My Grandma's Cousin

We had the privilege of being with extended family a few weeks ago.  One of my Grandma's cousins from Norway was in town visiting.  I just love hearing my Grandma speak Norwegian with her cousins.  This is Liv and my Grandma:

She was in California to visit her daughter Tove. 

This is me, my cousin Rachael, Tove, and my cousin Sara. 

**Disclaimer - I keep calling people my cousin but many of these cousins are 2nd cousins once removed or first cousins twice removed, etc...we're all family and you'll just have to trust me on that.  We actually drew a family tree and these kids here are fourth cousins!!!

Tove came to the states to go to college, married an English man, lived in California, had two boys, moved to England, had two girls, and ended up back in California two years ago (That's a rough summary.)  Unfortunately, she's in Northern California so we don't see her. 

The last time we were together her two boys were babies and I had only Jason.  Now these boys are 8 years older and a lot taller :)  They thought it was funny that they played together as babies and ended up enjoying each other all day.  Here they were making letters with their bodies...very creative play when you have no toys or electronics to entertain!

The girls were a good match, too.  Beth had 7 year old Caitlin and Jill had three year old Emily...although we found three year olds really like to be the only three year old around getting all of the attention so we may have to wait a few years for them to become good buddies :)

All in all, a fabulous day...because as great as it was to see everyone and to catch up...I also got to eat lefse :)

Boating

Last weekend we took a boat on a cruise around Newport Harbor.  We rode in the deck boat behind the kids in this photo:

It was a beautiful day and such smooth sailing...smooth enough for everyone to do a little driving.

It's a good thing we had a navigator though because there are multiple boats, islands, and bridges in the harbor.

Although navigating through the tunnel under the bridge was a bit hairy.  Everyone watched to see if Daddy could get us through (which he did perfectly, of course :)

We got to see some wildlife.  A sea lion swam around us and then hopped up onto the dock for some sunbathing.  We just circled around the area watching and observing him swim and sunbathe...

Everyone loved the boat, the wind, the sun...couldn't ask for much more!

It was a very relaxing afternoon...except maybe when Jill was at the helm. 

Andrew gave her full control...we went in a circle!

Indoor Campout

It's President's Weekend, a three day weekend, and nothing is planned...we couldn't treat is as just another weekend but we really didn't want to go anywhere.  We had considered driving to the mountains to see what little snow was there but then rain was forecast (not snow, rain...no thank you.)  So after some thought, we settled on a campout

...in our living room.

 Two tents were set up. 

We did some fishing. 

And then as the sun set, we had hot dogs and beans

by candlelight and lantern. 

We read stories...may I recommend recent Caldecott Winner Blackout, a perfect story for a candelit evening...

And then we told stories...Jason told us a story based on something he recently read about a trip into outer space where some kids smuggled appleseeds and then grew trees so they would have fresh apples.  Very fun! 

We finished the evening with S'mores. 

Yummy, yum, yum!

Good night...

And then the next day we watched a movie from inside a tent...a very relaxing President's Day :)

Pancake Pen

One of Andrew's Christmas presents was a pancake pen.  He loves to be creative when making pancakes and now it's just that much easier...

these simple little circles became...

Here Beth wears her decorated crown...

And Adam has a present (this was right after Christmas)

Jason's star (and yes, we had whip cream on our pancakes for dinner...gotta love Christmas pie leftovers)

And finally Jill's half-eaten elephant lathered in peanut butter (that's what she asked for after Daddy was running out of Christmas themed ideas)

There was also a camel

a shepherd and some sheep

and of course, a Christmas tree! 

The pen has since been used to make many letters and hearts, and the kids even got a chance recently to try it out (although they realized it's a lot harder than it looks and we had mostly blobs so there aren't any pictures :) 

Bowling Party for Jason

Jason's birthday party was held at a bowling alley (thank you Groupon!)

A bunch of his friends came to play, eat pizza, and celebrate!

Some of the little ones (and even some of the bigger ones) used fun tools to help them bowl...

Beth was the winner on her lane for both games played (she picked up the spare in this shot!)

And even though Adam wasn't the winner, he had a blast playing!  I'm thinking we need to do this as a family more often :)

Thank you to all of Jason's friends for coming, for giving him such amazing gifts, and for just being a part of his life and ours...

And here's a picture of the cake...designed by the birthday boy (each cupcake planet is a specific color designed and decorated by the kids, Daddy did the planet Earth cake)

We're an odd family once again...Happy 9th Birthday, Jason!

Jason turned 9, making my life simpler in that I don't have to think about the ages of my children for the next 4 months.  They're 3, 5, 7 & 9.  Beth thinks it's especially fun because 7 8 9 (I'll give you a minute to think about that one and laugh...) 

On his birthday, we had his favorite foods for breakfast and lunch (so much his favorite that I didn't get a picture before it was all gobbled up!)

Daddy came home at lunch time and we had a scavenger hunt for his presents.

It was so much fun.  There was a present at every stop (everything from a new box of crayons to a large Lego set.)  He had to go all over the house from Beth's bed...

to the bathroom...

and even outside (they were all impressed that we hid a present outside up in the tree.)

For dinner, we headed to Ruby's at Balboa Pier because even though it's January, Jason wanted to go to the beach.  We live only a few miles away, so why not?  Dinner was fun (although taking a picture of his big burger was too much.  Has he reached an age where he's embarrassed by mom???)

He received birthday phone calls throughout dinner...

And he got his own big yummy dessert!

And of course, we finished the evening at the beach...

Happy birthday, Jason!  Hope your day was all you hoped for...because you are above and beyond all we could have ever hoped for!  Thank you for being you :)

PS We had a party with friends at the bowling alley a week later but didn't really get many good pics because of the dark, I mean, "cool galaxy" lighting.  I suppose I'll do another post to show off his cool cake and a few of the pictures from that really fun afternoon, we'll see...