The Stockham cousins are here!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, let the fun begin!!!!

Day 1 of summer vacation + beach + park = SUCCESS

My Westchester mommy group decided that Mondays would be our beach days.  Just come if you can and if you can't, no need to try and coordinate every week.  Same place, same day, same time!  Louise, Nicole, Jamie, Jen Pickett and Sara came so it was lots of fun with good friends!  I took Annie and Porter (a kid exchange I have going with the George's over the summer...they get J and A on Wednesdays)!  BEAUTIFUL day at the beach!

 Mabel sunbathing with the big girls!

Amelia wanted to leave with Auntie Jamie so she did and went over for a play date and nap.  She actually went to sleep at her house without her blankies or pacifier!  Amazing!  We met up at a park to  get Amelia back to me and the kids had fun playing.  They liked watching the kids in the pool.

A good bath was needed after a busy day! Sometimes you gotta get in to get it done!

Summer is here!

Summer is here and the tiki bar is done so it was time for a front yard BBQ!!!!  Good times were had by all. Especially Jbird who didn't go to bed until 10pm and the adults were up to midnight.  We ordered take out and had a blast!!!

One hell of a week....

What did 5 days, 6 kids (sometimes 5 and sometimes 4), trip to Pretend City in Irvine, Science Center in downtown LA, afternoon with blow up pool, afternoon swimming in a real pool, morning at the mall, make that 2 trips to the mall (does that make me a mall rat?), Venice boardwalk, making homemade personal pizzas, shopping at Michaels, daily craft projects, going through 3 bottles of bubbles, tons of trampoline fun, lunch x6 x5, made, yes made, more popsicles than I can count, said "stop bothering her/him" a million times, Jeremy's graduation from preschool and one black eye get me?!?!?!  EXHAUSTION!  I am beat but I think all the kids had a blast!!!  

Monday at Pretend City (pay phone? Like these kids will ever know what these are)

Monday afternoon pool time and drawing outside!

Tuesday trip to the Science Center!  

Wednesday craft session after 1st trip to the mall and and stop at Michaels to buy wooden frames and magazines.

The finished product!

Then it was time to make pizzas!  Jack and Jeremy cut up the toppings!

Thursday trip to Venice and skate board park!  Mabel loved watching the skate boarders!  Annie and Porter got feathers in their hair and bought some new shades!

Friday was Jeremy's graduation from Johnny's and his first black eye!  He got hit in the eye by the Wii remote and it was quite an experience !

But before the black eye happened, you graduated from preschool.  Congrats Jbird!  You're off to Kindergarten!  SO proud of you.  Although you look like you were being marched to your death, I know you had fun and excelled at school. The teachers NEVER, and I mean NEVER had anything bad to say about you.  We got daily reports on you when we picked you up and only positive things came out of the teacher's mouths.  We love you.

The non "graduating" kids get a certificate for completing a year of school.  Like Jbird, Amelia is considered a "star pupil".  You may be strong willed at home but the teachers say you are super polite and they would clone you if they could.  They're excited to see the student you will become now that you're on your own!  Good job Bedelia, we love you princess!

Jeremy and his fellow classmates!

Proud parents

Blurry picture but I don't care....I love it and I love you monkey man!

Pet Balloons

Mabel fell in love with these at the mall this week and since Mabel got her first paycheck today for Munchkin, we went back and bought her one.  I couldn't leave the other two out so they got them for finishing preschool :)

Their little feet weigh them down so the kids can walk them around.

 Amelia got a poodle, Mabel got a pug (I keep trying to name it Peanut but the kids aren't going with me) and Jeremy got a frog.

Off for a walk

They even wait patiently while their owners play! :)

In case you're wondering...they're $8 each!  Well worth every penny!

Only 2 more days of preschool

Oh my, I can't believe he's about to finish preschool!!!  Feels like just yesterday he arrived and he was the most beautiful newborn I had ever seen.  Still might be (I'm not bias or anything)!  

My poor little guy in the NICU! He still looks like this when he sleeps and I hope I never forget the picture of his face, the smell of him.  I have to admit that I used the same hospital bag for all 3 and I still haven't unpacked all of it.  It's my gym bag but at the very bottom are a couple pacifiers from the hospital and some other things that I can't throw away!  Maybe that's why I do this blog, to never forget all the things we've done and it's a place I can remember!  I still look back at old posts and it makes me happy!  That was a major side track!  

The point of this post was to show you how nerdy I am.  Jeremy got in to Goethe International Charter School which means he will be learning kinder basics in both German and English.  We're super excited.  I got his "supply list" and I admit that I CANNOT wait to go get them.  Here they are....

1. 3 packs of Construction paper (all colors)

2. 1 ream of white copy paper

3. 1 box of Kleenex

4. 2 Packs of big pencils for Kindergarten

5. Pack of erasers

6. Pack of Glue Sticks

7. Pack of Crayons (24 colors)

8. 1 pack of markers

9. 2-Pocket-Portfolio with fasteners, 4 folders

(red, green, yellow, and dark blue)

10. Clorox Wipes, 1 pack

11. Baby Wipes, 1 pack

12. 1 pack of Dry erase markers

13. Colored pencils, 1 pack

14. Pencil case (for use in German class)

15. Children’s safety scissors (such as Westcott)

16. Play Dough (any color)

I mean...how fun!!!  Wish I could go back to Kinder again!!!  

Camping at Santa Margarita Lake

Santa Margarita Lake is about 4 hours north of LA and inland so we had plenty of sun and warmth (except for upper 40's at night).  Why there?  We met up with the Hockenbrocks, who live in Nothern Cal and the Provosts, who are in our South Bay group.  Fun times!!!

The kids looking like an old married couple watching time pass.  They sat in their chairs while Ryan and I set up camp!

 There were 5 wild turkeys that roamed around.  The kids loved it!

The kids were up at 5:30 the first morning and Amelia decided she "wanted to go home".  Sorry sista!  She snapped out of it and we had a great day hiking, fishing, playing baseball and eating!!

This was the lake with steam rising up from it.  

Dirty girl but HAPPY.  She loves camping!

Ryan thought it would be a good idea to take Jbird across this fallen tree.  A little scary but they made it :)

 We hiked around part of the lake and here is a picture looking back at our camp!  Cars in the middle!

S'mores time baby!!!

 Jeremy's stick would not stop smoking and he LOVED it.  It was like special powers.

Glow sticks of course!

The kids slept in for Ryan on Father's Day so we didn't get up until 7:30.  YAHOO!  We ate a great breakfast, gave him some homemade gifts and packed up and headed home.  It was a fun weekend and the kids dirt proved it but man, it feels good to sit on a couch after a hot shower!!!  Until the next camping trip...

Here is a picture as we drove back toward the coast...the fog is creeping in!  It was really cool looking!