Our Palm Springs Trip

On the last day of school, I loaded up the car and then picked up the kids for a four day trip to Palm Springs. My friend Amber and I brought our families to share a 2 bedroom condo and vacation together as we did last year. For three adults, and eight kids....it went pretty smooth. I don't think the temperature got over 105 F. Which for the desert is pretty good. Let's say we were in the water most of the time and at the peak of the heat we went to our condo to hang out and lay low. All my kiddos are like little fish that don't want to get out of the water. Emma surprised me with her confidence and independence in the water and actually was the hardest to get out. We had a great time swimming and going down the water slide again and again, the kids played in the well-chilled activity room which has arcade games, crafts, free movie with popcorn. We were back in time to celebrate and have a bbq for Fathers Day with some of our family.

jUnIoR HirE

My oldest is now officially a Jr. Higher. She's ready but I don't know if mama is! I can remember like yesterday staring at her delicate little tiny fingers and watching her eyelids flutter as I held her fast asleep. Now she's as tall as me (not hard to do when you're only 5'4) but none the less she is growing up faster than I'd like. I do have to say that although the lovely ' hormones' have made themselves a home in her rather early, she can be quite a caring, helpful, mature, beautiful girl that I love and enjoy (most of the time) being around. I'm very proud of her and honoured to call her my own. She told me now that she's in Jr. High she wants me to hire her to babysit and do things around the house to earn some money.
They had quite the elaborate party for the kids. People put a ton of time, money and generosity into making it a very special day for all 60 graduating kids. It was a pirate themed party which took up the whole park with a bunch of different stations with fun activities for the kids, airbrush tatooing, an amazing treasure chest cake one of the very talented moms made, the macharaina, and tons of pirate flags and decos all around. I personally got there at 6am to help set up and stayed until 215 to help out. Very exhausting, but super-fun day! The kids had a blast which was most important!
The day before this was the kids combo class party which was a luau and it was fun helping out with that one too. I so enjoy watching the kids have a great time and getting to meet their friends they spend most of their time with. The last day of school which was June 14th I picked them up at noon and we headed out for a weekend trip to Palm Desert. That deserves its own blog so more on that later..........

Happy Fathers Day Larry!

I just wanted to write though words definately are not enough to express overall what a great person, husband, and especially father that Larry is among many other roles/titles that he is. He is such a hard working, loyal, devoted, passionate man and it shows. He's such a hard worker who carefully balances work and play. He just LOVES spending time with his kids and they him! Whether it's playing catch, basketball, soccer, wrestling, tickling and cuddling, kissing and hugging, playing garage band with the kids Larry sure knows how to put a smile on the kids faces. He is such a gift from God to all who know him and we're truly blessed to have him in our lives.

Cheers!

Our good friends the Rethmeiers took us to a wine tasting party at the House of Blues in LA on Wednesday night. We were also joined with two of our other great friends Bobby and Jen. We drove down early and went to one of Lar's favourite guitar shops by the Santa Monica Pier. I've heard lots about it and finally got to see for myself what this place was like. It was smaller than I thought but crammed with quite a wide variety of guitars, amps, etc. Some were really cool looking and Larry and Bobby tried some out and cranked up the volume!
We then went to the House of Blues for dinner. We had some delicious hors deurves and started in on the wine tasting. There were two wine makers who paired a glass of wine for each course making a total of twelve different glasses. They seemed to progressively get better and better, but then again that could've been the alcohol's judgement. No I seriously believe they did. We met some 'interesting' people and some really normal people. Cheers to great company, good food, and always great laughs with Steve around. He makes my side hurt, in a good way from all the laughing.

Memorial day weekend

I'm backtracking a little bit, but we had such a fun Memorial Day weekend.......internet was down.....and I wanted to tell you about it. It wasn't great for Larry though, poor guy was sick in bed all day! It started out with on Saturday which was a really great day. We got to spend the day at Myke and Dara's and see their new appartment which is within walking distance to the Spectrum. This was the day poor Lar was sick in bed : (. (that's a 'period' not a mole) Myke and Dara bbq'd up some yummy hotdogs and burgers and we enjoyed a swim in one of their rather large pools. It felt as though we were at a resort. They even have a Starbucks on the corner. After a fun, refreshing swim and of course dip in the jacuzzi (yes even in Cali we use them and yes, even in 70 something weather) Myke was his usual fun self with the kids who adore him. Very sweet! After drying off and getting changed we then walked over to the Spectrum. I think it would've taken us longer to park then it did to walk there. Plus it was a nice scenic walk which I love! We got there, and watched Shrek 3 which we enjoyed. Emmabear said "Mommy, it was too long!" But I know that's mostly because she was wiped from a long day of swimming and fun......but thought it was cute of her. I think most everything she says is cute really.
The next day everyone slept in (Hallelujah!) and we skipped on church that day. Larry pulled himself out of bed to go though so he could lead worship. When he got home we loaded up the car with 3 extra kids and went to the church picnic. The kids were all excited to go because they had bounce houses, ice cream, and some game booths with prizes. I think the pouch on the back of my lawn chair still has those 'cheapo' prizes they won. We were all glad we went, and it was an incredibly gorgeous day which made all the effort worth it for sure!
Okay, so now Monday, Memorial day.....it was great staying in my pj's and taking it easy. Not waking the kids up before they're ready, or rushing anyone off to school, or packing lunches etc. We took our time and had yet another BBQ at Ed and Donna's. As always great food, good music and fun times!