A Milestone Birthday!

I'm getting around to organizing a billion different pictures from lots of different events the past few months. One cool thing to take note of....Matt had his 30th birthday!!

In his eyes he is officially "old." I currently disagree, but when I turn 30 I just may change my mind.

Since it was Matt's birthday I asked him what he wanted to do for the day - and naturally he wanted to take me to a shooting range. Haha!  It was my first time ever shooting a gun so I was a bit nervous, but Matt was great at explaining how to safely handle it. So after the initial shock of the first recoil, it was actually pretty fun!

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After working up quite the appetite, we decided to mosey on over to Cheerleaders Sports Bar and Grill where I happened to have a free voucher for an appetizer, two meals, and a dessert. The food was AWESOME....great burgers with the buns made from scratch, and our first taste of a deep-fried Snickers with a huge dollop of their homemade ice cream!..And they had THE BEST french fries and onion rings. It was seriously good!....But we will probably not go back anytime soon (haha - bet you didn't see that coming)....but it is only because it is a bit too expensive for our budget.

And as if we weren't stuffed enough from dinner, we went home to partake in homemade ice cream cake!

This is what happens when you take a picture with a camera phone in already bad lighting...your cake looks like it's on fire....

Matt has his work cut out for him...making a wish isn't as easy as it used to be...

All blown out!

Happy 30th Birthday Matt! We love you!!!

Apple Pickin'!

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law Melissa invited me and the kids to go with them to Candy Apple Farms for Bailey's preschool apple-picking field trip. I am so glad she did because it really was a lot of fun.

They started off with teaching everyone about the different varieties of apples, how you can tell them apart, and what they were good for (pies, cider, eating plain, etc).

Then they showed everyone how they made apple cider - Aaron LOVED this part:

The Apple Press

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Aaron watching the action

The juice being pressed from the apples...

Aaron decided he wanted a front-row seat

Now Aaron either just really likes apples, or he is destined to be an apple farmer because even after they were all done and wrapping it up, Aaron was still there....I don't think I have ever seen him stand in one spot for that long ever!

Unwinding the press

Then the owners kindly gave everyone a nice sample of true apple cider, and it was definitely delicious! Aaron wanted seconds:

Then the time came that we were all waiting for....Apple Picking!!! They gave us an apple picker lined with a soft sponge (so the apple wouldn't get bruised while falling into the cradle) and a large bag to carry our apples in. Here is Aaron all ready to pick some apples:

"Look Ma'! I'm a country boy!"

The cradle had a rake-like claw on the end of it making it easy to snag an apple on the tree. One you snagged it, you'd give it a light pull and the apple would gently fall into the cradle and onto the spongy bed. Then you would take the apple out of the cradle and gently put it into your bucket (Aaron had trouble with the "gently" part...)

Gettin' some apples

After about 20 minutes and about 15lbs of apples, I decided to call it a day....(and mind you, I was carrying around 15lb baby Sunny on my hip, in a sling of course, at the same time!) We would have stayed longer to pick more apples since we were having so much fun, but I'll admit, I was already wondering what I was going to do with all of these when we got home:

Aaron was proud of his apples

See, I promised Sunny was there with us! Here she is all buckled up and ready to go after apple pickin'. There's the bin of pumpkins in the background!

After a long day of apple picking me, Melissa, our friend Ashley, and all of our kids all went out for pizza. The kids did surprisingly well at their own table:

And after we got home....the moment Aaron had been waiting for all day:

And the moment mommy has been waiting for....homemade apple pie! To be continued.....

Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!....at Krispy Kreme....

Not too long ago I found out Krispy Kreme was having national Talk Like A Pirate Day where if you went in to a participating location and said any pirate phrase such as "Arrrrr!" or "Ahoy Matey!" you would be awarded a free glazed donut! Yum! But THEN, come to find out that if you dared to dress in full pirate attire and walk into Krispy Kreme you would get a full dozen glazed donuts. Now, I'm not a huge Krispy Kreme fan, but Matt is quite fond of them. However, having said that, I AM quite fond of free stuff - and if I have to suck up my pride for some free donuts then so be it! Pirate-Suit up! (Sorry - a "How I Met Your Mother" reference)

I figured it would be a fun experience for Aaron too so I decided to take him with me - my mini-pirate. It's funny....although neither of us owned a single piece of "pirate attire" I managed to scrounge up these little numbers:

 

 Being that it was Aaron's first time at Krispy Kreme, he was so amazed by the donuts on the conveyor belt....although, strangely he kept saying we were at McDonald's (or in Aaron's words: Hic'Donald's)....I swear he gets out more than that:

"Yay! I love Mc'Donald's!" oh...wait....

When we got to the register the cashier said "Looks like we've got a couple of pirates here! So that'll be 2 then?" and took off to the back. Thinking she meant 2 glazed donuts I was perfectly happy since seeing Aaron was having such a good time. However to my amazement she came back with 2 dozen free donuts!

Enjoying some Krispy Kreme!

 And then last, but not least - I finally got him to say....:

"Arrrrrrrrrrr!"

What an awesome day! We'll have to do this again sometime! 

The Scavenger Hunt

Aaron is finally learning what it means to be bored. At age 3? Really? Shouldn't he be getting dirty out playing with sticks and rocks or something? .....EXACTLY!  That gave me an idea....

I decided to do compile a nature "Scavenger Hunt" for Aaron. It consisted of a list I created out of some old poster board and markers:

 I explained to Aaron that we were going to go outside and find everything on this list - 

• something yellow
• dirt
• 2 different kinds of flowers
• something green
• 3 small grey rocks
• leaves
• a stick
• 1 white rock
• bark
• and 1 bug

(we later added on "something red")

I then took an old first aid kit container and put in "scavenger hunting supplies" which included:

• tweezers
• a magnifying glass (with an attached compass)
• a measuring tape (from my sewing kit) to measure how small or big each item he found was
• a "dust brush" (ok...so it was an old makeup brush) to remove debris and dirt from his items
• a marker to check items off his list
• a container to put items in and examine them
• and lastly, a glue stick to attach his findings to his poster board.

I quickly found out how informative this scavenger hunt was for him - for example, when it came time to find the "Bark" on the list, I said, "Okay Aaron, it's time to find some bark...lets go!" Aaron stopped and looked around puzzled for a second and then said, "But I don't see any doggies Mommy.....?"  I couldn't help but laugh. I told him, "Yes, doggies bark too, but bark also means little pieces of wood." Not thinking again, I sent him off to find bark again. Within a minute Aaron screams, "I found some bark!!!" and I stroll over and find him pointing at the wood paneling on the side of the house. (More laughing from me). I tell him, "Great job!" (due to my lack of explanation) and then take him into grandma's garden to show him what the "bark" is we are looking for. It all worked out and he learned something new.

Here is Sunny just hanging out enjoying the weather with us:

Our Sunny Bunny

Oh my goodness...who gave her that rock to play with? Oh yeah, that was me...Don't worry, she couldn't pick it up. She just liked to feel it.

Aaron had so much fun looking for everything - I really didn't think he was going to enjoy it that much, but he kept looking for stuff even after we were done.

We also used an egg carton to collect all of his neat items in:

And you can't see it, but there was a Rolly Polly bug in the blue container (which we eventually set free, but Aaron had fun watching it in the meantime. I think the bug was his favorite part.)

Everything glued to the list.....except.....

As you can see, he found all of his items on his list, and if you'll notice there is only a drawing of a bug for that box - At first he wasn't happy about the inconsistency of the drawing being there instead of a real bug so I had to spend about 3 minutes explaining to Aaron that we do not glue living things to paper (or anything for that matter). Eventually he got over it and was just happy he found everything.

Best picture we had of him...and there is Sunny in the back still having a blast

After everything dried we hung up his poster on the wall and just about everyday Aaron looks at it and reminds me he wants to do "Aaron's chart" again soon.

Family Camping 2012

(Sorry - I think 3 month long gaps in between posts is becoming a theme in our blog. If it wasn't for Matt reminding me to update this thing I think the gap time frame would be a lot larger.)


Since our last post, we have done quite a few things as a family - one large event being our camping family reunion.

Although I was a little worried at first to go camping (being that Aaron had never been camping, and well, baby Sunny hadn't done much of anything at that point...) but it all worked out a lot better than I expected. It was nice to be away from computers, TV, cell phones, and microwaves and let Aaron be a kid, get dirty, and explore on his own.

The first evening we got there the weather was gorgeous! We were very excited to see where our home would be for the next 2 days.

Our cabin was the one on the left.

Aaron looking, but Sunny isn't....

Sunny looking, but Aaron isn't.....

Before everyone else got there, we decided it was time to start some dinner:

Tri-Tip and homemade macaroni salad on the side - YUM!

Camping? So far, so good! =)

Our little family

Here is Uncle Jeff pushing the cousins on the porch swing. I think Uncle Jeff and Aunt Yolanda were the stars of the show - they brought fun toys for all the kids to play like bubbles and squirt guns. The kids (especially Aaron) followed them around everywhere. It's months later and Aaron still asks where Uncle Jeff is. =)

And what's camping without smores?

Getting the fire ready

Aaron's cousin Bailey roasting some marshmallows

Aaron being a goof. =)

 And just a few photos from our last evening there:

 

Family picture

All the kids. (Left to right - Aaron, Sunny, Brooklyn, Zaya, Nick, and Bailey)

All in all, aside from the bugs, and the 10+ mosquito bites I got the last night we were there (oddly enough, the kids didn't get bit once, but that's great!), it was a very fun trip...maybe we should make this an annual thing.....maybe....  :-)