Mother's Day Picnic Pics

I hope all the awesome mamas out there had a very happy Mother's Day, especially my own awesome mama, and grandmamas, and mama-in-law! :)


I sure did. James made waffles with a homemade berry syrup for breakfast and my Lola Coring came down to join us.

After breakfast, Henry took his morning nap, and Lola, Calvin and I Skyped with my mom while James cleaned up and packed our picnic lunch. 

Picnics are, like, my favorite thing to do with the babies. If the weather's right, and we've got a nice spot with some space to play, a few toys and some simple, yummy food... it's the best. But the weather is key! And this wasn't one of the warmer weekends in the Bay Area where we live. So we chased the warm weather inland to Livermoore and drove all the way to Del Valle park for a sunny picnic by the lake. We had been there a couple of times in 2013, including one camping trip. It was a popular spot, but not too crowded and the weather was just what we were hoping for.

PB&J's for the kids, sourdough with tomatoes, salami, and mozzarella for the grown-ups, and sweet strawberries and watermelon for everybody. And a little milk on the side for Henry.

 

Our picnic spot was very near the shore of the lake.

Days like this are gorgeous and wonderful, but I find that the evenings that follow are always hard! This time it was the traffic on the drive home that got us. Crying, hangry babies stuck in the car :( But once we finally got home and our takeout sushi and tempura was on the table, we were able to all sit down together and actually have a really nice family dinner, despite the fact that it was already past the kids' bedtime (yikes!!). 

How did you spend Mother's Day this year? Anybody else go on a picnic? It's the thing to do! ;)

Spring Camping Trip

For the first time in a long time we took the kids on a camping trip! Our last camping trip attempt was almost a year ago when we tried to go camping over Mother's Day weekend and it was just too windy to be any fun. This time, we went with our friends Ben and Rachel and their two boys, Sagan and Izzy. Izzy is just 10 months old, and was their first camping trip as a family of four!

We went to a park that we'd never visited before, China Camp State Park, so named because it was a Chinese fishing village in the 1880's and now part of it is a historical site. It's on San Pablo Bay and it has a couple of small beaches where we picnicked and the kids had fun playing in the sand and rocks and water. 

Our campsite was beautiful. It was nestled at the end of a row of sites, with a little trail behind us winding back into the trees. Calvin and Henry had a wonderful time. They're becoming very outdoorsy just like their dad :) Calvin loves walking the trails, picking up rocks and leaves, and especially throwing rocks, which is sometimes problematic, but not altogether a bad thing since he mostly wants to throw rocks into water. The beach at the China Camp historic site is a rocky kind of pebble beach which was perfect for him. He was happy to stand there and toss rock after rock after rock into the bay. Henry, as always, needs sensory breaks every so often which usually means strapping him into the Ergo with the hood up so he can kind of hide and relax, but at other times he has really sunny, happy moments of gazing at the trees, or exploring the ground around him, or just playing with his toys or playing with us. Of course it would be easier if those stretches of play and enjoyment lasted a little longer, but for now I'm thankful that we have an easy way to help him calm down when he needs a break (Thank you Ergo!!), and honestly, I'm thankful that he has those sunny, happy moments at all!! Seeing how much the kids loved camping makes me want to go more often! Anything healthy that makes them this happy is worth the work!

Calvin takes off down the trail, following Ben and Sagan ahead of him.

Get to work kid. We need some firewood. ;)

That's our tent behind James and Henry.

Down by the bay. Lots of rocks to throw into the water!

James & Calvin, Rachel, Izzy & Sagan

Beach bums.

Happy Henry!

Such a big boy!! And a cutie!!

Cute even (or especially!) with his hat hair!

Back at our campsite, getting ready for dinner.

James took the kids on a walk while dinner was being prepared.

Campfire time

Henry liked the campfire just a little bit. 

Sunday morning oatmeal and coffee

They called this their "boat." They hung out here for a bit while the grown-ups packed up camp.

After packing up our campsite on Sunday, Ben & Rachel and their kids headed home, but we hung around for one more picnic at a different little beach in the park.

That awkward moment when you realize that you and your spouse are wearing the exact same outfit...

Beach bums.

Splash!

We got home dirty, sandy, and exhausted! Everyone needed dinner and a bath. There was gear to be put away and piles and piles of laundry. The babies were cranky and fussy from being so tired. In those moments it's hard to feel like it's worth it to get out of the house at all! But no. Of course it's worth it! Being out in the woods, out at the beach, out in the sun, enjoying each other's company, seeing the kids so happy. It's the best. 

Does your family do camping trips? 

What kind of weekend trips or vacations do your kids enjoy?

Hippity Hoppity Easter 2015

I'm catching up on Spring Things! Most of the month of March I felt absolutely buried under a mountain of appointments and I couldn't even begin to think about planning anything beyond Calvin's surgery. So I let my self plan nothing for Easter and nothing for Calvin's birthday ahead of time. I waited to see how we were all feeling post-op. And this was weird for me, considering that for his past two birthdays I literally started party planning in January. I know, I'm crazy.

But surgery came and went and all was well. Calvin was feeling even better than expected. So I talked to my cousins and we pulled together some last-minute ideas, including a super-last-minute rainout plan, and we ended up having a very nice Easter celebration.

On Saturday, our cousin Ramiro came over to color eggs with Calvin. We didn't try letting Henry participate in this one... maybe next year ;) They used plastic eggs to do some stamp painting while I got the cups of dye ready, then we dipped and dyed and dried and the eggs turned out colorful and bright!

Saturday night, the Easter Bunny apparently hopped into our apartment and left some goodies for Calvin and Henry, including eggs hidden around our living room!

We did not attempt to take the babies to church, but we did start the day with reading the Easter story and retelling the Easter morning story with our Duplos and Bible toys :)

 I made Easter sensory bins for the boys where they got to hunt for tiny eggs (shh! Don't tell them they're candy!) and butterflies in Easter "grass." I even got edible Easter grass for Henry!






Later the boys hunted for the eggs hidden around the living room. That sneaky Easter bunny filled the eggs with some of their favorite little toys from our small world play! Little plastic dinosaurs, animals, and bugs ;) (They have no idea that Easter eggs are "supposed" to have candy. They were totally happy to find their own little toys hidden inside! Wonder how long we can get away with that trick...)

Then our cousins came over! And they helped me make the cute little bunny pudding cups. Pudding cup + coconut shreds dyed green with food coloring + jelly beans + Peeps bunnies + a Sour Punch straw for the handle!

I did pudding instead of my usual cupcakes because of Calvin's mush-food-only post-surgery diet. He couldn't eat any of the candy on top. These doubled as an Easter and a birthday treat and we all gathered around Calvin to sing Happy Birthday.

Of course, the obligatory family Easter photos! I can't resist. Plus, our wild and unkempt backyard looks pretty in Spring, even with the drought :)

It had rained that morning, which is why we were at our place instead of at a park like we had hoped, but it was barely a drizzle and it got nice and sunny in the late afternoon. Since the sun was out and the yard was hardly wet, Calvin, Ramiro and Abbie did a little egg hunt in the backyard. 

And then we put bunny ears on the babies and stuck them in a basket full of Easter grass and stuffed animals. And they hated it. Until we started blowing bubbles, and then they were like, OK this isn't so torturous after all :)

Ew. What is this stuff?? It's all... ew. I hate this.

Get this stuff off me! Get me out!!!

Wait. Are those... bubbles? 

We LOOOOOVE bubbles!!!!

This is the GREATEST!!

LOL. The things I do to torture my kids for the sake of a cute picture.


Then we brought our basket of bunnies back inside and added baby cousin Evan! And Evan was like "Seriously, guys?" But by then Calvin and Henry were over it and were actually having fun in the basket!

:D Happy Easter!