Meeting old friends and new

Some friends I hadn't seen since high school came to town so I took the kids and we all met at the San Diego Zoo. Here's the baby panda lounging in a tree, so cute!

Tatum and the kids loved playing on the new equipment. Tatum's usually quite a cautious girl but she walked down and across this rope bridge on her own! I was impressed!

Here's Ty and Bridgit's daughter Charlotte enjoying the petting zoo. Ty LOVED it. So different from Tatum who won't be bothered to touch a dirty goat. :)

The high school girls: Catrina, Amy and Bridgit. So fun to see them again and introduce our little ones. Just wish we all lived closer and could do it more often!

Tatum's first day of preschool! OMG, how has 3 1/2 years gone by and this moment arrived?? She was just a tiny baby yesterday and here she is, ready for school!

We all took Tatum to her classroom where she got to hang her backpack on a hook, meet lots of new friends, sit on the butterfly on the circle time mat, and play dress up! Ty wanted to stay too. :)

Here's Tatum with our neighbor Anderson. We're so lucky to have the Bell's just down the street from us, wonderful family. Leslie and Anderson stop by in the morning and we all walk to school together, so fun!

And here's Tatum on the circle time mat. She's had two days of preschool already and she is hooked! Yesterday she said she rode a bike! My child has a hard time walking, let alone riding bikes so I'm not sure how this happened, but I'm so thankful for all the fun and experiences she's having and all the free time for me. :)

Look at that smile!

Mattie's baby brother came Sunday morning so while her parent's were busy in the hospital, Mattie got to come and play! I didn't get many pictures but the morning was filled with dress up, pillow jumping, cooking in the play house, bubbles, cars, etc. Lots of fun!

And later in the day it was time to see Mommy and baby Cameron. He is so tiny and precious! 7.6 lbs and 18 inches. And Jenny definitely wins the award for the quickest labor. She woke up at 2:00 am with a cramp and Cameron was born at 3:39 am. She's not allowed to have anymore babies or else she'd probably birth while out grabbing a Starbucks drink. :)

The proud parents!

So, I know that Ty looked a lot like Tatum when he was born, but this is amazing. Here is Mattie the day she was born...

and here is Cameron. Can you believe it? No, those are two different babies, 3 1/2 years apart! I can't believe how much they look alike! Welcome to life Cameron, can't wait to see you again soon!

Everybody's rockin'

We've had a pretty busy couple of days. We headed down to the bay to one of our favorite parks to cool off. Poway was 98 degrees and of course that would be the time that the air conditioner has a complication. :( So before we all melted, the kids and I headed to the land of cool breezes and met my friend Kelly and her daughter Keira. Here's Ty enjoying a swing. He use to be a little unsure of the swing but now really seems to enjoy it.

Here's Keira and Ty checking out the big kids under the slide. There were a few camps of older kids playing at the park and this was very interesting to Ty. I can tell he's a very social guy and wherever the ladies are, he's there. :)

While Tatum and Keira were having races down the slide...

Ty took it upon himself to direct the older ladies. Or maybe he was trying to flirt but either way, he didn't hesitate to get in there and join the fun. :)

Friday, my Wine Night ladies (minus 1) and I met at the Bernardo Winery for some delicious food and beverage. We'd been here before but this time it seemed sooooooo good. I can't get over that this winery is only 10 minutes from my house! Dangerous but good to know. :)

Ty got a few fun things for his birthday. A play house...

and a sand box! Of course, as you can see, he's good at sharing these things with his sister. Now we can have lots of fun in our own backyard! Well, when it's not 98 degrees!

We had lots of activities lined up for Saturday. The first one was to go to our friend Colin's 1st birthday down at the beach in Del Mar. The weather was beautiful and being at the end of the summer, I guess everyone else thought it'd be a great idea to head to Del Mar, because after driving around for 30 min. and not being able to find a place to park, we had to leave and miss the birthday. :( At least we got to see the party balloons and all the fun from a distance. :) Anyway, the next stop was Garrett's work party down in Crown Point. Lot's of fun and good food.

Tatum made some friends and enjoyed the bounce house, sidewalk chalk and the face painting clown! Note the outfit she insisted on wearing. :)

Since the party was down at the bay, we got to cool off by putting our feet in the water.

Then it was fun time for Shauna, Erica and me. We had tickets to the Dave Matthews Band concert in Irvine so we started the fun at the Yard House. Delicious appetizers and wine.

Then off to the concert! After hiking a ridiculous way up a very steep hill carrying a wine glass, we made it to our seats. As you can see from the photo above, this was our view. Could we have been sitting behind the largest man in the universe?! That's a normal sized woman, probably about 5'5". So he had to be at least 6'7"! Anyway, I think these were the worst seats we've ever had! So what are the odds of one of the concert workers noting the large person we were seated behind and the horrible view and deciding to take us down to some excellent seats! Of course, we won't complain about the huge puke pile in the middle of the aisle. We were as happy as clams and could finally see Dave!

Three very happy girls!

One very talented man.

What, the concerts over?! This is how we all felt. It went too fast and we were left wanting more, as always. But at least we got to hear a few favorites, like Satelite. Awwww, so wonderful. We realized that we've been to at least 12 concerts, or at least we've gone almost every year for 12 years, sometimes more than once a year. And it never gets old. :)

Funny faces

We hit up the beerfest and Reggaefest at the Del Mar race track this past Saturday. As stated in my last post, I wish I could say I was a big winner. But what I can say is we all had a fun time and enjoyed the interesting sights and smells around us. :)

I think the highlight of the day though was running into my high school friend Rick Wade! It was kind of like seeing a celebrity since it's rare we get together these days. Hope to see you in September Rick!

Here is a cute shot of my two favorite men. Look at all those beautiful blue eyes!

We finally finished painting the kitchen and here's Tatum and I having a bit of fun. Who said the side pony shouldn't come back??

This morning Ty was a tyrant. I stopped nursing in the morning on Sunday and it went well since my mom was here to go in and get him up. But since it was me this morning, I think he was having a hard time. Either way, he at least portrays it well with his, "What a rough morning!" hair do. It's spiked thanks to a mixture of shredded wheat and milk. Nice! As you can guess, he went straight into the bath. :)

My baby is One!

We had some summer fun at a local park where they have a huge play park and a splash area as well. Tatum, Ty and I met Ali with Bailey and Mandy with Ellie for a picnic and then some splashing fun! Of course this is the extend of the water fun Tatum had, I think she barely got her hands wet.

But Ty got drenched! He loved it. We'll definitely be going back here.

After we dried off and changed, we enjoyed the large play park as well. Look at my smiley little driver!

Ty is always happy, or at least most of the time. He still isn't walking but stands and swivels. He just needs to work up the courage to take that first step!

On his actual birthday, Shauna, or GM, came by baring gifts! Even though the presents were wonderful, the balloon was the hit!

She also brought by some cupcakes and Ty got a whole one to himself. Here he's saying, "Just set it down GM, I can handle this." :)

Instead of relinquishing the cupcake, Shauna gives him a small piece, which he engulfs.

Now this is where he wanted to say, "Now really lady, hand it over. Enough with the small pieces!" Unfortunately, I got a video but no picture of the next move. Shauna let him have the rest of the cupcake and he proceeded to put the entire thing in his mouth! He wanted to say, "And that's how a man eats a cupcake!" :)

To complete a fun night, we went to hill top park for a picnic and then some kite flying. Always a fun time.

Look at these three, too cute!

I can't believe this little baby is one! Where did the year go???

Ty so badly wanted the kite, which of course is a bit too fragile for his rough love. But Garrett hooked the string of the kite to Ty's back belt loop and as Ty crawled down the field, he had no idea he was flying the kite all by himself. :) Another moment I got on video, no pic.

Here's our hard diva, chillin' like a villain in the car.

And a perfect birthday was ended opening a few more gifts.

What a big kiss for the giraffe!

The next night we met the Beaston's at Islands for a delicious dinner and then headed back to our house for some dessert. Look at this beautiful cake Shauna made for Ty!

Ty's favorite food is blueberries so even though there was a large slice of cake in front of him, he went straight for the blueberries. :)

And then it was dig in time...

and then it was sugar high time! :) Needless to say, he didn't go to sleep that night until 10 pm!

And to end a wonderful weekend, I had my mom and my two Aunties, Barbara and Jane, down for a yummy brunch and then off to the races! We get a table almost every year and at first I wasn't sure I was happy about the $25 a seat cost. But after we enjoyed a nice place to sit, two bottles of wine, delicious food and a great view, I was reminded that it was a pretty decent price to pay for the amenities. Of course, I think I would have loved it all that much more had I won big but I suppose "big" is relative when your bets don't get higher than $2. :)