Fun in Minnesota

Here we go with trying to make-up for the past 3 months of blog postings that I haven't gotten around to...

We made our annual voyage to Minnesota mid August.  As usual, we had great weather and fun times at the lake!

Grandpa John & Cindy with our crew. 

Auntie Stacy came too.

Connor became obsessed with UNO.

Then we headed to Rush City to stay with Grandpa Don, Grandma Dianne and we loved the waterpark!  We're already looking forward to hitting it again next year.

Connor passed his swimming test so that he could swim in the deep end and go down all of the slides by himself.  He was, by far, the smallest kid in the deep end and all the cool kids were talking about him being such a good swimmer.  He was a star for a few days...

I couldn't stop smiling while watching this little guy!  Mom and Dad had fun playing at the water park too!

Until next year, Minnesota...

Happy 5th Birthday, Connor!

I'm sure I have said this for the past 4 years, but I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast!  As Connor told me months before, "5 is a pretty big deal Mom."  

So, we threw him the Power Rangers birthday party that he requested to include a giant bouncy slide.  Amidst a drought in California, his party date was a day full of rain and storms.  It magically cleared up right before his party and was sunny until everyone left!

Dinner out on his actual birthday

Our little model posing before the party

Every year, I ask Connor the same questions to see how things have changed from the year prior.  Here are his responses as a 5 year old:

 1.  What is your favorite color?  GREEN & BLUE

 2.  What is your favorite toy?  POWER RANGER MEGA FORCE

 3.  What is your favorite fruit?  RASPBERRIES

 4.  What is your favorite tv show?  SPIDERMAN

 5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

 6.  What is your favorite thing to wear?  SLEEVELESS SHIRT & SHORTS

 7.  What is your favorite game?  MINE CRAFT

 8.  What is your favorite snack?  WHOLE APPLES (NOT SLICED, FULL)

 9.  What is your favorite animal?  LION & TIGER

10.  What is your favorite song?  BROKEN EYES by Two Gallants

11.  What is your favorite book?  CARS RADIATOR SPRINGS

12.  What is your favorite cereal?  COCOA PUFFS (he has had them once)

13.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  PLAY TAG

14.  What is your favorite drink?  JUICE OR 7-UP (he has had a sip once)

15.  What is your favorite holiday?  CHRISTMAS & HALLOWEEN

16.  Who is your best friend?  ANGELINA & EMILY B.

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you?  MY BLANKEY

18.  What is your favorite breakfast?  CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES (1st time having them morning of his 5th birthday, compliments of Daddy)

19.  What do you want for your birthday dinner?    22ND STREET LANDING FISH STICKS AND FRENCH FRIES

20.  What do you want to do when you grow up?  BE IN THE ARMY

Connor's Preschool Graduation

Connor is on his way to Kindergarten!  He had a graduation ceremony honoring the 3 kids who are leaving daycare for Kindergarten this fall.  Here is our handsome guy who starts "big kid school" in 2 weeks!

Miss Livia...the best daycare provider and friend to our kids!

Connor and his best bud, Yadier.

We have loved our daycare so much and are happy that they will still provide full time care for Camille as well as before and after school care for Connor.

Weekend Adventures

We had a pretty fun weekend full of adventures!

Holding a tarantula and snake.

Tide pooling at the beach - Connor found sea urchins.  

Riding bikes.

Hanging out and being silly.

Swinging.

And Mommy's favorite...finally enough hair to play with! 

Less than desirable Memorial Day weather kept us from the beach, but we did head down to the harbor to check out activities at the Battleship IOWA.  

Camille wasn't as excited as Connor and Daddy were to sit inside of the cool Army trucks.

Connor did awesome at all of the shooting games winning the grand prize!

What a surprise, we woke up from our family nap to sunny skies and warm weather!  We spent the rest of the day playing in the back yard.  What a great weekend!

Here are the kids saluting our American flag before we took it down for the night.
Proud to be American.
Thank you soldiers for fighting for our freedom!

Memorial Day 2015.