Some of What has been Happening

I haven't been on here for so long.  It wasn't planned.  Things just happened.  One of which was having no internet connection for 3 weeks.  Many of the other things are now forgotten by me.  We did a lot of normal stuff, just hanging out, being our family.

But, stuff happened, and somehow it meant that I didn't blog for 6 weeks.
Some of the happenings would be -

Um.  During this period my son turned 5 years old!  Peyton is such a cool five year old.  

And we had a great birthday celebration. 

His wish was to go to Golf Land for his birthday.  

We drove over to Sunnyvale, to my childhood neighborhood. 

My parents and siblings and the cousins met us there.

We went to Inside N Out for the birthday request of cheeseburgers afterward.  

Look at this crew!

It was a super fun day.

A few days later was his actual birthday and we had a simple family celebration at home.

Peyton really is such a sweet, crazy, fun guy.  

It would be hard not to love him!

his eyes are super sensitive to bright.  so, it is a hard thing to look at all.those.candles.

His dad's panicked enthusiasm is distracting.  he has to push his cheeks down to keep from laughing.

We also had Hummingbird Days up at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.
Scott was a volunteer guide for the weekend.
The event was super fun for the whole family & Scott loved being part of the guided walks.

We went on a little last minute planned vacation to Palm Springs.  So, that was awesome.

It was a perfect vacation.  (Even though it involved some whining children, some parents coercing children to stay quite in a hotel room and an awful breakfast at Elmer's.)

It turned out that Palm Springs wasn't really a typical family vacation spot.

We may have had only one parent/child spotting, while in Palm Springs.

Any other children seen appeared to be with Grandparents.

And yet, we found it to be a fabulous vacation spot for our family.

I'll post separately about our favorite spots for a kid-friendly vacation in Palm Canyon.

I "ran" in my first race - the "pinkest" race.

Here is our running team, only part of the gals in my family made it to the race.  
But all these gals crossed the finish line.  

We had a blast.  This is us post race.  The real deal.

I took the kids on a little farm tour school field trip at Wilder Ranch.  

We love this state park!  

I want to go back for their next event, April 27th, Sheep Shearing!

Also, during this time, the daddy was traveling overseas for a couple weeks for work.
He went to Amsterdam, South Africa, Kenya, Spain and Morocco!

Sevilla, Spain

Morocco

Morocco

Then my husband came home and it was sweet and we celebrated Easter.
(and didn't get any great pictures)

And now he has finally adjusted to our time zone.
That is something we are all glad about!

Thanksgiving Day #5

I am thankful to
-have my kids at home for their schooling.
-cool online resources like Made by Joel and his Paper Cities.
-our once weekly support classes at CFT.
Gillian is learning some basic French language & culture (from her Grandma!)
She is learning drawing skills & calendar skills.
She gets to share all her scientific discoveries with other kids.
We get introduced to great books.
She loves her lovely, youthful teacher, Mrs. Jensen.

Morning Gathering

We begin our school day together for "circle time".

We sing songs. We might dance a bit or practice clapping out rhythms.

Sometimes it might get a little loud.

Strength training of sorts & aerobic exercises are part of the routine.

(Also - if you want to vote for my kids to win more of awesome Livie & Luca shoes, 

go onto their photo contest on facebook here. 

You can vote for as many photos as you want to.)

The Great Staycation of 2012

Last week we vacationed in our home area.  

The Daddy took the week off of work & we ventured out daily for a new adventure.

It was great!

Ocean View Park.  Slides & Picnics.

Exploring new neighborhoods, via bikes & walking, too.

Rides at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Burgers at Betty's.

San Francisco Zoo.
Getting rear ended in traffic.  (no car damage, just coffee splatted all over my husband.)

Breakfast at Trailside Cafe.
Monterey Tide Pool exploration.
MY children's Museum of Monterey.

More traffic issues mean we don't make it to the Palo Alto duck pond.
We choose the Arboretum at USCS instead.

On our last day we went hiking at Henry Cowell & I did not bring our camera.
But, Gillian declared the swimming hole in Fall Creek as being "gooder than good."
It was awesome.