Campers R Us

The family has been doing some camping of recent times. We started in June and have been going full force. We camped twice at the beach and once at a lake. Scott, Grant and I went to a local beach to camp. We had fun doing the "basics." For us these include kite-flying, swimming (both ocean and pool), grilling, building sand castles, getting some sun and tooling around on our bikes to the pier. It was just the three of us and the beach. Oh, Grant is the biggest supporter of playing "all the games," too. So, it is not unusual for us to do four or five puzzles and play four or fives games (you know, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Elefun, Hi Ho Cherry-Os, Memory, etc.) I do love to play games, even if I do get a little tired at the end of the day. LOL

Next, we met some friends at a beach area in San Diego for nearly a week. Our friend has two boys and one always brings his best friend. So, Grant had plenty of playmates. However, the boys are quite a bit older so G couldn't always hang. He is just a little too little right now. The most amazing thing happened on this trip...he learned to not use his floatation devices in the pool and go under. He would go under water and then swim toward us without the use of any help...well, except for us reaching to him. Oh, don't think he can swim by himself...just with less help. Baby steps to swimming. Also, Grant learned to ride his bike. Chris and Jennifer gave him a Spiderman bike when he was baptized but Grant was not able to do the footwork until this trip. Our friend, Jerms, taught Grant how to ride and get the bike going. The biggest problem for him was learning how to get it going. Jerms taught him to "put his booty" into it. LOL Also, one funny thing is that we got him going and forgot to teach him how to stop. OOPS! So, after flying over the curb onto the beachy sand, he learned that he needs to learn how to stop. We were able to listen to several live bands at this camping facility and Scott & Jerms even blessed everyone by doing some Karoke. Fun times! In the evening, you could go down to the beach and watch the Sea World fireworks too...this place is so great! We also learned that if you stay on Mallard Lane, well you will be blessed with a bunch of ducks (DAILY). We were there for five or six days, therefore we were getting ready to name our ducks. They did seem to really like us (or was it our bread?). Oh yeah, and we went into town and saw the USS Midway! And guess who was playing there that night on the Midway? The Oakridge Boys!

Okay, our most recent camping excursion was to a local lake. It was fun to be at a lake and fishing. We had been use to the beach life, but we decided to go close...real close. We were able to still go swimming in a pool, enjoy the biking life, and play all the new camping games Grant got for his birthday. We played horseshoes, golfing croquet set, kite flying, big bubble wand, giant kick ball, and the list goes on. Thank goodness Jerm's two boys were there to help play all of these. Thanks to Camden and Mason!! Grandpa Gary took Grant fishing (with his Spongebob reel). Oh, what fun. The only thing that was a downfall was that Scott had his Tr*k bike stolen. We had really gotten use to camping and feeling so safe with people around. Turns out, you should lock up your bikes everytime. Scott mentioned having paid $600 for this bike back in 1991. :( Needless to say, we have not yet replaced this item. I am proud to say that Scott did not let it put a damper on his fun and went right on to go fishing.

Golden Birthday!

Several years ago, I heard the term "golden birthday." This "golden birthday" is a name given to the date of your birthday and age meets as the same. For example, Grant will be four on the fourth. So, basically mine would have been when I was twelve and Scott's twenty-seven. Okay, I know that sounds silly but I decided we would "do it up." Well, "do it up" to Grant meant that he should have FOUR birthdays! I said, "I don't think so!" Until I rationalized the whole idea. Okay, he needed to have one at preschool with all of his classmates. It is only fair and he was really concerned because everyone else had one because their birthday is during the school year. Okay, first birthday...school and the theme...Scooby.

Then, my family and I had been talking about taking Grant to Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel for awhile because he LOVES LOVES LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The restaurant guarantees that your child will get to meet Goofy and at least two other characters. Okay, I said I would NEVER be one of those parents that supported the paparazzi frenzy of meeting characters. One lesson that I have learned as a parent...NEVER SAY NEVER. Okay, so we all book our reservation for Goofy's Kitchen back in April and I bought Grant the autograph book for the Goofy's Kitchen. Well, it turned out to be a success. The child could barely eat due to the excitement of getting the autographs. He flipped out most over Chip and Dale. Dale had started in the left side of the room and Chip on the other. Well, Dale signed it first, but Grant could not stop looking at Chip and asking us when he was coming over. It was cute, but I wanted him to eat...so, I told him that the characters only come over if they see the boys and girls eating. LOL it worked and he ended up with a full tummy and met eight characters!

Okay, so now onto the third party...we call this the "friends party." The theme of this party was Spongebob Squarepants. We invited all of our friends and had 23 kids there and about the same amount of adults if not a few more! We had the party at a community park where they have put in all new equipment with rock climbing and most importantly a SPLASH PAD!!! So, all the kids came prepared with swimsuits and towels. There was much fun with the splash pad and jungle gym...however, I read on the Internet about some cute games. So, I attempted to play some games like pass the Jellyfish (modeled after hot potato with using water balloons as the jellyfish), ring toss on the dolphin (which was way harder then I anticipated) and the pinata (which would NOT go down...seriously, I had to have some pep talks with some of the older kids and tell them I NEED YOU TO KNOCK IT DOWN). LOL Lisa made the cakes (Spongebob and a separate Patrick). They looked great. We ate cake, opened gifts and then played a little more! It was a fun party and thanks to the family for helping everything along (Grandma, Aunt Diney, Aunt Tracy, Aunt Lisa and Cuz Emily)!!!

Now, onto the fourth party on the fourth. Well, that one is to come. Our theme...Patriotic and LEFTOVER. LOL We are taking all kinds of stuff over to the Grandparent's house and having a pool party/BBQ. Then, we are going to go see the fireworks.