Happy 5th Birthday Carson!!! July 31, 2012

 This birthday Carson is into all things Angry Birds!!!!

Mimi and Pa came over on Carson's birthday for dinner, cake, presents, and yes..more Angry Birds!

Mimi and Pa got him very cool Angry Birds sheets for his bed, so now he can even dream about those birds.

We love our 5 year old boy!

Since Carson's actual birthday was on a Tuesday, we waited to do his "friend party" until Friday.  I took 4 of his friends to the indoor trampoline park, Sky Zone.  Sky Zone is a all-trampoline (even the angled walls are trampoline) play court.  I figured that this would be a great way to wear them all out before coming back to our house for pizza and cupcakes.

Yes, Angry Birds cupcakes! These were made by Rah Rah!

Carson and his pals had pizza, snacks, cupcakes, and presents outside in our backyard!

His Angry Birds gifts included a new lunchbox, puzzle, splat ball, and t-shirt!



Sunny San Diego- July 20th

 My friend Kate (above) and her family moved from our neighborhood  to Coronado in early July. Prior to her move, Kate had been the one person that I talked to, texted, or saw almost every day.  I was so sad to have her leave Rocklin, but saw the golden opportunity to visit the Southern part of our Golden State!

Eric was kind enough to stay home with the kids for the entire 3 day weekend, and believe me, it was an entire 3 days (airplane left 6am Friday & back 11pm Sunday).  In addition to seeing Kate, I was also lucky enough to spend an afternoon with my wonderful friend Jen.  I have know Jen since high school and miss her all the time too.  I suppose that if 2 of my best friends have to live far away, at least they are both in San Diego...a great place to visit!

Independence Day- July 4th

 Eric thought it would be fun to spend the day at Folsom Lake for the July 4th holiday!

We haven't been to the Lake in many years even though it is just 20 minutes away (crazy, I know)!  Armed with beach chairs, water toys, and sun screen, we took our picnic lunch and hunted out the perfect lakeside spot.

Holly loves all things that are Disney princess, so she sweet talked Eric to buy this beach ball for her while we were getting our lunch at Raleys.

These extra powerful water squirt guns were the hit of the day.....they kept the kids busy for hours.

 Eric kept a close eye on our stuff to make sure everything didn't get too soaked by any misdirected squirt gun fire.  A shady spot is the best place to be for the most pale skinned guy on the beach!

I'm not so sure Carson's summer swimming lessons paid off just yet.... there was way more splashing and playing in the water then actual swimming!

After we had all the fun and sun that we could handle, we came back home to sit outside with our neighbors and watch fireworks together.  All the neighbors on our street buy a few fireworks each and this year we actually had quite the show once we put everyone together.

These are a few of the neighborhood kids who joined us for fireworks! 

We love our Dad!

Happy Father's Day!

The kids posed for this photo so that they could make a fun coffee mug for dad for Father's Day.

Dad drinks coffee every morning out of a big latte size coffee cup, so we knew he would love an extra special one made just for him!

Happy Graduation June 8th

Carson's preschool graduation! This school year Carson has been going to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week at Ruhkala elementary school.  Now he will be for kindergarten in just a few months! 

Carson made some new friends at preschool and always had a fun time!  Each day they sang songs,  did crafts, practiced writing alphabet letters and writing their name.  Carson occasionally liked to challenge his teachers by skipping the assigned task, turning his worksheet papers over, and instead practiced his Angry Bird drawings.  Hummm, I think he had better learn to stick to reading and writing instead of Angry Birds!

These were Carson's teachers during the school year: Teacher Margo, Teacher Vanessa, and Teacher June.  They were proud of his progress this year and are excited for him to enjoy kindergarten!

Little League T-ball Feb-June 2012

Tate and Carson played t ball together this season on the Tri City A's team.

Coach Eric is on the top left, Tate is top row right, and Carson is bottom row-second from left. Most of the other kids on the team are either our neighborhood friends or boys from Tate's kindergarten class.

 Carson Davis #3 

Tate Davis #10

Carson looks like he is throwing in the ball from the outfield, but really he has just hit the ball off of the tee and is trying to quickly make his way to first base.

The kids each got the chance to try their hand at each of the positions in field and out field.  Tate though that playing catcher was especially cool because of all the extra gear to wear!

Each kid gets 3  pitches thrown to them by the coach.  If they are not able to hit any of those pitches, then they swing as many times as needed to get a hit off of the tee.  Thank goodness the games are played for only 1 hour, otherwise it could quite possibly take all day to get 7 innings!

Time in the dugout seemes to be usually spent chatting with friends or doing anything other then watching the game in progress. ;)

 Eric got suckered again this year into being the coach, hehe.  Last year he was the t ball team's assistant coach and thus figured that his t ball volunteer commitment had been completed.  But..... Eric ran into our very persuasive "team parent" before the season started and once again he just couldn't say no.  He did a great job and the kids all thought Coach Eric was a lot of fun.  Here he is giving Carson a few pointers on his swing.

The coach and his favorite players!

The team banner for the t ball A's 2012



Squaw Valley - May 26, 2012

 Memorial Day weekend!  We decided to spend the weekend at Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe with our neighbors the Blumenthals.  Each of our families reserved a suite at the Village a Squaw Valley since we were able to find such a great online deal.  It turns out that the deal was so good because about half of the restaurants and shops in the Village were closed for the "off season".  Oh, well....at least we had good company, a bottle of wine and a deck of cards to entertain ourselves.

The kids went on a short trail hike along the path of ski lifts up the mountain side.  Then they found this stationary ski lift for a good opportunity to be silly.

 Even though it was May, the high elevation made it a bit chilly to spend much time out on our patio.  Holly braved the cool temp on our balcony to watch people come and go in the Village.

Rest for the Weary

Holly missed her nap today, and much to my surprise, she fell asleep later in the afternoon right here on the floor.  She had  few toys by her to begin with, but her brothers were more then happy to surround her with a few extras.

Easter



We started the day with an early morning egg hunt at Johnson Springview Park sponsored by the city of Rocklin fire department.  The kids were divided by age group and were released at the sound of the firetruck siren to begin the great search.



 Carson did a great job finding a few eggs and quickly put them in his new airplane egg basket that Grandpa had gotten for his this year.

Tate found the covetid "golden egg" and therefore won this very cool basket full of fun things!  Holly also came upon a golden egg, but put it back on the grass because she would only pick up PINK eggs....if only we could have convinced her that it would have earned her a fun gift basket too! Oh well!

After the park we came home to see if the Easter Bunny had been to our house as well.  He had been to our backyard and left more eggs and treats to find.

 Carson used his sharp eyesight to spot a few more eggs hidden eggs on the embankment in our backyard.

 Holly loved finding eggs too and did a great job keeping up with her speedy brothers.

Holly had a great Easter this year which was made especially great because Grandpa gave her this new honey bee basket and matching balloon.....how cool!