March 2019 Happenings

Seeing as we are at the end of April this post is extremely overdue. March ended badly with a broken phone and a crashed computer along with Jon traveling for over half of the month and then April went downhill from there. Life is on the mend but it took us three weeks to get there. It's interesting looking back on March pictures, I know these are only from a month ago but it really does seem longer than that!

We kicked off the month with Reed's school's annual fundraiser. It is a Read-A-Thon where the kids get pledges for each page they read during a 2.5 hour period. The kids are also encouraged to dress as their favorite book character. Reed demanded to dress as Dog Man and read 305 pages, to say he thought it was a good day is an understatement.

As soon as the Read-A-Thon was over we headed back to Avila for another fun weekend with Jon's family. This time around there were a lot of dance parties, aquarium time, and some serious board game playing. Unfortunately there wasn't much beach time and instead quite a bit of rain.

The very next weekend the boys and I went back to the coast to get together with my Cal Poly roommates and their families. Unfortunately Jon was out of town and missed out on the fun. Between the four of us we have 9 kids and they all had so much fun together and so did we! On our last day together we took the kids on a tour of campus. So much had changed since we graduated and it was definitely surreal to have all of our kids at our alma mater.

For C's Birthday this year we went on a double date and did an Escape Room. It was a lot of fun and we managed to "escape" which made it even more fun. While we had fun playing our game and having pizza the Primos were with Nonna and Pepe having their own fun.

After a month of practicing Reed finally got to perform at the Peach Blossom Poetry Festival that Fresno State hosts every year. To say he had a big cheering section is an understatement. He did great, never seemed to have an ounce of nerves, and loved having everyone there to watch him. Kieran stayed at his school because it was Dr. Seuss Day and he couldn't wait to dress up as Fox in Socks.

Jon and his friends had their annual Nerd Fest and the boys thought it was really cool they were allowed to watch a little bit of the gaming. I have a feeling the boys are counting down until they can have a Nerd Party of their own.

Clara turned six and had a Trolls themed party to celebrate. Reed was obsessed with the frosting covered apple slices Shannon made special for him and Clara loved the card the boys had made her. It's so fun to watch these kids grow up together and seeing them as kids, instead of the babies and toddlers they were a few years ago, is really amazing.

With Jon gone so much of the month I tried to get the boys outside and playing as much as possible. This meant a lot of bike rides, rock mountains, and tree climbing.

February 2019 Happenings

At the beginning of February Jon and I snuck away to San Francisco for one night to see one of our favorite bands play. Despite it being a bit rainy we had a great 24 hours away and Guster did not disappoint and played one of the best shows I've ever seen!

Rory's Birthday party had a reptile theme, complete with a visit from Reptile Ron and a bunch of reptilian friends. To say the boys were excited is an understatement and to be honest most of us adults loved it too! At one point they asked for volunteers to hold a huge snake and Lyla was the only kid to raise her hand. C was out of town and Tio was in the house with Zach so a fairly nervous Aunt Sarah agreed to help her out (if you think I'm standing awkwardly in the photo check out Lyla's leg and see how the snake had coiled under me and around her).

We aren't much for Valentine's Day normally but somehow this year it stretched into a week long event. Every year we make heart shaped pizzas so we did that a few days before knowing Jon wasn't going to be home on the actual day. Before he left on his trip we let the boys open the stuffed animals they receive when we adopt an animal at the zoo in their names. Reed choose a giraffe for the 3rd year in a row and despite Kieran choosing a Lion and the zoo making a mistake and sending a kangaroo he was more than happy too. The day before Valentine's K and Lyla had a party at preschool that I dropped pizza off for and I managed to get a few silly pictures before heading back to work. Once the day finally arrived Reed handed out Valentine's to everyone in the house he had secretly made - he left one on Jon's nightstand for when he got returned and even the pets got in on the action.

We had a trip planned to Avila to celebrate Pepe's Birthday but since it wasn't going to be until after his actual Birthday C and Tio hosted a family dinner to celebrate. By the end of the night it had turned into a Pepe vs. Reed dance battle that had us all giggling (apparently I was laughing too hard to take any pictures of the scene).

Our weekend in Avila got off to a bit of a bumpy start when Pepe and Jon's flight was delayed and almost cancelled but we managed to make the best of our waiting around by playing some hilarious rounds of telephone with the kids. The next day was perfect beach weather and the kiddos loved getting some time in on the sand. For Pepe's Birthday we gave him an excursion at the dunes. This sounded super fun in theory but we quickly realized we might not be sand dune people. Once we all made it through our hour in one piece we decided that we had given Pepe an appreciation for life for his Birthday instead! We finished off the Birthday celebrations with an amazing dinner. Somehow Lyla and Zach (who are usually night owls and will run on fumes for hours) both slept through almost the entire dinner. I don't think the weekend was exactly what we had originally envisioned but it ended up being a lot of fun in totally different ways.

A few more things that were sprinkled throughout February - lots and lots of rain, one of the storms was pretty crazy and even blew one of our neighbors' redwood trees over. Grandpa's college roommate came to town for the Farm Show and the boys and I got to go out to dinner with him and hear about all of the latest and greatest things he's doing at his organic dairy.  With Jon traveling so much it gave me the opportunity to spend some evening and weekend time making a quilt for Auntie Amanda's soon to be new baby girl. It was really fun making something so feminine after the last few have all been for boys. We also spent an afternoon with G-Momma. We brought games to play inside because of the weather. Reed insisted on being on her team and then wouldn't explain anything he was doing to her. Since the weather was a little nicer than expected we got some energy out and took a stroll all around the grounds where she lives.  Of course Kieran made a couple guest appearances at HMC and his masterpiece was a piece of art he made for Lyla featuring animals that are pink.