Baby Michael

We ventured up to Roseville last Saturday to visit Uncle Jake, Aunt Andrea, cousin Morgan and their new addition Michael Stewart Waldron.

Baby Michael!

For those of you who know me well...

I will answer your question with a YES... he made me want another baby. :)

First things first...Morgan is almost a year older than Crew.

He was following her everywhere, and trying to copy all the tricks she could show him.

Then it was off to the park!

The girls literally couldn't keep their hands of baby Mikey.

Don't worry, they washed their hands. This picture made me nervous just looking at it.

Every mothers' nightmare!

Family of Four!

The park was awesome! It reminded me of a modern "Osage" from this area.

The kids had so much fun on the swings alone.

Morgan is hilarious. Her facial expressions are worth a thousand words. :)

Michael was such a good sport, he didn't cry once. He seems like such a sweet baby.

Can't wait to hold him next weekend at Kadie's baptism!

The End!

Thanks Jake and Andrea for some good times.

See you soon!

Back to School!

I can't believe that Kadie is in second grade. What is more weird is that

Laney is in her second year of preschool and will be in Kindergarten next year!

They were both so excited...

I was a little lonely with out my little buddies!

Crew didn't know what was going on,

but he took full advantage of having mom all to himself.

San Luis

The weekend before school started we went down to San Luis Obispo with our friends Will and Leslee. It was a great weekend away before school began. It was so much fun I think I may suggest it every year! Anyone else on board. They even have camping right by the beach!

Kadie, Brock, Keili and Laney were like 4 peas in a pod.

And Crew and Ryann followed them around everywhere. :)

Kadie found TONS of sand dollars...

Crew ate a lot of sea weed. :)

Laney hugged some trees!

We rode our bikes to the beach the second day. I was mostly proud of Laney and Keili who were on tiny bikes, and Crew who was a good sport and even fell asleep on the ride there.

Once at the beach, Laney got a surprise from a seagull!

We told her "She won!" because no one else got pooped on by a bird.

It didn't really make her feel better, and I think she was mad that I took pictures.

The lil' gang

Crew was obsessed with Tippy and followed him everywhere.

If I ever talk Josh into getting a dog it will be a dog like Tippy.

Crew LOVED the sand to say the least. He was literally covered head to toe.

Up close of the Sand!

Crew and Daddy!

Josh hurt his back the day before surfing,

but he couldn't even resist playing with Crew boy in the water.

My boys!

Crew was on a high from the whole trip.

He was being so goofy; jumping, running, doing all sorts of new tricks!

Eating more seaweed. Yummy.

Mermaids...

Sleeping babies..

.

The infamous "Hole" mostly built by Sharlee.

It was the center of attention for the whole beach.

We also went for a hike, but thank goodness I didn't bring my camera to the nude beach where people were playing volleyball. Next time though for sure. ;)

Thanks for a great time Ellsworth's!

Santa Cruz

Who doesn't like dollar night at the Boardwalk?

If you answered "me" you are no fun!

PIZZA, COTTON CANDY, SOFT DRINKS, KID RIDES...

Although it was busy, and a little dirty...we still had so much fun.

Crew boy LOVED the Carousel.

The swings were Kadie's fave...

Check out the lady scared out of her mind below...top right.

HAHA! Seriously, look at her face!

Laney's fave...the kiddie boat ride! And the girls' boat was named "Little Toot".

So cute!

For some reason, all of the kids got a little scared on the train ride.

It may have been because it looked like this picture below???

Thanks Morgan and Cade for coming along!

And thanks to Papa Josh for taking a week of work to play. ;)

Kadie is Eight!!!

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Originally Kadie asked for a Wizard party, as in Wizard's of Waverly Place because she wants to be Selena Gomez when she grows up. I had no CLUE how to throw a wizard party. After Kadie saw WICKED sI thought that a Wizard of Oz themed party would be fun, and Kadie agreed.

One stipulation, Kadie wanted to be Dorothy.

So we threw an Oz themed costume party in July!

This was part of the set up process that left my arms extra toned! (I wish).

We put ruby red shoes under our garage door like our house had landed on the wicked witch of the east. And we had a yellow brick road that led up to our front door into Munchkin land!

The kids also had to walk under a rainbow

and enter Munchkin land.

The party started with a few different activities for the kids when they arrived!

My sister Alex was painting faces, Glinda the Good witch was here to take pictures with the kids, and there were supplies for rainbow witch bead necklaces for the kids to create!

We ended up with a witch, 2 Dorothy's (Kadie was one), a Lion, a Munchkin, a member of the Lollipop Guild and even a Glinda (Laney)!

Kadie dressed like Dorothy, with a fancy crown that said "There's no place like home".

She had sparkly red shoes, and even a tiny Dorothy figurine necklace.

I think that she felt just as cute as she looked!

I got the amazing tree from a garage sale! The tree is an actual Wizard of Oz decoration, one of the creepy trees from the movie. It was actually the best garage sale I have ever been to, and I miss it. I should have snatched every Wizard of Oz item that they were selling, but I had no idea months before that I would be throwing a themed birthday party.

Outdoor Fun!

We made our own potions using sand art potion bottle necklaces.

Layering the different sand in the bottles made unique designs for all of the kids.

They even creatively named their potions things like...stinky feet potion, witch cackle potion, and turn-you-into-whatever-you-want potion.

Broomstick Races!

This was originally a "filler" game, which we ended up using while waiting for our wicked witch to arrive. It actually ended up being one of the best games. The kids loved running around cones while acting like they were flying on a broom.

Melt the Witch!

My brother Nick agreed to dress like a wicked witch and allow the kids to throw countless green water balloons at him. I don't think he knew he would be also be asked to wear a dress, wig, green paint on his face, and have children pulling and tugging at him for 15 minutes.

I would dare say it was the scariest 15 minutes of his life.

Munchkin Food

When it was time to eat cake and pizza the kids were surprised with Munchkin pizza and treats as well as rainbow cupcakes that a friend of mine told me about on Family Fun. The food was so cute and yummy looking even you wouldn't have been able to pass it up.

Present time!

Pending a pre-party speech from my mouth to Kadie's ears about opening presents slow and making sure her friends knew she liked and appreciated all of the gifts, I was a little nervous.

It helped this year to have her own little place set up for the very occasion of opening gifts.

Needless to say, Kadie absolutely adored each and every present that she received.

She was all smiles...ear to ear!

The Sweets Shop!

This was definitely the highlight of the day.

The moment the kids arrived they could see the Sweets Shop set up and immediately were all asking when they could "shop" for their treats. After all games and activities and presents were done, it was the turn of the party-goers. There was SO MUCH candy set up before anyone got there. I don't think there were more than maybe 30 pieces of candy left over by the time everyone went home.

Laney as "Glinda" the good witch, waiting for her candy. :)

All of the preparation paid off, and I think I almost had as much fun as Kadie at the party.

I hope she remembers it when she gets older. It was so much fun to make it her special day!

Where was Crew Boy during all of the chaos? ASLEEP!

He slept the ENTIRE time like the dream child he is,

only to awake to tiny pizza, cupcakes and balloons.

The End.

Next up for Kadie...BAPTISM!