Applesauce!

My little chef made me sign her up for 6 more weeks of cooking class! Man, does she love to do it and it has been lots of fun. She is a night owl so early morning wake-ups are NOT her thing. We have to leave the house no later then 8:30 to make it to class by 9 a.m. She will usually ask for 5 more minutes before she gets up but once I tell her "cooking class day" she decides right away if she is taking a bath or a shower and what she wants to eat for breakfast! This class we are going to be making applesauce! We also invited the twins to come and play with us too! After we went to the apple farm in San Luis Obispo, Savannah has had a thing for apples. She loves to eat them...just like any fruit but here was a new way to have some!

Using the chopped to make the apples smaller. First they had cored and peeled them. Cooking class is way braver then I am! I would probably not let her use the chopper or the apple peeler but since they let her use it.....I have NO excuse now not to let her at it!

These are the chopped and cooked up apples! Next the kids each got a turn using the hand mixer to make it more delicious and less chunky! Another one of those things I have not let Savannah use in the kitchen!

They served it up with some shortbread cookies that were oh so yummy....Savannah wanted nothing to do with the cookies even after Ro and Ree told her they were GOOD! A fun time was had by all and I think cooking class will remain a hit for a while. I WILL be doing more cooking at home when I am off work and I'm sure to have a helpful volunteer!

Sitting and saying good bye to her buddies! These girls have been friends since the Gymboree days and they were only 1!! They are 6 days apart in age and have the best time playing and laughing together!

Happy 10th Birthday Rebecca!

Look who turned 10! Rebecca is usually pretty lucky and her birthday falls on Labor Day weekend. She had a sleep over party the night before and then went to the movies with her friends and Michael.

Great Grandma came to help Rebecca celebrate and got a hug from Savannah! Savannah found this camera and was happily taking pictures of everyone. Someday I will be in more pictures!!! Hopefully....ha!! Ha!!

We had a hot dog festival! There were an assortment of toppings to chose and as well as an assortment of different kinds of hot dogs. Rebecca was making a chili dog for herself here!

Looks like a 10 year old made it! I love sprouts too but probably not on my hot dog!

Savannah, Kyle , Rebecca, and Joseph cuddling on the couch! I'm pretty surprised that everyone has a smile and seems to be getting along great!!! Joseph made his own party hat for his sister's birthday!

Time to pose with Grandma and Papa! They are all growing up so quickly! See Savannah is still taking pictures an hour or so later....she learned that from me!

Smile Joseph! Posing with Great Grandma! These are all of her great grandchildren!

Rebecca's cake. It was chocolate with custard filling. Yummy good!

Blowing out the candles and enjoying being two hands full now....not that she hasn't always been two hands full!

She loved the nightgown and DS game that we gave her.....she is already wearing it and playing with her game. It was Rthymn Nation. She was working hard to meet the challenges and open up more games! Hope Rebecca enjoys her time being 10!!!!

Fun at the Farmer's Market

My shopper is ready to go to the Farmer's Market.....she is looking for lots of fruits and veggies! She ended up picking out GIANT white peaches to share with Daddy when he came home from his scuba diving trip. 3 of them filled her purse and made it too heavy!

Papa decided to help her out and stood in line to get Kettle Korn. The $3 bag more then filled up her purse and it was much easier to carry.

Coconut would love to come and sniff around the park at the Farmer's Market but he is Banned! Other people could not read the sign and there were plenty of dogs sniffing around! We ended up with tomatoes, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, black berries, zuchini, yellow squash, and peaches.

We picked out some flowers on the way out. The sunflowers were so cheerful looking and lasted about a week and a half! We bought some chicken and strawberry tamales at the Farmer's Market too. Lunch was delicious and I know we will be back at the Farmer's Market soon!

Grandma and Papa had fun too!

Kyle's First day of 8th grade!

Okay these are not the best pictures but he was not feeling the mom love and was trying to do anything to get to school that much earlier! He really needs a haircut too but he is growing out the summer camp flat top!

Okay here is a half smile! I will take what I can get. Little does he know next year I will be all over this again! His classes are the usual Language Arts, U.S. History, Life Science, P.E., Algebra I, and Leadership. I "made" him try Leadership and gee, he actually likes it! Sometimes....just sometimes Mom actually knows what she is talking about and he enjoys something. There is a lot to do in leadership. Help to plan, decorate, and work at the dances, plan the spirit events at school, work in the school store and in the lunch lines. They also have to do many hours of service at school and outside of school. This is pretty easy since he is used to doing all of this with boy scouts. I think 8th grade will fly by and before I know it Kyle will be avoiding the start of high school pictures!!!! Here's to hoping we all have a stress free wonderful school year!

More beach fun!

After having our yummy breakfast at the hotel, we headed off to Pismo Beach! We walked the "Pyramid" as Savannah called it. The kids liked walking the pier and going out far over the ocean. We had some fun on the beach but did not drag down our towels and stuff so we just played in the water a bit and in the sand. After having some fun we headed back into the town shops and checkd out the scene! Savannah was walking thru a sort of mall and she said "Mom, I want a dole whip from Disneyland!" I laughed and said we can't get that here......well just to prove me wrong she pointed out the sign that said Dole Whip made famous at Disneyland sold here! So off we went to see what we could find. We found it and ordered one up! She was soooo excited and it was a wonderful snack!

This was gone in about 3 minutes and no she did not share with anyone!! Dole Whip is a tradition with Papa at the Tiki Room. They always go together and enjoy a treat!

Not to miss out on a snack....(can you tell how much he has grown lately!) Kyle goes for our new obsession....frozen yogurt! He loaded up his cup and this was the most exoensive place we have ever been to but it is also tourist trap central! We paid 43 cents per oz. He loved it and we all enjoyed the very pink and white and green yogurt shop! Back out for shopping and people watching after this.

On our way to Pismo we saw this very cool park off the freeway so after we left Pismo and checked out the Kon Tiki hotel (for Kyle!) we stopped to have some more running around time!

Savannah tries out the Uncle Mike seal!

Kyle tries out another one. I think he would have taken a nap here, he looked so comfortable! It was nice and sunny. We also watched as the seagulls were stealing people's lunches while they played......for some reason Savannah did not understand why the people were mad, then we told her the birds were eating the people's cheetos! She said that is not very nice for the birds to eat cheetos from the kids!

Kyle climbed up on the Orca which was cool that they had something bigger then him! Savannah is not to be outdown and Kyle helped her up too! After the park we decided to head to Avila Beach. I had found a hotel online but it did not have many reviews and was new and I was not sure so I stuck with what I knew would be okay and now that we went to the beach, we will be back to Avila in no time to spend some time here!

The view of the water from the beach. The hotel I was looking at has this view since it is across the street from the beach!

Daddy and Savannah start digging to make a sanf castle....this turned into burying Kyle instead but it was lots of fun for all of them! Wonderful sunny day too. We put up our umbrella and put on the sunscreen so no one was burned!!

My teenager laying and enjoying the beach! Love when he smiles....amazed at how much he has grown, also amazed at how he can drive me crazy one minute but put on the charm the next! Love that boy!!!

My beach model! At all of the beaches we went to there was a girl who was having her photo shoot done down by the pier and water. Not the same girl, different girls all doing the same thing. Savannah was interested in it and while this pose was not planned I laughed to myself after I took it that she is already a poser! Love that she is always smiling and happy! She too is growing up too fast and watching her go from baby girl to toddler to little girl now is hard!

Kyle swinging in front of the next hotel we will be staying at! HA! Funny that he was swinging...not funny that he did not know I was taking his picture! Still a kid at 13 -just in a man size body!

Savannah and Daddy having some giggle time!

Back to the hotel for a rest and relaxation after the beach. We decied to hit the downtown Farmers Market. It was HUGE and pretty cool that it was at night. We walked up and down the streets checking out the food, fruit and fun! The kids ate and then Savannah remembered the strawberry dessert place so off we went to find it again. Savannah had her's with a brownie (she loves chocolate!) and Kyle went for the shortcake style....notcie his is already gone! Neither one of them shared with us but that's okay! We had a fun night out and went back for more indoor pool swimming!

The next day another fun filling breakfast and off to the apple farm to pick apples. After we picked out apples, cider and SLO ice cream we decided to head home and stopped in Gilroy for lunch and a little more shopping. Final stop Sonic for drinks...made it in time for 1/2 price happy hour and homeward bound! It was a wonderful 3 day adventure and lots and lots of mom and dad time for the kids. The kids are ready to go back and since it is a pretty close adventure I see more trips to the beach in our future!

Pink everywhere!!!

After being in the car for a while we decided to head to the hotel. The kids said they were hungry and it was way past lunch time so as we exited the freeway to the hotel....the PINK Hotel was in front of us......gotta check it out so here is our visit to the Madonna Inn. I had looked at the rooms to see if we wanted to stay here but the jungle, cave, horse and so many others just made it seem like a kinky place to stay for your anniversary or some other couple event.....thought it might seem weird to go with the kids. After visiting the coffee shop, I think we made a good decision. Here are the kids at the front garden area near the coffee shop.

Everything here is very Pink which delighted Savannah! The flowers were well groomed and lots of people seem to enjoy eating and looking around.

Ponds and flowers......

Inside the lobby. Look at the carpet!!! It was very loud but again if you are 3 you think it is BEAUTIFUL!!! This was near the fireplace in the lobby.

Where we ate lunch......

The worlds moste extreme men's bathroom. Kyle and Clark had seen this on the travel channel so that was another reason for our visit. They love to check off places they have seen on t.v. that they want to visit. I'm surprised we didn't hit a few diners, drive-ins and dives too! We decided to go on this trip too quickly for them to do more research! Lots of ladies were going in here and checking it out too!

Savannah and I checked out the ladies room too. A little too over the top again but the Princess LOVED it!! She wanted to know if we could get her bathroom at home to look like this....okay? No!

Kyle wanted me to take a picture of the weird doll/lady that was swinging in the fake wisteria.

The booths and flowers and lights and oh yah check out that carpet once again! This was a dinner/bar place.

Same carpet on the stairs! They must have this specially made for them or they got a great price on it!!

Pink sugar and napkins at the coffee shop! Very pink!!!

Savannah giving a big thumbs up to her Pink cake! It is Pink Champagne cake and came with huge chocolate ribbons. Notice the goblets on the table. We must have had 6 different colors and both of the kids were so excited about these. Clark and I just laughed at irredescent colors and gaudy roses on them. Kyle even asked if we could buy some to take home....luckily I came up with the quick mom answer of "I don't think they will fit in the dishwasher or the cupboards"....saved me there but I think someday he might have this sort of gaudy glassware in his house!!

Not sure that she wanted to share with Daddy or anyone else. Put this picture in to show she is getting my squinty eye! My dad always says I got it from his Grandma Rose but I think I am passing it on to Savannah!

We ended up taking over half of this back to the hotel and I caught Kyle watching Project Runway and eating the rest of it the next night!

Don't worry we let Kyle get some too! This is the Black Forest. He wanted a cream puff and while we were waiting for our food he walked to the take out bakery and saw them. We did not order til after we ate and someone came in and bought them all up. He settled for this and Clark encouraged him since he wanted to try this.

It was a fun stop for us and nice to get a huge meal and dessert. We actually skipped dinner and got a snack at Taco Bell about 10 o'clock that night. Yep, vacation means eating and enjoying! After driving around and eating and checking out more sites the kids and Clark went down to the pool to relax while I organized our stuff and looked to see if we should add anything to our next day!