Dr. Seuss Day

Happy Dr. Seuss Day :-) Austin got to celebrate this year by becoming the cat in the hat!  He made a very cute cat in the hat and despite the look on his face and very sad eyes he was so excited.  

He was mad because what you cannot see is the whiskers smeared on the other side of his face and he was mad that I wouldn't cut out some construction paper to remake the whiskers and tape them to his face.  

Austin's Birthday Party

I cannot believe that my baby is 6!!  Where has the time gone??  Austin is such an amazing little boy, and he is all boy, he loves sports both playing and watching them, he loves to run around and cause trouble and yet he is the sweetest little guy when he wants to be.  This year he decided to have a party in the backyard with a bounce house, it was fun and easy and we had a great time celebrating!

Austin with his Star Wars birthday banner, he decided to go with a Star Wars theme this year.

Since it was his birthday, Austin got to turn on the switch to the bounce house

 Keeping an eye on the progress

It all ready to go, it was a huge house with a basketball hoop inside the bounce house with a slide off to the side

 I think he likes it :-)

 Double slide

Bouncing fun

 Slam Dunk!

 Paige and Taylor having fun

 Austin and Carson totally acting like boys!

 Austin wanted to get a piñata this year, it was a ton of fun and an excellent idea

 Paige taking her turn

 It took forever to break the piñata open, I think all the kids got at least 4 turns to try to break it and finally Austin finished it off

 Picking up everything that the piñata dropped

 Star Wars cake, chocolate with fresh strawberries in the middle, it was yummy!!

 Make a wish :-)

 Austin and all his friends enjoying their cake

 I was surprised the kids took the time to stop jumping and watch Austin open his presents.  He was spoiled like usual, but he loved everything!  It is so much fun to see Austin with all his friends and see all the excitement that they have around each other.  

It definitely was a great birthday party and I am glad that we got to have a fun afternoon, the next day we all got hit with the stomach flu and had to postpone his actually birthday.  He was a trooper about it and we definitely made up for it but you will see all about that in an upcoming post.  

Crazy Hair Day

The kids had crazy hair day at school and Austin was so excited to finally get to participate!  We didn't plan ahead at all (we weren't given much notice at all!) but thanks to Pinterest I was able to get some last minute ideas and that I could tweak to what we had in the house.

 I give you "bug head" Austin and "friendly alien" Paige

 Paige's hair was actually the easiest that we have done in the last few years.  It was just some buns with pipe-cleaners tied around them and funky them up :-)

 Austin always said that he wanted a mow hawk on crazy hair day, but that was just too plain.  I saw some really cool boy do's that had spiders and ants crawling up kids faces with their hair dyed green and the bugs walking around.  We didn't have the green dye, but we did have a couple plastic bugs laying around.  He was thrilled and you should have seen the girls FREAK out when they saw him, it was great!!

Cousin Round-Up

We didn't do anything else big with Anya, Lisa and Darren...we did go shopping, but who takes pictures of that??  But we did get some good shots we want to share from our time chilling and hanging around the house.  

 Paige and Anya, Austin finally gave her up and let Paige have a turn to hold Anya

 Cousins, maybe one day we will get them to all look in the same direction

 Lisa, Anya and Austin getting ready to play some baseball in the backyard.

 Austin hitting Darren's pitch

 Paige stealing 3rd base from Darren

 Austin trying to steal home from Darren

 Let's play ball :-)

 Playing with Anya after they finished dinner on their last night in town

They gave Anya so much love and attention, they really do love their cousins!!

We had such a great time with Lisa, Darren and Anya!  It was so much fun to finally get to meet the sweetheart and spend some time with them.  I cannot wait until we get to see them again, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Cousins at the Aquarium

On Sunday of Anya's visit we decided to drive over to Long Beach and take her to see the fishes and fun at the Aquarium of the Pacific!  She was all ready to watch everything and Paige and Austin were more than willing to show her around and teach her all sorts of stuff.

 Darren, Anya, Paige and Austin

 Paige, Austin, Anya and Darren looking at the fish

 Checking out the sea anemones 

 Austin showing Anya, Darren and Lisa the seals and sea otters

 Austin and Paige waiting to touch some animals

 Anya :-)

 The trouble makers!

 Paige and Austin petting some sting rays with Lisa

 They were all about petting the sting rays!

 Paige distracting Anya from the jelly fish Austin was trying to show them

 More tide pools

 Austin and Paige

 Austin was trying to talk Darren into carrying him like he carries Anya, he thought that was a pretty good deal she had going.

 Family shot, see I really was there!

Darren, Lisa and Anya with the whale

I got some great shots with my iPhone and instagram that also

 Darren, Anya, Lisa, Paige and Austin 

 Paige and Austin looking at the eels

 Anya loved the jelly fish until Paige started to distract her and play with her :-)

 Paige, Anya and Darren hanging out with the sharks

Austin couldn't wait to pet the jelly fish, he loved it!

We had so much fun!  The kids just love to go to the aquarium and to be able to share it with their cousin was the best thing in the world to them!