A Festive Fourth!

We had a Festive and Fabulous Fourth of July yesterday!  We started the day with our neighborhood's 3rd annual bike parade and pancake breakfast.  It was the biggest turnout yet and it's so fun to see so many of the kids in our neighborhood all in one place!

He's got his bike all ready to go.  See pictures from previous parades here and here.

Ayden with some neighbor buddies - Zachary & Jessica

We took a break for the afternoon and relaxed, before having our neighbors over for dinner, then heading to a nearby park for some fireworks fun.  The kids played a little, then we enjoyed two fireworks displays.  We know that one of the displays was the city's fireworks, but we still don't know what the other one was - no complaining though, we had a full 1/2 hour of fireworks to watch (for free!)

Ayden & Zachary playing baseball - which was quite an interesting thing to watch!

Waiting patiently for it to be sparkler time

FUN

WITH

SPARKLERS!!

 UNTIL.... The scream heard 'round the park.  Ayden had a few stray sparks hit his hand and he screamed and screamed.  We had all kinds of other people from the park coming over with ice and one lady even offered to go home and get some flour(?).  I think it mostly just scared him and once he calmed down, he was fine.  There are a few little bumps on his hand, but no lasting effects!  He's got a whole year to get over this and be ready for sparklers next year!

Our little patient - he wanted nothing to do with the sparklers after his little injury!

Zachary trying to cheer him up

He was back to normal in no time....The kids didn't have the attention span for all of the fireworks....watching on the blanket turned in to a dogpile on Zachary.

Soccer!

We have entered the world of soccer!  Ayden loves it so far.  He goes once a week for 8 weeks, we have had two classes so far. It's a fun, non-competitive class that teaches the kids basic skills.  No matter what day it is, he is always figuring out how many days until Wednesday when he has soccer again. He even overheard me making plans for Wednesday and interrupted saying we couldn't do it because "Wednesday is Soccer Day."  It's so cute and he is so tired afterward, he sleeps very well on soccer nights!

Summer Fun

We have been having so much fun this summer, I haven't had time to update the blog!  Here are some highlights from the last month...

Fun Trips...

Ayden and I accompanied Grandma to San Francisco to take my brother and sister-in-law to the airport for their big vacation to Europe.  Afterward, we took a yummy detour for some ghiradelli square ice cream!

We also took a trip to Ken's moms house.  Ayden spend the night with Grandma Newton while Ken & I went wine tasting for our anniversary (12 years!).  No pictures from that trip - man am I slacking!!

Playdates with Friends...

We went to Funderland for the first time.  I couldn't believe we had never been there before!  It's right across the street from the zoo and so much fun!


Ayden and his buddy Olivia driving what the kids called "the old car ride"



Ayden & Tyler on the log ride

Miniature Golf

We have also gone to the sprinkler park, we've been swiming a few time at different friends' houses, went to the movies, and went bowling.  We've got to keep boredom at bay (and save mom's sanity)!

Swimming.....

After an unseasonably wet and cold spring, by Mid-June we finally started to have warm weather, so it was time to set up the pool.  We bought a new version of the little pool we have had for the last two years, but put it in a new spot in the backyard.  We have had some fun times at other pools too (where I didn't take any pictures) and I can't believe what a good swimmer Ayden is this summer.  He is completely indepedent in the water!

While we were filling up the new pool, someone was not very patient, so we got the little froggie pool out to appease that.

Can I swim yet?

Ready for a swim!

Showing off his swimming skills



Phone picture randomness

I love having the capability to take pictures with my phone to catch those spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities, as well as those that are not so spur-of-the-moment where I just forgot to bring a camera.  The problem is that I let them build up in my phone before blogging them.  Many have been posted on facebook, but since my blog is my way of documenting life, I need to get caught up with all of the pictures from my phone.

Whenever Ayden comes with my to my school, he looks for Victor, our custodian.  Victor let Ayden push the garbage cans around on this day.

Random picture from February - Ayden built a castle!

February - writing his name on his valentines.

His very first slurpee!!!  He now asks for them every time we are at the gas station.

Home sick from school in March

March 17th to be exact.  One of the perks was that he wasn't too sick to enjoy a special St. Patrick's Day breakfast!

Ayden has figured out how to take pictures with my phone.  This is his view from the back seat of my car.

Ayden and I at the Mother's Day Tea at his preschool

Our first fire in the fire pit this spring...and yummy smores!!!

May - At the silent auction for Ayden's preschool, we bought "principal for the day."  He loved spending the day with Ms. Chris and got to help give tours and pass out snacks.

We attended Ken's cousin's vow renewal over a rainy Memorial Day weekend.  Ayden was so excited to use his umbrella!

So handsome!

Ayden's attempt at a self portrait

USS Hornet & Chabot Science/Space Center

Ayden has been asking for a couple of months to see a real aircraft carrier.  He has a huge toy one that he plays with all the time, so Ken looked online and found the USS Hornet.  It is a decomissioned aircraft carrier in Alameda, CA that has been turned into a museum.  Since it's only about 2 hours away, we decided to go and also visit the nearby Chabot Science & Space Center.  We were joined by Grandpa & Grandma Jill, had a great day and could not have had better Bay Area weather!!!

 Ayden was pretty excited the whole time.  He listened to the directions very carefully and kept reminding my dad not to touch things. He was very interested in the planes that were in the hangar.

Grandpa, Grandma Jill, and Ayden waiting for the flight simulator

Running off some energy on the flight deck with Daddy

The beautiful view of San Francisco from the deck of the ship

After a break for lunch, we headed to the science center. Our entrance included a planetarium show and an IMAX show, which were both pretty cool.  We ran out of time to see the whole place before they closed, we will definitely have to go back another time to see the rest. Ayden enjoyed the space artifacts and replicas!

Our tired boy!!

Hard work

In the small amount of good weather we had this spring, Ken re-did an area of our backyard to make a small patio for our bar-b-que.  Ayden loved helping him and asked every day, "When are we working in the yard?" Ken called him his slave driver!  It's so cute that he's such a hard worker (when he wants to be!)