pool – Page 4

Double Header Birthday Parties

August 27, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

Mention the word, “party,” and Samantha and Amelia will instantly do just about anything I ask them (except get their shoes on as we are about to head out the door… world champion dawdlers, these ones).

Last weekend, we had a birthday party double header, which meant lots of cupcakes for the girls and many opportunities to bribe them into finishing their chores before Christmas for me.

First up for the day was Parker’s much-anticipated bug-themed 5th birthday party. The girls opted to carry in the gift together since they couldn’t decide who would do the honors.

Meredith lamented the fact that she hasn’t graduated past eating pureed fruit and veggies yet and thus, could not participate in munching on the delicious breakfast burritos, quesadillas, breakfast tacos, chips and salsa, muffins and fruit. The rest of us were stuffed and loved the fun menu.

All the babies in da house say yeah!

Splash pad time. All the kids received butterfly nets and other bug catching gear, so I didn’t see Samantha and Amelia the entire party, they were so busy running around.

Parker always has the most inventive cakes at his parties. He and his dad created this rice krispie cake and made the mold for the five shape themselves. Impressive angular cutting and enough cake to last until Parker turns six!

We can’t believe this little boy is five already.

Where’s my buddy, Maple? I need some girl chat!

In the afternoon, we got our party faces on once again for Camdyn’s 4th birthday party at the pool, and saw many of our friends from earlier that morning. Pizza + watermelon + pool = instant party. It made me wish the girls had birthdays during the summer so that we could just go to the pool every year.

Beach baby loungers.

Meredith gobbled up her carrot and sweet potato dinner poolside.

Cuddling up after a long day of partying. Being three is tough!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Camdyn's birthday, Maple, meredith, Parker's birthday, party, pool

Father’s Day 2016

June 20, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

In true Super Dad fashion, Jake kicked off Father’s Day weekend with a Daddy/Twin pizza date night while I was at a mom’s night out self defense class!

Mom power! Our instructor was the twins’ friend, Parker’s, tae kwon do teacher and he was not only motivating, but gave us a great workout. I was late and only got there for the last half of the class, but am still sore from all the kickboxing.

We visited the “Sprayground” in Laguna Niguel to cool off from the scorching heat this weekend.

Love you, sis.

We only stayed a short time because it was just too hot for Meredith.

I booked a much-deserved massage for Jake for the afternoon and then it was back in the water to cool off, this time at Great Grandpa’s pool.

Great Grandpa enjoyed a little brag book we made him with pictures of Meredith.

Meredith dipped her toes in the pool for the first time and loved it, until the twins started splashing her, at which point I whisked her away to safety.

Cowabunga! Belly flops never seem to faze Samantha.

Meredith desperately wanted back in the pool.

A rare cranky moment saying bye to Great Grandpa.

Thanks to the infamous SUV pool crash, our neighborhood pool is still out of commission. Our community pool up the street has been closed since October for renovations, but just barely opened again this weekend, thankfully.

Super Dad.

Amelia found some kind of beetle swimming with her. While all the other kids were screaming, she just picked it up and brought it to me.

Meredith loves to watch the girls swim, but sure wishes she could join in. Maybe in a few months!

We barbecued ribs and after church, we called Super Grandpa and Super Great Grandpa to wish them a happy day. The girls helped wrap some gifts we bought Jake, as well as the gifts they made.

It’s already pretty obvious that Meredith loves her Daddy more than me. Her face lights up and she starts giggling uncontrollably whenever he comes into the room. How did we get three hopelessly smitten daddy’s girls?

Lots of fun and messes were involved in the making of these projects this week.

Jake’s favorite gift was Amelia and Samantha’s candid responses to a Daddy Questionnaire. My favorite response was Amelia saying that Daddy’s favorite thing to do was to “get a new ring for Mommy.” ??? Honestly have no idea where that came from, unless Jake has a surprise in store for me… ha! Their responses were interesting glances into their little heads. You can tell from sweet Amelia’s responses that she’s always thinking of others (sometimes when Jake takes her on errands for a little date, they bring back drinks or snacks for the rest of us, per Amelia’s request).

I also like that many of Samantha’s responses had something to do with her.

Jake truly is our Super Dad hero and we don’t know what we would do without him! Hard to believe that last Father’s Day, it was just us four (although technically, Meredith was there too, since I had just found out I was pregnant with her that holiday).

2015:

2014:

2013:

Daddy’s girls, through and through.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Father's Day Tagged With: father's day, Great Grandpa, pool, sprayground

Kids and Cars in the Pool

June 19, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

As the temperatures have heated up, we’ve wasted no time enjoying water adventures.

Meredith has become a pro at lounging in beach chairs, “shade-bathing.”

We went with the Wrights for our first trip of the season to the Ladera waterpark.

Shaking the water off like wet dogs.

Meredith and I watching the twins at the water park.

Thanks for inviting us, Allie and Maliyah!

We upped the challenge of popping water balloons by putting them on the tramp. Twice the time to pop = twice the time the girls aren’t bored and bugging me.

The girls love to hang out with Great Grandpa at his community pool.

Why our own neighborhood pool is currently out of commission:

Our pool in the news:

That was our excitement for the week! Apparently, the old lady didn’t have a license (and for good reason)! The pool crash happened earlier this week, which coincided with temperatures rising… bad timing. Since Jake is on the board, he’s been fielding inquiries night and day as to when our pool will be up and running. Besides a few destroyed tiles, there wasn’t too much damage sustained to the pool itself, but they still had to drain the pool and the gate is completely demolished. Every time we drive by, the twins ask when our pool will be fixed and they love to show all their friends the picture of that “silly car in the pool…cars don’t swim!”

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Great Grandpa, pool, pool crash, waterpark

Living Desert Zoo

May 8, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

After our rock climbing adventures with Uncle David and Aunt Linda in Joshua Tree, the twins and Jake spent the day at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert. Upon arriving, Jake noticed some golf carts roaming around the zoo and asked how he could get one of those to tour the park. There were no tour guides available, but, apparently, it wasn’t busy that day, because the front desk called Gail, a volunteer zoo guide, at her house to come and give Jake and the girls a tour in one of the golf carts.

Even though it was her day off, I guess she loves giving people tours because she was excited to take the girls around! Apparently, she spends her winters in Palm Springs (it was her last day in town that day) and her summers in Alaska. Must be nice! Gail doesn’t have any grandkids of her own and basically adopted the twins for a day. She took them around with Jake on the golf cart well past the amount of time she normally gives tours, took pictures for them, and was so happy when Jake texted her a few pictures from their day. Thanks for the VIP tour, Gail!

Riding in style. Jake said the look on people’s hot, sweaty and tired faces was priceless as they zoomed around and were able to cut in some of the longer lines for activities like giraffe feeding.

Giraffe feeding at this zoo was only $5– compared to $80+ at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (we’ve never done it there).

Poor goats had no where to escape from the twins.

I feel for you, Goat. You look the same way I do when I’m trying to sleep and there’s one or two three-year-olds directly in my face.

MUST. GET. CLOSER.

Some boys observe the crazy wild animals in the spider web.

At one point, Jake had taken the girls to the bathroom, when all of a sudden, he turned around just in time to see them giggling and running off with a “Caution: Wet” sign from the bathroom. He raced out the bathroom door, but they were no where to be found! The girls usually stick really close to us in public (like hanging on to our legs close) and have never run away like that, so you can imagine Jake’s shock.

Jake and Gail ran every direction for five minutes, yelling and searching everywhere for the girls, who had completely vanished. Jake said his heart was racing, but he managed to stay calm, while Gail was a complete basket case, frantically calling on her walkie talkie to have all the exits of the zoo shut down.

After a five-minute frantic search, Jake happened to hear one of the girls far off saying, “Where’s Daddy?” and finally tracked them down. Jake showed me on a zoo map where they had taken off to and I have no idea how they managed to run that far away in such a short amount of time. Just hearing about the fiasco gave me a heart attack. From now on, I guess we’ll be having discussions about not running away and what to do if they get lost.