We're about halfway through summer. The kids are keeping us busy at home, sleeping late and waking up early. By the afternoon, Amy and I are both ready for a siesta but usually we just have to power through til the evening.
Oddly enough, with some of the families going on vacations at various times, we have been spending a bit less time with the neighbors. We did get a chance to celebrate a birthday for both Davids (our neighbor and our neighbor's son, born on the same day) with a pool party because the summer weather has arrived.
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| Pool party at the Aoalins! |
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| Kids at heart |
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The Aoalins bought a full size cotton candy machine!
Brings me back to the Sweden Cirkus days.. |
The kids have had two weeks of swim lessons which have really helped Jad get more comfortable with the water. He's been diving and really enjoys it now. He can't quite tread water yet but I think will learn soon. Kai and Sora are improving too, she has better form but Kai is getting there as well. That's one goal accomplished for this summer. Hopefully, we can get Jad reading more soon. Funny, I don't even remember teaching Sora to read that much.
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Making the VillaSport membership worth it for the summer..
Brandon, Evelyn and William are here too! |
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| Jad at Ant Swim School |
Ansel and Yukari just had their 3rd. .Baby girl Elizabeth Joy Shaw born on 7/11 so (as Amy says) free Slurpees for life! We got to hang out with Yukari and the kids for swimming (pic above) and then went to Costco for lunch before going home for video games. What an idyllic summer!
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| Easy Costco lunch! |
We celebrated 4th of July with the RCC annual block party as usual. It seemed a bit quieter this year with some neighbors away at the time but it was still lots of fun, especially for the kids. There was lots of food, BBQ, drinks, water balloon fights and games. It's nice to live in such an an involved neighborhood!
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The kids were so cute marching around with
their little flags.. they did this for like 30 mins |
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The girls also chalked an American Flag..
little slice of Americana on our street :) |
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This was a Marco Polo game with an inflated hammer..
it was surprisingly fun and less injurious than I initially thought |
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We recruited David to make paella for
the whole block.. it was great! |
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| Our water balloon catapult! |
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A little hula-ing to finish off the day..
Happy Independence Day! |
This past weekend, we went with our church on the annual camping trip. There were probably 20 families this year and we camped at Sunset Beach, near Santa Cruz. This is a nice site because it's only about an hour away from home so even those who didn't want to sleep in a tent could come down to visit for the day. There was lots of dirt and sand, s'mores and catching up with friends we don't normally spend extended time with.
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Kai hung out a lot with Brandon and Niko but also spent
time on his own reading.. have to appreciate that about him |
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Nights were cold but out sleeping bags served us
well and we were pretty cozy |
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Sora spent a lot of time with Sophie and Noe. Jad just glomed
on to whoever was around. These are some good kids we have :) |
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| Good parents too! |
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Two days at the beach means lots
of digging and sand castles |
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| Sand angel! |
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As usual, the food was amazing. I think we eat much better
than most campers. Thanks, organizers!! |
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| Yes, that's grilled steak :p |
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Kids had lots fun burning stuff
and roasting s'mores |
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| A double decker S'more by Kai |
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| Even squeezed in some berry picking |
That's it for these past couple of weeks. The kittens are growing quickly and now they are all about jumping the fence or sneaking around it and running around the house. Kiwi will eventually go to Mia and John and Poppy will go to one of Amy's coworkers. There was a minute when we thought Shadow would go to one of our church friends but that's up in the air at the moment. No one is ready for spicy Pepper yet and I wonder if she'll end up near or in our house again in the future.We were supposed to bring them to the shelter this week but we got the wrong time and missed the appointment so we're keeping them for one more week. I think it'll turn out to be better and give the kids a chance to say a longer good bye anyway so, in the end, it was all good.
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| Glamour shots of the kitties by Amy |
I'll leave you with this pic of Jad and the super moon a couple of weeks ago. Til next time!
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| Late nights in the summertime.. |
