Skittles in a cupcake

To celebrate a friend’s birthday, Ellie was invited to Duffs CakeMix. A place where you can decorate your own cakes and cupcakes using professional tools and materials and lots of candy. The girls ended up cutting out the center of the cupcakes and filling them with candy before putting frosting and unicorn horns and symbols from Harry Potter on the top. 

Happy Anniversary Grandma Pam and Grandpa Mike

Happy 46th wedding anniversary Grandma Pam and Grandpa Mike. Apparently the anniversary gift is poetry. So the kids have something to say.

Crystal and clocks

Fifteen years ago today, we got married. This is one of my favorite photos of us. We had been married almost two years, I had just graduated with my masters degree, Nick had just take an amazing job in Boston, and here we were in Venice...this was the calm before the storm of what was one of  first major life changes and experiences for us. We had had many adventures including cross-country moves and the doubling the size of our family unit, and I could not have asked for a better partner. 

And now on to our next adventure...

Football

Calvin told us he wrote sentences in his booklet, including “I love North America”. Pretty impressive. He also is doing some impressive drawings, like his football game.

And his emojis, including a poop emoji.

Water slides

Sunday we had breakfast with Goody and then spent the late morning and mid-day at the Disneyland Hotel pool. It was finally fun to be in the pool with the kids. Ellie is a natural in the pool and Calvin is a good enough swimmer that he doesn’t need someone to hold him all the time (he did have a life jacket on though). And Calvin discovered the water slides...even the big one. He had a blast going down the slides, by himself, and splashing into the pool at the bottom. 

Disneyland

One last photo from Friday night which summarizes it pretty well (mommy and daddy all dressed up and the kids in jammies...and Calvin’s shoes hiding in the green screen)

Okay two:

On Saturday, as exhausted as we all were, we spent the day at Disneyland. Only one park. Which was fun and we did some things we normally don’t. Like ride Buzz Lightyear 3 times (Calvin’s favorite) or hit all the mountains and Indiana Jones, at least twice for Ellie or sail on the Mark Twain and paddle canoes around the island or play hide and seek on the island or have churros and ice cream and share a caramel apple while sitting on the ground or finding a spot on Main Steet to see the fireworks and the projection show. Calvin decided he doesn’t like Haunted Mansion (welcome to team mommy). Ellie has started to become a big kid and is “over” the characters and insisted on her own teacup. Calvin though he was actually driving in and Toad and freaked out when he thought he almost crashed. Ellie is competitive at Buzz Lightyear now (which we take VERY seriously). And massive donuts while in line for Peter Pan make everything better. 

Disney Party

Tonight Nick and I attended a 60th anniversary celebration party for the local chapter of the American Concrete Institute. I am VP of the local chapter and had to give a little talk and was involved with the celebration planning. It was definitely a party. 

The kids were babysat by my friend’s daughters. My friend was also involved with the planning. We got adjoining rooms and so the kids had space to spread out. He girls worked hard to get Calvin to sleep, but Ellienand the other girls definitely were up WAY past their bedtime. 

Before the party the kids came down and got some pics with Mickey and Minnie.