Lunch date

It's not very often that we go out somewhere for lunch, so today was a treat! Nana & Papa took the boys to the zoo today and James was home doing paperwork, so it was just the girls. We decided to go to Las Fuentes for a lunch date, just the girls with mom & dad. We enjoyed a beautiful fall day out on the patio, yummy food and some silly conversation :) After lunch we went to the thrift store to see if we could find anything for our costumes for our annual costume party. We had such a great time, but it felt weird to only have 2 girls :) I cherish days like this!

Our October camping tradition

Beach camping in October has become a little reason that we enjoy with our friends, the Nydams. We always have so much fun and this year was no different! We stayed at Doheny State Beach for the first time and LOVED it. It's right on the ocean so it makes going to the beach super easy. Of course or trip included, games, camp fires, bike rides, yummy food and lots of laughs :)

Soccer picture day

Having 4 kids play soccer is a little crazy, but they have so much fun! I think picture day has been my craziest day of the season yet! Thankfully, Gracie played her game on Friday night, so there were only 3 games, 4 team pictures and a pizza party. I made myself a spread sheet just to make sure I had everyone where they needed to be on time and the day was a success :)

Wesley and his laser booster

Wesley has had it in his head that when he turned  5 he could get a "booster" instead of a "baby carseat" & since his carseat was pretty beat up and nasty, I decided it was a good idea. He was SO excited to go pick one out and chose a "laser" one (it's black with red diagonal stiched lines) He wanted me to take his picture and post it on picture-gram :) Do they really have to grow up so fast?? I swear, just yesterday he was rear facing in his carseat with his little head propped up... :/

Homeschool days at the Aquarium of the Pacific

We love field trips!! A lot of places offer a special day for homeschoolers, so if or schedule allows we try to include it into our learning. The Aquariam of the Pacific is such a great place, although the drive is long, it's worth it! This year my folks met us there, as well as my sister Holly and her boys. We spent a good 4 hours looking at all the exhibits, ate some lunch together and then I went to Aliso Viejo to pick up a soccer banner. We had a great day!!

The beach in September

We've gone to the beach every month of the year, but I have to say that September and October are by far the best months to go! The weather is near perfect, 75-80 with sunshine and a breeze AND the beaches are ours to enjoy, as everyone is back in school or working...knowing this, we planned a weeks vacation at our timeshare in Oceanside the 2nd week in September, months ago.

We started the week off on Sunday with a little party for Wesley's 5th birthday at the beach just south of the Oceanside Pier. We just invited a few friend and enjoyed the day in the sun, playing in both the sand and the water.

We spent the week enjoying the beach, sleeping in, swimming in the pool, playing board games, playing tennis & basketball, reading together and playing legos. We spent about 25 hours at the beach over the week and of those, I'd say the kids spent 20 of them in the ocean, jumping the waves or boogey boarding. They were born for the beach :) Jamesy and I enjoyed our morning coffee together on balcony where we could see the resort, the harbor and the ocean; it was beautiful!

My friend Jess and her kids spent Sunday night at the resort with us and we ate breakfast together and then spent the day playing and walked down to the end of the pier for milkshakes at Ruby's. My sisters and their kids joined us for a day at the beach and swimming and the kids all had a blast!

One night we walked on the beach all the way to downtown and went to the sunset market night, where we enjoyed gelato and looking at all the fun booths.

The kids and I spent a morning on a little field trip at the mission that was just a few minutes away. The history is so interesting and the mission was beautiful!
One of the nights, we walked to the harbor and enjoyed a yummy dinner at Dominic's as we watched the sun set over all the boats in the harbor.

The last day we ended up not going to the beach at all, as I was kinda over the sand, but we swam at the resort pool instead and ended up meeting a really nice family whom the kids played with & I talked with for hours. :)

We had a great week of fun in the sun!!

Birthday Boy!

Every year, with each birthday that passes, I am amazed at how quickly the year has gone by and this year was no exception! I can't believe our baby boy is 5!!

It is so fun to watch him grow and come into his own. He has the sweetest personality and is so loving, funny and silly. He loves legos, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline and imaginative play with Grady.

We asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said "my own tooth brush and tooth paste", so he got what he wanted :)

We also enjoyed a morning treat at Starbucks, a balloon and a lunch time pizza party at home with our family.

I asked him to stop growing, so he prayed asking God if could could stay 5 :) My sweet boy!

A dairy fun day

We have some friends who own a dairy and they invited us over for lunch after church. The kids were so excited, we were too, but not for the same reasons! :) We enjoyed a great lunch, the kids played inside and explored the dairy, we got to witness the circle of life and see north and death first hand, we watched the cows get milked and all loaded up into 1 truck to go shooting. All the kids lined up and got to shoot at the targets, we have a few who have a great shot! :)

When you live on a dairy, hills of hay, milking cows, tractors, etc... it's just normal everyday life. However, when you live in a tract house in town, it's all quite new and exciting! We had a great day, great food, great friends, great fun!!

Regional Park fun

Every summer our homeschool group goes to the regional park for a day of fun! Our kids look forward to playing in the cool water and the slides are always a hit! I didn't take my camera, but did snap a few on my phone. I love that we can enjoy "the beach" without the drive.

$2 Tuesday fun

Summer is nearly over, but we're still working on checking off items on our bucket list. The 66ers have a $2 special on Tuesday nights, so we took advantage of it. The little boys had never been to a professional baseball (I know the 66ers aren't the Padres, Angels or Dodgers, but they're closer and way cheaper) game before, so it was fun for them! The game was a little boring, but we lasted thru the 5th inning and everyone had fun!

Summer favorite

Everyone in our family loves music!! Growing up, my parents took me to live concerts all the time, the symphony, opera, gospel, organ concerts, college choirs, folk music, you name it, we went, listened and enjoyed. My parents still love concerts and go weekly to hear something. I think their love off music inspired my love of music. James' family also loves music and their history in band runs deep. So, it only makes sense that all off our kids love music too! We all absolutely love the Redlands Bowl! Since there are 2 weekly performances, we try to make it to at least one of them. We pack dinner, games, blankets and chairs and head down to Redlands for a good 3-4 hours of fun!! Our summer is made complete with the music we hear and the fun we have!

The summer season finished with the symphony and a piano soloist followed by the 1812 overture and fireworks! It was such a fun part of our summer and I'm sad it's over! Until next year!

Vacation

Summer it's filled with favorites! We love camping at Cachuma Lake, north of Santa Barbara and we love Spirit West Coast, so this vacation was great because we got to do both! We spent 3 days at Cachuma and 5 days in Monterey at SWC.

Given the busyness of our every day life, I love a vacation where we can relax and do fun things! We rode bikes, relaxed in the hammock, visited Solvang, rode Surry bikes, had a picnic, hiked around the lake, visited our favorite thrift store, played games, and roasted s'mores!! I was sad to leave Cachuma, but I'm looking forward to going back there next summer!! From Cachuma, to Monterey the drive is filled with wineries and vineyards cover the hills, it's so pretty. We stopped by the Madonna Inn, which was a first for the kids, on the way and had a yummy lunch.

We have been going to SWC since I was pregnant with Grace and for the last 6 years we've volunteered. The kids live for SWC and we haven't missed one in 12 years! This year, James headed up the transportation department, so it was essentially a working vacation for him, but he loved it. The kids and I had the best of both worlds, we enjoyed spending time with SWC friends, the concerts, Veggie Land and got to do fun things in Monterey! We went to the wharf, ate yummy chowder, visited a cool candy store, visited Cannary Row, played at fbcvccthe beach, Dennis the Mennis park,  We had such a great time!!

Zach, eye love you

Zach has had lazy eye lids since he was born. Over the years, we've seen the ophthalmologist on a regular basis, but now that he's older the Dr decided to do surgery to repair both lids.  We saw a Children's specialist and we really liked him. In the middle of my working the week of SERVE at church, Zach's surgery was scheduled. Other than the waiting time to get into surgery, the day went really smooth. His eyes will take weeks to heal and the bruising, months. We are hoping once the swelling goes down his eyes will look great! 

SERVE Redlands 2013

This past week our church hosted SERVE. I was blessed to serve by doing the food for the week. It's so cool to see how God works!! The week was long, required LOTS of planning, many hours of work, trips to the store and mornings starting at 3:30 am, but at the end of it all, it was more than worth it! In the middle of the week, I was able to share my cancer story, pray with and encourage 2 boys at SERVE that had just gotten word their sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. There have been many times I've wondered what I was supposed to learn from having cancer and I've been praying that my story could help others, this was how! In addition to that awesome opportunity, I got to work with 2 other great ladies every morning! It was so cool to see people of the River come together and give of their time and resources to serve others and be the hands of Christ.

16 years

16 years ago, we were just kids. I was 19, James had just turned 21, but we thought we were so mature and ready to face the world together. Thankfully, by the Grace of God, we have survived, not only do we love each other, but we still like each other too ;)
We've been through a lot, in these years together, but I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else.
This week and the coming weeks are a little chaotic, but we got to go out for the night and had dinner, drinks, dessert and went to the Redlands Bowl for some music under the stars.
Happy Anniversary Oates, I love you to the moon and back!! I thank God for you!

Summer nights

I love summer nights, especially when it cools down just a bit where it's nice to enjoy the evening together as a family. One item on our summer bucket list was to ride our bikes to the Queen Bean, a local coffee shop. We opted to walk and had Dairy Queen instead, but had fun just the same. We got to see the sun go down in the distance and it was like a cherry to top our ice cream :)

The building of "the table"

About 4 years ago, after dinner with our small group, James came up with the idea of a bottle top table. From that night on, pretty much everyone we know has been collecting bottle tops and the table idea went from a card table, to what it is today, a 12' x 4' dinner table. We have about 6000 bottle tops and after many drawings, the table is being built! James and I figured out the dimensions and exactly how to construct it and this week I went and got all the supplies. Also, just this week, I found a solid wood table and chair set on Buy/Sell/Trade for a great price and figured I could incorporate it into the base. I cut the table in half and lengthened it by adding 6ft sections of 2x4. After securing it all together, I added wood across the top to create a table base that is 12' long and 4' wide and has 6 sturdy legs. It was a lot of work, but it ended up looking pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :)
We had already decided that since this table has been years in the making and our small group played such a significant part in the idea, design and drinking of the beer to produce the bottle tops, :) that each couple in our small group would get a 2'x2' section to design.
Thursday night was the beginning of the art work. 4 of the 6 couples in our group were here to begin the top. The sections were marked off, the bottle tops were sorted by color and the fun began!! We still have lots of work to complete, 2 more couples need to complete their section, the Oates section needs to be done, as does the checker board and surrounding area (our kids are working on). Once all the artwork with the tops are done, I will grout the entire table, attach molding and glass to cover it.
We are so excited to see this project come to fruition and looking forward to many meals shared around this, our table of love! More pictures to come as the project comes to a close!!