Justin's Raging 8th Birthday!

Today Justin turned

8EIGHT8EIGHT8EIGHT8!!!

Keeping with our family tradition I made Justin a special birthday hat and we left him a little gift on the "celebrate" plate.  

Ah, the little gift... a wooden gun, with a snake carved up the handle, that shoots rubber bands.  A rubber band shooting gun!?!? Um, did I buy that?!  I guess I had a moment of weakness.  We were in Tahoe a couple of weeks ago and I saw it in this cute little toy store.  It suddenly seemed like the perfect gift for an 8 year old boy.  I had visions of him shooting down soda cans lined up along the fence.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that soda cans will be all that gets snapped by the new rubber band gun. (And that his sisters don't start looking like cans of Pepsi!)

For Justin's birthday outing, father and son spent the day at Raging Waters.  It was Justin's first trip to a waterslide park and he had a blast!  They went on every slide in the park.  Even Drop Out... twice!  

From the Raging Waters website:

"Drop Out is a thrilling seven story drop/slide, and is one of the tallest vertical drops in the country.  It hurls riders down in just 4 seconds, at speeds reaching nearly 40 miles per hour."

What!? 7 stories? 40 miles per hour? I think we may have little adrenaline junkie on our hands!  Scott, of course, was thrilled to be accompanying Justin on all the "big"slides.  I think it brought back some happy childhood memories.

In the evening, the Mocabee boys met us girls for dinner at one of Justin's favorite restaurants.  Justin opened another gift.  A Fizzy Foamy Science Kit or, in his words, "The best present ever!"  (Who needs a rubber band gun when you have a box of baking soda, food coloring, and test tubes?)

Happy Birthday Justin!!!

Happiest 7th Birthday on Earth!

Today Natalie turned 

7SEVEN7SEVEN7SEVEN7!!! 

I woke up my big seven year old girl extra early and the two of us headed to the Happiest Place on Earth.  We spent a mommy and daughter day at Disneyland!  

Can you guess Natalie's first choice of rides?  7:15 am?  It had to be Space Mountain!  We soon moved on to the slightly less intense carousel, Peter Pan and It's a Small World.  Later in the morning, we popped over to California Adventure for the new Little Mermaid ride.  

We saw the new Mickey's Soundsational Parade and the new World of Color show.  She took her first ride on Splash Mountain and got a big hug from Jesse. 

 Scott, Justin and Lexi met us at Downtown Disney for dinner.

Natalie got to visit with some of her favorite princesses.

It was a magical day of birthday fun and adventure.  But I have to say, she never looked happier than when she was eating a big ol' messy Mickey Mouse ice cream bar.

Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

Happy Homecoming Day... 3 Years Together

The anticipation has really been mounting for our third Homecoming Day.  More than ever, the kids really seem to "get it" this year.  We've decided to have a campout in our backyard.  Among other things (not sure what) this will involve sleeping in a tent, roasting marshmallows and Scott playing the guitar.  You'll have to check in later to see how it goes.  Specifically, if I make it through the night... on the ground... in a sleeping bag!

Here's a few blast from the past pix.  These were taken in Russia, at the end of June 2008.  Just days before our homecoming.

 I just love how squishy Lexi looks in this picture.  

You may note that she is wearing pajama bottoms because all of the clothes I brought for her were either way too big or dirty. 

Here's Scott, pushing that piece of junk (but a lifesaver nonetheless) stroller through Red Square.  

If you could jump inside this picture and fast forward about 30 minutes you would notice it was getting quite crowded.  Then, you would see AND HEAR Justin throwing a monster kicking and screaming tantrum because Scott wouldn't let him push the stroller through the crowd by himself.  

Okay now, we all know it's bad enough to be "that family" at the local Target... but in the middle of Red stinking Square!?  Thanks for that one Justin!