Father's Day 2013

This year Father's Day

Started out sunny,

With lots of play.

Including an intense afternoon thunderstorm,

Yummy food for the best Daddy,

And presents - 

Including a special Father's Day Message of the Force.

It ended in hugs all around,

Happy children,

And a Daddy that hopefully knows how much he is cherished.

Mothers Day 2013

My Mothers Day was lovely this year, truly.
How could it not be with my three charming children?

Andy surprised me with a new lens in the morning.
Here, I had been trying to tone back on the number of pictures I was taking,
And then he went and gave me a portrait lens.
Which I love.
So I took a lot of pictures.

My husband gave me some pretty flowers.
We enjoyed a yummy late lunch at The Spaghetti Factory.
We played a bunch.
And then we played some more.
We had dessert,
I opened up Charlie's school-made gifts.
Andy did a great job of doing most of the work for me.
He even took some pictures of me with the kids.
(Using my new lens.)

It was a nice, relaxing day.

The Art of the Random Picnic

This spring, my kids started asking me about picnics.
Well, actually, it was mostly Ephram.
He would start asking intermittently in the morning,
The intensity would climb after lunch,
And then there would be the full on assault.

I am not sure why picnicking became such a thing,
Maybe it's the fact that we always kick or throw a ball around after we eat.
Maybe it's all of the laughing.
Or sitting on a blanket in the middle of the grass.
It's definitely not the chocolate chip cookie that finds it's way into each child's mouth.
Nope, that can't be why they like it at all.

We did a lot of picnics this spring and early summer.
A lot.
We did lunch picnics, snack picnics and dinner picnics.
We did in-the-house picnics on rainy days,
Movie picnics when the kids wanted to play theater,
Backyard picnics,
Tent picnics,
And park picnics.
And they all had one thing in common.
They were all fun.

I'd say we are pretty good at the art of picnicking.

Here are some pictures from one random picnic in May.
I think they speak for themselves.

Last Day Play

Our last day in California was full of playtime.

We played at the park and we played at my parent's house.

At the park, Ephram finally conquered the little suspended stepping stones.

He had been staring at them on every park trip,

But was too tentative to attempt them.

In true Ephram fashion,

It took three visits to the park,

And enough time with his mommy turned away,

So that he could brave them on his own with no watching eyes.

That's just Ephram's way.

When it was time,

(Actually more than 30 minutes past the time we should have left,)

We drove to Long Beach, 

Hopped on a plane,

And made it back to Seattle.

This trip to California was our best yet.

We can't wait to return.

Castleview Park

Andy's dad lives right next to a cute little park in Riverside.

Most of the parks we visit there are smart.

They have a seperate play area for toddlers from the play area for the big kids.

I wish more parks were like that where I live!

We had a great afternoon playing at the park with Grandpa Kovar.

My kids were all pink, sweaty and happy.

(And Charlie was a bit covered in dirt.)

Even Macie got in on the play, climbing onto some of the equipment and rolling around in the grass.

I love it when we have a park all to ourselves.

These pictures are from a night we spent with Grandpa Kovar.
Ephram was teaching him how to use his device.
It was pretty cute!