Goodbye Park, Goodbye Ducklings

Gabriel's last week of YMCA Day Camp was last week. One day while he was gone, Ephraim and I went to the park.
He loves picking flowers! The patch of a flowering plant near our apartment has been stripped of flowers because he loves picking one or two whenever we come home from anywhere. Here he is helping the park get rid of dandelions. Love the bright yellow!

In the play structure tunnel.

Climbing a rock!

At church last week, the kids begged me to take pictures of them again. I tried taking individual pictures, but this is what I got.

The baby ducks (all grown up) came to say goodbye to us yesterday. So we fed them.

Old McDonald

Sing along if you know this one ...

It feels good to get some video back up on the blog.

Ice Cream and Packing

Our apartment complex had an ice cream social. We enjoyed the treat outside on our front steps.

We took a trip to grandma and grandpa's house to sign the paperwork for the house. We get the keys on Thursday. So excited to move forward. In 100 degree Sacramento heat it is hard to pack warm clothes for the cold Bay Area weather. Here are my jawas (from Star Wars) borrowing sweaters.

Packed and ready for moving in two weeks. :)

Super 5 !

My super Gabriel turns 5 on Thursday!

We had a small birthday party for him at my parent's house on Saturday. The super hero theme was a hit! Thanks to Everett and John and Megahn for dressing up!

Our three stars!!

The animated birthday boy! My dad made an awesome Spiderman birthday cake (chocolate cake with strawberry ice cream frosting with chocolate syrup webbing).

Showing off his "video game" water toy to his friend at the party. We've missed her!

Grandma and Grandpa Gunn and Uncle Tony sent a package for us. We got it today and opened it. We had to stay home from church because Ephraim is on his second day of a terrible cold, but it was good timing to pick up the package from the apartment office so we had something exciting to do today. Even Ephraim got a present.

 

Thanks for all the presents, everyone. The Legos are a huge hit!! He got a firetruck and ambulance and put them both together today. I can't believe he is old enough and patient enough for Legos! He also got really cool kites, which will be perfect after we move to Pinole (it gets windy there).

4th of July

We went to the 4th of July fair in Rancho Cordova. It was $10 for parking, but free admission for 5 years and under, and they had an area for young kids with free stuff to do. They had a huge Spiderman bounce house (see tiny Ephraim? He LOVED this and kept coming back).

We took a dinner break to munch a hot dog and hamburger. Yum!

Then we went back for a few more games.

Gabriel loved all the prizes. Pirate patch, loads of finger rings (his favorite), tiny erasers, and lots of stickers.

We left around 7:15pm, way before fireworks (at 9:45pm). They both feel asleep easily when we got home.

Adorable Photoshoot

My boys were looking so cute on Sunday morning, I couldn't resist going to church early and snapping lots of photos in the sunshine. (I still wish I had a better camera or knew how to take better pictures! someday soon...)

Two and almost Five:

Howdy, Iron Man

This town ain't big enough for the both of us!
Last weekend we went to our friends' housewarming party way down in San Jose. They had an 8 year old boy there and Gabriel and Ephraim had so much fun playing in the dirt and rocks in the backyard.

"Howdy, ma'am!" Gabriel has been having fun dressing up lately. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a..." is a popular phrase. This week it has been cowboy!

We recently watched the Pixar movie "Ratatouille." So when grandma came over with zucchini from grandpa's garden in addition to the zucchini I had just bought from the store, we made Ratatouille like they did in the movie. It was a yummy experiment!! We had the leftovers as Ratatouille pizza and then as Ratatouille soup (yeah, the kids don't like zucchini much).

As a motivation to stop throwing tantrums as I drop him off at the YMCA, I got a tiny Iron Man lego set. So after Day Camp on Friday he got to open it up. I had no idea it would be such a big hit!! I guess he's finally old enough for Legos!! (Now to find them in storage ...) He has so much fun playing with it and was really good at following the directions. The next day he took the pieces apart and was building something else.