The Week in Pictures

Elliot is a very happy baby. We can always make him squeal/giggle, and he often returns a smile with a big, bashful grin before hiding his face in my shoulder.

 Hie is also pretty interested in being held nonstop. Thankfully, I can usually get some things done by wearing him around in the carrier. My back is sure getting strong!

 Emergency trip to the laundromat this week. We misplaced the key to the laundry room at our apartment complex, so Cal helped me take everything to a laundromat when we ran our of clean clothes.

 Bowling with friends. The worker was so nice and brought the kids two special bowling balls that only weighed 6 pounds. It was still a struggle for either of the kids to lift them, but each of them did manage a spare -- all on their own!

A cooking class with good friends at Sur la Table this week. The theme was "Summer Fiesta." It was so fun spending time with these two girls. (And I even smuggled some pork home to my husband!)

 Dinner and swimming with friends. They made us pizza on their grill (fantastic!), and the kids ran around changing in and out of swimsuits.

 Reed got to try out their new drum set. Look at that smile!

 The kids had a dancing contest while Reed was drumming.

 And finally, ending the week with a splash in the pool with Dad and friends.

 Just a cross section of our summer. :)

Summer of Love: Mini Golf

In an effort to control how much TV Cal watches this summer, he and I created this "Screen time" chart. It has ten simple chores on it, like getting dressed, packing his bag for the day, cleaning his room, etc. I'm hoping it will help him get better (and faster!) at our morning routine.

Tonight, we went out for burgers and shakes as a family, and then played a round of mini golf together. It was a really hot day, but after the sun had set, the weather was just perfect.

Summer of Love: Food Trucks

Reed and I have been wanting to try out the food trucks for a while now, and we decided that getting a group together for dinner would make for a perfect summer's evening. We certainly weren't disappointed.

 About halfway through the evening, the street musicians made an announcement and had the crowd serenade Cal for his birthday. Here he is waving to everyone as the accordion hummed out "Happy Birthday."

We drove home under a starry sky, bellies full of street tacos and frozen custard, ears ringing with accordion music, kids asleep in their carseats. :)

Cal's Fire Station Birthday

Cal had a fun firetruck birthday this month to celebrate turning five. We took a tour of our city fire station, and activity I highly recommend, birthday or no.

The fire captain and his team were so wonderful with the kids. We had a huge group (around 20 kids, with their parents), and the station team was very kind and accommodating.

After a tour of where the fireman eat, sleep and work at the station, they took us out to the garage to show us some safety demonstrations, which I ended up loving. First, they had Cal demonstrate "stop, drop, and roll." He was so excited to be helping the fire captain with his demo.

One of the fire fighters got suited up head to toe in fire-fighting gear, not only to show the kids the different pieces of the uniform, but also to ensure them that they did not need to be afraid when I firefighter found them inside a building.

They divided us into two groups, and showed us all the compartments on the engines. The kids were super interested.

Here's the whole group. We have such an awesome community of friends here in California. We had kids from church, and several friends from preschool.

When the tour finished up, the party continued at a nearby park. Reed was an awesome husband and skipped the station tour in order to set up the food for me. The station tour ended right around lunchtime, so the kids were hungry!

The main attraction was, of course, this amazing fire truck cake that my friend Natalie made. It had light up siren and headlights, and was a delicious, from scratch chocolate that I now crave daily.

I can't believe my little guy is five.  We love you, Cal. Thanks for making our lives such a fun adventure. :)

Summer of Love: Beach Day

Summer of Love: Ward Picnic

Summer is Here!

Final field trip: Pizza party:

Last day of preschool water party:

Swim Lessons with Elena and Sammy:

Rob's Birthday Party at the drive-in:

Park visits:

Monday Morning movie club:

Kids Bowl Free:

We Love Summer!