LA LA Loving Right Now

Last week I introduced my kids to my favourite way of eating ice cream.
You need three ingredients to make this delicious and sweet summery goodness:

1.  Vanilla Ice cream
2.  A waffle cone and ...
3.  A drizzle of HONEY!

Simple and sweet but that extra hit of sweetness makes is so so good!  Of course it's absolutely no revolutionary way of eating ice cream but it's kind of too good not to share.
My kids are fans but then again what sweet loving boy or girl wouldn't love the sticky and creamy goodness dripping down their hands?

Short and sweet post but again .. it's too good not to share! :)

 

You are Welcome.

Welcoming Summer

 

We are in June already?  How did that happen?

Aaaah yes we have some tomatoes happily ripening, there are baby birds finding their wings and leaving their nests and other birds looking for discrete places to build their nest.  Trust me .. we did a lot of bird watching Sunday morning!   It's pretty much the unofficial start to the summer season around here and well this weekend very much felt like it!  Warm weather and lots of time playing with/in the water even if it's our teeny tiny inflatable pool ... but when this face smiles this big after spending  some time in his tiny pool it's all that matters to me!

 
He walked outside on Sunday, looked up at the sky and exclaimed "Is sunny. I need sunbock (sunblock).
He grabbed the suncreen face stick and proceeded to apply it to his face ..  he let me help him spread it around those squishable cheeks of his.
A minute later he demanded to "put on my simsuit (swimsuit).  He pretty much put the official 'start of summer stamp' in my book.   Oh my goodness that tiny voice of his expanding every single day with new vocabulary.  It's crazy to think how much he has changed since last summer! Crazy! 

I'm very much looking forward to a great summer .. this very vocal and active little boy of mine needs to be kept busy and I'm still figuring out our official must do's  but  this great printable from this creative lady got me motivated to start thinking and here's what I have so far.  I will let my five year old have her say on what she wants to do and add to it this week I'm thinking.

I'm very much looking forward to a great summer .. this very vocal and active little boy of mine loves being outside so I forsee lots of time enjoying our own backyard and we will definitely squeeze in a quite a few trips to the beach.  This great summer list printable from this creative lady got me motivated to start thinking about other summer must do's and here's what I have so far.  I let my five year old have her say on what she wants to do.  I hand wrote those in.
Our conversation went a little like this:

Me:  "Do you have anything you really want to do or make this summer"?
Her:  "Yes .. I want to make a butterfly".
Me:   " Ummm Ok.  What would you like to make it out of"?
Her:  " How about clay"?.

And so with a little oven bake clay we have one item ticked/checked of our list.
She is so awesome! 

Hope your summer brings lots of happy times and amazing memories are made!

Camping Adventures/Newport Dunes

 I thought I would break up the silence on this blog with a little recap of our most recent camping/trailer adventure.  Two weeks ago we ventured out on a four night stay at one of our favourite summer locations : Newport Dunes in Newport Beach.  I love that you can lay by the beach all day if you choose or rent a water toy of some sort if you want to be active, splash in the pool or even take a leisurely stroll or bike ride around the beach area and just ..... breathe.
The noisy atmosphere of the all the kids doing their thing, laughing and screaming and truly enjoying their summer is pretty infectious.

  With our little trailer there is some hard setup work that needs to be done upon arriving at the site and then of course the clean up on our last day. My ever so strong husband is in charge of all of that and my job is to keep our kids away and occupied until that work is complete.
Ice cream on the beach kids?  Isabel gives a resounding 'Yes'!!  And Owen gives the cutest 'yes please' I have ever heard.  It sounds more like 'es peeees' ... he has the best manners of any almost two year old. Yes he does.

Speaking of Owen .. that boy gets more and more adventurous with every new camping trip we embark on and I get just slightly more nervous.  Baby proofing is pretty much non existent in or around our trailer so you will constantly hear 'watch your fingers' 'watch your head' 'watch your step' 'be careful buddy'.

He was loving the freedom of being able to follow his big sister around on her bike (well technically it is his hand me down bike but she refuses to ride her 'big girl' bike) on the little street right in front of our site (cars drive super slow) and I was very happy to see how quickly he moved his little legs to come back to one of us an hold our hand the moment he saw or heard a come coming.
Good manners and knows the road rules?  Proud mamma over here!  

 

"Mummy isn't this the most beautiful shell you have ever seen"?  Yes it is the most beautiful shell I have ever seen Isabel. Playing with sand, dirt and water and staying up waaaay past her bedtime? Isabel was in pure kid heaven. 

As much fun as Owen had playing in the sand and being allowed to play on the street,  I'm pretty confident his favourite part of this camping trip was being super duper close to the airport.  I can't quite figure out how to write his word for aeroplane but let's just say he repeated his word and pointed to sky many many maaany times.

We ventured out of the campsite on one of the days and walked on over to Balboa Island just for a change of scenery.  Isabel enjoyed an icecream and her mummy and daddy enjoyed a nice adult beverage overlooking the harbour.  Life is good.  So so good! 

 This was Summer camping trip #2 for 2013.  We have planned four this summer so two more to go.
I love making these fun memories.
Until next time Newport Dunes!

Orange County Fair

Happy Friday!

On Thursday this week we made our annual visit to the Orange County Fair.  I must say going with a very excited three year old made this year's visit the most fun yet !  Life is so different when you experience it through a child's eye ... it's pretty cool!  We definitely didn't get to see as much of the fair as previous years because well with a three year old getting places takes a little longer especially when tired little legs refuse to surrender and sit in the stroller even for just a little bit.   Isabel was all about the rides this year and from the moment she spotted the little gold fish (I don't know whether she saw the game or saw people carrying them around) but she was pretty much on repeat for the entire time that 'she really wanted a pet fish'.  "How about an icecream isabel?"  "OK but can we get a fish after pleeeease'.  She was relentless. 

We even got her a dream light (at the hall of products) .. something she requests every single time she sees the ad on TV.  This was purchased in hopes she would forget about the fish.  It didn't work!  So on our way out Jason decides he has to try to win her a fish.  So the three of us throw the little balls .. at this point I'm crossing my fingers one of those balls lands in a bowl so that she gets her fish!  Well no go!  But the man working the stand was very kind and gave her a fish anyways. 

Dear man working at the fish game stand:
"Thank you for not disappointing a little girl and giving her a fish that she wanted so very very bad!
Love:  A very appreciate mummy :)

'Hush' the fish survived a bumpy ride home with some of his water spilling out but Isabel is a happy girl.  And our visit to the fair was an all round success ... well kind of ... I didn't manage to eat anything sweet and yummy :(  no chocolate covered strawberries .......

Hope everyone has a happy weekend full of smiles!
I'm sure I'll get my share of sweet goodies this weekend so maybe it was good I skipped them at the fair ;)

A Summer Favourite

If someone was to ask me about my favourite things about summer I would have to say :

I say of course because I wear the nickname my loving husband gave me 'fruit bat' with pride since I love every and all fruits and can pretty easily eat an entire watermelon on my own! This past Friday my favourite little girl and I went on a mummy and me date to one of our favourite places : Tanaka Farms in Irvine to taste and pick...... you guessed it ..... watermelons!!

Daddy was kind enough to take our baby boy to work with him (yep we are pretty lucky I know) for the morning and I'm so grateful because it was extremely humid that day (the kind of icky/sweaty humidity I remember from when I lived in Brisbane, Australia) but that kind of humidity is not normal around here! We enjoyed the day none the less. How could we not.. there were friends, wagon rides, veggie tasting, as much watermelon as we could eat and then one to take home!