Swim Lessons

We are taking swim lessons with Caleb & Evie for the next two weeks at the Kingsburg Pool. Tonight was our first night and Daddy came to snap some first swim pictures. All three of the babies loved it. Although they did not kick or blow bubbles very well, they were all very good students and enjoyed the water.

Niana's First Birthday

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby!

picture by Amy K Photography

Shaver Lake 2008

We spent a week at a friend's cabin at Shaver Lake. We rested, ate, and played with the Griffins. Both girls (just 5 months apart) had a blast. I suppose mommies and daddies did too!

Our days consisted of...

Monday: Mommies rest and watch babies play. Daddies go back to Fresno for some unfinished business (oh, and Scott bought a motorcycle!)

Tuesday: Between AM and PM naps, we ventured out to a little unknown lake (not Shaver or Huntington, but inbetween the two) for a picnic lunch. Our little rock climbers loved it! They also got to be carried in while mommies and daddies hiked a little ways. Everyone took an afternoon nap as thunder clouds rolled in. Then back for B&J's date night. They went to H. Lake for dinner. Met a few locals and a dingy dog named Harry(?).

Wednesday: Are we renting a Jet Ski? Not yet! We visited the town of Shaver, had lunch at Hungry Hut, looked at a few shops and had great COFFEE drinks at Bob's Espresso. It wa Scott & My date night.... we ate at Trapper's at the Point (yummy!) and ventured off the road to find Big Creek (a small town for Southern CA Edison workers) and the back road to Huntington Lake.

Thursday: The day to rent jet skis? Maybe tomorrow. We went up to Huntington Lake to look around. Spent the afternoon and early evening there taking pictures and enjoying some locals singing karoke while we ate pizza by the lake. The small cottage like cabins reminded me of Fallen Leaf Lake near Lake Tahoe (another adventure we had with B&J before babies).

Friday: And the last day to rent Jet Skis.... came and went. We toodled around, went to get more coffee at Bob's and then took the kids to the park---- where the sun was beating down it burnt our bottoms to slide or swing, so we opted for the laps back and forth on a church porch.

Saturday: our last day... how sad! We cleaned up the cabin and came home. Scott & I then got to work on our yard. Niana's birthday party is this Friday, so we wanted to make sure there were no big puddles created from her big birthday splash.

Thanks Griffins for having so much fun with us this past week!

Water Play

On the 4th, we also played in the water! Niana loved it! She was in the sprinkler trying to grab onto a stream of water. She followed the house to the source of the water and eventually found some mud. She played at Evie's water table with Evie & Rebecca Egli.

Right outside my kitchen window there used to be a strip of useless land. It was dirty, hot, and dusty. It was an empty path to a dead end in the yard. But this spring, we decided to turn it into a salsa garden. We chose a variety of chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and a few more herbs for cooking. We put a gate at the end to the front yard, and made little stepping stones go out to the front drive. I also threw out some sunflower seed to see what would happen.

So here are a few snapshots of our garden. It makes looking out my kitchen window bareable! I still need a bit of ground cover to come in to hide the dirt, but it is coming along!

We have about 20 zillion chilies and 2 tomatoes. The herbs are growing nicely (I used cinnamon basil in our chicken dish last night). The bell pepper plant is stunted and the tomatios are blooming, but not prodicing fruit. The cilantro grew like crazy and has now withered into nothingness, but it is my first attempt at a garden, and I am enjoying the look of it from my window!

Niana's Name in Lights

Amazing what creativity sparks after a great meal and pyrotechnics display at the Griffin's house. It's a sparkly shout out to our little gal (who slept through it all...sort of)!

3rd day at home......

Today is my 3rd day on summer vacation. WHOO-HOO! No, paying for daycare for the next 8 weeks! It is also my third day at home with Niana. What do I do now? That's the question at hand. For any of you stay at home mommies, give me some ideas. How do you spend your days? So far, we have read every book in the house (and have pulled them off of every shelf). We have explored the tupperware drawer (and pulled every container out and they are strewn across the living room). Tv jus sucks us in and nothing gets accomplished. I tried to organize our day with activities (like I would do at school) but with the attention span of, well, a one year old... it's only 10 min at the most at any one activity.

So, what should I do with the rest of my time?

TIA,
SUSAN