hailey

Grandpa’s 89th Birthday and Post-Christmas Fun

December 29, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Christmas, Auntie Lynn threw Great Grandpa a party to celebrate his 89th birthday (90th year!). Mike and Ali came from Wyoming, Sarah and Mike from Portland, cousins from LA, and the rest of us local family and friends celebrated at Wood Ranch in the Irvine Spectrum for Great Grandpa’s big day.

Family photos by Aunt Sarah!

All the grandkids and great grand kids.

The girls were excited to have extra family around to carry them.

Uncle Mike and Meredith.

Cousin Ben thought carrying around Eleanor would be a good bicep workout. He was right.

Ali and the chunk-a-monk.

Eleanor was excited to sit with Grammy at dinner.

The kids table was a little crazy.

Cousins doing what cousins do.

Must…touch…sparklies.

Happy birthday, Great Grandpa!

While most of the grown-ups chatted at the restaurant after dinner, the rest of us high-tailed it out of there for a walk around the Spectrum before the kids trashed the place.

Good thing Ali, Mike, Sarah and Mike were there to help carrying screaming/tired girls!

Meredith and Hailey were so cute! Two-year-old Hailey borrowed 6-month-old Eleanor’s coat for the evening and it actually fit!

A trip to the Spectrum would not be complete without a ride on the ferris wheel.

Ferris wheel photos by Aunt Sarah.

While we had aunts and uncles in town, the girls took them rock climbing at Sender City. This time, Meredith joined in for the first time and was pretty fearless.

We attempted lots of board games while we had family in town, even though they nearly always ended in tears. Samantha and Amelia are not the best gracious winners or losers, despite our best efforts.

Roasting s’mores with the fun aunts and uncles.

With all the extra hands, I got a lot of projects done while Grammy and Grandpa took on outings to the park.

Too much fun with their new chalk markers.

During the break, we also had a Secret Santa gift exchange with the Nguyens and the Erpeldings, which was supposed to be before Christmas, but we ended up having to reschedule. Since all the kids are in different schools, it’s been a long time since everyone has been able to play at the same time! Sheela had the kids draw names at the beginning of the month and wrote up cute letters for everyone, giving a few gift ideas for each kid received. The girls were so excited to see their friends open their gifts and announce that they were the Secret Santas. They also loved all the bonus gifts they got!

Practicing the art of balancing on the slack line with the neighborhood kids.

Practicing our tennis swings.

Amelia’s swing is getting pretty good!

Grammy watched Eleanor at home while I took the girls to the zoo. It felt like a lot less work just having three for a change.

We saw our friend, Brian, who works at the entrance!

All aboard the ferris wheel.

Jake and I celebrated our anniversary by staying at Pelican Hill Resort in Newport while Grammy and Grandpa watched the kids. Beautiful views and sunsets!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ali, anniversary, ben, ferris wheel, gerin, Grammy, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Great grandpa's 89th birthday party, hailey, irvine spectrum, mike, Noah, pelican hill, rock climbing, santa ana zoo, Sarah, secret santa, sender city, tennis, uncle mike, wood ranch

Christmas Train and Hanukkah Party

December 3, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Our Christmas season kicked off with our annual visit to Irvine Park Railroad to ride the Christmas train with cousins Noah and Hailey.

Waiting not so patiently to board the train.

All aboard.

Meredith asked the twins if they could pretend to be reindeer pulling her sleigh.

The girls had already written a letter to Santa, and after much deliberation and browsing the Lakeshore Learning catalog, they decided they wanted “puppy purses” (stuffed animal dogs inside a plush purse– 19.99 for 3 at Lakeshore, so DONE). Meredith also asked for candy, and Samantha and Amelia asked for new play doh and new shoes.. nevermind that they already have plenty of pairs each. They are both in love with the glittery Sketchers Twinkle Toes kind that are colorful and light up, but I don’t buy them because the light ups aren’t allowed at school and I like to buy neutral shoes that can go with any outfit. Nevertheless, they are total girls and love getting new clothes and shoes, so they decided to put that on their Santa list this year in the hopes that Santa would bypass mom’s preferences for shoe buying.

Christmas Train in years past:

Storytime with Mrs. Clause.

Meredith ran up to meet Mrs. Clause, but then had second thoughts.

We let the kids use their tickets to choose a few activities. Their favorite is always “ice fishing” and “winning” the cheap stuffed animal prizes.

Getting so tall.

Amelia and Samantha raced each other in the jeeps while Meredith went crazy in the bounce house.

Our other adventure with the cousins was hanging out at Auntie Lynn’s Hanukkah Party! It was a good thing Auntie Lynn made approximately 12,000 latkes, because the girls gobbled half of them up. Latkes with applesauce, yum! They were equally excited about the delicious blintzes, cute Hanukkah cookies and playing dreidel/winning gilt (we didn’t tell Meredith that they were chocolate, and it surprisingly took a while for her to figure that out).

Zack gave my biceps a rest from holding Eleanor.

Eleanor loves Great Grandpa!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: christmas train, cousins, gerins, Great Grandpa, hailey, hanukkah party, irvine park railroad, kagels, mrs clause, Noah, Santa

Balloon Ride at the OC Great Park

October 25, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

When the cousins came down in October, we went for a Halloween balloon ride at the OC Great Park and spent the morning playing and biking with Noah and Hailey!

Ready to ride the great orange balloon, decked out as a pumpkin for Halloween.

Up in the air.

On to the next attraction…

Such a perfect fall day for a picnic!

Eleanor was napping in the morning, so I drove separately and joined the group when she woke up.

Rock climbing on the playground.

Poor Noah looked confused with the twins’ unique checkers “rules.”

The cousin biker gang.

Meredith and Hailey were so sweet with each other!

Eleanor wishing she could ride a bike too.

Meredith showed zero interest in her Strider bike basically the entire year until just recently and now she’s a pro. She rides all over town.

Meredith was getting ready to knock down her Jenga tower when this kid stole her thunder. I don’t think he expected the blocks to land on his head and hurt. He ran away crying while all the parents couldn’t help but laugh.

Going on a walk later after all the cousin excitement.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: balloon ride, biking, carousel, checkers, cousins, hailey, Halloween, jenga block tower, Noah, oc great park, playground, strider

Newborn Eleanor Week 2

July 1, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Newborn Eleanor Week 2 was another very tiring blur of feed/pump/change diapers/wash bottles/feed everyone else/sleep/repeat. Eleanor was still sleeping most of the day and waking up frequently at night, so we were basically zombies just trying to survive. Luckily, Grammy was still there to help out and Grandpa also came to visit and meet the baby, along with out three other little “mommies” who couldn’t get enough of the baby. In Amelia’s words, “A REAL baby is SO much better than playing with our dollies!”