Party time!

We couldn't have family visiting from out of town a few days before Maddie turned 3, without having a party!  In between our theme park excursions, we had a day of rest, which included an evening birthday party for Maddie Mae.  We had a nice dinner, pink streamers, pink balloons, pink cake, and birthday presents!  She was in heaven - especially when she realized we were going to sing "Happy Birthday" to her once again. :)

The banner made a second appearance - I mean, c'mon!  That took a lot of work, and I wanted to enjoy it more than once this year!

Brant, Sarah and I had a plank contest, to see who could hold it the longest.  I would have won, but I decided it would be kind of me to include the girls in on our fun, so I stopped my plank early, and had the girls climb onto Brant for this fun picture. :) (Yes, Brant won).

Grandpa Pat, combing Ben's hair for the birthday party.

Grandpa and his boys!

Who's excited for pink cake??

3!!!

Brant, er, I mean, Maddie got a new Rapunzel t-shirt from Ellie.

 

All of the remaining pictures were taken on Maddie's actual birthday which landed on Tuesday, the 19th, after everyone had left.  We went to a local park for a pizza dinner with our good friends, Micah and Hannah (and some of Maddie's favorite people). I thought I'd just add them to finish off Maddie's birthday posts in one place. :)

Maddie and Micah were taking turns being silly and pretending not to smile for the camera. :)

Maddie's special birthday present, saved for her actual birthday.

A special Belle doll for her to love.  :)

Sea World

While in San Diego, my family enjoyed two days at Sea World, taking in all of the rides and every show we could fit in to our days.  My family hasn't been to Sea World in over 22 years, so this was almost like a brand new experience for us.  I must say, Disneyland sets the bar extremely high, and no other theme park on the planet has a prayer of reaching that standard. :)  That being said, we were able to put our "Disney-snob" perspectives aside and really enjoy the park for what it had to offer. We had a terrific time! I will only give you a sampling of pictures, as I took way too many to hold your interest!

Our first show.

Geoffrey, taking in the dolphins...

(You can tell our kids really loved it. ;)).  Actually, Maddie has her hood on because, although we were sitting near the very top of the stadium, she was protecting herself from getting splashed. :)

The girls loved, loved, loved the Sesame Street Bay of Play! It was an entire area devoted to kids, and Sesame Street characters.

Maddie especially loved Elmo's Flying Fish, similar to Dumbo at Disneyland.

Maddie and Ellie jumping in the gigantic bounce house!

Ahh, Shamu.  The entire reason for Killer Whales being my favorite animal.  I loved this show the most!

They are such magnificent creatures!

The girls, talking about Shamu, as he swims by.

Geoffrey loves Elmo, Ellie is smiling for the camera, Maddie is thinking, "This is not Mickey.", and Ben is saying, "Get me outta here!!!!"

We have entered the shark aquarium...it was very cool, while also creepy at the same time.

This is the closest you will ever find me "swimming with the sharks"...behind a giant, thick pane of tank glass.  We were actually walking in a tube, within the shark tank.  Nice.

You can see the tube we walked through to the right of this creepy, er, I mean, amazing creature.

Ferocious shark faces!  I say the one in back wins.

Me and my boy.

Fish faces with the fishies!

Taking it all in.

Getting ready for this spinning, crazy, kiddy ride... Maddie suddenly became nervous and reached over to hold Grandpa Pat's hand for security. :) 

She found her courage and her love for amusement park rides, and as soon as the ride started, she threw her hands up in the air, yelling for all of us to "put your hands up!!"

Beluga whales - so amazing!  After seeing them, I started humming "Baby Baluga", by Raffi. :)  (Sad, I know.)

We had such a great time at Sea World, making many wonderful memories!!

Helmet Adventures - week 7

7 weeks, come and gone, although it still seems like time is ticking by slowly, and we are never going to be done.  It particularly feels this way as we are in an uncomfortable heatwave down here.  As a result, poor little G is probably suffering the most, and his heat rash is a true testament to this! :(Yesterday, we had our head scan appointment for Geoffrey, to see how much he has progressed since day 1 (statistically speaking, since we can see the physical changes taking place with his head shape).  It was a very short and successful appointment, determining that everything is working the way it should, and his head is growing and re-shaping in the correct ways.  Yay!  We were given an approximate end time of 8-10 weeks from now.  That puts us roughly in the middle to end of September.  I think we might just make it.  Geoffrey agrees...

Pool Time!

The first portion of our vacation was spent in beautiful San Diego.  Upon arrival at our hotel, we jumped into our swimming suits and right into the pool.  The girls were so excited to go swimming and we wasted no time at starting in with the fun! 

Nothing like vacationing under the palm trees...

 

  

Geoffrey, sporting his first swimsuit - super cute

 

Swimming and sunshine!

Geoffrey's first time in the pool.

I'd say he loved it!

Cousin love at the pool.

Maddie loves to swim with Grandma!

Beautiful Sarah, with her adorable children!

Geoffrey and Ben bond

My family came down to Southern California a few weeks ago for a week long vacation.  We had such a great time!  It was very special to be together, and to have such a fun-filled agenda to look forward to.  Rather than slam all of our adventures into one super long post, I'm going to do several smaller ones.  Be sure to keep checking and scrolling down, to make sure you didn't miss a post that I might have slipped in there!

One of the best things about the family being together, was that it meant all four of the cousins could be together, too!  Geoffrey and Ben are 3 1/2 months apart and really had fun together - you know, like sleeping next to each other in their car seats, taking naps at the same time, or nursing at similar moments throughout each day. :)  Seriously, it was cute to see them together, even though they are not quite aware of the other's existence at all times.

I love the look of adoration in Geoffrey's expression.

Two little men.

"Hey, Cuz!"

Ben's like, "Umm, you're still holding on to me."

Geoffrey's like, "Check me out, Mommy. I'm so big and strong."

So sweet!  They are going to grow to be such great friends - particularly when they begin to scheme against their big sisters!!