Pasadena, yes, more

Our last day of vacation brought us to the Huntington Library and Botanical gardens. There was so much at this place, if you ever are able, go. There were acres and acres of beautiful gardens and water fountains, there were greenhouses full of exotic plants, a bible from the 15th century. So much, it was amazing, we took over 100 pictures and this blog was kind of stressing me out, so, I'm not going to even try to pick my favorite pics, I'm just going to haphazardly put some up!

Just one of the many beautiful fountains.

It was very hot that day!


Check out that background! I know, those boys are so cute too!
That leaf is even bigger than I am!!!!!!!!
The boys really didn't want to leave until they caught a lizard, thanks daddy for catching one! That thing thrashed around like his life depended on it, I wish we would have gotten video of it.

Zoobilation

Mine is probably the only zoobilation blog you will see Orange Explosion in! Just 2 days following Jacob's field trip too the zoo we were back again for a zoo members only event. It was there in the parking lot that we spotted this beauty...


Of course, you may know that the zoo is in a pretty "Ghetto" area, so this really isn't all that surprising, I just had to get a picture of it.
feeding the giraffes, my favorite thing to do at the zoo


Zoobilation was pretty fun. We missed going to a few of the behind the scenes things we could have seen (animal hospital and reptile house) but we did go into the elephants area, very cool. Ben peed in the toilet while we were there too, that was a bonus (I am so sick of potty training!)

Hot tub time!

After our zoo trip we cooled off and relaxed in Nana Paula's hot tub. Thanks Nana!

Kindergarten Zoo trip!

Ok, so I have gotten a little behind in my blogging. I have been busy trying to keep the kids entertained and trying to stay cool (our airconditioner hasn't been working for the last week). Thanks Barbara for having us over this afternoon and helping us stay cool! I also have a new obsession that has been occupying all he free time I can muster up, collecting free digital scrapbooking stuff and organizing it. If you are into this, check out my frequented sites section to the right and there are 3 or 4 great places to check out. Anyway, there are a few other things going on too, and you'll hear about some of them in an upcoming blog!


I was very fortunate to have been able to chaperone Jacob's clas fieldtrip to the zoo on June 5th. There were only 3 kids in my group, Brooklyn, Mikayla and Jacob, and I was able to bring Ben and Peyton too! Here we are in the reptile house...
Ben, Jake and Brooklyn

Since Tyler works right across the street he was able to pop over for a little while, it was so nice to have him with us, even if it was just for a short time.
Here is my group, Jacob, Brooklyn and Mikayla
Jacob was checking out the Lemurs
Ben and Jake

This is Jacob's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. DeAmaral. He was so fortunate to have her. She was the perfect teacher for him and he learned and grew so much in her class. Thanks Mrs. D!!!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!!

On June 3rd, 2008 we celebrated Benjamin's 3rd birthday with family and Luke, one of Ben's good friends. Ben is such a light in my life and in those that know him. He is my constant companion, always at my side, no matter what is going on. He is my helper and my playmate. He brings me more laughter than I ever thought possible, I love you Ben.

Peyton is so happy and ready to celebrate Ben's big day.
Micah, I don't remember what he did or said, but it was something that made us all roll with laughter and this was his response.
Yay, a new pool for Benji, Thanks Nana Paula!!!
Micah, Ben, Jake and Luke. Ben is behind the one cake that did turn out, yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

My Amazing Cake

Ok, since you all are always posting your beautiful cake creations, I thought I would post mine. It was pretty much a disaster, mostly because I forgot to grease or spray the pan. Not to worry, it ended up to be a pretty good mistake. Here is how it looked after I managed to get most of it out of the pan...

Well, I decided to mix up some pudding and crumble the cake into it. I called Tyler and asked him to pick up some gummy worms on the way home and added those in too.
Then, to make it look and taste better, the kids helped me crush up some oreo cookies for the top, YUMMY! This was June 3rd for Benjamin's 3rd birthday.

Pasadena 3

Another day is ending and it was another good one. We all got up and got ready and had breakfast downstairs. Then we took Tyler to the TMC (traffic management center for Cal Trans) in Glendale (LA) and went to the kidspace children's museum. It was such a neat place. We could have spent the entire day there easily. There were so many things I'll have to do another blog and post some of the pictures I took today. When we were done there we came back to the hotel and I fixed lunch and Peyton napped and then we went to pick Tyler up. We picked up Subway on the way back, and some swim shorts for Tyler at Target. We ate dinner in our hotel room and went swimming again. Ben is really swimming now. He can go quite far, he can also swim to the side and pull himself out. If only he could come up to breath! So now we are back in our room and Ben is in the tub, Peyton is sleeping the big boys are watching Sponge Bob and Tyler is watching the Lakers and Celtics basketball game.

Here are just a few of our pictures from yesterday...

Pirates of the Caribbean at the Wax Museum
Star Wars
The kids marveling at the wonders at Ripley's believe it or not
Trying to break the record of 3 hits per second

Pasadena 2!

Ok, so there are several other blogs from the last week that I really should be posting, but this is the one I want to do now, because this is what we are doing now! So, the next few blogs after this trip will actually be from the past week. We have had so much fun today. We hung out at the pool most of the day, with just a few breaks for Peyton to nap and for us to eat lunch. Ben has become quite the swimmer and Micah and Jacob had so much fun having him swim to them. Who knows, a few more days in the pool and he may not need lessons after all! The kids just love swimming when the water is not too cold. They also have enjoyed going from the pool to the spa and back again. Peyton was an angel as always and just enjoyed watching us all from her stroller. The weather here is perfect, sunny and warm but not unbearably hot. The only reason it's still perfect to swim is because of the slightly heated pool.

After Tyler got back from his training we headed to Hollywood and had dinner at McDonalds on Hollywood Blvd. I know, of all places, McDonalds. It was just the first place we ran into and the kids were all hungry and cranky from getting to bed so late, getting up early, and then falling asleep in the car on the way there and being woken up. So, McDonalds it was, and they couldn't have been happier. After that we went to the Wax Museum and then Ripley's Believe it or not. I'll post some of those pics tomorrow, they're still in the camera. After that we got lost on the way back to the hotel, but it wasn't so bad, we got to drive through Bel-Air and Beverly Hills and see all of the insanely large homes, and Jacob said a very sweet prayer when he was worried about us being lost. The whole time we were gone Peyton didn't eat and she was a doll hanging out in her stroller again. Good times, good times. Oh yeah, Ben is finally starting to tell me when he needs to pee. He told me when we were getting into the car leaving Ripley's, so what do I do, let him pee in the parking lot of course!

Benjamin, my little fish.

I love this picture, the boys hanging out in the spa.
Ben swimming from Jake to the steps.
My happy little Peybie Baby.
Swim time! They really didn't want to stop for pictures.
Last night, so excited about the Television, and yes, we are still tv free at home, I know, crazy. This is the boys side of the room.
My and Tyler's side of the room, and Peyon's too, her pack n play is just to the right of the slider.
Best Friends, Jacob and Micah.
Little Ben, all the way on the other side of the bed.
Peyton and her doll, snoozing. I was a little worried she wouldn't sleep being in the same room with us all, no problems though. How did I get so lucky?

Pasadena

Yay! We are on vacation. Tyler had to go out of town for work again so he brought us along with him since the kids are out of school. The hotel is great, we have a fridge and a microwave and they serve a full hot breakfast in the morning too. I took the boys swimming at the pool tonight too, which is slightly heated, we also sat for a bit in the spa. We aren't doing much, so I'm pretty excited, it's like a real vacation! Tomorrow we are planning on hanging out by the pool with breaks back in our room or Peyton's nap and the boys can watch TV! I'll post pictures soon, I'm so glad I brought along the laptop. Oh yeah, there are two TVs, so I can watch hgtv while the kids watch cartoons! There are almost 2 rooms, no door between them, but there are two areas. I think it should be fun.

Busy, Busy, Did you miss us?

Somehow I thought that I didn't have much to blog about, and just tonight I finally put the pictures from our camera onto the computer and realized how wrong I was, so now I'm going to do catchup before this week gets too busy.

May 19 I was trying a new recipe for poppyseed bundt cake and let Ben help. Well, while he was using the electric mixer he dropped the bowl and the mixer continued to spew batter all over us and the cabinets. I must say that I handled it well, I am getting so much better about those things. The kitchen needed a good cleaning anyway. I also have to say that these pics don't do the mess justice.
Ben felt bad and said he was sorry, but got much happier when he saw that I wasn't upset and wanted to take pictures.
He ate lot's of the batter right off the floor, I guess it was pretty good!

Micah is very much in love with his little sister and holds her just about every chance he gets. We went to Jacob's last t-ball game. May 20
Jacob hit that ball really well, it was a great hit!

Tyler really enjoyed coaching Jacob's team, Jacob loved it too!
May 27 Ben sometimes comes on our bed and falls asleep, this time for some reason he put his socks on his hands, silly boy!
May 29 Micah earned his 5th belt in karate, way to go Micah! He still wants to stick with the karate and earn his black belt, so we want to support him in that. I am proud of him for not wanting to quit.
May 30 I went to the best baby shower ever for my friend Kendra. Since she is having her 4th baby and her 3rd girl, she just had her close friends with her. We had lunch at the Olive Garden and then went to Massage Envy and got an hour long massage. It was my 1st massage and hopefully not my last. It was GREAT!!!
This was my room, not much to look at, but they turned the lights down low and had relaxing soft music playing and the room was the perfect temperature. Thanks for watching Peyton and picking Jake up from school Ty ,and Allie, thanks for having Ben over! It was a wonderful day.

May 31 We weren't able to make it to my parents house for dinner last Thursday because I went to my friend Shelly's baby shower, so my mom needed her grandkid fix and came over late Saturday morning and Ben does what he always does with everyone and pulled her all over the place to do his bidding. Nana jumped on the trampoline, did puzzles, etc. I loved these pics of them jumping.

Peyton is starting to use the exersaucer and she really likes it. There are lots of tos for her to practice manipulating her hands and fingers on! She is still pretty slouchy, but her legs are sure strong!
June 1st The boys are really doing a lot more on their own. Ben can toast waffles and Micah can poor milk and Jacob can get dishes down. They are quite the team! Jacob said that one reason it is good to have lots of kids is so they can help do all the work!

Good job Ben, thanks for helping, you do a great job.

Ben likes to make that face.
June 2 All the boys absolutely love their sister and are just so sweet to her. She just lights up when she looks at her brothers.
Peyton has really been discovering her hands and using them to grab everything. It is so funny to watch because it takes her awhile to do what she wants with them. She works really hard to accomplish her tasks.
Benjamin turns 3 tomorrow!!! I ust can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Happy Birthday Ben! I love you so much and you are doing great on going potty in the toilet, you are such a big boy and a great helper.