so the other day i took E to the park. it’s usually somewhat torture for me to take her to the park as she never wants to leave. so we end up staying for at least 2 hours…and even after all that time staying, she pitches a fit when it’s time to leave! this time, i brought this book that i was right in the middle of, so i was cool about staying. heehee. all about me. 🙂 she managed to make a friend (a chinese little girl that didnt speak a word of english) and they played for 3 hours. i sat. they played. i read. it was wonderful! 🙂
so here are pics of her at the park. she loves to ignore my lens. 
august already?! no way!
i can't believe how fast the year is going by! as chris and i enter our busiest month with jac, i'm enjoying bits of time to scrapbook and read. here are my layouts for the first of the month at 2peas. the theme is finishing touches. i went a little crazy with the softies! and this is a new product that came to my doorstep the other day, im not sure i would have known what it was if i didn't get it in real life. loove that it's tape and ribbon in one. pretty.
and this one:
digging through the stash of older pictures lately. sigh. 2 years has gone by so fast!
and some pics for my cousin, mihan, you'll be proud of us, getting together last week 🙂
that's it! 🙂
i would have loved having a big sister
while growing up. these two are huge extroverts. huge girly girls. elsie has been over the moon having the big kids home. yesterday i had a big deadline and i pretty much left kira in charge. she painted elsie's nails, they did chalk together outside, they watched movies and just p l a y e d.
im so glad these guys have each other 🙂
ANNND! I didnt want to leave caleb out! 🙂 he's been surrounded by girls since cam is at camp ALL week 😦 and with dad at work, he gets girl overload. but kira has been SO good to him too. they have a different relationship when cam is gone.. caleb has more patience for her-haha, the other night they were giggling– she made a game out of sniffing all her lipgloss and having him guess what flavor it was. yeah, he would have never put up with that if cam was around 🙂
chris just sent this from his iphone– he relieved caleb from the girls and took him out to a dodger game for some male bonding 🙂
taking the day off
after a chaotic day with elsie in the craft room, it was suggested i take the day off today, LOL.
yesterday's craft was to make a bird feeder with peanut butter. while i was assisting the kids, elsie was sticking her hand in the jar of peanut butter, licking it off her fingers.. and managed to get a handful of bird seed in her mouth… which she continued to spit out ever so dramatically. while the other craft leader was giving directions to the kids, elsie stood up on the chair and said, "no no no no". there were other instances that made the day verrrrry long for mommy. she'd sense that mommy was losing it, she'd make this face at me and say, 'do you like this face mommy?' or 'you happy, mommy?' which of course, i could deny neither 🙂 so today we are taking the day off. we'll drop all the kids off and just have some downtime. we'll give the craft break room a break from elsie. 🙂
day camp day one
this week we are volunteering at our church's day camp– well, me with crafts and photos. the boys go to class and kira is a counselor. elsie is to tag along. she did her best considering day camp is right smack in the middle of nap time. my lovely sister in law is here from WA so we are playing tag with elsie between her class and mine. by the end of the day, this was els. "i ti-red. i want blue blankie. i wanna go hoooommmme."
lovely. but i did manage to get them somewhat together – not really a great effort on my part– a quick pic 'for daddy' as he is away on business. i love that caleb is still totally into craft time.. dig the visor and necklace! 🙂
a quick fill of the tummies at in n out. our FAAAAAAAVorite. 
and a sweet one of my sister in law with elsie. it has been fun chasing all of our kids (between us we have 7) all day long! she has bonded with els during this trip.
and i just have to point out that chris rented this fun lens and put some of my most favorit-est lovel-iest wonderful-ist pictures of elsie on our jac blog if you wanna peek 🙂
(thanks for the top, brooke!) and i miss you chris 🙂 xo
so inviting!
(click for bigger image)
for our 10th anniversary, we skipped the schmancy dinner and went white water rafting on the merced river instead. it's something i've always wanted to do (after i saw a kevin bacon movie that had white water rafting in it.. sooo strange but that's when the fascination started) and now we are pumped to do it again 🙂 so the next day, on our way home, chris takes one last swim in the river, and his daredevil sidekick, kira, follows along with him as they jump off this huge rock. so refreshing. 🙂 i for the record, also jumped off that rock the day before 🙂 so now, as i sit in the Los Angeles heat, i look at my new screensaver (this picture) and just daydream 🙂
away again…
in yosemite for the week with the fam… will be back next week to answer emails… will hopefully post some pics this week…this is our last trip we've got planned for the year. the kids are with us.. loving the introduction to summer..
mini iron chef
how cute is this? my boy entered a mini iron chef chocolate milk challenge. they had a huge assortment of goodies to put in your chocolate milk– strawberries, bananas, gummi bears, choc chips, sprinkles, whipped cream. marshmellows… everything you can imagine. he had a ball… i had a ball watching him. i love the idea of one of my kids becoming a chef *insert memory of my great food appreciation here* 🙂 but really– besides all that… it was good to see my boy put himself out there. to have a good time. he was so nervous when the judges were walking around, and of course all the mom’s knew that everyone would win!
milk. it does a body good. 🙂
good mommy
why is it that when i take my kids on an outing i feel like a good mommy? like, check, took the kids to the museum, did my good mommy thing for the week! 🙂 is it because the majority of the week has been spent indoors… doing nothing all that spectacular? and i feel guilty, so i say, ‘boys! what do you want to do today?!’ and being that they are incredible homebodies, they say, nothing. 🙂 music to my ears, really, because i am a homebody too. but today i got antsy. school starts in exactly 2 weeks. i need to take them out and DO something… make some summer memories! i remember a local kids museum remodeled and we hadn’t been yet. so we go. they are a little hesitant when we get there… but before they know it, they are climbing the ‘ant trees’, examining rocks, seeing scorpions that glow in the dark, making aluminum boats and floating them down the arroyo, rock/wall climbing and riding trikes. (caleb’s favorite part) we are even going back tomorrow because mommy managed to score a free pass for us since one of the exhibits were closed. 🙂
so anyways, i feel good. i pack my sweaty head boys in the car… knowing we will just go home and watch TV, but it’s all good. they got to do some exploring in a place other than their living room. and i realize… a kid doesn’t need to be packed with things to do 24/7. i don’t need to feel like i have to do things like this everyday to be a good mom. that they are cool just being with me. hanging or what not. those are our summer memories.
leaving
our loves. today we hung all day. doing just normal family things. last minute errands, eating out for lunch, driving around town. kira and i got pedicures, the guys got jambas. it was normal. the kids played gameboys in the backseat. they fought. they made up. they sang. it was normal… but it wasn’t. while they fought, or did these everyday things, chris and i would look at each other, and sorta make that parental lovey look… like, awwww….. and bat our eyelashes at each other. we both knew that normally the fighting would drive us insane, that we would be grumpy from the heat… but we weren’t. we looked at it all like it’s the last time we would see/hear this stuff for 17 days. 17 days. it seems so short, but so long. why is that? how do i know that we will replay this day of normal, everyday stuff in our head for the next 17 days? it will go by fast. we will have an amazing time. we will miss them. they will have fun. caleb may miss me at night. but we will be okay.
we know that.
so long– next time you read from us, we will be down under. 🙂
watersix 