Play Date

Today we went out to Yorba Linda to have some fun with Nicole, Oliver, Darci & Gwen. We went to the park where the kids had a lot of fun. They actually had a very good time digging in the wood chips, I didn't think it would be that fun but they liked it.

Oliver hanging out on the bridge.

Carter & Gwen digging in the wood chips, it was a popular activity.

Sharing (sort of:). Look, Nicole's open, too bad no one will pass it to her. (I thought this was a funny picture, hope you don't mind Nicole).

As many of the kids as I could get in a picture at one time. Jillian, Oliver & Gwen climbing on the toys. Carter was off in the wood chips still.

Mother's Day celebrations

Mother's day activities at Jillian's school. The Mother's were invited to a tea for the last 30 minutes of class on the Friday before Mother's day. We had delicious food and got to watch our children sing. They sang twinkle, twinkle, zip a dee do da with homemade shakers and "there is somebody that I love and Mommy is her name oh, MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY and mommy is her name oh" to the tune of BINGO. It was very cute and Jillian did a great job singing. I am glad she is not as shy as I was! The gave us beautiful flowers in homemade containers, a cute card, a place mate they made and their hand print in clay. It was really great. I loved it. It was a great start to a wonderful Mother's day weekend. On Saturday I got to go have a manicure/pedicure with my friend and on Sunday Christian & the kids gave me a gift card for some Itunes and I got a cute shirt and necklace from Mom and Dad Parke. It was fun to be spoiled for a little bit. Oh, and McKel made pork chops, potatoes, and apple sauce for dinner.

DC trip

I wanted to put on more pictures form our trip we took back in February but there were so many and it was going to take forever to do it one by one so I never did. This is the perfect way to get a bunch of pictures up at one time. These are pics of Christian enjoying a Philly cheese stake sandwich in Philly, feeding the geese at the park, visiting Valley forge & Washingtons headquarters which turned out to be a great place for a leaf fight, Independence Hall, the liberty Bell, Gettysberg, Our tour of the capital building including our exclusive viewing of Sen. Harry Reids office & Jillian with her rose from the office, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam memorial wall, Korean war memorial & finially the kids on the plane flying home. We had a really grat trip considering we were traveling with a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

Summer days

We inflated our $10 pool yesterday for the kids to cool off in. They absolutly loved it.

Filling the pool

Finding airplanes

It's cold!

Swimming in 4 inches of water.

Jillian's flying leap into the pool.

Crazy kids

Crazy kids making crazy potato heads. They obviously found our straws in the kitchen and put them to work in a different way. Carter kept telling me his was the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I thought that was clever.

This is pretty much how they look most of the time. Someone is always attacking the other one.

Our fun day at Disneyland!

We had a great time at California Adventure today. We saw the play house Disney show which Jillian & Carter loved. They know all the shows & songs so they were able to sing along. Carter especially liked Little Einsteins. We ran into Chip & Dale trying to stay cool in some shade and since there was no line we stopped for pictures. Carter seemed a little unsure but he hugged and kissed them.

Jillian very much enjoying her Churro! Good thing too since it is pretty much all she ate for lunch.

Carter cooling off on a hot day. He and Gwenie (We met Darci & Gwen there) had a lot of fun playing in the water. Gwen got right in there, Carter took his time but eventually got soaked.

Picking flowers while waiting in line for Playhouse Disney. Good thing there were a lot of flowers because between the three of them we picked a whole lot!

Daddy giving Carter a ride back to the car. We had a good time.

Our Garden

We planted our garden a few weeks ago for family home evening. Christian worked really hard to prepare the area a few days before. The ground was really hard and there were a lot of dead plants and bushes to be cleared. He did a great job. Christian's parents bought the plants for us and some seeds, and then came to plant them with us for FHE.

Closest to us is two rows of corn & one pumpkin, then 2 1/2 rows of tomatoes, then peppers, green beans, cabbage, carrots, strawberries, squash & peas. They are all shooting up so fast and starting to grow buds. We also planted a bunch of sunflowers in the back corner of our yard and they are sprouting too. I can't wait to see how big they all get and what kind of a crop they yeild.

Christian & Jill watering the garden. I think it is funny that Jillian is obviously jumping, her feet are off the ground. That is typical Jillian, I remember when she would jump up and down the entire time she watched TV. No wonder she has such muscular calfs.

Medieval Times

Jillian & I got to go to Medieval times with Grandma & Grandpa Parke & Aunt Kelsy to have dinner with Lana's niece who was in town with her husband for a vacation. I have never been before but always thought it would be fun and it was! Our knight was the Black & White knight.

Jillian spent the first half hour looking really unsure and pretty concerned. She thought it was way too loud and sat with her hands covering her ears for a long time.

When our knight rode by, cousin Jackiee helped Jillian stand up and cheer really loud so he would toss her a flower. It worked and Jillian was so happy about the flower. She spent the rest of the night smelling it. She ate pretty much nothing, which is nothing new, but warmed upto the whole thing and had a wonderful time.

Jillian got to take a picture with our knight after the show and thank him for the flower. I was in the bathroom so I missed it all but I guess he told her "your welcome Princess" and she thought that was really great coming form a knight:)!

A boy & his baby!

Carter loves stuffed animals and cuddly things. He typically carries about 5 stuffed animals around at a time & we cannot leave the house without at least one of them. Right now he is walking around carrying Chocolate a brown stuffed chocolate lab. The other night while Jillian & I went to Medieval times Carter found Jill's old glow worm in the toy box. Christian put new batteries in it for him and he carried it around all night, hugging it & humming along to all the songs it played. He wouldn't give it up at bedtime causing him to have a very difficult time falling asleep considering it would sing anytime he moved. We finally managed to get it away without a tantrum and hide it by the side of our bed. The next morning I found it as I was making the bed and picked it up causing it to start playing music. Carter was in the kitchen eating breakfast and I prayed he didn't hear it but of course he did and insisted he must have it immediately. "My's baby, my's baby he yelled"!!! I tried to persuade him to wait until after he finished his buttery toast to save the baby from getting all greasy but he would have none of it. He sat there in his high chair, snuggling his baby, humming along to the songs, and finished his breakfast. He is a sweet little thing, though tempermental.