Gold Country Camping - Part 1 of 2

We went camping last year during Spring Break and had such a good time, we decided to go again this year.  Click for my blog posts from last year.  Part 1 and here for Part 2.  I'm posting tons of pictures.

I love this picture of the kids together standing in the doorway of our tent trailer.  They embraced each other on their own.  No nagging required.

 Brian asked me to take some pictures of Roscoe.  He's getting older, he is 9 years old now.  He was such a good boy while camping.  He was off leash almost the entire time and never ran away.  That's unheard of for him.

Roscoe, eagerly waiting for some droppings.

Fast asleep.  Many times during our camping trip, Roscoe would go and stand by the door of the trailer, waiting to get in.  He's too good to sleep on the ground, I guess.

Hanging out together.  We love the family bonding that takes place on our camping trips.  I'm sure the kids will have many fond memories.  We love to cook s'mores over the campfire at night and sometimes in the morning, we wrap bisquits around a larger stick and cook those too.  We slide them off the branches and fill them with butter and jelly or honey.  Yum.

Modern day camping ... with movies.  On our second night, we had a very impressive thunderstorm.  Wow.  It started while we were eating our dinner (outside) around 7 pm and lasted all night.  It rained into the morning hours also so the kids watched movies in bed.  During the storm, we got in the truck and drove down to get hot cocoa.  We tried to show the kids the lightning but they missed it every time.  The thunder and hard rain woke Brian and I up through the night but our tent trailer is so cozy, it didn't bother us a bit.  Of course Kyla (who's deathly afraid of the rain at night at home) slept right through it all!  Stinker.

She's cute.

The kids have been talking for the past year about how cool the Black Chasm Cavern was, we went on the tour again.

Black Chasm.

Mason picked up the very heavy piece of Calcium rock??  I think that's what it was.  I'm sure Brian will correct me.

I tried to take a lot of pictures of Brian with the kids, I don't have as many as I'd like.

Kyla puckered up for her dad.

A cute picture of Kyla.  I can't believe how large Brian's hand looks in this photo.

I'm telling your mom!!  I guess he got tired of me taking pictures.

Fools Gold.

Coalinga Caballo Club

We've been visiting family in Coalinga quite often lately and one of the things we enjoy doing is visiting the horses at the Caballo Club.  The kids love feeding the horses carrots (thanks mom for not getting the snack size carrots this time, lol) and of course I love the photo opportunities. 

I have a confession to make ... I haven't been blogging very much lately because I'm obsessed with making cards.  I mean obsessed.  When I'm not making cards, I'm thinking about making cards or looking at card making blogs and videos.  I've let my house go (sorry Brian).  I am going to have a booth at one of the upcoming craft fairs with a friend of mine from work.  She's a big stamper/crafter too.  I've made about 80 cards so far and hope to have at least 100.  I can't wait, I don't necessarily care if I make a lot of money, I'd just like to feed my addiction to stamps.  I'll post pictures of some of my cards soon.  I've gotten much better if I do say so myself.
 

An adorable picture of Kyla with a Shetland Pony.

This horse really took a liking to Mason.

My mom took a decent picture of the kids and I.  I never like myself in pictures.

Granny.  Thanks for all you do for me, Mom.

The kids and I posed for a picture on this horse trailer.

Absolutely the cutest horse out there.  He loved smelling me and rubbing his nose on my face.  I'm usually a little nervous around horses (I know, crazy huh) but this horse was so sweet and gentle.  I wasn't a bit nervous about him biting me with his big ol' teeth.

Out takes.  Take 1. 

My mom and I were so exciting about using this old tractor as a photo prop.  Kyla wasn't having it.

 

Take 2.  This time she refuses to smile.  Grrr.

Take 3.  Mason helped out a little with this one.  It was hysterical.  Isn't this photo cute?

Finally I got a good one.  This is priceless.

My two sweeties.

Stay tuned for more posts.  I have at least 5 more events to blog about.  I can't help myself.  My mom is working on my 2010 blog book and is on June.  I'm so excited to see it when it's finished.

Kyla's Birthday Party - Part 2 of 2

Kyla became girly overnight.  She loves Barbie's and pink and frilly clothes (almost).  She chose a pink and purple princess cake.  That's one thing about Kyla ... she's very decisive.  She picked this cake out in about 2 minutes and didn't want to look at anything else.

The Bounce Spot provided cupcakes for the kids to decorate.

Drew and Kyla.

Cake time.  She got the cutest smile when we bought her cake out.

Blowing out her candles.

Our party planner asked if I minded if the kids had a cupcake eating contest.  I thought they'd have fun with that.  Here's a photo of Mason digging in.

A cute one of Kyla before the contest.

Most of the other kids wanted to neatly pick up their cupcakes and eat them.  Of course, not my kids ... they loved every minute of it.  The messier, the better.

Mason was in the lead at the beginning but in the last few seconds, Kyla pulled out the win.  I was shocked.

She said she ate like Roscoe doggy.

What a mess!

Opening her presents.  She loved this one ... can you tell by the picture?

She gets so excited about every gift.

More Barbies!

Happy Birthday Sweetie.  Mommy loves you and hope you had a wonderful day!

Kyla's Birthday Party - Part 1 of 2

I'm terribly behind on blogging!  I've just been having too much fun and have been making cards like crazy.  (My passion lately)  We had Kyla's birthday party on April 9th at The Bounce Spot.  Quite a few of her school friends couldn't come but she still had a good turnout and a great time.  It was a great place to have a birthday party.

She was SO excited about her party and started counting down the days at 7.  She said "it's my best day ever!"  She loved helping me with her goodie bags and getting everything ready for her party.  I can't believe my baby is 5!  She'll be starting Kindergarten before we know it.  She has her Kindergarten assessment next week.

A group photo.  Are they a great looking bunch of kids or what?  They were so sweaty from all of the cardio!

Kyla and two of her buddies.  She says Josh is her boyfriend and she's going to marry him some day.  She's sure of it.  Funny story - while camping this week, Kyla colored a picture for Josh and wrote "To Josh".  Well, while Kyla wasn't working, Mason sneaked in there and wrote "Love You!" on it.  Isn't that something an older brother would do?

Wheeeeee!

Sister and Mom.

Mom and I being kids.  It was fun.

While playing a version of musical chairs (spots), the kids had to crawl around like crabs.

Drew and Kyla on their spot.

Our party planner encouraged the parents to participate!

During musical chairs, they also had to walk backwards.  The party planner said to be sure you look over your shoulder so you don't run into each other.  They sure did.  It was hysterical.

Parachute time.

 

Kyla was a bit of a stinker to my sister.  Later in the day, she told told her, "There's a good Kyla and a bad Kyla."  My sister asked her which one she was and she said she was the good Kyla and she loved her.