Raspberry lemonade, sweet tea, and lobster tacos

 June means the beginning of summer time, and lots of basketball games for Bill.  As the kids get older, they have been able to handle coming to more of these games than before.  Thanks to help from Lori and Chris, we were able to make the trip to Arizona State University again this year.  One of our favorite parts of the trip each year is Cracker Barrel of course!  I think we made four trips there total during our four days in Arizona.  At this one, the waitress brought all the kids their raspberry lemonade in frosty cold glasses! Caleb ended up taking most of his naps while we waited for the food to come.

 Over the course of the four days, Chris, Lori and Emi went with us to six games!  Dylan sat on the bench with Bill and the other kids took turns watching movies on Uncle Chris' Ipad, reading books and coloring.  Over the years, Bill and Chris have discovered that they can get their sweet tea in "to-go" cups when it is time to leave.

 After being home for a week, Bill and I headed off for a trip to Santa Barbara for our 14th anniversary.  We love Santa Barbara because we can ride bikes and walk everywhere.   On one day, we hiked up one of the trails and found our way to the top of this hill which had an awesome view of the city and the ocean.

It is always fun to reward ourselves after a hike with some awesome food.  We have found a restaurant on Hendry's beach called the Boathouse which has become our new favorite spot.  My favorite thing is the lobster tacos. 

 The next day after our bike ride, we tried another place at the end of the pier which we loved almost as much.  This time Bill had lobster tacos and I had a crab salad sandwich.

 This was the longest trip we have ever taken alone since we started having kids.  I realize how blessed I am to have so many people willing to help me out so we can have these times together!  Uncle Chris took Dylan and Delaney to basketball camp every day that week at Pomona Pitzer College. Bill's mom and dad kept the kids at their house for us.  Gracie helped Grandma continue potty-training Caleb.  (Yay!! I am happy to report that he did not backslide in any way, and is now out of diapers!) Uncle Bob took them hiking, miniature golfing, and even set up the slip and slide. 

One of my goals for this summer was for Luke to finally get the hang of riding his bicycle.  We took his training wheels off several months ago, and he just kept getting frustrated every time he tried.  Finally the other day, something clicked, and he happily rode up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.  Now the next challenge:  getting him to tie his own shoes!  I know that sounds crazy, but a homeschooled kid can get away with this for a long time if they have a weak mom who keeps doing it for him!
On a side note, those who know me well, know that I don't like driving very much.  That has been another goal I set for myself this summer: to get over it!  So, when faced with the opportunity to drive Dylan to Santa Barbara alone for Bill's basketball tournament, I didn't want to do it at first.  Then I remembered my goal, and took off.  It took me almost three hours to get there, and then two hours back home, but Caleb and I enjoyed the drive.  Thanks to Uncle Chris and Aunt Lori for watching Luke and Gracie!  I enjoyed the peace and quiet, and he enjoyed watching the DVD player!  Dylan came home exhausted but with great memories of spending the night in the dorms with the players, and eating dessert pizza from Woodstocks at 11:30 at night!

Tato-Heads!

 Molly saw that the Discovery Science Museum in Santa Ana was having a Potato Head exhibit and invited us to go.  It was a perfect idea since Caleb loves playing with "tato-heads" as he calls them.  So we picked a day, got there when it opened and explored.

 The first part of the exhibit had more parts for Potato Heads than I even knew existed.  We were all impressed with how long Caleb was content to keep fixing and changing his "tato" over and over again.

 I didn't get a very clear shot of Luke's "competitive game face" as he was determined to do this crank back and forth as quickly as he possibly could.

 Aunt Gail showed Dylan how to maneuver the submarine in the water exhibit.

 Don't know if you can tell, but that is Dylan's face in that hockey player!  In their "science of hockey" exhibit the kids were able to design their own hockey costume, take their picture, and then have it put up on the wall.  Below is Gracie...

 Then Caleb's turn... and sadly poor Luke's didn't turn out.

 Here we are trying to figure out how to make the hockey player skate across the ice.

 I have many great memories of going with Molly and Aunt Gail to museums when she and Kate were little. Now it is fun for them to come and experience the same things with my kids.

They were super excited to get to eat at The Habit for lunch, and even more happy when Aunt Gail treated them to frozen yogurt.  I was so tired by the end of the day, we had cereal for dinner.  It's hard to beat that for a fun day.

Time for summer!

 For my birthday, my mom bought me a cuisinart food processor that I have been wanting for a long time.  Gracie and Dylan wanted to learn how to use it right away so we started out by making lemon parmesan crackers.  The kids couldn't believe that I was actually going to let them use a sharp knife to cut the dough, but I did, and there wasn't any bleeding.

 I thought the crackers turned out great, but the kids thought they were just "okay."  I even had to admit that they came out more like hard biscuits than crackers.

 However, we had great success with making meatball calzones!  Dylan made the dough in the food processor and everyone enjoyed this meal.  I always know a meal is a success when they are asking for the leftovers the next day.

 Another fun part of summer is when Bill comes home from school, tells us he has two days completely free, and let's go somewhere!  I was impressed that we were able to get packed and left the house in a little over an hour.  I know that is a new record for the Blades family!  Thanks to the powers of my phone, I was able to bargain shop for a hotel while we were on the way to San Diego.

We took the kids to one of our favorite spots in San Diego, Anthony's Fishette.  We have taken them there once before, but this time it seemed like they actually appreciated it!  I always joke that there are certain places I won't take the kids, because I know they won't love it as much as me.  This time, they were asking if we could come back the next day.  Maybe they are growing up after all.

 Bill surprised us with something new.  He saw this wooden roller coaster on TV a while ago and really wanted to take Dylan.  Luke wasn't tall enough and Gracie didn't like the looks of it, so we watched Dylan and Bill ride the "Giant Dipper."  Dylan said it was like a roller coaster earthquake.

 Last summer, Caleb was scared of the water.  I didn't even put any swim clothes on him, but when he saw the other kids go in the water, he wanted to try too.  So off he went, clothes and all into the pool.  I had an extra pair of goggles, and he wanted those too.  This picture cracks me up because Luke has his goggles on so tight, and Caleb just looks cute. 

Kim's Garden

 Ever since we moved into this house almost 8 years ago, I have wanted a garden.  It was just one of those things we have never had time for. For my birthday, Bob and Bill trimmed, clipped and sawed out part of the humungous bush in our back yard. Then one week later, they filled up the backs of both of their trucks with soil and planted my first garden at Mendocino Place.  Bill's Aunt Betty gave us some of her tomato plants, and Bill added some peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberries. I don't know if you can tell, but Bill wrote "Kim's Garden" in the dirt up there!

 The kids have loved watching these tomato plants grow.  They have already doubled in size in the past two weeks.  I don't know how the rest will turn out, since tomatoes are the only thing I have ever grown before.

 I took this picture of the watermelon and strawberries so that we could compare at the end of the summer.  Hopefully there will be some difference!

 Caleb loves singing the Raffi song, "Digging, digging, this is how we dig the dirt, in our garden..."  Now he actually knows what we are singing about.

I really love this part of the yard without the bush.  Now I want it all gone.  Just what a busy husband/coach wants to hear.  Most people would be shocked to hear that the month of June is just as busy as the month of January during the season with all of the tournaments, practices and summer league games.

Homeschool Fair 2011

 This was our third year participating, and Caleb's first to really be a part of the fun.  Thanks to Joy for taking these great pictures since my camera broke the week before the fair!  This pic is my favorite of the whole day.  Caleb and the other little ones had their own race after the big kids were done, and he was so excited to get his own ribbon!

 Okay, I like this picture a lot too!  Gracie was so proud of him finishing the race.  I love how much she loves him.  Luke asked me the other day why Caleb has to grow up because we all like him so much this way. I reminded him that he wouldn't be very happy if he was still 2, almost 3.  He understood that, but I really understood what he was saying too.  A wise woman told me to enjoy every age and stage of their lives, and I'm trying to do just that!
Gracie made a sand castle cake out of crushed vanilla wafers and ice cream cones.  It was the perfect choice for her because she had the freedom to put everything exactly the way she wanted.

 

 Here we have Dylan with his "Blades competitive game face!"  He was very happy to come in first in this race.  Luke had a treehouse theme with his projects this year.  He made a treehouse out of foam board and then drew a picture of it also.  In his drawing, he included Wade, Winona, and Samuel (his pen-pal).  He always includes that part whenever he mentions Samuel to someone else. "My friend, Samuel, the pen-pal!"

 Dylan made an igloo cake out which turned out to be easier for him thanks to the step by step instructions in my Food network magazine.  The coolest part was melting the white chocolate, cooling it and watching him break it into pieces for the roof on the igloo.  He also liked making the trees out of sugar cones.

 I have always hoped that Gracie would take an interest in sewing, and she definitely has!  My amazing Aunt Gail worked with her for the past two months, patiently showing her how to plan, cut, sew and stitch this quilt.  She was thrilled with the result and her dolls are sleeping in the quilt tonight.

 Besides the running races, the kids were able to do the running long jump and the standing jump.  Joy got some great action shots!

 I had to end this post with another picture of Caleb running his race.  He is growing and learning and changing so much each day.  Yesterday he said it was his birthday, which of course it wasn't, and that he is three now.  I reminded him that he has over a month to go, and then of course, today he said it was his birthday.