Kitties Part II

I never expected to become attached to a feline, let alone 5 of them! But here they are and here they will stay until either we move away or another neighbor takes over feeding them. As the evening cools, the kitties all come out from the shade of the bushes, ready to eat and snuggle.

Even Austin who is not really an animal person has enjoyed having them around. Holding them is very soothing as long as he can immediately use a lint roller to remove every last strand of hair from his clothes.

This is Dolly. She started out as one of our favorites until she went through a moody spell. Now she has been bumped down the favorite cat lineup, being replaced by Princess and Scout . This is Scout. For a long time Austin and I tried to think of the perfect name for her. We didn't want anything too girlie. We came up with Scout at the same time. I was thinking of the young girl in "To Kill a Mocking Bird" and he was thinking of a military sniper scout sneaking through the bushes. Whatever, it works for us both.

Corona Del Mar

About a week and a half ago one of my forever friends, Leah, was out visiting from Utah and we all decided to hang out at the beach for the day. It was a bit windy and cold but we still had a great time.

I didn't go in the water but the kids did and they said it was warmer than our pool. I kinda doubt that!

Whenever we are at the beach Austin and Lauren love to dig huge holes. This hole came up to Austin's chest and he needed a little help to get out of it! They wanted to dig until they hit water and they actually did.

Somehow, I got lazy and didn't get a picture of Leah but I did snap one of my girls with her daughter Marissa. Marissa looks so much like Leah when she was a kid, it's scary! The girls had a great time together even though they haven't seen each other in many years.

Family Gathering

Last weekend we had a family get together while Aaron's Dad was visiting from Hawaii. We had a great time enjoying each other's company, BBQing and swimming. Hope to have more of these in the future!

She's Got Skills

Today I had so much fun teaching Lauren how to sew and she had just as much fun learning! She started out watching me turn pants into shorts, then before I knew it she'd learned how to thread the machine, fill the bobbins with thread and attach the bobbins underneath. She practiced sewing straight lines on an old shirt and then once she was confident we decided to make a sleeping bag for her special stuffed animal (AKA "Dog Dog"). The sleeping bag turned out perfectly and Dog Dog is sleeping comfortably in his new bed. Lauren, on the other hand can't wait to get back to work. Oh, the things you can create with a sewing machine!

Airfest 2010

My kids are obsessed with the military. Well, two of them anyway. I think Austin knows the name of every flying and shooting machine ever made. He has enrolled in ROTC for his sophomore year and is planning to join the military after high school. Amanda decided a few months ago that she wants to be a military nurse and help put soldiers back together. The idea of them being in harm's way kills me but I don't get to choose their dreams or tell them what to do with their lives. Instead I will do the same as any other mother. I will do what I can to support them and pray....pray that they will change their minds!
Ha, ha!

Yesterday we went to the Airfest at March Air Reserve Base. As we pulled onto the base we saw uniformed soldiers with guns in their arms and pistols strapped to their legs. Everyone got pretty excited.
Then we saw things like helicopters

and F15's that threw your eardrums into shock and made every baby within a 10 mile radius cry.

There was this gigantic beast that made you wonder how something that size could actually fly.

This is the inside of it where we got to get out the sun for a bit.

A helicopter with big gun. The things dreams are made of.

See that smile on Austin's face? That's what "love at first sight" looks like. Maybe someday it will be a girl instead of a gun.

The girls enjoyed having their faces painted in camouflage colored stripes. In this picture Amanda is blushing and giggling because the lady told her she loves her freckles. I love her freckles too.

Lemonade

Today the kids decided to make homemade lemonade out of the lemons they picked from my Grandma's backyard tree.We don't have one of those fancy electric juicers. We don't even have one of those cone juicers you smoosh the fruit onto.

They just juiced these lemons by hand, squeezing every last drop out of them.

After the squishing and squeezing they sifted out the seeds,

then decided to taste their juice before it was sweetened.

Here is Austin's reaction...

and Lauren's. Amanda barely flinched.

We ended up with a large pitcher and a half of lemonade that's suprisingly good. Strong, but good.

Easter 2010

Another Easter has come and gone. We celebrated by going through our usual routine. I guess "tradition" would be a more heartwarming word to use. On Easter Eve we boiled, then decorated 2 dozen eggs. Notice the look on Austin's face and you can probably guess what's going through his head. After dying a few eggs he said apologetically, "Mom, I'm just too big now to hunt for eggs in the morning." I told him that was ok, that now he could be the one to hide them.

That put a smile on his face!

Aaron tried to get in on the fun but got sent to the couch for teasing too much :) Ha, ha!

We dipped some of the eggs in dye and did a marbleizing technique others. Then Lauren decided to add some finishing touches.

The kids either got ultra-creative or ultra-sloppy, I'm not sure which, but we sure ended up with

some colorful, unique eggs.

The next morning after opening Easter baskets, Austin got to work hiding the eggs...

and the girls got busy finding them.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home. Lauren played with her new ball, Amanda read her new book and Austin played his new video game. Aaron and I spent the day raiding the baskets for treats and begging our children for chocolate.

Father's Day Campout

One thing Aaron really loves to do is go camping so we thought this would be a great way to celebrate Father's Day. We packed everything up Sunday morning and headed up to SouthFork campground in the San Gorgonio Mountains. We'd been told this was a nice campground along the Santa Ana River and we were really excited that we'd get to play in the water. Well, the river turned out to be a stream two feet wide. That was a bit disappointing but the campground was still beautiful. We hung out and relaxed, then went on a short hike. Then we drove over to Jenks Lake just a couple miles away. The lake was so incredibly clean, you could actually see the fish swimming around in it! After hanging out there for a while we headed back to camp for dinner and smores. We left early the next morning, so it was just a quick little camping trip. We are hoping to do many more this summer.

Family Photo

For years we've been saying that we need to have a family photo taken. Here I am, hoping to someday be a professional photographer and I haven't even had my own family's picture taken in 5 years! A couple nights ago, the kids surprised me and Aaron with this near life-sized chalk rendering of our family. "Take a picture," they said. "It can be our new family photo!"

The Rescue

When we moved into our current house six months ago, the kids were super excited that they were going to have their own built in swimming pool. Their excitement faded quickly as all the water began to leek out through cracks in the walls and the water began to turn green. Month after month we contacted the owners to take care of this problem but they never got around to it. As the weather began to warm up, the pool/pond became infested with mosquito larvae and we dreaded the day they would hatch. In an attempt to deal with this, Aaron went and bought 30 tiny goldfish and tossed them into the pool to eat the larvae and hold off the swarms of mosquitoes. Last week the pool guy FINALLY arrived to restore our pool to working order. He hooked up a pump to drain the green water and said he would be back the next day to repair it. By early evening the pool was empty except for a small puddle of sludge and about 20 goldfish who'd tripled in size. They lay there flopping in about and inch and a half of yuck, gasping for breath. I was horrified that they would just lay there suffocating and asked Aaron to please save their lives. He looked at me incredulously for a minute and then went to work. He carefully walked down the length of the slippery, slimy pool, squatted down and began "fishing" around the muck for the goldfish.

Austin watched as Aaron demonstrated the lengths a man will go to for the woman he loves. I'm not quite sure what he thought of that...

After Aaron rescued the fishies he gave them a little bath on the driveway, then put them into a nice clean fish bowl.

I was so grateful that Aaron saved their lives and didn't make me watch them flip and flop 'til they took their last breaths. That evening we went out to dinner and when we returned we discovered that every one of those goldfish had croaked in our absence! We were shocked that after Aaron's efforts, they ended up dying anyway. Oh well, at least he tried.