Halloween 2015

It was our 8th Halloween on Rutherford Circle and it was a hit!

 Our wonderful friends, the Ellis family was kind enough to invite us over for trick or treating and fellowship.  What a gift to have neighbors who became incredible friends!!!

These kiddos could not possibly be any cuter!!!

It was a rainy and windy evening but that did not stop these sweeties from walking the neighborhood.

Alli and Emilie decided to show their independence and asked to go ahead on their own ~ super cute!

Eli could not resist trick or treating with his best buddy, who had THE PERFECT matching costume.

Doesn't get much better than Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper!

As Luke and I were about a quarter of the way around the circle, he asks me if we are done yet ;-)

I said no and asked if he wanted to go to more houses for candy but he said "no, I have a lot of candy"  Couldn't argue that one!!!  He ran to catch up with Nate & Eli and hit up 2 houses with them before deciding he really was done.  We had to go to his buddy Rachel's house to say goodbye :(

These two have such a precious friendship and we will miss their family so much!

And of course we had to stop by Todd and Stacy's one last time before the move.

Goodbyes are tough but how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends to say goodbye to.

Lukey was happy to go back to the Ellis's house to watch a fun movie and check out his candy.

These four were adorable and tired ;-)

While these four chilled, Blake, Emilie and Alli hit up the next neighborhood and came back with quite the loot for the Candy Fairy.  Though the weather could have been better, it sure was a fun last Halloween in Rutherford.

Last Day of Summer Vacation 2015

I cannot believe how quickly this Summer vacation flew by!!!

On our last official day of Summer vacation, we decided to squeeze in lots of fun :-)

The morning started with Lukey's "Meet the Teacher"

Lukey is so excited for school to start and chatted nonstop in the car on the way there but then acted shy when we got to his classroom.  That didn't last long as he headed for the blocks and began playing.  The morning got even better when his best buddy from last year showed up, turns out their in class together again this year and they had a blast building (and destroying!) block towers.  Two new little boys joined in the action and the four of them appear that they will be great buddies :-)

He also had a blast making a "snake" bracelet with Mommy.

After a fun morning, we grabbed the bigs from the Ellis Fam and we all headed to Chuck E Cheese.

2 moms + 7 excited kiddos + lots of other families with the same ideas makes for a fun afternoon :-)

These four loved being in a cage :-)

After a couple of hours of playing, 

we parted company and I took the kiddos to BluBerry's for some frozen treats.

Always a hit!  Once again, Lukey ate all the candy and none of the frozen yogurt ~ silly boy!

With all of that fun, I guess we wore out the little guy ;-)

Poor guy crashed in the car and continued snoozing on the couch for over an hour, 

until it was time to leave for karate (bigs) and Ducky Gramma's (Luke).

While Luke snoozed, the bigs took the opportunity to play with buddies and Alli insisted on taking pictures of Mommy on the last day of Summer vacation too . . . 

Gotta love the silly face! :-)

After karate, the bigs and I enjoyed a fun dinner talking about what we looked forward to most in the coming school year ~ lunch, recess and friends are high on both their lists :-)

Then it was time to read "The Kissing Hand" and a special note from Miss Huber,

complete with "magic confetti" to help Eli sleep.

They are both zonked now and hopefully dreaming of a great 1st day of school.

Praying for a great first day for all!

San Diego Visit = F.U.N, fun!!!

It may have been 2 years since our last visit, but you would never know it by these two!

Seriously, they picked right back where they left off, as did the rest of the crew.

How adorable are these 7 cuties?

As a comparison, here they are the last time they were all together . . . 

They look so little and Lukey wasn't even born yet!!!

We have had the greatest visit with the Lynch family the last couple days.

Rather than try to do everything, we stayed at their house and played in the pool, 

having THE BEST time!!!

All three of the kiddos LOVED the pool and so did their parents!

There was a ledge that Lukey thought was the kiddie pool and he had a blast.

He even called it "Lukey's pool" ~ of course they built it just for him ;-)

 He finally jumped in and swam with Mommy.  I even got him to practice kicking, crab walking, blowing bubbles, floating on his back and jumping.  Woo hoo!!!

The girls were all so excited that I got in the pool they insisted on taking a picture :-)

As it turns out, Eli is quite the little fish and loved jumping in and diving.

He and Abigail played for hours diving for toys and jumping.

The kiddos got in the water first thing this morning and didn't get out until almost dinner time.

Lukey wanted a snack and then crashed while eating it by the chair ~ too cute!

After dinner, Mrs. Lynch was sweet enough to make brownies for Eli ~ he loved the attention!

Big sis thought this was pretty great too!

After all the swimming and fun, Eli crashed HARD after dinner.

The kiddos didn't miss a beat playing together this morning . . .

 Though they were not quite two the last time they saw each other, you would never know that by the way they took to each and played together all weekend!

Could these big sisters be any cuter???

Alli's joyful face completely sums up our weekend visit.

Thank you for an AMAZING visit Lynch fam!!!

For more San Diego pictures, check out our photo site.

Slip 'n Slide Fun

We are having such a hot and sunny week, which is definitely not the norm this time of year,

so we are taking full advantage of being outside as much as possible and playing in water.

The boys had a blast playing Ninja Turtles this morning.

Meet Leonardo and Donatello

Gotta love Lukey's style ~ he insists on wearing his "little boots" with his shorts :-)

This afternoon, we set up our new slip and slide which allows for races.

Eli and Ava had a BLAST together and were adorable "racing"

Their giggles were such a hoot and they were so sweet to one another today!

They even worked hard to include Lukey, who didn't totally get the sliding part :-)

After over an hour of sliding, they dried off and we went to get Alli from school.

The giggles from the backseat were awesome.  Alli was excited to see Ava and she LOVED sitting in the third row of our car ~ note to Mommy, take snacks out of the car before letting Alli back there!

She was passing out snacks to everyone, and they were thrilled :-)

The kids were thrilled to play with their buddies at Ava's house.

"Painting" a playhouse with water provided so much fun for all the kiddos ~ crazy!

After Alli's choir practice, there was even more playtime with the neighborhood kids.

A PERFECT sunny day, makes me so excited for summer.

Winterfest Fun

The kiddos LOVE going to Winterfest at Alli's school!

All three of them had a BLAST on the bounce houses, playing games, eating and hanging out with friends.  Alli LOVED spending the evening running around with her first grade buddies, especially Lilya and Liam.  Eli and Luke proved how comfortable they are at the school, taking off by themselves to play games and bounce ~ we had a chat about that one :-)

A fabulous night and just one more reason we LOVE Lighthouse!

Thursdays

Every Thursday afternoon, Eli is on cloud 9 because his great buddy Ava comes over.

These two have known each other since birth and are too cute together!

It works out great as the boys get to play at Ava's house every Monday afternoon, 

and she comes to our house every Thursday (allowing the moms to work in the big sisters' classes).  

Lukey LOVES his Mondays with "Hoober" (Mrs. Huber) 

and Eli CANNOT get enough of his playtime with Ava!

They really are awesome friends and as Alli says, "the Hubers are family!"

Holiday Lights at Wild Waves

What better to do on Friday the 13th than enjoy Holiday Lights at Wild Waves???

 The kiddos all had a great time, and stayed snug and warm in their snow suits :-)

They had a fabulous time on the rides.

As always, the cars, boats, trains and planes were a huge hit!

As was the bouncing frog and kangaroo, which Eli was finally old enough to ride!

There was also a "snow" tent and they LOVED this!

Another high point was visiting the "North Pole" and seeing Santa.

By 9 or so, kiddos (and parents!) were wearing down so it was time for hot chocolate.

Luke liked it the most!

We finally left around 9:30 and the kiddos crashed hard in the car :-)

Another perfect Holiday Lights visit!

Fun with Pottery

This afternoon, Alli and I picked up her good buddy Alaina for a visit to Java & Clay.

The girls had a blast painting pottery!

They were so cute painting their giraffe (Alli) and Hello Kitty (Alaina).

Both girls are quite artistic!

After they finished their masterpieces, we enjoyed some hot chocolate.

A very fun afternoon and just what the girls needed!!!

Trolley Ride

Today was the last day of First Grade Camp for Alli so we all decided to ride the Trolley around the Harbor

Being that I was/am a HUGE fan of Mister Roger's, this was a dream come true for me too!

And, the kiddos have been begging to ride it all summer.

It did not disappoint!!!

I was impressed by how well they did given that it was about an hour ride.

They had so much fun changing seats and checking out the Harbor.

For $.25 per rider over 5 years old, I highly recommend it!!!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party at the Beach

We had Eli's 3rd Birthday Party at the Beach this year, as that is what he wanted.
The entertaining part was that he never actually made it down to the beach that day.

Here was the invite . . .

Once again, the party guests consisted of both sets of grandparents, Great Pop, Uncle Danny and Rhonda, Uncle Z, and of course, the Hubers ~ no party would be complete without the BFF!

Given that we didn't want to do a character theme {and that Mommy LOVES red, white & blue}
we opted for a Red, White & Blue ice cream party, which made decorating fun and easy!

I joined the Silhouette bandwagon and must admit that I love it

and had so much fun making the banners and ice cream cone labels!

No cake or cake pops this year, just a very yummy ice cream sundae, cone, and shake bar.

It was a HUGE hit among the adults and little ones.

The birthday boy opted for mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cone with sprinkles.

Eli truly enjoyed his ice cream cone and his s'more on a stick (thank you Mrs. Huber!)

I love the way he shows that he is 3!

He was in Heaven to be "double fisting" the desserts and happy to have Mommy smooches :-)

He loved having his buddy at his party to celebrate!

For shakes, we pulled out the Magic Bullet and it worked perfectly.

The adults had fun creating "Blizzard-like" shakes in it!!!

Funniest part of the day was learning that Lukey is a HUGE ice cream fan.

Such a big fan in fact that he threw a temper tantrum when I did not give him my shake quickly enough and when he ate the whole thing and there was none left ~ seriously, it was a hoot!

We kept it very simple . . . hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, greek pasta salad and tons of fruit.

Everyone seemed to enjoy this and it made it easy on us so we could enjoy the party.

Uncle Danny and Alli had fun eating together and playing with Gizmo, who enjoyed the food too!

For party favors, again, we kept it "simple" . . . hula hoops.

I put quotes around simple because finding normal hula hoops {i.e. not light up, singing hoops}

proved to be quite challenging but I finally found some that even came in two sizes so Eli & Ava got some that were more their size. Alli is now a pro!

Even though we did not do a character theme for the party,

 apparently we had a "Toy Story" theme for the presents :-)

Out of everything, he got two non-Toy Story items {a John Deer tractor & a Nerf football}

Everything else was Toy Story or Buzz Lightyear friends as Eli would say ;-)

Eli was so excited and sat and played nonstop!!!

A sweet sibling hug after Eli opened the present Alli got him . . . a Toy Story dump truck.

This is what he told her he wanted and we searched until she found it, both were very excited!

Every Toy Story toy imaginable!

Enjoying a quiet moment with Bulls Eye.

Wearing his Buzz Lightyear towel and holding his Toy Story DVD box

which now holds lots and lots and lots of mini-Toy Story friends.

Our own little Buzz Lightyear!

While Eli was enjoying all of his new toys, the girls 

{and Dads, Uncles, brothers, etc. ~ Mommy stayed behind with Ducky Gramma and Luke} 

headed down to the beach for swimming.

Our little pink fish could not wait to hit the water!

The weather had been a bit sketchy in the morning ~ thunder but no rain ~ but by the afternoon,

it was a PERFECT beach day and the swimming was great I hear.

We stuck around the beach until after 7 p.m. and a great time was had by all.

  

I would have to say that the party was perfect for our big boy!!!

{There are tons more pictures, & even more to be added, on our photo site}