Wednesday, July 30, 2014

One Final Celebration!

After the Chuck E. Cheese party today, I think Shane's 6th birthday celebration is officially over! What a great 11 days this little guy has had!
 
Today's party was a friends party, and it was so fun that so many of Shane's friends from church, life, and school could come and celebrate with him!  Pictured above is one of Shane's best friends Miles!
 
A picture with the Mama!!
 
Shane was pretty excited that his cousin Preston was even able to make it to the party! 
 
Of course the girls had a great time too as many of their friends were there too!  Olivia LOVES Chuck E Cheese, and today was extra fun since it included pizza and a cupcake!
 
Faith was excited to be able to play the games without a cast on her arm!  Now that this party is over it's on to thinking about and getting ready for Vacation Bible School which begins on Monday!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Farm Camp 2014

Once again these two city kids ventured to the local countryside to enjoy a week of farm living!  The Painted Pony Farm in Santa Paula does a wonderful job giving kids a glimpse of what life is like living on a farm, including the work and the knowledge needed about the animals!  Faith found a new joy in pulling giant weeds as she could feed them to the goats once her wagon was full!
 
A highlight each day is sitting in the bunny bin and holding all the baby bunnies!  Farm camp is a very hands on experience for these kids!
 
Each day the farmers focus on teaching the kids about a different animal.  Monday is goat day, Tuesday is about sheep, Wednesday is pigs, Thursday Ponies, and Friday is chickens.  Of course they have all of those animals living on the farm, so they are able to be up close and personal with all of them!
 
In addition to learning about the animals and farm life, the kids go swimming each day in the pool and also help make things in the kitchen!  On the day they learned about goats, they made ice cream together!  On pig day they made their own pigs in a blanket! 
 
The kids come home fully exhausted each day!  But they absolutely love going to farm camp, and they are already talking about next year!  It was a treat too to go with our friends the Fortunati's!

Monday, July 21, 2014

Random Cuteness

Just a bunch of random, adorable pictures begging to be shared with the world!
 
Little diva Olivia ready to go to a birthday party!  And yes, she took the bat to the party!
 
Shane and our new kitty, Mustache!
 
An older gentleman at our church has taken a liking to our family!  He made this stool for Olivia - he even carved her name in it!
 
Dressed alike!!
 
and again!  matching PJs!
 
Munching on bread as we shop our way through Costco!  We shopped too early that day for any samples!  It ended up being one of our best Costco shopping trips with all three kids as they were so happy and quiet!
 
Celebrating that Faith had her cast removed!  Cake and ice cream for everyone!!
 
Enjoying a treat at the car wash with daddy!  She always wants to go with him to get the cars washed!  And now I know why!

Celebrating Shane's Birthday!

This past weekend we celebrated Shane's 6th birthday with our family!  It was a fun-filled weekend with many extra fun events, eating lots of food, and just spending time together as a family.  One of the highlights is always having Grandpa Bruinsma read books!
 
Friday afternoon was spent at the Santa Barbara zoo!  Olivia discovered it was way more fun to walk at the zoo than ride in the stroller!  I think I'm in trouble next time we go if I don't have another adult to help walk with her!
 
Dinner at Padaro!  It has been a while since we have been there!  So long in fact that the last time we were there Olivia was not even walking!  Being her first time to ever play in the giant sandbox, Olivia loved it!  She hardly wanted to stop playing to eat...that is until she realized there were French fries!
 
Saturday was the birthday party!  It was such a treat to have Steve's cousins who live in Ontario, Canada visiting so once again they could come with their kids to the party!  All of the kids had so much fun playing together!  They stayed the night in Ventura and came back the next day for more fun in the sun!
 
Even though it was a Star Wars party, we had a Spiderman cake!  An all-inclusive birthday party!
 
The birthday boy!  The pjs are old, but the dino on his shoulder is from his cousin Preston!  We look forward to more celebrating on his actual birthday!

Monday, July 7, 2014

Happy 4th of July!

What a wonderful 4th of July we had!  It was full of family, friends, fun, traditions, and of course fireworks!  In the morning, we walked again in the annual Push 'em Pull 'em Parade in Ventura.  Every year I am amazed - not at the number of people walking in the parade, but by those who line the streets to watch the mass march down Main Street!
 
Going along with our tradition, for the fourth year in a row we walked with our friends the Fortunati Family!  It's amazing how big the kids have grown over the year.  And for what ever reason, all of the kids like to wear costumes too!  Such a funny yet fun tradition!
 
Last year Olivia slept in the Ergo, and this year she did better than I expected with sitting in the wagon!  It helped that 3/4 of the way into the parade, just the time when I figured she would start trying to climb out!, she figured out how to unwrap a lollipop and enjoyed that for the remainder of the parade!  Since it kept her in the wagon and happy, the rest of us were happy too!
 
Steve and I and the masses!
 
Julie and I!  The hat ladies!
 
In the afternoon, we ventured over to our church for a BBQ!  It was a fun-filled afternoon with great food, fun games, and of course friends!  The kids had a blast just running around, riding in a bike parade (Faith was the leader - marching out in front since she is not able to ride a bike or scooter!), having their faces painted, and doing the three-legged race!  Faith is getting ready for the race in the picture above with her friend Jaylee!  I participated in the horseshoe tournament with my friend Cindy!  We made it all the way to the semi-finals!  Not too bad for two ladies who had never played before that day!
 
Spidey Shane!
 
Faith had the little mermaid painted on her face!  Both kids ended up having multiple things painted on them (arms, hands, other side of the face!), but these were the first things chosen!  After the BBQ we went home to watch the fireworks from our backyard!  It's so great to be able to do that, especially since Olivia really needed to get into bed!  This was the first time Faith really had seen Fireworks!  In the past years, she has always fallen asleep too early!  Then last year, they did not have any in Ventura!  Watching with her was such a joy as the excitement of seeing them radiated out of her! 
 
This isn't from the 4th, but just had to be included!  She is having popcorn on the couch this past Saturday night, watching Batman (70's style!) on TV with the big kids!  She is really growing up quickly!