Highlights of July

I have such cute kids. I love this picture. Madisen is being her shy little smile darling self. Jeddy is being his must expend energy. Benson is not paying any attention to me and has haagen daz ice cream all over his face. Taken at the Batiquitos Lagoon

lagoon During their pollinator awareness event.
The kids cutting out leaves that thier "catapillars will eat. My kids LOVE crafts. I do also, just not the clean up at the end.

I have never seen Benson hold so still. What a big boy. he was so excited to get face painting, I am so glad he picked a bee and not a flower. Luckily we didnt have to have that conversation with Ben. "Why is my SON wearing a flower".
Probably the biggest event that happened all summer was the kids bikes were 'stolen'. The kids and I go on hikes early tuesday and thurs morning. We go with our good friends the Hommels. Yes even in the summer I wake my kids up and we go on 2 to 3 hour hikes around the volcano. At first it was me pushing Jeddy (40 pounds) and Benson 25 (pounds) in my double stroller (10 pounds) with all our water, snacks and supplies (5 pounds). so I definately got my intended workout . . . .wspecially on inclines.

I was so excited when Jeddy learned to ride his bike. But when he crashed then I was pushing him and his bike. So there were always times of great struggle! But it was great.

So back to the bikes. One day we decided to ditch the strollers and bikes and go up the face of the volcano. Well we did, we enjoyed the view and breeze and went back down. We got to where we put the bikes behind bushes and they were NO WHERE. The kids were crushed! Tears!. Poor Jeddy just mastered a 2 wheel, madisen loved her purple queen amadala (sp?) bike.
I tore off in one direction, and Marie took her kids and went the other. We were goging to catch these meanies! Really we both separeted and stopped sp we could pray with our kids. After a moment alone and a prayer to guide us and comfort the kids we were on the hunt!.

Long story short we spoent 2 hours on foot and car searching all dead end trails.

I brought the kids home and we got cleaned up and moved on with our day. I just decided I need to report it. What can it hurt. So I spent 20 minutes filing a report and giving incredible details and descriptions of the bikes. I hung up and said another prayer to help the person that took our bikes realize how much my kids love and want their bikes. Any way, I called Marie gave her the no update update and hung up. I noticed I had a message on my phone. It was the police officer from the impound station (the last of 4 officers I had just spoken too).
I teared up as he explained on his message that he went out back just to be thourough and found the kids bikes. He was funny be repeated the leangthy description I gave him of my bikes. so he said coem on down and see if they are a match.

I had just put bence down for a nap . . . But we got him up and went. We got our bikes back. Evidently what happened was a jogger thought they had been abandoned inthe trails. so they had the police coem pick them up. Some good samaritan was saving us from our bikes. It was aan emotinal day. I must add Madisen was a little sad that she indeed wasn't getting a new bike now that we found her old one. I am so relieved to have them back.

Slip n slide, we used lots of soap yto really slick the runway down. Madisen loved to try to go backwards. It is cold water so we never lasted too long. Which is better for the grass anyway.
I know I do not need to mention this but Jeddy got bored of the normal run and slide action. So after a while he was spinning, side running, adding leaps and etc. I am happy to report he still has no stiches or broken bones. He has been superglued and sterri striped together on many occassions.
Even Benson got into to all the action. Mostly I would hold both his hands over head head and drag him down. But he had a few runs of his own
fun times for 4th of July. We all took turns on the diving board. Ben powered through severeal slick flips and moves, I did an areal, and front flip. Jeddy tried out front flips, the rest just jumped.
Again with my friend Marie we had our kids make 4th of july shirts. MArie has 2 boys so she was thrilled to help Madisen with her glitter glue and make fireworks on her shirt. I was head crafter for the boy shirts. Jeddy and bence helped and are so proud of their shirts. Jeddy did a fair amount of the sewing and cutting. Bence more or less helped in theory. I love the fourth of July!!!!! LOVE IT. It was so fun we went to pipes in encinitas for breakfast. We met all the guys after their surf session. It was fun we had breakfast then headed fo parades, parties, pool and BBQ parites, then costco to watch the legoland fireworks. We decided to take coast hwy home prettier drive if we have to hit traffic. We stopped at taarack and saw 3 firework shows going off. IT was a great ending to a wonderful holiday. I really should have posted this in its seperate post . . .like 3 months ago. ha ha ha.
a lazy summer morning

Ben was getting tired of his clean cut apperance, so he shaved himself a mohawk. I am sure if we were not goign to the other dentist in the offices house that night it would have stayed longer. there is the proof, we all get a little crazy in the summer.