who am I?

Give us your best guess. This fellow likes to visit us and hang out on our patio. He is not easily disturbed and doesn't care if you poke him. I don't know if he got up on our screen door by flying or climbing. Everybody submit a guess, we'd love to hear from you!

lego maniac

Have you heard the news? Jason has transformed into a Lego maniac ("Zack, Zack, he's a Lego maniac!" everybody sing along!). It all started a few months ago when I tried to update the toys at Nanny's house by bringing in a Lego car set. It was a small 68 piece excavator/dump truck/fork lift combo. He would not leave it at Nanny's. He had to bring it home, tear it apart and rebuild it over and over again. He then began emptying out his piggy bank, counting pennies until he could afford the next $4.99 set. The addiction grew as his birthday came along and the gift cards came in.... he had to have more Legos. And that brings us to yesterday when Nanny took a little fellow back-to-school shopping and gave in to the sweet little face that just had to have a rescue helicopter. So here he is, 245 pieces later and less than an hour of work, with no help from me. Our Lego maniac with his rescue helicopter. Look out grandparents, stand firm! He does not "NEED" any more. Christmas is coming soon enough!

what's on Jason's face?

It's a spider! We were at Senor Sancho's for lunch after church on Sunday and they were celebrating their 10 year anniversary in the traditional Mexican way with a bounce house and face painting. This was fortunate for all the kids because the adults were trying to meet with a visiting missionary and the lunch turned into a 2 hour affair. So here's Jason's awesome spider and web.

who loves camo?

THESE GUYS! Here's a picture of the kids in their favorite camo gear. Big thanks to Megan for Cam's hand-me-downs. Now she can be just like her big brother!

fun with felt

Check out our craftiness! This is one of the reasons I love Jason and will miss him when he goes to school: he is my crafting buddy. I spend time each day checking in on my favorite craft blog from the folks at Craft magazine. Most posts are quirky crafts and occasionally I see one that would be great for kids. Today someone posted a tutorial for felt mice and beds for them. Here are our results. Enjoy!

the gang

These are Jason's library and beach buddies. The guys were good enough to pose for a picture today.

products I love

I felt the need to show off my craftiness. This is what these blog things are for right? So here are two layouts I recently did using Heidi Swapp ghost letters. The letters are clear acrylic letters that you can leave plain, ink the edges or paint. They can be attached with glue, stapled on or sewed onto your page (or other methods that I haven't thought of yet. I love these letters! It's a nice way to customize your page. I also love these fabric flowers. I added the giant brads to the middle and evened glued a jewel onto one of them. Fun stuff.

lame blog

Yeah, I know you've been thinking it. This is a lame blog you've committed to. Maybe you check it every day for updates, or maybe you even put it on your bookmarks tab because you felt you ought to give it that honor. And now, nearly two and a half weeks have passed since a new blog has been posted. Lame. Well I'll tell you what happened: VBS. Yeah, that beautful monster called Vacation Bible School made it's first ever appearance at PRBC this year. It is an all-consuming event! The kids had a blast and I enjoyed leading the crafts team, but boy am I glad that it's done! I think Cameron liked getting rescued out of the nursery every day by her Grammy and cousin Christina. Jason loved being part of the kindergarten class, singing songs, doing crafts, playing games, eating snacks and pretty much every other moment during the day. It was great and we can't wait to help out next year.
The last day of VBS was also our 11th anniversary. We had a very nice dinner at Upper Crust (an Italian place in San Luis) and then watched The Bourne Ultimatum. It's great going to the movies and then coming out of the theatre in the mood to recreate car chases from the movie you just watched. Unfortunately the moment you sit in your car with crumbs and carseats you realize how very uncool you are and just drive the speed limit until you pick up the kids.
We were supposed to be a big help to mom and dad in their move to Paso Robles last week. However, the kids were stricken with colds and fevers while I had one of my fabulous headaches. We were not helpful at all! :(
Big news in the TV viewing department: my girl Sabra won "So You Think You Can Dance". Take that mom! I've been practicing a lot and I really think I've got this "hip-hop" thing down. I'm really good.... Also, The Office season 3 DVD comes out Sept. 4, Best Buy will be selling a special gift set with a mini- bobblehead Dwight and a Dundee award! Also, the new season starts Sept. 27 at 9p.m. Be there!
In other news, I took Jason school shopping this weekend. He needs pants and shoes because he's a boy and every pair of pants and shoes that he owns has holes in it. No big deal , right? Well I was shocked when in the middle of Kohl's my innocent son exclaims, "those are so COOL!". What was he talking about? The coveted item was a pair of Tony Hawk dirty wash jeans with a toy skateboard attached. OK, I can handle this.... was he talking about the jeans or the skateboard? And how does my boy know what is COOL? He hasn't even been in school yet to know these sort of things, right? Right?????? I took him into the dressing room (another weird experience because I was a mom in the boy's dressing room... that's ok, right? Because he's only 5 and I'm not sending him in alone, right? Help me out here folks....) and quickly learned that it was indeed the jeans that were COOL, because he also exclaimed, "even the inside is COOL!" What? The inside of a pair of jeans can be COOL? I didn't know that! I have so much to learn..... school starts Sept. 4!
So there you have it... the update on the last two weeks and my pitful excuses for my lame blog. Thanks for reading and don't delete me from your bookmarks just yet!

mid-state fair

Today I took the kids to the fair. Since Darren doesn't like to go, and I don't mind, and Jason was DYING to go, I took the kids this afternoon. We braved the scorching heat because we knew the drunks wouldn't be out yet. Our trip to the fair began with the ever-exciting bus ride. We parked at Albertson's and caught the shuttle. Nothing like starting out your adventure on a stuffy school bus! The kids were free admission, just expensive in the urgent needs department. For example, we walked in the front gate and were immediately hit with the delicious smells of fried food. We tried to ignore the smells by going to the carnival rides. Jason was very brave and went on Dumbo all by himself. He had to be brave because Cameron wasn't tall enough to go on with me, so I had to wait with her outside. I think the bravest thing Jason did was allow the weird carnie to buckle his seat belt for him..... After Dumbo we headed over to the carousel where all three of us were able to ride. It was a hit. And because it was two in the afternoon, 100 degrees and we were the only ones on the ride the weird carnie let us go again for free (I know, you're probably in disbelief that there was more than one weird carnie at the carnival....amazing, right?). We went into the art room to cool off and found a kid's craft booth. Jason and Cameron spent some time coloring and painting while we all rested. After the art we went to the "Zoo to You" presentation of "Leopardy". It was a cheesy game show that brought out some great animals. A porcupine, lemur, boa constrictor and alligator all wowed the crowd of kids. Next up was a churro stop and then a visit with the fire men. Then, on to the sheep pens where Cameron absolutely flipped out. I think she was upset because she was eye-level with the animals and unsure of what they were thinking about her. On our way back to pick up our crafts and ride the carousel one last time we spotted the mini-train. Well, what self-respecting five year old train enthusiast would pass up a ride on the train? So off we went! Finally, we dragged our tired, heat-stricken bodies out of the fair grounds and back on to the bus for the ride home. Jason's last request: :"Can we go again tomorrow?"

another beach day

Here we are again, as we are every Tuesday, at Avila Beach. Jason had a great time working n a sand castle with a few of his buddies. Cameron was busy defending her toys and sippy cup from other babies. Overall, it was another beautiful day.