art galleries, clothes shops, a spice store, and had a lovely lunch (I think we stayed and talked for two hours or something). After picking Travis up from the tournament we had a nice Trader Joe's dinner and chatting in the hot tub.
Saturday morning we went on a vigorous hike on a trail that started across from the place we were staying. It was so beautiful and the good weather had rolled in. By the time we got back to our place John was there. So the fellas went to go find some courts to play some tennis.

Misty and I went out by the pool and talked and soaked up some much needed sun. Also, the pool was heated to bathtub temperature and so delightful!

We spent the rest of the day at the tournament. It was so fun being there with Travis after hearing about it for the past two years. I REALLY enjoyed the matches and the environment and, of course, the company.

We were so fortunate to get to have this wonderful vacation together. It has been quite a few years since we were able to travel together. We were happy to be able to be together with Clevelands and for them making it possible for us.