Birthday breakfast

We started my birthday morning with lots of hugs and snuggles and birthday wishes and then we were off to breakfast at the buttery. Our favorite bakery & cafe.

Ethan is eating a cookie. He said "look mom, I can take my time" and he takes the tiniest bite. He often inhales his goodies and then wants Evie's. She always takes her time and enjoys her treats.

This is Joel and my favorite breakfast from the buttery. The sweet treats come after this. This is called Croque Monsieur - Ham, carmalized onions, Swiss cheese, béchamel and medium poached eggs on toasted sour wheat bread. I can't wait for my mom and dad to visit - my dad's going to LOVE this.

My birthday was fantastic. We had a play date with Ethan's school class at a local park after breakfast. All of the preschool and pre-K teachers and aids were there along with many parents and classmates. We met Joel for lunch at our favorite sushi place and then the kids and I went swimming in the afternoon. Sadly Joel came home from work with food poisoning or a touch of something. The kids and I went to the boardwalk in the evening. I'll post pictures later but it was a fun evening. Sadly, without my hubby. He did wake up the next morning feeling back to himself though. Thanks again to all of you for your wonderful birthday wishes.

Picking blackberries

The blackberries bushes grow like weeds around Santa Cruz. They are all over our bike trails and on the side of the roads and all over at the parks. They have been ripening at different times also so it feels like we have been enjoying blackberries for two months now. Joel found this ripe patch on his lunch ride Friday. We went picking when he came home from work.

The kids of course are stoked.

Grandma Joyce taught me a good lesson when we were picking blackberries in her back yard. Only let the kids eat what they pick and not out of the bag/bowl and that way they don't just eat by the handful. It does slow them down a bit. Prolonging the tummy ache just a bit. :)

Ethan showing me he eats one at a time.

Well, this is a bit sad but Ethan was using the handles on his bag and swinging his bag around in circles, dragging it on the ground and making juice...which was flying everywhere since he now had holes in his bag. Anyway, he was bummed that Joel took his bag away. I put his bag into a new one with out holes but it was too late. His feelings were already crushed.

This was in our morning. Joel made yummy blackberry pancakes for breakfast.

Ethan is carefully watching. He has such bed head. He is also sporting Claudia's old jammies. It's hard to believe we sleep in full footed jammies here in the summer. I think in NE we would be sweating with the air conditioner on.

Grandma Joyce the Pilot

After much hard work and a lot of studying and intense training Joyce got her pilots license. We are all so proud of her. She is such a good inspiration to us all that if we put our minds to something we can accomplish great things. We had the chance to see inside the plane she was training in and watch her take off.

There goes grandma the pilot

VIDEO: Joyce taking off. Ethan yelling "Bye grandma".

SeaLife and Lego Land day #2

We had a free pass to come back to Legoland a 2nd day. Our day actually went by so fast. We went swimming at the hotel in the morning and just took our time getting going but the afternoon went so quickly that I wish I would have just got the kids ready and went straight to the park. We ran out of time and steam towards the end of the afternoon. We pushed it and wound up sitting in bad traffic for hours trying to make dinner in Riverside.

Ethan was giving me his grumpy, fussy, I don't want to take a picture face as we entered SeaLife. He quickly cheered up once we got inside.

The kids had fun building on this Lego castle outside the touch tank area

Ethan, getting a closer look

Evie of course found a little pink fish

We had a few hours to spend in the park after SeaLife. Evie got to see Bob the Builder.

These hot dogs were $5 apiece. They weren't anything fancy either. They were the only thing to eat that wasn't an insane line or insanely expensive. I guess $15 for three hot dogs is pretty insane...

We made it to the water park and it was soooo busy. I had a hard time relaxing because I would quickly loose site of the kids. We stayed in this tot zone for most of our time there. The kids had a great time and I could keep an eye on them better.

Did I mention there were a LOT of people...

Evie and Ethan getting ready to head down the big slide

This was part of the downtown NY exhibit in mini-world. The cars moved. It was pretty over the top.
This was Evie's favorite ride. We had to do it one last time on our way out of the park. It was a great time. I hope we can do it again and bring daddy.

Legoland, CA day #1

The kids and I went to Legoland one day on our trip to Riverside. Actually a day and a half because we got this park pass to come back the next day for free. We stayed the night in a hotel so it was easy to go back the next day for a bit. In the parking lot they have Volvo primer parking with these Lego people all around. Evie got such a kick out of them. I liked the Volvo and Ethan just stayed in the stroller...he didn't seem to notice either.

Let the fun begin.
First stop a roller coaster. Ethan was tall enough to go but I had to ride with him. Evie was a brave girl and rode with this girl who was in front of us in line.

Ethan, on a safari expedition.

This was Evie's favorite ride. A boat ride that took you through a maze of children's stories. This was her last ride request at the end of the day too.

They had a little splash park next to the playground. We brought suits into the park just in case we made it to the water park, located inside the park.

They had this Volvo covered in Legos. Is that bad if I want it even if it's covered in Legos.

They had this mini-world that was pretty cool. Evie loved it. It was pretty detailed and to think everything was made out of Legos was pretty mind blowing.

Bob the Builder's gal-pal.

Evie on a boat ride around mini-world. She looks so tired. Ethan is asleep on my lap. We are close to calling it a day.

Jessica and Bryce met us at our hotel and went to dinner with us. We stuffed ourselves on burgers at Island. The kids were so good. They were tired and therefore more mellow than usual.