June 15-16: YUMA!

On our annual pilgrimage to San Diego, we stopped off for a day and a night in Yuma, AZ to visit my Aunt Johnell's family. It was so much fun! Besides eating super yummy food--I'm still thinking about the cornbread--we had a firepit and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores. Afterwards, the kids all tried to sleep in the backyard in a tent, but Warren and Kate both kept coming in for things--drinks, flashlights, pillows. Finally, they decided they were better off inside. But they sure enjoyed the tent the next morning! Here, they are trying to get out the dog door of the tent.
Left to right: Warren, Emma, Maylin--holding Amy, Johnathan, Abigail, Kate and Julie. If the child in the picture isn't my kid, it's my cousin! We had a such a fun time in Yuma! Thanks for sharing your food, your home, your hearts, your yard and your Wii!

June 11 2007: Fathers Day Prep

When I was about 10, I remember being so excited to go to "Kevin's Discount Store," in WW Plaza to buy my dad a gift for Fathers' Day. I still remember the tie: one in pink and one in dusty blue. They were made from some sort of terry cloth/cotton blend fabric and were kind of thin. In short, they were hideous. I like to think that my gifts for dad have improved since then. This Fathers' Day, we took pictures of the kids haolding the letters to spell "PAPO" and put them onto a photo collage tie from zazzle.com. Here are just a few of my favorites.

This picture we used for a gift for Andy's dad, Grandpa Gordon. We made it into a postage stamp, also on zazzle. I had so much fun making my own stamps that I made 3 more sheets.

Avery loved the rubber letters. She is chewing on one of them in all the pictures we took that day. I love her wide-open eyes in this shot.

Vintage Warren: flying through the air on a swing, roaring like a lion. I think this captures his spirit.

Warren's 4th Birthday Party: May 31, 2007

(All captions composed by Warren and dutifully typed by his mom) "Blowing out candles is fun, but I don't like when people blow out my candles and it's my birthday." (We had to sing Happy Birthday and blow out candles twice because one of W's friends stole his thunder the first time around and blew them out. I can understand his frustration--even I was annoyed.)

"I'm sliding down the waterslide."

"We're trying not to let us get touched by the water--(from the sprinkler)--and if I get touched by the water, I fall on the blood." I asked, "What's the blood?" "We were pretending the water was the blood." (This was so funny to watch; the boys would be jumping frantically, but when the sprinkler would change direction and come at them, one of the boys would sound the alarm and they all lined up against the net until it was clear again, whereupon they would resume jumping until the next time around.)

"It was fun shooting water guns."