Birthday and BBQ

We spent the early part of the day at Kai's (Aidan's preschool pal) birthday party. It was a "camping trip" themed party at Lake Anza. The kids had a great time going for a hike, playing ball, pinata, eating hot dogs, and cake. It's always fun watching your kids have a good time.

Later part of the day after naps, we had Uncle Jimmy, Auntie Conny and Auntie Honey come over for a BBQ. And as always, when they come over, we had a fabulous feast.. rib eye steak, seared ahi tuna, chicken skewers, grilled shrimp with bell peppers, garlic bread and grilled corn on the cob with feta and basil.....mmmmm. As if that wasn't enough, we finished off the evening with yummy dessert. Honey brought over delicious Mexican pastries, watermelon, pineapple, lychees, peanut butter cups that we enjoyed with a fresh brewed pot of coffee.

It sure was a delightful day!

Family Time at the San Francisco Zoo

Daddy's work had an outing at the San Francisco Zoo today. We picked up daddy from work at noon and headed off to the zoo. It was the boys first time at the SF zoo and I hadn't been in years. I know the zoo got a bit of a bad rap after the tiger malling incident, but I tell you daddy and I were pretty stunned at it's beauty. Everything was so lush and vibrant, aesthetically pleasing. We were excited about the rhinos, baby gorilla, and penguins...however, the highlight for the boys was riding a new steam engine. This steam engine was so fast, I'd have to say it qualifies as the boys first roller coaster ride.

Busy, Busy, Dare I Say Soccer Mom

It's been a busy summer and it's going to get busier. Next week, Aidan starts swim lessons on Thursdays, Miles and Liam start soccer on Fridays. I now feel like an official "soccer mom" (except for the fact that I don't live in the suburbs), driving my kids to and fro, to this and that. Our summer schedule has been busy with play dates, birthday parties, and lots of fun outings that of course I transport them to and from. I am grateful that I have Mondays and Tuesdays for errands, otherwise we'd have to spend our precious family weekends doing mundane tasks, blah! Wednesdays are for play dates, Thurs and Fridays will now be for classes, this leaves the weekends open for relaxing family and friends time. That really is one of the advantages of being a stay at home mom, I'm in charge of executing all the daily tasks(well now mostly done on Mon & Tues) so that we can spend quality time together on the weekends. Max doesn't have to worry himself about errands after a long work week. I'm the the "family CEO", maintaining a household and all daily tasks are overseen by me. I don't mind being the "Family CEO" it allows me to be there for all the special moments in my children's lives and I'm there to look after the emotional and physical well being of my family, it's priceless....and it makes for a great team.

Be Persistent

Sometimes it pays to be persistent. Like in motherhood, when you need to stand your ground when your child is continuing to badger and plead for some treat or toy, or maybe to stay up later. Today it wasn't a child, it was GE company I had to be persistent with. We have a stainless steel GE Profile fridge that I fell in love with when we bought it. It's the kind with the french doors and a full sized shelf inside so you can put something large in, like a full sheet cake, and a bottom freezer. The problem is soon after we got this fridge it began to have problems. In the first year we had 4 service calls. The 4th visit they replaced the control panel in it. Well it began to have problems again, so now on it's 5th service call, the service man replaced the control panel again. I let him go ahead and do this knowing as soon as he left I would be calling the customer relations department and demanding a new refrigerator. Five service calls in a year and half is unacceptable. So I called, and was persistent with my request, with a supervisor, then a manager, and another manager etc. etc. until I spoke to the right person. It only took me 2 hours (what a drag), not exactly how I wanted to spend my afternoon. The good news is that we will be receiving a new refrigerator, despite many attempts on GE's side to tell me that the only thing available to me was a discount on a new purchase. I refused to accept this. They almost had me beat. I was so frustrated and tired of having to explain the situation over and over to various GE staff that it would have been easy for me to say "forget it, it's been repaired". This time, persistence prevailed.

Jumpy House Fun

I still can't believe we own a jumpy house, Well thanks to our friend Rachel we do. This is her brain child...six of us from our play group went in on a jumpy house. With six families, our portion of it was equivalent to one rental. What a deal, right!? A yahoo calendar was created so we could all sign up for the days we would like to use it. Surprisingly, no conflicts on dates. We all have kids in the same age range but their birthdays are all spread throughout the year. It's worked out perfect with still plenty of available dates for fun use. We used it for 4th of July weekend and this weekend too just for fun. The kids absolutely love it and it makes for easy entertainment for the parents. I was hesitant at first about this but now realize this sure was a great investment that has already paid for itself. Thanks Rachel for coordinating this great idea!

Sonoma Train Town

For all those train enthusiasts out there, here's a fun little place to go to, Train Town in Sonoma. It's a park with a train ride, petting zoo, and kiddie rides. Our friends Steve and Tom suggested we meet them there so we decided to go today. It was a great idea. The kids really enjoyed it especially, since Miles and Aidan are major train enthusiasts. Liam likes trains too, just not to the degree that his brothers do.
After Train Town we went down to Sonoma Square and enjoyed lunch with our friends, took a stroll through the park and around the plaza. It sure was a nice day in Sonoma...and the boys really enjoyed spending time with Uncle Steve and Uncle Tom.

Interesting Tidbit

Aidan was playing with this pig family this afternoon. During this time, this is what I overheard while watching him line them up...

He first lined up "Daddy Pig"
Then came "Mommy Pig"
Next was "big brother"
Along came 2 more together "little brothers"
finally he line up the last one "little sister"

I'm thinking "little sister!" Yes Aidan, that would be nice but I don't think mommy could handle one more.