First day of School!

Our big boys first day of Preschool! Now to figure out what the baby and I do 3 days a week in the empty house!

Fishing take 2

We had a great time at the lake again this weekend! We tried a different part than last weekend... a little cove further from the boat traffic and had a great time floating, swimming, chasing off the begging ducks and geese and playing in the mud! The water was a little chillier than I expected but once in it was great fun - until the kids lips started to turn blue. Then we jumped out for a picnic lunch which we defended from the birds and a little bit of mud and shore time, before getting back in for one last swim before heading home. Daddy tried fishing again this weekend, and again came up empty but he did try... he has a lot to overcome with 3 shrieking kids scaring away those fish! We're in countdown mode to our first camping trip, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated for camping with toddlers!

look mom... I have monster feet!

Fishing Jenkinson Lake

Daddy has been in a fishing mood. He ordered a new pole, since he thoughtfully left all his gear with his in-laws at their Indiana lake, and that obviously doesn't help him here in California! And while he was thinking about it, decided that it was time for the toddlers to learn to fish too! I was a little weary, it's been a horrible week of both in LOTS of time outs for being Captain Hook and hurting each other, and there is so much damage they could do to each other with real hooks, poles, water, rocks, sand etc. But dad convinced us it was worth a try so we loaded up yesterday morning and headed to Jenkinson Lake in South El Dorado, it was a succes! We never caught anything or even had any nibbles, but that was due more to location than trying. There were very few people at the day use side of the campground in the morning, though it was getting busy as we were leaving around 1ish, so we timed our visit perfectly. Ian got bored first, but then we taught him to "skip" rocks and the idea and splash kept him busy trying for another hour. By the time Lauren got bored, we brought out the bubbles and mommy kept them occupied catching and popping bubbles up and down the beach while Daddy tried to catch a fish. The hard one was Gavin who just wanted to crawl and as the beach was all pebbles and rocks it was not conducive to that even with our heavy blanket. Next time I'll have to do a better job with entertaining him! We had so much fun and it was so beautiful we plan to go back next weekend with floats and swimsuits and do fishing in the morning and once bored head out for some in the lake time! Someday we'll have to try camping there too.

Second Set zoo pictures

A couple more for you to enjoy!

Sacramento Zoo with Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop

At this point we are so happy we bought a family membership to the zoo as we spent another great day enjoying the animals! The temperature was a little cooler so we had animals we had yet to see out and about - I was amazed the hyena was much bigger than I thought. The picture of Lauren and I is in the mister, though it's usually so warm it's just a cooler area of fog! The kids are still most excited about the "playground" when we first get there, then the animals and we finish with the carousel. This time Mom-Mom was generous and took them on the "train" too - though more pictures later once I get my camera and computer to get along again. For now, enjoy some of Mom-Mom's pictures of the zoo, next will be mine and some of the 4 year olds birthday party!

Keeping cool in 100+ degrees

What do you do when Daddy's away for the weekend and it's STILL 100+ degrees? Fill up the baby pool with cold hose water and freeze yourself! I must admit they only played for a half an hour, then the water got warm and Ripley was the only one who would go in. But, then they used their cups to water the corn, the strawberries, the herbs, the lemon trees, the squash, the tomatoes, the pumpkins, the watermelons, the egg plants, the beans... not sure what else dad has planted... but they watered it! I still say something is a little wacky, we had a pool in Chicago, we had a pool in Boston, but in HOT California.... we're requisitioning Ripley's pool to keep the kids cool!

Jelly Belly Factory & Zoo

We had Grandparents in town this weekend so we were busy! It's easy to take advantage of all that there is to offer in our new state when we have those extra hands here to help. We decided as we ALL love Jelly Bellys to head to the factory and take a tour. Unfortunatly the day we arrived the plant was not in operation due to maintenance, so we saw everything but not in motion. The best part was they gave us free samples! The kids did all right, Lauren really enjoyed it, the boys well - they enjoyed part of it! Unfortunatly they did not allow us to take phots inside the factory so here's Lauren outside!





After the Jelly Belly factory we headed to our favorite location the Zoo for lunch! We saw several of the animals in our race to see something before everyone turned into pumpkins as it was a long morning.










But we did enjoy our lunch, posing in the signs, the carousel and the project of the day, making masks! Ian - is REALLY into monkeys right now and does a very good imitation! Actually everytime we've gone he's done his monkey call at the chimp enclosure and one of them has come over to him... if we only knew what the two of them were saying!










Lauren made a Hippo mask for Grandma Hippo!









We had also wanted to go panning for gold this weekend, but with all the swim lessons, projects in the backyard, naptimes etc, the long weekend was over before we knew it... we'll just add it to the list of places for the next guest arrivals!