Summertime at the Lake

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Bye, bye Sonshine....

Caroline had her last days of preschool at Sonshine Preschool. We had a field trip to the beach, a spring sing show and a field day on the last day of school. Teacher Collette was absolutely wonderful and Caroline truly loved going to preschool. The teacher made a little booklet about each title with a description next to each letter of her name. One of Caroline's words was loves art, which couldn't be any more truthful. She loves to create anything...books, buildings, collages, drawings, race tracks, you name it. We've gone through almost 1000 pieces of construction paper since Christmas! We are sad for her to leave Sonshine as she really enjoyed her time there and made some good friends. We will be excited to going back with Hannah this next year!

Blueberry picking!

When spring comes to an end, the blueberries are in season and we LOVE our blueberries. We went with Erin and Annie to Underwood Farms and picked blueberries. What a change from last year when Andrew was crawling in the dirt and Hannah was running wild! This year, everyone was very into picking the blueberries. Caroline had it down to a science picking the perfect berries, Hannah was loving the idea of finding all the berries and picking them and Andrew, well he just wanted to eat them. I could not pick them fast enough. At the end of the time, I think he ate almost a pound himself! We had a great time there and then later enjoying all of our pickings!

Aunt Katie, Uncle Kevin and baby Jack come to visit!

Aunt Katie, Uncle Kevin and baby Jack came to visit us during Katie's maternity leave. It was wonderful to meet baby Jack when he was so little (just 2 1/2 months)! He is so cute and such a good baby. He had his first visit to the beach, to the pool, the wineries and the Santa Barbara Zoo. I forget how portable a newborn baby is! It was a really great visit and of course, the kids loved the extra attention. Uncle Kevin worked with Caroline and Andrew playing soccer and Hannah loved the attention Katie gave her playing princess. I only wish I was able to help them with Jack the way Katie was able to come out and help me after my kids were born!! But it was great that they came to visit and we had the opportunity to hang out!

Happy Birthday my little mermaid!!

Hannah's request for her third birthday party was a "pinkalicious mermaid party". Try putting that on an invitation! She absolutely LOVES the little mermaid and the color pink so that is what she got! We had a little birthday party with her other two and three year old friends including Madeline, Sophia, Annie and Ryan. We decorated cookies and had a dance party and Hannah had a mermaid cake. She was in heaven and to top it all off she received all kinds of mermaid / princess presents including a mermaid swimsuit, mermaid magnet dolls, princess purse and princess chairs. My little mermaid is the big three and I can hardly believe it!

Hoppy Easter!

The Easter Bunny made its way to our house this year! The kids came downstiars and were so excited to look for their baskets and their eggs. They found all of their little "treasures" and we had to work on limiting their chocolate intake by 8 am! We went to an Easter service right in our neighborhood and I attempted (I really did Mom!) to try and get a picture of all the kids in their Easter outfits. You can see that I didn't have that much luck. They did love dancing to the music at the Easter service!! We then went to the Greiners house and had an Easter brunch and Easter egg hunts for the little ones and the big ones. We had a beautiful weather and an amazing day!

Floridays

Spring break was spent at Gaga and Papa's house in Florida. We had a GREAT time!! The kids absolutely loved the beach and the boat. We took the boat to a great picnic spot and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. We went to the beach quite a few days and the water was like bath water. Caroline loved looking for sea shells and knee surfing with Daddy. Hannah had her mermaid and loved having Ariel swim in the ocean and she wore her floaties and just floated around. Even Andrew couldn't get enough of being in the ocean. We had great warm weather and warm water! Gaga and Papa had a special mermaid birthday cake for Hannah to celebrate her birthday a little early and she loved it!! We had a great time hanging out with Aunt Kelly, Uncle Tye and Abby and Dean. You would hardly think that Caroline and Abby hadn't seen each other in a year -- they were instant friends! The girls also made friends with the lizards at Gaga and Papa's house as they loved to chase them and finally caught one. Our Floridays went by quick and we were sad to go -- until next time -- thank you Gaga and Papa!

Swimming with the fishies!!

We took a day trip down to the Aquarium of the Pacific with our neighbors and the kids absolutely loved it! There are two story aquariums with every kind of fish imaginable. The kids loved the tropical fish and Hannah kept wanting to know when she could swim with Flounder. She even asked one of the docents there if she could get in the aquarium! Andrew was infatuated and kept yelling "Fishies!!" (not sure if that is how you spell it!). There are beautiful exhibits there where you can get really close to the animals and go through tunnels with the aquarium surrounding you. We had a great day!

Beach Days

We have been lucky and have had some beautiful days in February. One of them being Caroline's actual birthday. The kids were getting over being sick so I took the kids to the beach by myself and they had the best time...chasing the waves, digging in the sand, finding treasures, flying kites, you name it. I texted Trent to tell him how thankful I am to be able to stay home with them and not miss these kinds of days (yes, there are other days I would like to miss but we try not to think about them!).
Another day we went to a local State beach and it was wonderful as well. Great hiking and treasure finding. We are hoping for more beautiful days like this!!