Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun filled weekend that started with a BBQ at our friends Dave and Jill's house on Saturday. Their daughter Ramey, Tatum and Adrian and Mandy's daughter Ellie all enjoyed the bounce house. Tatum hasn't stopped talking about this. :)

The girls get along so well and loved playing together on the swing set...

and the play house. Such sweet girls we have.

They even got to eat dinner at their own table!

And the night wouldn't be complete without delicious chocolate frosted cupcakes, yum! Tatum demonstrated how to eat a cupcake without hands. Not sure why this was important. Either she didn't want to get her hands dirty or she was practicing up for apple bobbing in the fall.

Sunday brought another BBQ at a dog park in La Jolla where Tatum enjoyed bubble blowing with Dana, kite flying with Mommy and playing at the park with Daddy. Such a wonderful day!

While the girls hung out with the babies and talked...

The boys had a beer shot gunning contest. I am proud to say my husband tied for first. Their must be a plaque I can get for that right? :)

Tatum loved hanging with the boys and chatting. They all needed a rest after the touch football game. And I don't have a picture of it but everyone brought their dogs to enjoy the dog park. Harley's never had so much exercise in his life! He's still sleeping from the day of fun. :)

And yesterday was pretty mellow so we decided to check out the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla for the first time. Tatum loved all the fish and sea horses but enjoyed the current table most of all. Here she is trying to figure out how to maneuver her little boat in the current.

The day was a bit chilly down at the beach but the view was beautiful and the surfers were out.

It was nice to be together since we'd been apart the prior week or so due to the leak. We had a wonderful family weekend!

Week of the leak

We had a leak in our kitchen that did a lot of damage to both the kitchen and Tatum's room so we headed up to Irvine while repairs were being made to our house. We took this opportunity to enjoy Disneyland with Jenny and Mattie for the first time.

Tatum loved the little umbrella that came in our pineapple drink, yum!

She also helped navigate us through CA Adventure since it was our first visit. She's wonderful with a map. :)

We had two fun pool days while we were in town. Here we are enjoying the cold pool in Woodbridge with Leanne and Isaac as well as Jenny and Mattie. (apparently they were to start heating the pool the next day)

Mattie wasn't put off by the cold, she got right in, hair and all! She even showed us how she can jump off the side!

As you can see, Tatum is a different kind of pool girl. She enjoyed jumping off the side, wading in her tube and showing Mattie how to float in floaties. All done without getting a single hair wet.

Then we enjoyed a morning at the Santa Ana Zoo which we had never been to before. Here Mattie is driving the broken down jeep while Tatum looks on in concern since she doesn't have a map. :)

I think the turtle statue was Tatum's favorite!

And then we hit Disneyland once more with Jenny and Mattie as well as some friends from San Diego. We had to go on the Up and Down of course.

And the girls all loved the Winne the Pooh ride and doing a little shopping in the Pooh store.

We had one last day before heading back to San Diego. It was so sunny at the house that we decided to have a picnic on the beach! But when we got there, the sun was no where to be found. Tatum had no interest in getting near the water and wanted her sweater put on. This is what she thought of the beach. Brrrr!

Eventually the sun came out and we were able to enjoy the Balboa Fun Zone. Tatum tried to talk us into going on the Ferris Wheel but as soon as she saw the Up and Down, that idea was out!

The wonderful week ended with some fun park play at the beach.

All in all, we had a great week away from the chaos at our house.

Wonderful Mother's Day weekend

My Mother's Day weekend started with Grandma coming down and all of us going to the Children's Book Fair where we looked at lots of books, booths and crafts.

Tatum's favorite part was watching Hullabaloo, one of her favorite bands. She even got up and danced! :)

After Grandma and I had the morning off at Starbucks and then came home to a delicious breakfast spread prepared by Garrett and Tatum, we had fun flying Tatum's first kite!

She was a natural, running and getting the kite high up in the air. She loved it and didn't want to stop. I've attached a video of it at the end of this post but I'm not sure it'll work.

The wonderful weekend ended with a trip to the frozen yogurt shop where we all enjoyed making our own yogurt and topping it with lots of goodies!

We love the zoo!

Yesterday we hit the SD Zoo with our friends Jill, Ramey, Mandy and Ellie. There's always something new to see at the zoo, including lots of babies this time of year. Here's the new Giraffe baby, born April 16th. He's so cute!!

And we must have picked a good time to go because a lot of the animals were out, either playing or lounging. Here's the Speckled Bear and her cub was in the tree trunk so we missed getting her picture.

We also decided to go on the air buckets. It was our first time as Tatum and I are both not fond of heights, but we loved it. Tatum was a little reluctant to get on but loved it once we were flying above the trees. And we got to ride with Jill and Ramey first and with Mandy and Ellie on the way back, so much fun!

Here's the view from the bucket, such beautiful architecture in Balboa Park!

And here is Ellie, Tatum and Ramey showing us how to line up for the ride back in the buckets. Our little babies are growing up so fast! We had a wonderful time with you girls, let's do it again soon!

Happy Birthday Shauna!!

Tuesday was Shauna's birthday so we took her to Disneyland! She got to wear a big pin that told everyone it was her birthday and she enjoyed all the ride conductors announcing that fact to all that could hear. :)

Tatum loved being at Disneyland with her Shauna. She sat by her on all of the rides and couldn't wait to show Shauna some of her favorites like It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh. We all loved It's a Small World since it was cool and indoors. I think it hit 90 degrees at the park!

And of course we had to go on the up and down where we all got to ride on a horse! (except Grandma who was nice enough to stand by Tatum and sacrifice) :)

And we topped the day off with a yummy birthday cupcake for Shauna. We even sang to her and she blew out her candle! What more could you ask for at the Happiest Place on Earth!

I think Tatum enjoyed the cupcake the most...

Here's her cheese face with cupcake. We're still working on the cheese face. :)

Annual Gathering

A group of my mom's teacher friends have been getting together for years. It started when they had kids and now their kids have grown up and had kids. We only get together once a year but when we do, we all have such a wonderful time. Here is Tatum sitting with her 15 month old friend Darby. Such cute little girls. :)

And here is the only boy at the moment, Cameron. Tatum really took to Cameron and wanted to be his mother, helping Colleen change him. Such a mommy.

And here are the girls, Colleen, me and Rachel.

And the "older girls", Jane, Barbara G., Judy, Bev, and Barbara W.

And the "older kids" with the new kids, such a big group!

Easter!!

I don't know if you can see these pics. We had a wonderful Saturday at the park with friends enjoying an Easter event. But when we got home, Garrett decided to play with the camera and ended up erasing all our photos and videos from the day. :( Thanks to Jenny, here are a few shots of Tatum enjoying the park festivities...

She loved the bounce house the best but they also had a large slide that her and Daddy went down together. There was a petting zoo (Tatum wouldn't get near it), ponies to ride (Tatum had a melt down on the pony, barely could get her on the saddle), arts and crafts and a place to plant seeds (this was one of Tatum's favorite parts and we're hoping our seed will turn into a plant and sprout soon)...

A blow up bunny which was much more enjoyable than the real Easter bunny below...

I don't know if you can see the pic but Tatum was horrified by the fuzzy monster! Mental note, when she tells you she can't wait to sit on the furry character's lap and talk to him, don't believe her. She feels the same about Disney characters...

And the festivities finished off with a candy hunt in the park. Tatum loved it since she's got quite a sweet tooth. She kept running around, seeing candy, yelling, "Oooo, candy!" and scooping it into her basket. She is also very good about sharing her candy which she enjoyed doing with Mattie after the event. What a fun filled day!

Easter morning started with a visit from the Easter bunny! He left Tatum a basket of goodies outside and she was so excited.

Wow, the basket full of Dora books and toys was just what she wanted!

Then it was off to church.

At least one of us wore her Easter bonnet. :) This was her favorite part of the outfit.

After brunch, we came home and realized the Easter bunny had also hid some eggs in Grandma's garden, how exciting! Every time she'd see another hidden egg, she'd get so excited, very cute.

Here's another one!! What a wonderful Easter!

And before Easter dinner, Tatum and Daddy worked on her ever progressing play house. Now it has a door and windows. Tatum said soon she can make us lunch in her house, she can't wait!