Summer Break 2016

You've had a break of almost 5 weeks between summer school and the start of the new school year.  It was a lot of time to fill but I did my best to try to keep us busy and have lots of fun while we had the extra time together.  I think we are both ready for school to start, but I also think we had a lot of fun together in the meantime.

Play date with Hudson at Tongva Park.

Impromptu picnic when everyone was ready for a snack.  We met a couple of Hudson and Cristina's friends too!

We made a couple of trips to "the red playground."

Picnics too!

I adore this photo.

You were so proud of your picture.  It's a birthday party.  You drew a giant table then we made chairs, people, plates (with corn), cups, a cake, and "pets" (butterfly and elephants).

Different day, same playground, more chalk.

Another Tongva Park visit, this time with Hana.

We built you a pretty awesome rocket ship and we make regular trips into space.

One afternoon we made an impromptu trip to Paint Lab in Santa Monica.  A couple of friends had told me about it before but we'd never been and it was so much fun!  $15 for 6 large sheets of paper, unlimited paint and stay as long as you like.  We had the room to ourselves and you had a blast.

The final products.  Clockwise from top left:  (1) puppy, (2) turtle in water, (3) sleeping bunny with a rabbit hitting it, (4) person taking care of a bunny, (5) chair and person sitting in chair and wheel on the chair, (6) rock with another rock hitting it.

After living so close to it for all this time, we finally made it to Lake Shrine.  It's just a pretty area to walk around and enjoy the scenery.

We planned a picnic for Lake Shrine but discovered they don't allow you to bring food (or "reclining on grass") so we brought our lunch back home and had a picnic in your bedroom and it was just as fun.

You tried one of the carnival rides at Santa Monica Pier for the first time.  I took a deep breath and tried to calm my fears of carnival rides that I've had ever since seeing a young girl get run over by the little cars on one of the rides at the Olney fair as a child.

You chose the airplanes, though once it got going you preferred to stay down instead of going up in the air (we did try it though).

Next stop:  carousel.  You were really testing my motion sickness at this point.  I wouldn't do these things for too many people.

Finally, we finished up with a visit to the aquarium.  I don't have any pictures from it because my hands were wet and yucky, but you spent SO much time at the touch tanks this time.

We invited Charlotte and Jack over for a movie day and watched Cars and ate popcorn.

Pardon my giant hand.

On national teddy bear day Build A Bear had $5 bears and would donate a bear to Toys for Tots for each one sold so we had to partake.

This is Ponyrash.

You informed me one evening that the next day was Lambie's birthday, she was going to be 4, and we were going to have a party.  I of course had to oblige, so we invited Lambie's friends and you helped me decide what we needed for a party (hats, napkins, plates, Oreos substituted for cake, strawberries, and a candle) and get everything ready.

We even sang Happy Birthday to her.

We wrapped up our break with a fun day at the beach on your last day before school started.  You will find those pictures in a separate post.  That visit had me feeling thankful that we've been fortunate enough to live in such an amazing place for as long as we have and decided that we should start making extra trips to the beach for the rest of the fall until we move.  I'll try my best to stick to that plan.