Life Lessons

Don't leave your favorite rain boots outside or else they MIGHT become the home of a bunch of black widow spiders..... 

This week Anders learned this lesson and as a mama I'm happy to say that no one put their unsuspecting bare tootsies into said boots before we found the spiders. I have been officially creeped out by this and am so thankful no one got bitten! To try and remedy this problem I filled the boots with water to try and flush the spiders out. I think most are out but I'm assuming there are still eggs. These boots are going to the trash bin.

Saturday fun day

This past Saturday we took advantage of the lovely weather in Ventura and spent the day at the harbor. Back home in the San Fernando Valley it was a scorcher so you can imagine how much we enjoyed getting out of that! We rented one of those electric boats and zipped around the harbor trying to avoid the big boats. Our main goal was to NOT crash our boat and to try and keep Anders from falling overboard.

Bubble gum ice cream and daddy. Doesn't get any better than that!

A very cool custom made car parked in the parking lot. We had to get a  picture!

Beautiful 4th of July

Our friends son Gus has his Birthday on the 4th of July so for the last 3 years we have enjoyed celebrating with them in one way or another. This year we were invited over to their new house for a lunch celebration this year. They decided to stretch out the day and had picked up chicken and tri-tip steaks to grill in the evening for those who wanted to make a whole day out of it. What a day it was! There were so many kids and so many different ages that I hardly had to supervise Anders the whole time and all the parents were able to just relax and chat all day.
At one point in the afternoon I noticed that Anders was getting overwhelmed from all the activity and had snuck away to do something "lonely" (play quietly with toy soldiers). I told him that after cake and presents he was going to have a little nap time in one of the bedrooms. He came up to me shortly after cake and practically begged to have his quiet time! I took him in a bedroom and read him some books and had him lay down and try to close his eyes. I rested too! =0)
After that nice interlude we continued to party until late into the evening and Anders had fun the entire time. There were no meltdowns just pure fantastic fun. Here are some pictures of the day

One happy boy!

All the kids took turns beating up a Transformers Pinata.

The Birthday boy Gus turning 4 on the 4th!

Some of the kids admiring baby Mae, Gus's little baby sister.

Chris and I really enjoyed ourselves.

Little girls love babies!

Little boys love weapons! This was a marshmallow shooter that was a big hit with Anders.

This is where I found Anders during the height of the party chaos. He needed some "lonely" time he told Chris.

Kids world!

Chris chatting with our friend John Walquist.

The kids got glow sticks while we waited to see if we could catch any fireworks from the back yard.

Looking a little crazed....

We had a raucous dance party after fireworks and the kids (and adults) danced the night away.