Summer's 7th birthday tea party

We had a tea party for Summer's 7th birthday party. We brought home the china set that my Mom bought in Czechoslovakia (when I was 12) this summer with plans for this party. We set a fancy table, got fancy things for the girls to wear and had fancy food. It was a blast!

The girls being fancy with a toast!

The birthday girl!

Oh la la! So fancy!

Silly shot

Summer's cousin Avey got in on the action after her nap.

A very typical Summer face.

Harry Potter with a tea party hat on. Notice Kenny and Jess passed out on the couch!

Painting

Kenny, Katherine and Avey came to visit us last week to help us paint our house. These two little girls had some much fun playing dress up, bouncing in the bounce house, playing outside and fighting over things. I can't even count how many time I heard, "NO, mine!" I loved listening to their conversations. These girls are going to have so much fun growing up together!

The master roller!

I am so grateful that Ken and Katherine were willing to come and help us. This was a huge job! It took us 5 days of painting and we still have the master and guest bedrooms to finish! Insane! Thanks brother!

Jake thought this would be a good time to hang out in the crib!

The master roller's wife!

I love my painted walls! I can't believe what a difference it makes! Kenny also helped Jess change the outside lights with the new insanely tall ladder they bought. They also changed out the ceiling fan in the TV room. This "hot mama" really appreciates having a place to sit under and cool off after having to go out in the Florida heat! I know, I'm such a baby, but this bun in the oven thing seems to be quite literal!

Mr. Fix-it

The door to our entertainment cabinet broke off, no doubt to Mr. Fix-it hanging on it. He (I'll give you 3 guesses) decided to go ahead and fix it for me. He was very thorough, the tape goes all of the way around!









Did you guess Matthew? Of course you did!

Easter

Easter Pictures 2011 turned out just as well as every other year! Someone is always upset about something right about the time that the camera comes out. This time it was Summer! I keep telling her that she's going to feel silly looking back at 60% of the family photos where she is mad or sad and frowning in them!

The Fam!

The kiddos!

The happy ones!

The "switch" was flipped after church, so we were able to get a nice Easter picture of Summer. The boys were already up the stairs and half undressed by the time I got into the house, so it's a solo! Grandma and Grandpa were here to celebrate with us. Yep, they survived a week with our kiddos! Thank you so, so much Grandma and Grandpa! I am not sure why we don't have an Easter picture with them and the kids. Sigh.

San Fransisco

Jess' Company has been looking at opening an office in Northern California. Since much of Jess' time is spent in this other sunny state, this was of great interest to us. The week before Easter, Jess' parents flew out to take care of the kiddos and we headed as far away as we could. Just kidding, we went to check out the area that we could move to. This was really exciting to me because San Fransisco has always been on my bucket list! We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. I had no idea that San Fransisco was known for it's fogginess and cool weather!

Our first clue that we had arrived in San Fransisco! If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the awesome dashboard collection that appears to have started the year the van was made.

Fisherman's wharf. This might also be the first photo of me pregnant with #5 here on the blog. This would be about 22 or 23 weeks along.

I can not wait to go to Alcatraz!!

Sea Lion refuge at Fisherman's Wharf!
We had a yummy dinner at a restaurant called 21 Market street in SF and then headed over to Livermore, where Jess had meetings scheduled during the week. I spent the week, eating out, looking around the town we would prospectively like to live in, reading the newspaper at breakfast every morning, sleeping in, taking walks with Jess and a little shopping. Oh and definitely some romance! It was fun having Jess mostly all to myself. Work got in the way a little, but all in all, it was like the trips we used to take before we had kids. Funny thing is though, I spent at least two weeks prior dreaming about how awesome and amazing it was going to be to have this break. Once I was on it, I missed having a purpose to my day. On the day that Jess had meetings, I checked out the local shopping situation. A very important detail to any potential move! I found myself wandering around, sort of like I was lost. Strange. We had a ton of fun, loved the area and I was really glad to get back home to my babies! I am so glad that I don't have to fly coast to coast as much as Jess has. Oh yeah, if you ever fly on Delta, try the Bentley's Carmel popcorn they sell-YUM!

Weeki Wachee Springs

After We left the Space center, we drove over to the west coast and went to Weeki Wachee Springs. It's the oldest Theme park in Florida. They have a swimming area with water slides, that is fed by a spring, so the water was nice and refreshing. They also have a boat ride that you can take and a live mermaid show. It was a fun afternoon.

Summer, with one of the mermaids.

Lexi, soaking up whatever rays got through her sunscreen!

The mermaids performing, "The Little Mermaid."

The kids loved watching them swim, sing and dance in the water. The Sea Witch was my favorite. She kept bursting out of places and scaring the audience for her parts.

All tuckered out from a long, eventful weekend.

Kennedy Space Center

Over spring break, we took a little trip to see Kennedy Space Center. The kids had a blast! It has changed a lot since I was there when I was 14!

The Rocket Garden

Part of the crew

My favorite part was seeing the space equipment and memorabilia from the past...no surprise there!

NASA!

Matthew wants to "be an astronaut and go up into space!" I wonder what the space program will be like when he is old enough.

We got to see the inside of a space shuttle. The kids are in front of the cargo area. It's kind of like a B-52, huge plane, tiny place for the crew, huge area for the stuff they carry.

All I have to say is that guy has got to be on fire in that suit in Florida on a hot day! The kids thought he was so cool!