Misc Pictures

Magic Mountain

Today we discovered a really fun playground in South San Francisco called Magic Mountain. There are lots of slides, swings, hills to climb and even a little zip line. Alex and Zachy were having fun on the giant slide when suddenly Mady started to follow them up the stairs.  I didn't think she'd really slide, but she did and laughed the whole way down! You can see her peeking out from the mesh window way up there.

 And a long shot to show how far up it is.

The park is at Coyote Point and has a nice long path along the bay. And since it is near SFO, there are plenty of planes landing to watch. As we were walking, we found a pirate ship and attacked some sharks.

 Taking a pit stop along the trail.

Eventually, the trail led us to CuriOdyssey.
In the main area the kids enjoyed making flying machines to put through the wind tunnel.

There were many experiments to try, and they made the rounds of all of them but kept coming back to the wind tunnel.
Outside there was a native animal center. We had to get a picture of Zachy with the raccoon!

Finally we started the long walk back to the car...it didn't seem that far on the way to the museum!

On the Move

Mady is an official bike rider now!

**We won't mention the daytime over watering that is happening during the drought though.

Preschool Camp

Mady went to camp this week too! The theme was Jewelry Making and Rock Collecting. Two things she really enjoys, wearing sparkly things and picking up rocks everywhere we go!

In addition to making these beautiful necklaces, Mady painted a pet rock and collected some shiny black and sparkly white stones.

**Flash forward to September, and Mady still wears her necklaces and likes to put her rock collection into the sink of her toy kitchen and wash them with a paint brush she found. It really was the perfect camp!

Camp Edmo

For the last three summers, Alex and Zachy have been going to Camp Edmo with some of their oldest friends. These kids were all part of the new mom's group Alex and I joined when he was 6 months old! Now that everyone is at different schools, it is so great to have the chance to get the kids together, and they all enjoy going to camp together.

This year, in addition to the camp t-shirt, this group of campers received a special MVP shirt for attending Edmo for three years. Mady didn't want to be left out, so she borrowed a shirt from a friend.

The theme of camp this week was Fantastic Flyers. Some of the projects included recycled material flying machines, Alka Seltzer bottle rockets, and bubble wands to create giant bubbles.

Summer School

Alex and Zachy went to summer school this year. Since our school will be merging the two campuses in the fall, we thought summer school would be a good opportunity for the boys to meet some of the future classmates before school starts up in the fall. Plus, only the morning is academic, and in the afternoons, they learned new skills and went on field trips!
Zachy learned some self defense, baked cookies, made pizza and yogurt parfaits, went to Sulpher Creek Nature Center and even to Pump It Up!
Alex baked cookies, made pizza and yogurt parfaits, learned some balloon animal art, went to Sulpher Creek Nature Center and to Bladium Sports Club. One of Alex's academic activities was to care for an egg for 3 days. He built a nest for the egg and had to take it to and from school each day without breaking it.  Alex's egg survived!

Nerf Gun Battle

For his birthday party, Zachy wanted to have a Nerf gun battle. We were able to rent a great room at Coast Guard Island that has access to a big field. It was the perfect set up. The food was inside in the air conditioning, on the deck we had some crafts and then the large field for the battleground. We even tucked a jumpy house in the corner (no pictures of that though).

Since our friends hadn't been to the Island before, Zachy made a sign to show them they had found the right spot.

Smiley face chocolate pops!

The snack table.

Smiley face mints and paracord bracelet kits.

The battle has begun!

Break time to make sand faces.

So much creativity!

Time for cupcakes. Happy Birthday Zachy!

As a special treat, Phil arranged for everyone to tour one of the Cutters!

Waiting for permission to come aboard.

 Helicopter landing pad.

 Scanning the horizon for danger.

 Little cuties taking the scanning duties outside.

Everyone enjoyed touring the boat and asking questions...even the moms and dads that joined us!

Climbing on the cannon.

 The cutest secret weapon!

 Even the cupcake platter was in on the theme!

Zachy is 7!

Happy Birthday Zachy!

Today Zachy turned the big 7! He and his brother have both taken to running around shirtless. We're not sure where this idea came from. The birthday boy had cinnamon roll waffles and sweet bread for his special breakfast. And then it was off for a day of summer school.

For dinner, Zachy requested tacos! Very good choice!

Ready to dig in. Yummy!

This year's birthday theme was happy faces. This was my first attempt at using spray food coloring and it bled a little bit but I think I captured Zachy's cute little snarl smile.

And it looks great from an angle and distance! 

Lots of special gifts for the special birthday boy!

Legos

It is the first Tuesday, so it must be Lego mini-build day!  This month, a whale.

A Parade

Once again we set out early to stake out a perfect spot to watch the parade. And then wandered off to have breakfast.

The Minions are here!

And this guy...saddling up a cow and walking along.

Some kids near us had 4th of July mylar ballons. Sadly one of the balloons escaped and floated across the street only to get tangled up in the wires. It waved around up there for quite a while. And then, just before the start of the parade, the wind grabbed it just right and the balloon touched two wires. There was a big green flash of light and a really big boom! It definitely startled all of us!

A very exciting start to the parade and festivities. We found out later that the balloon even took out power for the homes on that side of the street!

**Whenever we drive past this spot (which is often) Mady talks about the poor balloon that was really loud and scared her.

Alameda County Fair

As nice as the weather typically is in Alameda, the county fairgrounds are exceptionally hot.

At the beginning of the day, before we started to warm up, Alex and Mady posed with Cowbella.

Mady is definitely over her aversion to unstable ground.  She had a blast in the corn pit.

Firefighter Mady to the rescue!

Inside one of the exhibit buildings, there was a Lego building station. Alex made this cool vehicle.

Trying to get a picture of all of the kids together.

Before heading home, we stopped by the horse races. We were right on the rail for a sprint race. It was very exciting with the dirt flying up and the beat of the horses' hooves.