Day 41:

Jaxon and June bugs

My second cousin, Erin, and her little boy, Jaxon came down from Seattle to visit Bette and Rick. I haven't seen Erin since I was a little girl, and even then, the visits were few and far between. We were friends, and used to bury letters to each other in our little fort at my Grandma's house, as our visits there rarely overlapped. Anyway, so fun to see her again, and let our little kiddos play. I guess Max and Jaxon are 3rd cousins... who knows! anyway, they played trucks, dabbled in sidewalk art, played a little ball, and most importantly, Rick, my mom's cousin, caught a June Bug, and the boys got to hold it...Max Loves Bugs!
The things are HUGE when they fly around, but are actually not so big when you catch them.

...and they are kind of pretty, in a bug sort of way...

All is well in Max's world when he can hold a critter!

Home-Made Sidewalk Chalk

About a week ago, I made some home-made sidewalk chalk. Our sticks were turning into nubbins, and my sister sent me a link with the recipe...so I thought it would be a fun thing for me to try. (Max probably doesn't care). I was nervous that they wouldn't work, so I had to try them out first before having someone else come play with them (kim...)

They look like, well, poo, but they work!

Using toilet paper rolls, waxed paper, plaster of paris, water and washable paint... They wouldn't look so much like 'dump' if I had a funnel...I've been stinkin' wishin' I had a funnel for forever!

but they are huge, which are more fun to color with!

I was hoping for non-pastel colors, but with a whole lotta paint, pastel is all I got...whatever, dude.

Happy Chalk Making...here's the link.

start saving your toto paper rolls!

Day 40:

Prehistoric Pets

aka...The Reptile Zoo

Max, Ivy and I drove just a couple of blocks away to see a little bit of crazy. Huge Tortoises, crawling on top of each other. We watched them eat fresh fruits and vegetables...
We also watched some other boys feeding the turtles these nasty 'super worms'

we saw a two-headed California King Snake... how does that work?!?

and lots of huge tarantulas, lizards, turtles and snakes.

Then we got to hold a baby tortoise...one of the babies of the huge ones that were crawling over each other. This one was 3 months old

We got to hold a bearded dragon.. and try to feed it one of those nasty 'super worms.'

And we got to hold and touch 3 different Ball Snakes...

This was such a cool place. If you go, beware: there are unsupervised crazy animals just laying around on benches, etc.. Yikes! We had an absolute blast! Max couldn't wait to hold the animals...and he was the only kid that would even touch them!

Day 39:

Atlantis Play Center in Garden Grove
A massive park with a ga-jillion different play area's. I was chasing Max from one end of the park to the other, but I know he was having sooo much fun!
Everything in this play area has something to do with Atlantis from their oyster shell water fountains to their Sea Dragon Slides. It only costs $1 to get in, and although the equipment is very old, it was new to us, and so fun for Maxer...the nap should be extensive today!

Danny the Sea Dragon Slide:

This is Max's Pirate face: (arggggh) he was on the pirate ship:

Ivy, relaxing all cool:

More sea dragon sliding...a favorite...:

Shark Encounter:

Swallowed by a Whale Slide:

Riding on the dolphin with Berkleigh and Merrick:

Day 38:

Today, we went to learn how they do it, here in SoCal... ...another free movie, with not so free popcorn... but I did love the free booster seats they have at the theater!

**Extra bonus, we met the Waldron's there!**

Day 37:

Today, we went here and played in here: (elmo's bay of play)

with them and them.

We walked about a mile and a half to get there because we decided we didn't want to pay the ridiculous $12 to park, so we parked at Kristy's parents house on Mission Bay. Made quite a spectacle of myself doing so because I fed Ivy on the way. I asked Jen's sister-in-law to push Max in our double stroller, so I wouldn't have to make my friends wait for me in the park...freaking awesome way to burn some extra calories by the way, nurse and walk at the same time! Thanks, Brooke!

After the walk back, we stopped here:

and had one of these:

{ (I'm a fan!)...highly recommend my Heath Bar Milkshake!}

...and got home just in time for tubby time! Long day, but fun!

Day 36:

The Cone Game

Sundays we try to get creative with our fun activities... Today, I got some of our cones out of the garage. While Max was eating some homemade ice cream that B & M made him, I ran outside and put half of the cones upright and half of the cones down. Max versus Mom, Max had to try to kick all the cones down while mom had to try to set all the cones back up! Holy workout! hmmmm... one of us won, multiple times...we won't tell who.
Then we invited Merrick, Berkleigh and Jen out to play...that was a little more fun...but the mom's still won, even though it was 3 against 2!

Day 35:

Fairview Park

Max loves going here! This is our second time going, and it's always really fun to watch. There are a bunch of old guys, and one random kid, that come every saturday, including our neighbor, Andy, that launch their Model Airplanes. They do stunts and flips, and they take off and land pretty frequently.
The guys are pretty particular about their planes, and you really shouldn't touch them, or get too close to any of their equipment...but you can check things out from a distance!

This time, we gathered up all of max's airplanes before we left so he'd have something to touch.

Max told one of the guys that his airplane looked like a 'farmer stunt plane.' Where he came up with that name, I have no idea, but the man could not stop exclaiming how smart Max was to call it that...he taught him a little bit about crop-dusters...unfortunately, he already knows a thing or two about cropdusting...winkwink and to make it all the more fun, they had a steamroller and a bulldozer there, with no one to tell us we couldn't play on them..woooo-hooooo!

Next time we go, we need to make sure Andy is there!

Day 34:

The Best Backyard Ever!

We got to go have lunch at the Amaral's house today...holy so fun!

Max got to jump on their trampoline...

swim in their amazing pool...

show everyone his coppertone crack...

and go down the most beautiful water slide I think I've ever seen...
Climbin' up...
and shootin' down!

The waterslide was so fast, he only went 3 times, but LOVED it! The Amaral's also have doggies...which Max loves, and he could have probably entertained himself for hours throwing the tennis ball in the pool for the dog to jump in and retrieve. We had such a fun afternoon, thanks Rich and Michele for inviting us over! We love your house!

Day 33:

Our friends took us to Mother's Beach today...So awesome! I can't believe we've taken so long to go there! It's some sort of little inlet where the water is still and pretty shallow. The kids were able to run in and out of the water at will, and the moms were able to sit back and relax a little more than at the regular beach. I could have stayed there all day!

Max, Berkleigh and Merrick couldn't get enough of holding hands and running into the water...

cute little kiddos

We can't wait to go back there again!