The adventures of Big Boy, Boopy and their parents

Putt-a-thon

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:01:00 +0000

This past Friday evening we got to experience one of our first family school events! Big Boy's school has their first fundraiser of the year. Instead of a traditional "jog-a-thon" they put on a "putt-a-thon" where the kids got to take a hand at miniature golfing. What made it extra fun was that there were hot dogs or tri-tip sandwiches to purchase, bounce houses to enjoy and fun social time to be had.

This was actually the first time that the kids have miniature golfed with us. It was funny trying to get them to actually use the golf clubs the right way. We finally figure that at least they weren't picking up the ball and throwing it in the hole!

I must say that so far "school" life is a blast! Can't wait for more school events and fun!

Treats from Hawaii

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Papa just got home from a two week work trip to Hawaii and spoiled the kiddos with lots of neat treats. Boopy was happy too see him and to get to wear her new Hawaiian dress.

Big Boy was also anxious about getting to his goodies. The kids like their mini "guitars".

Showing Papa her fairy costume from Clovis Fest.

Hardcore fairy rocker

Showing off her new Hawaiian purses

Trying to look at his new map without it rolling up. Don't worry, we got him a frame for it today.

Later in the evening the kiddos had to do "projects". I love that they love to do school type work for fun - hope the love stays.

Big Boy used his whiteboard to draw a picture of the new train Papa brought him.

He then decided to draw his new submarine, but then changed his mind and made it a rocket.

Clovis Fest!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:53:00 +0000

So after watching the balloons and having a nice breakfast the kids and I ventured back to downtown Clovis to wander through the craft vendors. They had been sent a little treat money so I told them they could pick out something for $5. I ended up splurging a bit too and got Big Boy a toy wooden plane (which he pitched in his $5 toward) and Boopy a fairy outfit.

They talked me into riding the over priced cheesy train. The smiles below made it worth it.

Such a girl....she picked out "lipstick" and a hair clip with her $5 and then immediately had to put on her lipstick.

Showing off our new things.

Big Boy liked checking out the cars and had to make sure we knew where the engine was located.

There are many times I just don't know where this child came from! She's so dramatic.

I gave the kids a choice, ride a carnival ride or go in the bounce house. All the rides are way overpriced so I told to pick wisely. I think buying the tickets was almost as much fun as the rides!

Boopy, daredevil child, chose the plane ride. She would have been the only kid on it except for this little girl who came along and then wanted to ride in the same plane with Boopy.

Big Boy really wanted to ride on a train-like ride but unfortunately was just a bit too small so he chose to go on the fun house castle slide ride. Boopy ended up doing that too since some nice teenage girls gave us their leftover tickets!

On our way back to the car, Boopy tried her hand at taking a picture of Big Boy and me.

I in turn had to take one more of her!

Up, up and away!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:06:00 +0000

I've decided that I really am a bit crazy at times. Despite having an exhausting 2 weeks while Papa has been away in Hawaii (yes, rough life!) for work, I decided to get the kids up extra early on a Saturday to go watch hot air balloons take off as part of the annual Clovis Fest. Big Boy looked at me like I was nuts when I woke it him while it was still dark. He told me it was too early and hid under his covers. Thankfully the lure of hot air balloons eventually got him to get up and dressed. Oddly, Boopy, who is usually the crabby morning child, woke up quite well when I told her we were going to see hot air balloons. Overall happy excited kids!

Teddy bear couldn't miss the balloon festival.

He was absolutely mesmerized.

Big Boy is getting quite good at photography, don't you think!

Although a fast early morning balloon show, it was worth the lack of sleeping in. The morning was spent with wonderful time with my kiddos, exposing them to something new. It was even more special as the annual hot air balloon festival was something that was a big part of my childhood. I remember going with my parents and my friend's parents who own a hot air balloon. We even used to help be "chase" vehicles for following the balloons to help when they landed. After all the balloons lifted off this morning, the kids and I had a simple little breakfast at IHOP and then went back to downtown Clovis to check out the craft fair and carnival rides which I'll share in another post.

Hopscotch!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:55:00 +0000

The kids LOVE a show called "Special Agent Oso". In it a "secret agent" bear helps kids with a lot of various needs. In one episode he helps a couple of kids learn how to play hopscotch. Tonight was such a nice evening, the kids were playing outside when I got home. We took advantage of the nice weather and stayed out there for a while. They got very excited when I helped them create a hopscotch game on our driveway. Such simple fun!

Darren also had fun playing with Papa's airplane.

I think there is rarely and evening outside that Boopy doesn't collect rocks.

More chalk fun

The aftermath!

Preparation for the Fair!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:36:00 +0000

I've decided to enter the Fresno Fair again this year. I haven't had time in far too long to scrapbook so no scrapbook entries for me, but I do plan on at least 4 photos (2 color and 2 black & white). Here's where I need you're help. I'm posting some of the ones I'm considering. Vote for your favorite for color and black and white. I'm only picking pics of the kids and only ones I've taken within the past year (a requirement). Give me your favorite 2 for color and favorite 2 for black and white. If you think there are pictures of mine that you've seen that would make better choice, feel free to let me know! I have to have my entry mailed in by the 12th so vote soon please! I'll let you know what I choice so you can keep an eye out for them at the fair in Oct.

COLOR:

A.)

B.)

C.)

D.)

E.)

F.)

BLACK & WHITE: (You'll see some duplicates as I couldn't decide which way I liked better.)

A.)

B.)

C.)

D.)

E.)

THANKS!!!

King of the Day!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:09:00 +0000

My sweet big boy, who LOVES kindergarten, got to be "King of the Day" today! In his class all the kids get to be King or Queen of the day once and then they switch to a "Lion" of the week. As you can tell he was quite proud that it was his turn today!

When Sam asked him what a "King" does when she picked him up from school at noon today, he told her that a King eats chicken and fries, so she indulged and got him his favorite Happy Meal from McDonald's for lunch!

First day of Kindergarten!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:21:00 +0000

We made it! We got the school clothes and haircut over the weekend and talked all about how much fun Kindergarten was going to be. We even read two special Kindergarten story books last night (thanks G&G Vaughn for "The Night Before Kindergarten"). Big Boy woke up with a huge grin full of excitement!

The first thing this morning was checking out his new backpack and getting to open the letters that G&G Prohaska wrote to them that arrived in the mail yesterday. The kids immediately had to make a picture with the stickers on paper. They know the rule well that stickers ONLY go on designated paper or sometimes themselves. Hmm...betcha you know how they learned this! If you've been over to our house, check out the side of our coffee table and you'll figure it out.

Papa and I took the day off to spend with our sweet Kindergartner! Had to get the traditional leaving the house first day picture! All grown up! By the way, he picked out what he wore today. I gave him a choice of 5 new shirts, so he was quite happy with himself today.

The parking around the school was complete madness, not surprising for the first day. Lots of parents like us having taken the day off. Anyway, we had to park a couple of blocks away. Big Boy was so excited still that he practically skipped/ran down the sidewalk.

Outside the door to his classroom!

Meeting his teacher and putting his backpack in his cubby.

Putting on his name tag

Aunt Kat got to go see Big Boy off on his first day. She's visiting for a bit before she moves to Washington DC for her new job.

We all did okay until it was time for the parents to go. Big Boy had a few tears and was very clingy to Papa. Can't say I blame him, Aunt Kat and I had teary eyes too. Overall though we all did good and big happy smiles!

While Big Boy was at school we asked Boopy what she wanted to do. We didn't quite have enough time to take her to a movie or do anything big. She told us she wanted to go to a store. So we took her to Wal-Mart and let her pick out a treat. Papa picked out a first day of school treat for Big Boy and I picked up the classroom donation requests his teacher had handed out. Finished up our shopping and headed back to the school a bit early to wait with the other excited parents. I wish I had gotten a picture of Papa peaking through the fence to watch Big Boy at recess! The kindergartners get released not long after recess/snack time, so out came a happy sweaty boy!

Happy day and happy for his monster truck treats

Hope the rest of the days go as well! The real test will be the rest of the week and Monday
when we will be on a normal schedule with Sam dropping and picking him up.

National Night Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:14:00 +0000

Last night we ended up with a spontaneous night out. We went to National Night Out at Target off west Shaw, not far from where we live. Honestly, sad to say, I had never heard of this annual event. Papa Vaughn was going out to it for work as he was set to take pictures of the Air National Guard booth so I decided the kids and I would join him. They had police cars, firetrucks, an ambulance, swat truck and the air national guard training seat to climb in and explore. There were FREE hot dogs, sodas, chips, coloring books, stickers and face painting. A very fun event! Unfortunately when we got there, Papa Vaughn had already left to go back to the Air base to help with the media regarding a fire that broke out there just as the event started. With Papa not there with his camera I only had my camera phone to chronicle the outing. At least I got a few fun shots.

Sitting in the trainer for the planes

Standing in the back of the Swat truck

Boopy really liked driving the police car.

We ran into our neighbors Shannen and Noah. Noah had fun hanging out with the kids.

Hello? Anyone there?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:21:00 +0000

On the way home from dinner tonight the kids decided to make phone calls. Good thing they have flexible bodies in order to put their feet phones to good use!

Visit with Cousins

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:18:00 +0000

So my cousins had never been to Fresno before. Laurie came to California with us last year and we took her to San Francisco for a couple of days. This year we had both Laurie and Garrett visiting so we brought them back home to our house. Wednesday the 8th of July we spent the day driving back from Shasta. Great drive for Garrett to see the terrain of northern California. Thursday we slept in a bit, went out to see Children's Hospital for Laurie (we'd LOVE her to get a job there) and then we out to the base for a tour with Papa. I think the kids enjoyed it most of all, especially since Papa hooked us up with a great tour of the fire station!

The kids loved getting to climb into the fire truck!

They even got goody bags!

We even enjoyed a nice "cooler" evening hanging out with the neighbors and ice cream.

Friday I left the plans up to Garrett. Since we only had the one last day for sightseeing they had the choice of going to the beach or to Yosemite. Tough choice for someone who had never been to the west coast. After much deliberating, Garrett choose to go to Yosemite. I think it helped that it meant a little less time in the car!

Overall a wonderful visit! Garrett was happy with his choice. We figure this just means that he has to come back another time so we can take him to the beach! Hopefully we didn't scare him off!

Family trip to Shasta!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:24:00 +0000

Like last year we got together with my side of the family. Since we are so spread out and getting together for the holidays gets harder and harder each year, a summer vacation together is working out well. Unlike last year though, we had to shorten the visit length due to everyone's schedules and cost. Regardless, any time together is wonderful! This year we met from July 5-8th, a little more in the middle vacationing at Lake Shasta in northern CA. We actually got the shortest drive this year at 5 1/2 hours, which is no worse than our regular drives to Vegas so the kids were troopers in the car. Our 3 days were spent hanging out on the lake, hanging out at the rental house and a quick hike to some pretty falls in Dunsmuir near the Sacramento River.

Waiting for our boat to be ready. We managed to rent a party boat for a 1/2 day. It worked out great - had a bbq and bathroom on it!

Papa Vaughn got elected to be Captain. He let his crew take a turn at the wheel. Thankfully we didn't crash into anything!

Big Boy was SO excited about the prospect of fishing. Big Boy, Boopy and Jakub (nephew) all got kid size fishing poles to fish with Grandpa.

They really enjoyed the worms, especially Boopy. Just wish that one of them had actually caught a fish.

We found a nice little cove to dock the boat, ate lunch and too a swim.

Look at me Mama! I can do it myself! She's a bit too brave sometimes. Now to get them real swim lessons some time!

Sweet little nephew, Alex (Theo) enjoyed hanging out with Grandma.

That is until nap time!

Staying cool with shades and watermelon!

Back at the house there was no lacking fun. The night before boating the kids pulled out their fishing rods (Big Boy has a "Cars" pole and Boopy has a "Barbie" one) and practiced off the couch. No worries though they didn't have hooks on them. They came with practicing casting things on the end.

Alex (Theo) is such a happy little 9 month old!

I loved getting to let the cousins play together. Distance makes it hard to do it often, but since they are so close in age they play quite well when we are together.

The house had a hot tub that the kids wanted to take full advantage of. They talked Papa Vaughn into joining them.

For this years family trip, cousin Laurie from Illinois decided to join us again. (Yay! - we're all trying to convince her to move out west. She just graduated from nursing school and hoping to work with kids so if anyone knows of any good job openings out here, please pass them my way for her!) As you can tell, the kids enjoyed her company.

The "Prohaska" girls!

Just hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Washington.

Adorable nephews - Alex (Theo) and Jakub

It wouldn't be a family vacation without games being played!

Lunch at the waterfalls. Beautiful scenery and weather!

Along with cousin Laurie visiting, we also got to have one of the youngest cousins out this year. Garrett (first one on the left) is 15 and from Arkansas. It was so great to have him visit and get to know him.

The whole group!

Visits like this make me wish we all lived closer.... at least though, we are making a point to do trips like this each year!

Stay tuned for pics from Laurie and Garrett's visit with us in Fresno and Yosemite. They had quite a west coast trip starting out in Seattle with my brother and parents, visiting Shasta and then driving back to Fresno with us.

Bob the Builder!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:28:00 +0000

Wow am I behind!!!! The sad thing is that I had this post started at the end of June and just never got finished with it to post it. Ugh...I love summer activities but this is starting to affect my sad blogging life! :) Don't worry at least as I work toward catching up I will have plenty of pics to share.

So the day before Father's Day we trekked downtown to the opening day of the Bob the Builder exhibit at the Fresno Met. I love that they are bringing in more family fun exhibits. The kids are loving it! Helps that my co-workers daughter works there so we're getting an inside scoop and passes frequently.

We started with helping to color the giant picture of Bob the Builder they drew with sidewalk chalk.

The first floor of the MET has fun hands on stuff. Most of it is way over the kids heads as in brainteaser puzzles, but they have fun nonetheless.

We ventured up to the 3rd floor where the hands on fun Bob the Builder exhibit is and promptly took a picture with the fake Bob.

Oh, and then the REAL Bob showed up! For anyone who plans on visiting the MET while the exhibit is there, from what I was told, Bob will make an appearance every day at 11 am and 1 pm.

Getting to climb in the construction vehicles was lots of fun!

There were building blocks to play with and walls you could help build.

Plumbing lesson from Papa Vaughn. Boopy decided she really like working on the "sink" and pipes. Perhaps a future plumber?

Saws are pretty fun too!

Hard at work!

Working hard to help Wendy in her garden.

Puzzles and ball games proved to be highly entertaining.

In the same area as the Bob the Builder exhibit, they have another hands on exhibit called "Have a Ball". Definitely a hit with my two!

The MET has a classroom on the 4th floor where kids can make crafts, etc. Since the opening was the day before Father's Day, the craft was a Father's day card shaped like a tool box and complete with a hammer! Papa Vaughn didn't mind helping. :)

In honor of the opening day there was a construction digger for the kids to explore, climb on and play with. The guy supervising was really nice and let them mess with any part they wanted. I'm sure that if he let Boopy have the keys she would have taken off down the street ready to put it to work!

Hey look what this digger dug up!

Two cute and crazy creatures!

Even though it was terribly hot and not much shade, Big Boy had fun playing with the giant soccer ball the museum had out for entertainment.

A big draw of the opening day of the exhibits are the activities the museum set up. This time they got Home Depot to donate crafts. Big Boy chose a wooden race track to build and Boopy picked a flower pot pencil holder. Very cool family crafts.

After our afternoon at the MET we decided to continue the family craft fun. Once we got home we set up paints and let the kids paint some ceramics we picked up at Michael's and then they painted their wood crafts they made at the MET.

Loads of summer fun!

More fun post to catch up on will be:

Family Trip to Shasta Lake, Tour at Papa's work (Air National Guard Base), Yosemite trip, Obon Festival and a fun visit from out of town friends!

Tree Fresno!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Last weekend on Saturday morning we skipped gymnastics and headed out to a ponding basin across the street from the Clovis Costco. There we joined in on a tree planting community outreach set up by Tree Fresno. Papa Vaughn had seen a flyer at work and thought it would be a great family outing and something we could do to start building a desire to help the community in the kids. Even though our initial reasoning was to just help out, I think we got more out of it as we had a fun time as a family and created a great sense of pride in ourselves.

The weather was beautiful. The kids had fun checking out all the tiny little frogs hopping around while we were listening to the introductory comments and tree planting procedure.

Don't you just love the supervisors!

My "poser" had to pose at least once for me, of course! Boopy insisted on wearing this particular hat, even though she had pigtails and wouldn't leave the car without her necklace. Guess you just can't plant trees without looking your best!

Both kids got to take turns stomping down the dirt before placing the trees in the hole.

Boopy got to help Papa put the plastic tree guard around the base of the tree. After the first time helping she pretty much did it herself on the other trees we planted!

At least one family shot of us.

After the hard work of tree planting, we rewarded the kids with the fun time on the playground next to the ponding basin. It's nice to see more of these neighborhood parks popping up around town.

Such a big boy. He pretty much handled the rock wall all on his own.

Of course our daredevil, Boopy, had to climb the rock wall too, although she needed help only because her little legs weren't quite long enough.

The kids LOVE monkey bars! Getting a little help from Papa.

A view of the ponding basin after the tree planting. Some day we can come back here and see great big tall trees and know that we helped it to look so good!

I hope that overall the kids remember a fun family outing but also reflect on (one of hopefully many more times to come) the time spent helping the community.

Run Frog, RUN!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Last Friday night we ran some errands after work. Driving home into our culdesac, Papa Vaughn saw a frog in the middle of the road. As soon as he pulled into our driveway, he and the kids took off chasing the poor thing into a neighbors yard and then brought it up to our porch for the kids to "play" with briefly. I just wish I had my camera handy fast enough to catch them all running down the street chasing the poor frog!

My frogs checking out the neighborhood frog.

Close up especially taken for Grandma Washington who "loves" (okay, can't stand) frogs!

Don't worry after a few minutes of "play", the frog was returned to our front yard bushes and left unharmed and happy to go find it's frog family!

Another Vegas Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:32:00 +0000

The kids and I took another quick trip to Vegas this past weekend. This time we went over to spend time with "Guya" since her birthday was June 4th. I hadn't spent a birthday with her since our grandpa's funeral 4 years ago, which incidentally was on her actual birthday. Yes, that was a rough year for us, but that's another story. So...since Papa Vaughn had drill weekend, just the kids and I drove over. "Guya" decided to keep the weekend low-key. We spent most of the day just hanging out at the really cool park in the pictures below, shopping at Kohl's and hanging out at Guya and D's house.

We packed a picnic lunch to enjoy at the park before shopping. Big Boy was not thrilled that I made him stop to eat before he was allowed to play. Food is definitely not his priority.

I have seriously "ruined" this child. Boopy LOVES to pose for pictures. She would eat a bite of her sandwich, then go out to the grass area and lay around posing wanting me to take her picture. Of course I have to oblige!

I actually managed to get a picture of both kids together, looking at me (mostly) and being super cute. It's getting harder to get them to both sit long enough for a decent picture together.

I loved the entrance to the park. It had these wooden painted flowers up high above the arched entrance. I had Boopy sit up on Uncle "D"s shoulders so I could get them in the background with the beautiful blue sky.

The rock wall proved to be a big hit for my daredevil children.

Of course I had to try out the twisty slide with Big Boy.

The kids favorite thing at the park was this really cool caterpillar "monkey bar" type structure. After an initially cautious climb, Boopy discovered it wasn't so difficult and she could scale it just as easily as Big Boy. They would have played on this structure all day if we let them.

The park even had tube slides, caterpillars to balance on, tunnels to hide in and other structures to jump and climb on. With all the bright fun colors I couldn't help myself with the camera. Just wish we had parks like this in Fresno since it would be a fabulous park for young kid family picture sessions!

I LOVED the brightly colored stairs.

Overall another lovely summer weekend. Happy birthday Guya! AND happy birthday to Grandma Vaughn, who celebrated the day before on the 3rd!

Outdoor Adventures - Up, up and away!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:07:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay (again) in blogging. While we haven't technically had major plans lately, I have been staying rather busy with my photography sessions. This has been great, but it does take away from my pics of the kids and time to blog about them. So this past weekend I did make sure to take Saturday "off" and we played as a family. We spent time at gymnastics in the morning and then went straight to the movies to see "UP". Highly recommend it by the way, very sweet movie.

Anyway, nice day of just hanging out, had lunch out and spent the afternoon snooping around the deals at Gottschalks. Since the weather was still so nice when we got home in the late afternoon/early evening, we let the kids loose in their favorite place - the backyard. They are so my kids in some ways - they both run around everywhere barefoot. If my feet could be naked year round and not freeze, they would be! So with the kids playing I had to play too, so I grabbed my camera and tortured them a bit. At least this time, Big Boy was a very willing subject!

Yes, they are quite acrobatic! My flying "Peter Pan" kids!

Boopy was funny - being barefooted and all she stepped down and shrieked when she stepped on something wiggly. Once she saw it was just a little worm she kept talking about how cute it was and how she just loved it!

Papa helped them put the worm in a much safer place rather than directly under the swings.

Had a little fun playing with some settings on my camera and managed to get a few fun evening shots.

Hope life has been treating you all well. While I've still got more pictures to edit, don't worry, I'll still keep trying to get over here and update you all on our adventures!

Memorial Weekend 09

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:13:00 +0000

Our Memorial weekend was wonderful! No real plans and no true agenda to be had. And while there were many chores that should have been done around the house, we really didn't do any of it. We spent most of the weekend playing, hanging out, sleeping in (a bit) and generally enjoying being a family. It was wonderful!

Saturday, Papa Vaughn participated in a motorcycle ride in the morning with a group from the base for a fundraiser. It finished with a small bbq that we joined him for. After that we spent the afternoon at home. Boopy decided that she needed to freshen up her "make-up" getting into my powder. While she's generally a totally tomboy, it's fun to see that she has her "girly" side too.

She's such a little poser - I think I've got her hooked on my camera, unlike Big Boy who often makes me chase him to get his picture - hence the fact that this blog post has many more Boopy photos than Big Boy shots.

We went from putting on make-up to her room where I had to play "Polly Pocket" with her. She got some for her birthday and just loves them. If they weren't such tiny pieces that I'm sure are going to get lost all over the house, I might love them more for what they do to her imagination.

Showing off her room and her "Polly Pocket" clothes.

We did manage to peal Big Boy away from Papa and cartoons with the enticement of a popsicle and chalk in the front yard. While I totally miss the tiny baby he once was, I love the big kid he's become and his independence.

Boopy had me trace her hands for her.

In true kid fashion, and in honor of Peter Pan, they played with their shadows for a bit.

We rounded out our afternoon with some fun backyard fun too.

As for Sunday, well I literally didn't leave the house at all. It was marvelous! Papa and the kids ran a few errands. Papa got the lawn mower working again and put it too good use. I did do laundry, which wasn't so fun - I never tire of hating laundry - it's the chore that NEVER ends... Anyway, that was our Sunday.

As for Monday, the holiday, we lazed around in the morning, got ourselves together for the afternoon and spent it hanging out at the zoo. I didn't bring my camera but did catch a few pics on my cell phone. Oh by the way if you look closely in the picture below take notice of Boopy's shoes. my nice responsible Big Boy was offered his flip flops or his tennis shoes to where to roam the zoo. He appropriately chose the tennis shoes. Boopy on the other hand insisted on her dress shoes because she considers them her "princess" shoes and we all know she's quite the princess. So, yes, she was the one tromping around climbing on everything at the zoo in her dress shoes from Auntie Jenn's wedding.

We finished the day off with a family walk around the block, some play time with the neighborhood kids and getting ourselves ready for the rest of the week when we have to go back to the real world of alarm clocks and chores that can't be ignored. Here's hoping that you all had a relaxing and fun filled 3 day weekend!

Boopy's official birthday...

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:16:00 +0000

Since Boopy's actually birthday fell on a Tuesday, both Papa and I had to go to work, but we woke up Boopy with sweet happy birthday hugs and lots of morning kisses. Sam treated Boopy, Big Boy and Gaby to a fun morning at the new bounce place in town, Bounce U. From what Sam told me and the pictures she sent via her phone, the kids had a ball!

After Papa and I got home from work we took Boopy to Red Robin per her request for her birthday dinner. She was very excited to have the staff sing happy birthday to her.

When we got back home it was still early enough to give the kids some time to play outside for a bit. Our neighbor friends were out in their yard playing with Noah's Slip N Slide and even though it was too terribly hot, the kids jumped right in and had a good time. All in all, a wonderful fun filled birthday for our crazy 3 year old!

The Princess Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:50:00 +0000

This Tuesday, May 19th, Boopy will officially turn 3 years old. I seriously can't believe that our little girl is three! We celebrated this past Saturday with a Princess themed party at our house, per Boopy's request. Before I go into party details, I want to brag about my wonderful husband. He designed and made Boopy's requested princess castle cake. He was up until 2 pm the night before working on it, but at least Sam (who watches the kids for us) and I helped bake a bunch of the cakes the couple days beforehand since Papa Vaughn was out of town from Tuesday until Friday. (Thanks Sam!) Didn't the cake turned out awesome! He's really set a standard now after this and Big Boy's pirate cake.

Our princess posing after coming down all ready for her party. Aunt "Guya" helped get her dolled up. I found her dress at Sams Club for a mere $12!! I loved how pretty it was AND if you look closely in the black and white pattern right above each flower is an actual sketch of Cinderella, Belle & Sleeping Beauty.

Shortly after the guests arrived, we encouraged everyone to have a bite to eat. We served hamburgers, hot dogs, my dad's recipe potato salad, southwestern chicken salad, watermelon, princess punch, iced tea, basically the usual BBQ food. While the kids were eating, the gal playing Cinderella showed up. I smuggled her inside to the bathroom where I had the Cinderella costume waiting for her. Once she was ready, I smuggled her back outside via the garage where she then waited and rang the doorbell. At that point we told Boopy to answer the door as she had been greeting all her guests. It was so funny when she peered out the front door window. She was so stunned and surprised, she just froze with her hand on the doorknob. Papa had to go over and "help" Boopy to open the door. It was so cute!

I think it took Boopy a minute to realize that, yes, Cinderella REALLY was at HER party! The real fun and reason we set this up was that Cinderella is one of Boopy's favorite princesses. Of all the characters we saw at Disneyland in April, we never managed to see Cinderella. Boopy had commented on this fact more than once, so the idea of having "Cinderella" at her birthday party was just too good to not have happen. One of my friends managed to find "Cinderella" for us through her cousin's drama class - gotta love Facebook and great friends!

"Cinderella" was wonderful! She sat with all the girls, helped Boopy hand out goodie bags and helped her to open her presents.

Boopy and friend, Gaby, had to point out the Cinderella figure to Cinderella. Every Cinderella thing Boopy got as a gift, she pointed out as well saying, "look it's you!" to Cinderella.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out her candles.

After Cinderella and all Boopy's guests left, the kids sat back and enjoyed all the new presents Boopy got. Big Boy managed to sit in one place long enough that I finally got a picture of him. He spent most of the party outside on the playset and trampoline even though it was 100 degrees outside. I swear he would live outside if we let him!

Boopy got some fun "Princess" make-up from cousin Kennedy. She promptly put some on in the evening and insisted she do it all herself. Didn't she do a lovely job! (wink, wink!)

We finished out the birthday celebration on Saturday watching the boys take a nap, playing with toys, me messing around with pictures and overall relaxing. Sunday was wonderful as well as we simply went to Target to spend Boopy's gift card money from Grandma & Grandpa in Washington and then did some more relaxing at home. All in all a very nice birthday weekend. One I hope Boopy has very fond memories of in the years to come!

Disney - Sneak Peek....

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:03:00 +0000

To tied you all over as I continue to muddle through our massive amounts of pictures from the past couple of weeks, here a cell phone pic of the kids at Disneyland. They got to pick out custom mouse ears. You pick the base, then the color/style of ears and can add patches. Great idea and lots of fun!

Belated Easter Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:31:00 +0000

So again I find myself a bit behind. I've had client photos to work on, which I also need to catch up on, and then there was this fabulous trip to Disneyland this past weekend, not to mention enjoying Vintage Days with friends the weekend prior. So you see, we've been a bit busy. I've finally found a spare moment to actually sit at the computer and can't believe it's already Wednesday night. Not that I'm complaining, I can't wait for the work week to be over, but I'd really love a few days with nothing planned so I can play with pictures, blog and I suppose catching up on the ever expanding pile of housework would be good too. So on to my real reason for this post - catch up on Easter pictures. Thought I'd finally share pictures from our morning at home before driving up to Merced to spend the day with GG, Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn and cousins.

Easter baskets all set! The kids woke up to find these at their doorway.

Then it was off to the hunt! The Easter bunny did like he did when I grew up which is to leave coins and candy all along the floor leading to where the Easter eggs are hidden (in this case downstairs).

They were both so excited that the Easter bunny also hid eggs outside on the front lawn! (Thanks for good weather!)

A bit of fun with their new bubbles from the Easter bunny.

*Stayed tuned for more belated Easter pics, Vintage Days and our fun at Disneyland!

Bunnypalooza!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:55:00 +0000

We kicked off our Easter celebrating on Saturday. The local museum, the Fresno Metropolitan Museum held a fundraiser, family outing called "Bunnypalooza". Sad to say, having lived here nearly all my life, I had never been to the Met before, so what better way to enjoy some culture and support the museum (they're having major money issues - but then who isn't) than to spend a day as a family with bunny time fun. We ended up staying the entire time the "Bunnypalooza" ran, which was 11:00-3:00! The kids made bunny crafts: bunny baskets (from milk containers - very creative idea that my teacher friends should steal!) and bunny ears. The also got a plant to plant in the yard at home, their faces painted like a bunny and they participated in the egg hunt at 2:00pm. We even spent quite a bit of time in the actual museum. Boopy being cute in her Easter hat and Cinderella glasses - it was a beautiful BRIGHT sunny day, although it was rather windy making it a bit chilly.

Papa helped Big Boy with his crafts, while I helped Boopy.

Finished milk jug bunny basket

Working on their bunny ears.

Looking cute in their bunny ears - Boopy put hers on a bit crooked, she really did have 2 ears. Big Boy stole Papa's glasses since he didn't have his with him. I think he thought he was pretty cool.

Getting their faces painted

After the crafts we ventured inside the museum. Big Boy would have stayed all day in the hand-on displays if we let him. We're hoping to go back this summer when they have a Bob the Builder exhibit.

Big Boys favorites were the next three - a computer game, microscope and Spirograph.

This was a fun wall where you selected the items and put them in the correct section: recyclable or non-recyclable.

The kids were split up by age for the egg hunt, so Papa went with Big Boy and I went with Boopy.

We even ate a fun lunch of hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and Jamba Juice.

All in all a very fun afternoon. Even now, 3 days after, the kids keep asking if we can go to "Bunnypalooza". I would definitely recommend a trip down to the Met, if for nothing else but to support them. The kids loved the first floor hands on displays. The actual art displays upstairs are great too, but our 2 aren't at an age that they really cared much so we only took a quick glance around.

Coloring Easter Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Friday night we pulled out the coloring kits and went to town. Papa Vaughn helped each kid while I took a backseat and mostly took pictures.

Big Boy liked the camouflage stickers that came with one set, as well as the face stickers that came with the other.

Posing with their handiwork. They really liked the faces on each egg as well as doing one with their name on it.

All in all a fun Easter egg dyeing night. I think if we let him, Big Boy would have slept with the eggs in his bed. As it was, he woke up Saturday morning worried and wondering about his eggs. I think he was hoping that the Easter bunny would have come Saturday morning.

Opening Day - Grizzlies!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayle) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Last Thursday, in the midst of feeling really crummy from a cold that I had hoped was only allergies, we ventured out to the Opening Day for the Grizzlies. Papa Vaughn got tickets from work as he needed to be there to photograph the Air National Guard Honor Guard preform the flag ceremony for the National Anthem.

I indulged the creatures and got them each an ICEE. Don't quite understand why they don't have child size ICEEs at the ballpark?

If you look close (yes, it would have been much easier and better if I had remembered my telephoto lens) you'll see Papa Vaughn in his uniform crouched down getting ready to take pictures of the honor guard. And no his uniform isn't the orange fuzzy headed person. That happens to be Parker the Grizzlies mascot.

The one shot I managed to get of Big Boy where he wasn't covering his ears from the fireworks. He was showing me how they pitch the ball.

Papa Vaughn showing of the cool camera he gets to play with from work.

Believe it or not, but this great shot was taken by Big Boy! Just think how well he could have done if I'd remembered my telephoto lens!