Cousins and friends...

Since Jax just got out of school, the kids were anxious for him to come down and spend a few days at our house. He had to put up with our crazy dance and baseball schedule this week, but we found time to have lots of fun in between.

We spent some time at the park...

If there is a tree around, this is where you will usually find Zoe...

Since it was a hot day, they came home to swim for a couple of hours before practice. The kids decided they wanted a backyard campout that night, so we set up the tent for some camp fun.

We wanted to find a mellow activity to do, to try to conserve some energy (and since they didn't sleep much in the tent!), so we went to the local ceramics painting shop for a few hours of art. This isn't Cooper's favorite choice of activity, but he went along with it since Zoe and Jax were excited. They had a good time just hanging out and painting their pieces.

Lacey joined us later in the day to hang out and have a sleepover. They roasted marshmallows for some yummy s'mores (I think I've eaten my weight in s'mores this summer!).

We also met up with some friends for a fun afternoon at the new Splash Pad out at Lake Skinner. It's a fun little splash park for the kids to cool off in the heat that has finally arrived.

Taking a break for a photo opp...



It was busy few days, but we had lots of fun!! Hopefully we will have more time together in the upcoming weeks. For now it is time for friends and family to head home as we get ready for our busy weekend of dance shows and baseball tournament!

Community Fun...

We actually had a free day today, with no baseball or dance, so we decided to head out for some fun activities around town. We took a beautiful drive out to DeLuz for the annual gourd festival. I had no idea, that so many beautiful creations could be made from these gourds. The kids had fun walking through the booths, seeing what could be made from these ugly things!



Zoe wanted to paint her own, so she spent about a half an hour painting, drying, and glossing her own gourd.

Of course, we couldn't resist the funnel cakes, so we took a break in the shade for our dessert and water.

They each came home with some gourd souvenirs that they picked out.

After the gourd festival, we headed to Old Town for a bite to eat and to check out the annual street drawing fair. The talent of some of these artists amaze me!

The kids even got to do a little drawing of their own...

It turned out to be a nice day, and glad we could spend our free day doing some fun things!

Happy Father's Day!

Yesterday, the kids and I headed to my parents house so we could see my Dad for an early Father's Day. The kids and Jax played all afternoon, and Gramps even took them to the skate park for a while. We enjoyed dinner together before heading home. Wish I would've taken a few pictures!

Today we celebrated Father's Day by making Joe a yummy breakfast of German pancakes. Then he opened his loving, homemade cards and a few gifts.
He is very excited to use his new outdoor speakers by the pool and bbq, and also to use his new coffee mug!

We told Joe that he could do anything he wanted today, so he chose hiking up at the Santa Rosa Reserve. It was a nice, cool morning and we were ready to go.

Along the way, we stopped to see what was crawling on the ground...
It turned out to be a good-sized tarantula, which the kids thought was really cool!

We stopped for a water/snack break a couple times too...

We made it down to the old adobe houses, and looked around at the old trees, bridges, and windmills.

We headed back to the trailhead and the kids took off running. They had boundless energy this morning and ran quite a long way!

It was the perfect day for a hike, and we finished with a great afternoon lunch at Filippi's so Joe could get one of his favorite dishes, eggplant parmesan.
Happy Father's Day Joe!!

Temecula All-Stars!

Cooper has been practicing almost every day with his new All-Star team. They will be heading to a tournament on 4th of July weekend, and they are putting in A LOT of practice hours before then. They had a game tonight against the all-star kid pitch team. It was a great game and our boys looked good!

We are looking forward to a lot of fun baseball in the next few weeks!

Birthday Fun!

Zoe and Cooper had a nice birthday today. They woke up to their decorated mirrors, ceiling fans, and doors, and couldn't wait to eat their chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream!

They spent the morning playing one of their new Wii games...

playing with the new beyblades...

and baking cupcakes to bring to Zoe's dance studio later...

Once we got dressed, we took a few of our yearly photos...


We met our friends at the movies to see Kung Fu Panda 2...


After a quick stop at home to change, we headed to Zoe's long night at dance. The girls danced and sung "Happy Birthday" to Zoe in several classes...

They even dragged Cooper into the circle to be sung to!

After dance we met up with Daddy and enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner at Lucille's BBQ. It was fantastic!

Zoe loved her BBQ ribs!

They blew out their candles and enjoyed their ice cream sundaes...

They were anxiously waiting to open up their presents, so after a long day, we headed home.

Zoe got her annual "number" doll...
She was also VERY excited to get tickets to see Taylor Swift in August! It will be a fun night for sure! :)

Cooper has a custom baseball glove being made which is his "big" present this year. We were bummed it couldn't be here for his birthday, but he got to pick it out and knows it's on its way. He was surprised by his new fun lava lamp and his electronic rubics cube game!

Happy Birthday guys!!