A wonderful weekend

My cousin graduated from UCSD on June 12, 2011 so we drove down south for a few days...

This is what we did leading up to attending his graduation!
Our first visit to my Uncle's donut shop in Poway - San Diego:

 The children apparently felt they could make themselves at home... went right on in and straight to the back and placed their orders!

 And came back out with quite an order! Chocolate milk and a donut with sprinkles!

 more sprinkles....

 and oohhh a chocolate glazed one!

 After a wonderful breakfast... we headed over here:

saw lots of amazing things! (and Uncle came too!)

Check out tat beauty of a plane!  (and the adorable children in front of it!)

He would make a cute pilot... one criteria down.  Now he just needs to read the directions! We'll get working on the reading part...  Does it help that he can already read, "STOP?" (hahaha)

He may just turn the plane upside down!  (because he wants to not by pure accident!)

Check out all the controls and buttons... gave me quite a headache!

They took turns being the pilot and co-pilot:

Oh, my there he goes with the buttons again!  (hang on, E!)

They needed a bigger plane to control...  ;)

The best part was going down below and exploring the various cabins:

Hey... a typewriter!  Of course, I had to explain what that was...

"Mayday, mayday... I am having a bad hair day!"

"Let's go right!!"

The kitchen... he's not real... but I had a hard time remembering that...

when I saw him...

and them!

A real microscope that worked!!!

Xray room

More typewrites! ;)

Oh, I remember when we had one f these phones!  It took for.ever to call anywhere!

The dentist's office:

Hello Mr. Dentist, who is not real, but looks SO real!

MD always makes himself at home no matter where he goes!

Monkey see, monkey do is what we call this little man!

Back outside on the upper most deck -- it was a beautiful day!

Checking out the HUGE landing area!

My cutie pie

He found a friend!

Aren't they the cutest???

I see mischief in his eyes...even from a distance!

photo opp

We thought this was kind of a neat photo... can you spot our 3?

He was fascinated by the teeth!

Off he goes in!

I thought this was kind of cool - letting visitors check out the plane's interior.

So we checked them all out!  (E and I had to keep busy for 40 minutes while the others went on a tour of another part of the ship that E was not "tall" enough to do).

He's too cute for words sometimes!  (sometimes!)

A plane all to himself!!!!

Can you tell he's happy about it?

After we left the USS Midway, we made a short stop...

AT THE BEACH!!!!

Best part ev.er!!!

We didn't really plan on visiting the beach...

(seaweed anyone?)

Hence, the worried look on my face when they all decided to go right on in and get wet!

Even SHE went in.. girly girl who rarely gets wet and dirty!

And you can see MD in the background immersing himself... I found sand in ALL his pockets!

Well, he stayed dry for a few minutes!

But then he accidentally fell in when he tripped... but he was fine!

We had a great Saturday!!!!
On Sunday we woke up and did a bit of this...

 Then all 3 made Uncle a card:

 This is E's - he wrote most of the letters himself!  (He wrote happy all by himself with my verbal directions!  pretty good, huh?!)

 Then we had an amazing Mexican breakfast buffet in Old Town.  She loved that chicken:

 I enjoyed my bowl of Menudo!  (Still thinking about it)

 And this guy here was providing the music that E loved dancing to:

 Then we went to the graduation (and got there late!)  That's my Uncle with the children:

 She's so funny.  I made her that headband.  When I asked her to out on her hat, she took off the headband and put it on her hat!  Very creative!

 He's something else...

 And he's just him!  ;)

 Speeches... speeches... and more speeches!

 Then it was all over!!!  My cousin and his dad:

 MG giving Sochetr his flower lei...

 Hugs all around!!!!

 Family photo:

 Then it was to the park for us. The children needed some time to run around so we went to Balboa Park.

 They played for about 2 hours!

 It was non-stop exploring since they had never been to this park before.

 So much fun!!!!

 Crazy thing....

 made them all dizzy but they LOVED it!

And that was our trip to San Diego!!!!  It was too quick, but such a needed break for Vince and I.  Wedding season is in full swing.  Late nights editing.  Long days working.  Lots of weddings to edit... all waiting for us to find time!

Fieldtrip

This morning, the boys stayed with Vince while MG and I went on a class field trip.

 This grocery store is really close by so we walked...

 The tour began at the garden center:

 then they visited the produce center where they were able to test fresh strawberries! YUM! (looks like Raquel and Bella are comparing sizes)

 The visit to the seafood center was very educational (for me!).  This is a HUGE halibut!

 And check out that salmon, baby!  Vince will drool... sushi anyone?!

 Their last stop was at the bakery... Before leaving, Ms. Dini was given a box of mini brownies!  SCORE!  I told Ms. Dini to run with it and we would meet her in the school parking lot. Hahaha!  (no, really!)  She was given one at the end of the day... she saved it for dessert after dinner. :)

 Check out that display!

 We love Whole Foods... just wish we could afford to go there often!

Fieldtrip

This morning, the boys stayed with Vince and MG and I went on a class field trip.

 This grocery store is really close by so we walked...

 The tour began at the garden center:

 then they visited the produce center where they were able to test fresh strawberries! YUM! (looks like Raquel and Bella are comparing sizes)

 The visit to the seafood center was very educational (for me!).  This is a HUGE halibut!

 And check out that salmon, baby!  Vince will drool... sushi anyone?!

 Their last stop was at the bakery... Before leaving, Ms. Dini was given a box of mini brownies!  SCORE!  I told Ms. Dini to run with it and we would meet her in the school parking lot. Hahaha!  (no, really!)  She was given one at the end of the day... she saved it for dessert after dinner. :)

 Check out that display!

 We love Whole Foods... just wish we could afford to go there often!

Daddy's visit

Daddy made it to swim lessons today!!!!
Look at him showing off!  He even used his arms to do the back stroke with teacher Miss Courtney holding on.  We are so proud of his progress and his teacher is too.  She often says that he seems so mature for his age... hmmmm, i often wonder if she is talking about MY child! ;)  He is so happy with her and looks forward to lessons because of her.  He is also more comfortable jumping into the deep end of the pool now!

 They swam  laps as warm up and dad was very impressed! (I know that I cannot swim the entire length of the pool!) They were very proud to show off for Dad's sake and dad had to approach to show his approval.

 See MG on her back?  That's MD under water!  They were taking a break from swimming.

 And there they go -- just kicking off!  Hmm... not sure where MD was going!

After dinner they all had a nice game of chess...

They were so happy to have Daddy at swim lessons today -- so a lot of showing off was done.  :)

Mr. Independant

One day, he will make his wife very happy!
He cracked the eggs, added salt, milk...

 and pepper, of course... and whisked it all up...

 Doesn't it look yummy?!  He made his own breakfast today!

I think I will sleep in tomorrow morning... ;)

One down

and 19 more to go!  Friday MD lost his first tooth!  And when I say lost, I mean it.  How so, you ask?  Well, he went to wash it and it slipped out of his hand/fingers... right down the sink drain!  He was upset... but not really.  I think I was more upset than he was!

While eating lunch, he bit on something hard... he came by to show me his new smile:

 And I am so happy I am one of "those moms" who takes pictures of everything... because this is my only record and proof that he actually had the tooth at one time!

 After picking up MG from school, we went to visit our dear friends.  They played for awhile and then Mia (Kiran and Nikash's neighbor) brought over one of her books.  She was reading to E and then everyone gathered around her.... so cute, huh?!

 He was too busy doing this to read with the others:

 A new smile, indeed!

 I brought out a few library books... Amazing what library books can do, huh?!

 Later before going to bed, he wrote the tooth fairy a letter (aka to him "toos farre")

 Translation:
"Dear Tooth Fairy,
I lost a tooth.
It went down the drain.
May I have a dollar please."

This morning....06-04-11
The tooth fairy was generous -- a Pokemon card and $2!