47 1/2

Mister Twister was a Balloon Guy!

We went to the Rancho Santa Margarita library with our friends, Amanda, Kali and Tatum, to watch him work wonders with balloons! He was awesome, and taught us all how to make a bunch of different things...

then we were set loose to try out what we had learned:

Max got bit by his mosquito: this was my favorite one...

we learned how to make a sword (orange), a fish (purple), a bee (blue) and a mosquito (green), which could also be a hummingbird...but the 'squito was cuter!

here's a close up of my 'squito: Amanda and I were quite impressed with ourselves that we could make these! soooo fun!

A Pony

Ivy's first pony tail...for the books!

Day 47:

Mid-Morning Bike Ride

So, the bike riding thing isn't the best...yet...because with max in such close proximity to ivy, he's way too tempted to pull out her binks for no reason, give her noogies and poke her...which leads to Jeff hollering over his shoulder, scolding, kids screaming, etc...no pleasant. So, driving home from Target today, my brain came up with a wondrous idea...why it wasn't obvious before is beyond me...trade bikes, switch the passengers around in the trailers, and all will be well! So: Here's Ivy's favorite new bike-riding buddy, Dallin: Dallin was kicking with delight the whole time, and I didn't hear anything but happy noises coming from Kristy's trailer!
And Max and I rode kristy's bike...which has the awesome kid attachment: he loved it times 17!

Kristy and the 2 kids...

We rode to one of my favorite places in HB...that I've been dying to take a picture of since we moved here: Palm St...No, I'm not crooked, all the palm trees point to the beach...isn't that rad?!?

Now that the passenger situation is solved, I'm sure we'll be doing a heck of a lot more bike riding around here!

...stay tuned for 47 1/2...Mr. Twister

Dangerous

One of Max's favorite people is Annalena...She's stinkin' cute! We made her this cape because she likes to be Batgirl...and you just can't be batgirl without a cape, right? So here are BatMax and Batgirl playing... The other day when Max and I were driving home from the airplanes, I turned on the radio and a song came on called Dangerous, by Akon...Max, out of nowhere, goes: 'Mom, this is Annalena's song.' I had no idea why he said that, so I asked why. he says: 'you know, Bat Girl!' For all of you who don't want to listen to that kind of music...the song goes: 'that girl is so dangerous, that girl is so dangerous, that girl is a bad girl, yeah...ha! Max thinks it says Bat girl...and that cracks me up!
Isn't she pretty!?!
we love you, batgirl!

Day 46:

After Max's 3 year Dr.'s appt today(check out the sidebar to the right for his latest stats),

we went looking for a different kind of Strike, today we

Bowled for free!

They do this all over the country. Check out this website to find the closest alley to you!.. every kid gets 2 games for free, each day during the summer...you have to pay for shoes...unless your kids feet are too little to fit, and then you don't! We met up with the Westover girlies at the Anaheim bowling alley. The kids did great taking turns, and waiting patiently. Luckily we had an end lane...or we would have had some issues (or, rather, I would have had some issues).

Initially, someone else was using the ramp, so for the first half of our game, they bowled like big kids...and did great! Each of them got a spare, I think Tatum even got a strike...get em!

Look how cute these girlies are:

Here's the final score...Good job, Tato! Such a fun activity, especially for free...!

Day 45:

Free Admission Day at the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Woo hoo, we love free! This was the first REAL Museum that I've ever taken Max to...I was excited to see how it was. Can you tell that he loved it by this picture: When we first got there, we toured around the Animals of Africa and the Animals of North America rooms...there were a ton of awesome animals to see, very real looking...uh, were they real? (now that I'm thinking about it, I guess they could have been...whatever) but it was extremely dark in there, and loud and there were lots of people...so I think Max was scared. Then I took him out to sit in front of a ginormous T-rex...hmmm, screaming ensued. Anyways, then we went downstairs to see the insects and the childrens area:
and we dug for dinosaurs, and got to try to help put a skeleton together...

He got to hold crabs and lobsters, touch shells and huge crystals. We saw a million bugs, tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, cockroaches, snakes, turtles, lizards, you-name-it. There were fun insect puppets to play with, puzzles to do, animal skins to pet...holy cow, so much! We gave Hailey and Becky a little taste of Max...I'm sure Becky is glad she's got a Hailey and not a Max after watching him run around like a ca-razy guy all over the place!This was a pretty amazing place for kids... Isn't Hailey so stinkin' cute...can't get enough of that little one!

Anyways, by the time we reached the childrens area, Max was a happy camper, Ivy was a doll, as usual...We had such a fun time! After we got home, we were eating a bowl of cheerios when all of a sudden, Max came to attention...he heard the joyous music of you know who... So he got the Great White Shark Popsicle...shark, of course!

and loved every lick!

Another fun day!

Day 44:

Frequent Flyers!

We got this idea from Jen, and what a great idea it was!

Found a little road that dead-ended right next to the landing pad of John Wayne Airport (which is like 10 minutes away) and sat and watched the planes come in. We could see them coming from sooo far away because they all had their lights on.
We saw tiny planes, jets, helicopters, bi-planes, and baggage trucks, and tractors. Sooo fun, it was a feast for Max's eyes! We were so close that they were huge!

even the little dinky ones were fun to watch.

After an hour or so, (yep, it kept his attention that long...and I even had to drag him back into his car seat), we drove down a little bit further so we could actually see them hit the pavement, and also see some taking off...we found a little parking lot where we saw about 50 of these little teeny ones.

Watching the planes take off...

sunday extras

Max wanted to hold Ivy today, and this is what she did: Max loves his little sister, and thinks it's so fun when she's 'giddin me.' It's so fun that he gets that she's not trying to hurt him, and he just lets her do it...He's so cute with her...99.2% of the time. :) And...
I've been itchin' to do it, and we did it...Ivy's got pink paint nolish on as of today!

such cute girl toes! don't look too close...I'm not good at painting!

Day 43:

Finger Painting Lots of colors
and lots of fingers
makes for some freaking awesome placemats!
Sundays are chill around here!
ps...thanks mar mar for the paints, and Grandma for the perfect paper from Tempe 10th's library!

Day 42:

Dino Mountain and Fisher Price Play Day at the Wild Animal Park!

I reserved Jeff today, and he got to be with us all day! So rare! I was planning to go to the WAP solo, but got lucky... For the next month or so, they have a dinosaur exhibit at the zoo...I know, big whoop...they're all going to be fake, how cool could it be? But we had such a great time!
All of them moved, they were all close up, they all made sounds, and were actually very well-made and realistic looking.

Max got to move one of them...

...got to see how their skin might feel... And learned that some dinosaurs spit poisonous venom to ward off their prey, first hand. We got a little wet. so funny!

Each dinosaur had a stamp that we got to put on our Passport as we saw them and learned about them, Max is a huge stamp fan, so he had them stamped all over his arms...and mine!

And then, for the real reason we went today in particular, the WAP annually throws a fisher price play day where Dora, and Diego come to visit, and they break out all the latest fisher price toys for the kids to play with for free. Most importantly, they let them play with these:

oh yeah!

Power Wheels...he wants one of these so bad! I know how he feels, I used to want the barbie jeep when I was little...sigh. sorry, bud...not happenin'.

The high-light of the day: Maxer driving his escalade!

...yes, ALL the fisherprice toys...even the pink ones. He made me a beautiful necklace. Maybe I'll wear it to church tomorrow. :)

We played there for 3 hours! Max loved it!

Then, on the way home, we stopped at the Rainbow Sandal Outlet...supposed to be the most amazing sandal on earth, or so my friends tell me. Jeff's feet have now seen the sun for the first time in years...don't look, or you might go blind!

Then, on to something that made EVERYONE happy, even this cute thing:Hallelujah!!!! There's a new one of these in Mission Viejo...not so far from home! oh my!This is me, squealing with delight all the way home...the straw never once left my lips. Southern California just got a whole lot better...and it was pretty stinkin' great to begin with!Such a great day: got home, Jeff made us Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon, mashed taters, corn on the cob-ski...and cleaned up like a champ...amazing! Emily came over so we could catch up... I've missed you! and it was Ivy's 4 month birthday!

She is such a blessing to have in our family! Happy birthday, we love you, Ivy!