Summer Update 1

I guess the summer updates are kinda backwards now, since this one has older stuff. Oh, well. This is some of what we did in May and June:

MAY

Emily finished preschool. On one of the last days they had a pie throwing party for reaching their fundraising goal with recycling. Each child got to throw a plate of whipped cream at one of their teachers. Emily is on the right side in the orange shirt.
Allison decided she really likes eating with a spoon and fork. This was one of her first attempts eating yogurt. I think most of it ended up on her bib, face, arms and hair. But she liked it.

Emily started "putting Allison to sleep." This involved reading her a few books and singing a song or two. Mommy still got to put her in her bed. This lasted about two days before Emily got tired of it. But it was cute while it lasted.

JUNE

We took a trip to Pleasanton to visit my parents and have a little "vacation" for the summer. Being six months pregnant at the time, I didn't feel like going anywhere far, and there is always so much to do in the Bay Area, plus it's just nice to visit Grandma and Grandpa!

One of the days we went to Fairyland in Oakland. I had been there a LONG time ago when I was a kid, but it was perfect for Emily and Allison. And my mom just loved it. There are all sorts of storybook "scenes" the kids can walk through and climb on and to top it off, the weather was just about perfect that day. So nice.

Emily's favorite: the merry-go-round. It wasn't very crowded so she was able to stay on ride after ride, at least 8 times in a row until we made her get off to go have lunch.

Allison enjoyed the wishing well...

...and the flowers. The whole day she walked around touching every flower in her reach. I don't know if it's the bright colors or the soft petals or what, but she really has a thing for flowers. Even now I take her for little walks around the neighborhood just to go see the flowers. She sticks out her little chubby finger and touches each one.

Of course we had to stop at the "Wizard of Oz" stage and take a picture in every single cutout. Literally. Different characters on each side of the wall. Every single one Emily stuck her face in and made me take a picture. This is probably the only photo with all three of them in it.

And we couldn't miss the big dragon at the end. The little elf on the mushroom behind us was blowing bubbles - I think that's where Allison was trying to escape to.

EMILY TURNED 5! She decided she wanted to have dinner at our favorite chinese restaurant, Chinese Szechuan. She got her very own green chopsticks as her special treat from the restaurant, plus two extra takeout boxes of fortune cookies.

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's we celebrated with a special cake that she had picked out of a magazine several months earlier. Chocolate cake with a cherry whipped cream frosting. Very yummy. And of course she couldn't do with just five candles...she had to cover the whole cake!
We also took a day and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We bought a membership earlier in the year so it doesn't cost us anything additional to go over and over again. They have (besides the amazing aquarium exhibits) some really fun play areas for the kids. Allison loves this little water feature that gushes tiny streams of water from the fishes' mouths. I think both of the times we have been there so far she has played there for at least half an hour, just putting her fingers in the water.

Jellyfish...they just look so cool. They have many different varieties, but I think these ones are the most stunning (and there are like 100 in the tank, this photo just shows two of them).

More fun kid play area...they have these rocking seahorses, plus in the back is a little slide and some fish costumes the kids can put on.

When we were done at the aquarium we drove up the coast to Capitola (just south of Santa Cruz) and walked around a little bit. Kevin had to check out the surf, of course. Apparently the surf was the best they'd seen for a long time on that day. Kevin was sad he didn't have his board with him, but called all his surfing buddies to let them know how awesome the waves were.

Then we ate dinner overlooking the ocean (I have my back to it taking the picture). It was so beautiful, and again, perfect weather.

Later in the month, back at home, Emily had her birthday party. She invited a bunch of kids from church and playgroup and had a swim party at Grandpa Boam's neighborhood pool. I tried to do a "fishy" theme, so we had blue tablecloths and lots of fish candies. She said it was her best birthday party ever. Success!