My Boy Turns 6!!!

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

We made cupcakes Sunday afternoon for him to take to co-op on Monday.

Joshua is an amazing son and brother!!! He has such a caring heartJoshua's birthday fell on a Sunday. We are still recouping from our Disneyland trip so we kept it low key and we are going to have his party in a couple of weeks. Joshua wore his "birthday boy" button to church and got spoiled by everyone. Daddy sang happy birthday to him at the end of the service and serveral of the "grandmas" gave him some money since it was his birthday.

These are pictures of Joshua and his class at co-op enjoying his cupcakes!

Joshua and his best buddy Ethan at Co-op!

I will post more pictures when we have his party.

A B See Photo Meme.....M

 

M...M...What begins with M ???

Mickey Mouse Ears!

I love this pic!!!

At each child's first visit to Disney Land we have gotten them their Mickey Ears.  This last trip was Alexa and Natasha's first visit.  It was a good thing we only had to get two pairs this time because they have gotten expensive!!  We have their names sewn on the back and it used to be really neat because they did it by hand on the sewing machine and now it is done by a computerized sewing machine.  Wow!

On To San Diego

Saturday morning we got up had breakfast, packed up and headed down to San Diego.  We stayed with Jay's sister and her family for the next 4 days.  On Saturday we just relaxed  and went to a local park.  We needed to recover from our 5 days of walking around!

Then Sunday morning we all got up and were going to go to church.  Natasha woke up at 6:30am like normal.  I snuggled with her and she went back to sleep.  She ended up sleeping till 10:30am (I stayed with her while the others all went to church)  She has never slept like that.  She wasn't sick at all I think she was just catching up on all the naps she missed this past week!  When everyone got home we packed some lunches and headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids loved it!  They had been to the beach as babies and toddlers but didn't really remember so this was like a first for all them except Anastaisa.  The funny part was after having done our ocean unit study my kids were the only ones on the beach so excited about the seaweed and seeing it in real life.  It was really cute!

They really wanted to take some home so we compromised and I took pictures of it instead.

Tasha and Bryson enjoying the beach from the pack-n-play

Tasha loved walking in the sand.

Fun in the Sun!

Daddy and Tasha

 

Mommy and Tasha

Jocelyn

Chance and Jocelyn

Building sand castles

 

Wanting to be a mermaid like her big sissy

Last Day in San Diego....Sea Life Aquarium

Tuesday, Jay and I took our kids plus Jocelyn to the Sea Life Aquarium. It is right in front of Lego Land (side note: If you want to go to Lego Land and are a homeschooler then go to the Lego Land site and check out the special pricing for homeschool days it is a great bargin. We want to possibly go in March.) The Aquarium was nice and it was a good end to our trip and Ocean Study. The kids had a lot of fun and it wore Jay and I out!

The kids could stick their heads up viewing holes to see the fish up close.

The Gang

There were lots of Lego statues like this through out.

Part of this castle was permenatly put together then you could play and add to the rest.

Trying to touch the starfish

Jay and I taking a break!

Holding hermit crabs

When we were done at the Aquarium Jay and I dropped all the kids back off at Jutem's and we went out for awhile. We went to our favorite spot in Carlsbad. There is a fish and chips restaurant that over looks the ocean. We ate fish and chips and then sat on a bench and just listened to the quiet of the ocean. It was wonderful!!!

That is the restaurant in the background and one of the many benches lined up to sit on and watch the ocean.

Say Cheese!

My hubby!

Me

The beautiful ocean view!

We had an awesome family vacation and made it home safe and sound. We are already talking about where we would like to go next year. Hmmmm......

5 Fun Filled Days at Disneyland

Monday started our first of five days at Disneyland. It was a great vacation for all of us and only a couple of minor melt downs. The park opened at 10:00am each day and closed at 8:00 this was perfect for us because the kids were settled down and in bed by 9:00 each night so no late nights. Each morning we at breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to DisneyLand/California Adventure. We packed our lunch each day and this helped so much!!! We saved a lot of money this way. Also we had told the kids for their souvenirs they could collect flat pennies. (They love these) We bought one book to hold them all and then when they came across the machines at different places they could each get one.

We spent all day Monday at Disneyland mainly going on the different rides. It was great because there were hardly any lines. I have a lot of pics to share but I am also missing a lot!! We brought the laptop with us and I downloaded pics from my memory card and on one of the days I must have copied over pics. I am so upset and trying not to think about what pictures got copied over!! Tuesday was spent all day at California Adventure with Jay's cousins, Wednesday we made the rounds to Tinkerbell, The Princesses, Jedi Training, and Mickey and Minnie then of course more rides. Thursday we were back over in CA. Adventure taking it easy. We watched the Aladin play and let the kids play in the splash pad at the Bug's life area. By Friday we were tired!! We went back and fourth between the two parks. The best time was lunch at Goofy's kitchen! The characters were awesome. Our reservations were for 12:30 and they closed at 2:00 and then reopen for dinner. Well this was perfect timing because there was hardly anyone in there and the characters spent a lot of time at our table with the kids. Chip even sat at the table and wrote out a conversation with us. We stayed late that night to watch Fantasmic and the fireworks show. They were incredible!

I put together a slide show of some pictures highlighting our trip:

And We're Off...... Part One

What a wonderfully, awesome family vacation we had!!!  We finally got on the road around 2:30pm Sunday (Sept. 13th) afternoon.  Jay went to church but the rest of us did not make it.  When he got home everything was ready to be loaded.  I really should have taken a picture of the suburban.  The very back was packed to the top and we even used a kanga pouch on top.

The kids were very excited to get in the car and open their backpacks.  I let them open bag one right away.

It is hard to see but the paper bags were labeled with a 1 on them.

 

They were so excited to each get their own QT card (QT is similar to a 7-11 basically a gas station store)

So we stopped at the Qt and the kids each go to pick a slushie drink a pack of gum and another treat of their choice.  We were sugared up and ready to go!   

We had to make one more stop on the way out of town.  We stopped at my sister's house.  She and her family lives about an hour away.  When she was over last weekend I didn't get any pictures of her and I together with our bellies.  We have been pregnant several times together and always get at least one picture.  I didn't know if we would see one another before she has her baby so I wanted to get a picture.

Here we are!  Brandy is due mid October

Then we were finally off again.  I let them open up bag # 2.    This was their coloring book and crayons and pencils.  They were very excited about all the disney character coloring pages.

 

This kept them busy for about an hour and then most of them fell asleep.  When they started waking up we skipped bag # 3 and I had them open bag #4.  It was going to be dark soon and I wanted them to be able to see them.  This had their activity books.

 

 

Too Cute!

After a pit stop I had bag three it had a movie for them to watch.  We let them open up bag five at the same time.  It had Disney Pez dispensers and a couple other treats.  They watched the movie and all fell asleep till we got to the hotel which was around 10:00pm.  We got in, got settled and tried to sleep before our first big day at Disneyland.