Summer needs to just slow down a bit!
Shortly after t-ball ended and we celebrated Lukas’ first
birthday, we went right into the next celebration, the conclusion of preschool (kind
of). Ellie had a graduation celebration at her school, and it was really nice.
The class sang “You Got a Friend in Me” and they all go little diplomas. One little boy gave a flower to all the
graduating girls. The day was fun, it was captured in photo and video form, and
now Ellie is ready for kindergarten. Backing up, I say it was kind of the
conclusion of preschool because she is staying through the summer until St.
Justin’s starts. But the summer is all about fun, bounce houses and clowns
(Great clown story coming up.)
After Lukas’ 1st birthday party we went right into
preparing for another party, our 10th Anniversary Party. And while the lead up didn’t require as many
logistics as the wedding 10 years ago, it was a task, but one that we pulled
off quite nicely if I do say so myself.
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| Bartender for hire. |
As usual Steph outdid herself with the decorations and
the presentation. We hired Mr. Armadillo Willy to do the cooking, and hired
world renowned bartender Steve Risser to keep the libations flowing. His specialties
were the Peach Mojitos, as well as mixing a stellar Rum and Coke.
It was great seeing family and friends, some that we don’t
see often enough. I guess having a party is like sending out the Bat-Signal, so
I’ll be doing that a little more often.
Back to the clown story because I know you’re on the edge
of your seat. Every day at school they do something fun. Bounce house, petting
zoo, water play, etc. And one day they had a clown visit. And this is how I
found out about the fun and a prime example of what makes being a parent so
hard.
I showed up to pick the kids up, and while we were gathering
lunch boxes and backpacks Ellie looks at me and says, “I got in trouble today.”
So I asked her what happened, and this is what she said. “Ms. Ally had to have
a talk with me when the clown was here.” “Why did she need to have a talk with
you?” I said. And after about a 5-second pause, in which I was now wondering
what really happened, she said, “Because I yelled out tackle the clown when we
were watching him.”
That’s when the difficult parent part came in. I squeezed
my lips together to keep from smiling too much, and had to pause myself in
talking with her, because I knew if I tried to talk I’d just start laughing. As
everyone knows, Ellie is a little more Ronnie Lott then she is Cinderella, so
the image of her leading a mob of preschoolers in attacking Bozo wasn’t hard to
imagine. I pulled it together to tell her we don’t tackle clowns and we should
always listen to our teachers. But
still, my eyes were staring to water from holding in the laughter.
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| Roaring Camp on the 4th of July |
Shortly after our Anniversary party, we got another visit
from some family. Greg, Marlo and Rachel came to town for the week of 4th
of July. And while I still had to work, everyone else got to enjoy the visit.
They hit Happy Hollow and the SF Zoo. Went to Half Moon Bay and the beach. And
on 4th, the one day I actually did have off, we all went to Roaring Camp
and enjoyed the train ride through the Redwoods. It was really a fun day and
could have stayed even longer if we had the time. It’s a page out of the Old
West right there in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was great having Greg, Marlo and Rachel out for a visit, hopefully we can do it again sooner rather then later.
The only bad thing was we weren’t able to get up to
Almanor for the 4th of July. But that didn’t stop a large contingent
of folks from enjoying the Almanor tradition. Mike took the title of Survivor,
and as far as I can tell, Steve emerged from the week without any major
ailments. He’s usually good for throwing something out. We’ll be making a
summer trip up at the beginning of August. Can’t wait!!
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| Katelyn taking on the hottest wings they got |
Katleyn has also been busy. In addition to finishing up her Junior year with a 4.0 GPA. She's still working at her old gymnastics gym and doing her cheerleading. She's also got a summer bucket list of things to do, one of them was go to Buffalo Wild Wings and order the hottest wings they had. So, we did.
Steph and I also got a chance to enjoy a night out
without kids. We went with our friends, Marisa and Jig, to dinner and a movie.
We caught Ted. It was good. Funny, irreverent a solid night out!
****
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| It's always Otter Pop time |
Southwest put out their $49 fares, so we jumped on those and
got Ellie’s birthday trip to Disneyland situated…Ellie has discovered the joy
of Otter Pops and we’ve been making that a regular Costco item. She puts those
away like a champ!...
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