Mia's Fifteenth Birthday

Mia invited five of her friends to conveyor belt sushi for her 15th. 

Mia had been asking Riley to make a mohawk out of her hair so she decided to do it for Mia's party. 

Sushi was a success. They had a blast!

The little sisters had to sit with us, the old parents.

Riley crocheted this FNAF bear for Mia. So creative!

Anna made her a red velvet cake.

Lighting your own candles! One of the perks of being fifteen.

After sushi they came home and played board games for about four hours. At 10:30 they asked if we could supervise them at the park. Of course! We appreciate that they didn't wait for us to go to sleep and then sneak out!

At 3:30 AM I woke up and the TV was still on so I don't think anyone got more than an hour or two of sleep!

The next day we celebrated her birthday with the fam.

She was so so tired. And later told me she was disappointed that I gave her some lame gifts (they were) and money to buy what she wanted instead of giving her what she wanted.  She finds it very hard to spend money.

So ... on her actual birthday she got to open what she really wanted which I bought with the money she gave back to me. 😂

Going into our third year of teeangerhood!

Random March 2024

We went out for a cruise on Kelly and Melissa's boat. What a gorgeous day!

What was life like before this little one? She just lights up our life.

And the cats are beginning to tolerate her too.

Dan and I hiked the Ridge Trail at Aliso Woods Canyon.

One day while golfing, I spotted these Egyptian geese with their little babies.

Any time we ask the girls where they want to go to dinner it's always conveyor belt sushi!

Her brothers are so so sweet to her.

Anna styles her hair a little differently every day.

We went to Guage's first birthday party, "Oneder the Sea".

He never ate any of the cake but he sure enjoyed feeling it!

Mia and some of her Japanese classmates came to our house to make onigiri.

Onigiri is a delicious and salty rice cake.

At the end of the month Dan went to the last launch of the Delta IV, a rocket he worked so hard on.

On to April!

 

Easter 2024

We were lucky to have the Martins down for Easter again this year! We started out Friday night by coloring eggs.

This was a swirly egg kit and the directions said to put oil in the dye. It didn't work too well. The kids didn't like the swirl effect and wanted their whole egg dyed. Out of 72 eggs they probably dyed 30!

On Saturday we went to Becky's house for dinner with Arek's family. His brother, Adrian, for which I have no photo, recently returned home from Poland for a visit. I do have pictures of the kids playing Queen Kinga where they slide Kinga around on the floor in a box and say, "All hail to Queen Kinga!" I'm not sure who loves this more, the sliders or the queen.

When Becky's family went to Arek's parent's house on Easter morning, Paige and Chase swam (in the rain) a bit and then helped me frost and decorate the Easter cupcakes.

We waited all day for the rain to abate so we could do this!

Time to check out the loot. You can also check out Anna's do.

More and more of the eggs contain money these days as kids have braces, dairy allergies, surgery restrictions, etc. And let's face it - they like money!

To top of the night we celebrated Chase's seventh birthday!

Monday was the ONLY sunny day so it was swim time!

Easter 2024 is on the books!

Random February 2024

Time for another post of things we did in February that wouldn't make for a regular post...it's Random February!

I'm going to try words set left rather than center as I've been doing for the last however many years. Yes, there is not much to post in February.

Mia has had her first four lacrosse games. They lost the first two and won the second two!

She plays defense and goalie.

We took the boys to the park to bird watch and shoot some rockets they got for Christmas. I'm going to say they liked the bird watching best but that would be a lie.

We did see five black-crowned night herons in the trees (these are really large birds) that were very well camouflaged.

We made it to IHOP on Valentine's Day for the 22nd time! The IHOP restaurants were always full in Colorado on Valentine's Day. We prefer the emptiness and fast service of the empty ones here in California. That is why the tradition started!

Every time I go in my bedroom Kinga points and grunts to the Christmas wrapping box under my bed.  It's her favorite toy.

It also doubles as a vehicle.

Dar sent me these bird socks for Christmas!

That's a wrap for February.