Summer parties

The kids have kept us a busy as always.  They both seem to have an almost endless supply of energy.

This is a pretty normal face to see ...

 

They like to run around and play and imagine things.  Emma had a bit where she would grab Ezra's beanie and pull it over one eye.  She would then declare that she was a pirate and say, "ARRRR!"

We got a new larger fish tank, and it has been neat to see the kids get excited about it.  At 30 gallons, it's the largest that I have ever had, so we'll see what it looks like when it is finally fully stocked.

The kids, like most, love bubbles.  They've both even got to where they can halfway decently blow bubbles themselves.

Over Memorial day weekend, we went to my great grandmother's 100th birthday party.  It isn't everyone that is able to say that they've had 5 generations together in the same room.

The kids even cleaned up pretty well for it too.

We also got to go up to the "camping spot" up on the mountains that we went to on a lot of summer weekend while I was growing up.

It was great to be able to share some bits of my childhood memories with Susan and the kids.

Ezra had fun making faces and playing with my cousin.

Growing up, I never really understood why everyone always talked about how beautiful it is up there.  It was just normal to me.  I think that I understand now.

Around Ezra's birthday we were able to go out and see Susan's side of the family too.  It has been great to be able to see everyone.

They sure seem to grow up fast.  It's hard to believe that he's already 4.

 

The kids both enjoyed playing with their cousins.  They're a lot more fun than just old mom and dad, that's for sure. 

 

 

Ezra got Hungry Hungry Hippos for his birthday, and had a blast playing it.

While out in California, we got to go play at the beach.  It was kind of cold and cloudy when we got there, but it cleared up and ended up being a very pretty day.  The kids really didn't want anything to do with the water, but the sand was fun.

We took the kids to the aquarium as well.  That's always a highlight for them.  They were both the most excited about the jellyfish.  They talked about that for days before going.

There were even some little tiny jellyfish. When Emma saw them she said, "They're dancing...

... in space!"

Both of the kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the fish, and playing around the little areas that they have for kids to run around.

We went to their cousin Charlotte's birthday party as well.  It had a western theme.

Ezra thought that the props were great.

Emma liked the costumes too.

She made sure that we knew that she was the "bad guy".  Not sure what she always like to play the villain.

She likes to play with her dolls too though.  She was singing and dancing with her big Raggedy Ann doll that my grandma gave to her while we were out there.

The garden has been pretty fruitful this year.  Mostly tomatoes.   This was one week's pick.

We figure that in total we've picked close to 30 pounds of tomatoes.  We've had a decent number of large zucchini as well.  The peppers actually came up this year, and one of them has a small pepper on it, so we'll see if we actually get anything worth picking.