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.

JUMP

Our neighbors have a little girl who is a little bit older than Mady. She has lots of fun outdoor toys that she doesn't play with, and her dad lets Mady borrow them. Today we borrowed a mini trampoline! Mady loves it!

I think I'm going to have to offer to buy this one from them...none of the kids wants to part with it.

Summertime Fun

Summer is here! Alex and Zachy have a week and a half between school and summer school, and we are going to make sure that time is packed with fun!

To start off the week, on Monday we went to the zoo. It was probably too hot for a zoo trip, but we tried to have fun anyway. Do you think they are the spiders or the trapped insects?

Yep, definitely too hot. How can you tell? Even the savannah animals are standing around in the shade.

Mady was so excited to go on the rides with her brothers. She was smiling like this the entire time!

 To finish off the day, a nice cold treat!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mady invited Zachy to join her at preschool. Zachy said he wanted to go to school and be a helper, but I think he really wanted to have fun! Wednesday was Mady's last day of school, and Alex joined her for the end of year party.

Teacher Elizabeth, Mady, Teacher Renate

Mady also started saying her name as "Ma De" instead of "Ma" (a like the a in at)!

Last year, right after we moved in, Grandpa Prather said he didn't think we'd get our car into the garage. Well, he's coming to visit soon, so we have been working hard to get the car in the garage!

We did it! Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done, but the car is definitely in the garage. That said, we decided that we didn't really like having the car in the garage. Mady, Alex, and Zachy helped me scrub the garage floor clean (twice for good measure) and when it was dry, we put down a fun carpet, hung some curtains and made a Kid Cave!

This is a much better use of space for us. The kids can go out to their hang out and be a bit louder than in the house, and they all really enjoy playing out there!

Friday was the last day of Mady's Music Together class, and her teacher always welcomes the kids' older siblings when they have a day off from school. Alameda schools finished up on Thursday, so there was a huge crowd in music class!

On the last day of the session, we are encouraged to bring our own instruments from materials around the house. Usually we forget, or don't have time to create anything, but this time the stars aligned, and the kids made tambourine/maracas.

At least one of the kids is humoring me during the lullaby.
After a nap, and a change of clothes, Mady set up a tea party.

 Yep, it was that kind of a tea party.

And then, after dinner, Grammy and Grandpa arrived!

Saturday morning, while the boys were showing off their awesome hockey skills, Mady joined the sibling league.

For lunch, we had to go to Grammy's choice, Bubba Gump's at Fisherman's Wharf.

And then a ride on the carousel. The fruit stand had Rainier Cherries, so we had a little snack before heading back home.

After so much fun on Saturday, we kept it more simple on Sunday and took Grammy and Grandpa to Zachy's favorite Mexican brunch and Alex showed them his new kung fu skills, complete with sword.

Monday was another big day and we headed back into San Francisco. We spent the day exploring the Maritime Museum and completing the Junior Ranger booklet. The junior ranger program included the indoor museum and the pier across the street that had quite a few historic ships to tour. And a beached rowboat!

 Learning about the Gold Rush

Getting nowhere, fast

One of the pages of the Junior Ranger book was a scavenger hunt list.  I was pretty confident that we wouldn't see any swimmers in the bay. Boy was I wrong! In a cove in front of the rowboat, there were quite a few swimmers, and they weren't wearing wet suits!

We also stopped by Ghirardelli Square for sundaes!

Not a sundae, but a mermaid fountain

Grammy and Grandpa had to go back to Maryland on Tuesday. We sure did have fun with them on their whirlwind visit!

To celebrate the last day of mini summer vacation, we went to the Spaghetti Factory for an early dinner. Alex and Zachy wanted to eat in the trolley. Since the trolly only has tables of 4 or 2, we decided to split up. Yummy spaghetti!

Blue Belt

Alex passed his belt test and is the new owner of a blue belt. And a sword.

Last Day of School

Another school year has come to an end. Thank you to all of the teachers who helped make it a great year!

Zachy's class had their end of year party a day early so that both teachers would be able to celebrate with the class.

They had a sundae bar! Yum!

At the end of the year awards ceremony, Alex received his ribbon and certificate from the art show.

And then the class had snacks and watched a movie.