Birch Aquarium

Last Sunday I asked Porter what he would like to do on his last week of summer vacation and he said he wanted to visit the Birch Aquarium.  We had a lovely time until Porter decided to walk off without telling me and I couldn't find him for a while.  I wasn't worried that anything happened to him, I was just mad that he didn't tell me before he went off to another area, so we left.  Here are some photos of our visit.

the jelly fish are my favorite

the kids checked out the school bus in the parking lot

touching the star fish

doing an experiment with kelp powder and water

South Mission

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at a friend's beach house.  The kids had a such a fun time.  

throwing the football

throwing wet sand

jumping the waves

porter

Liesl is swimming

Last year Liesl started to swim back and forth between Jason and I so, I was sure she would be swimming this summer, but she wan't ready.  I tried to get her to swim without the arm wings and she did a few times, but not for long.  Well the other day at my parent's house she got out of the pool and said she was ready to swim without the wings.  She took them off and started to swim.  I showed her how to lift her head to take a breath and now she is a full on swimmer.

Tide Pools

A Few weeks ago my friend and I took the kids to the Tidepools at Cabrillo National Monument.    I think I went once in my early 20's but, never took the kids there before.  I didn't realize that we would be taking off our shoes and getting wet, so I didn't dress the kids appropriately but, they didn't mind.  Porter loved climbing on the rocks and exploring, Liesl liked it for about 20 min then wanted to leave.  Here are some pictures from the outing.

a view from above

finding creatures 

his pants were so wet

she kept running away, then running back when she realized I wasn't following her.  

My Beautiful Mom

I don't think I could have gotten through this week with out my mom being there for me.  She took my kids for two days when I couldn't care for them and made me chicken soup, the only thing that I wanted to eat. Thank You Mom for everything!

Hair Cut

Porter has talked about having his hair "like daddy's" for months and yesterday he decided that he would be ready to do it today. I thought about taking him to the barber, but I was still not feeling well enough, so we did it at home. Jason was working from home, so he came down to help out.

Before

I had to cut his hair before shaving it and he did not like the way it looked

happier now

Daddy came in to clean it up 

Porter loves his new haircut and I love that I don't have to fight him to brush it anymore!

Scarlet Fever

Is one thing I never thought I would get, but here I am sick in bed for the 4th day.  I went to the Dr yesterday and got a shot of antibiotics plus a prescription for some.  This sucks and my poor kids who just want kisses, hugs and snuggles understand, but I know it is hard.  Jason has been great taking care of them, the house and working.  I just feel so helpless and it is hard.  The kids spent yesterday at my parent's house and Jason took me to the Dr. because I didn't feel comfortable driving.  This afternoon it will be 24 hours since I started the antibiotics, so I hope I start feeling better.

this is what my skin looks like and it is starting to itch, ugh

I hope I didn't pass this on to anyone else and everyone around me stays healthy.

Art Studio

The art teacher at Porter's school opens up her home studio on Fridays, so I took the kids last week.  We spend about three hours there and had a wonderful time.

water day

The other day we were hanging out at home, I was packing for my weekend in LA and was a little stressed out, so we went outside.  I started trimming some trees and the kids got into my gardening bag and found some seeds.  They ended up planting all the vegetable seeds in the raised bed, it will be interesting to see what comes up.  After planting the seeds they had to water them and that led to 3 hours of fun with the water.

Porter pretending he was going to spray me

they washed my car!

resting on the warm concrete 

Salk Institute