Surpise Visit!

Yippee!!! A week ago, Thursday night, April 24th, we received a surprise visit from Grandma & Grandpa Prohaska! Well, okay, it wasn't a complete surprise but it was a last minute route change on the tail end of their road trip. The had just traveled from Washington state to Virgina to Arkansas and then Vegas. Since they were so close they changed plans to go directly north home and instead rerouted to California to get a fast grandkid fix! Big Boy and Boopy were so excited to see Grandpa's blue truck pull up in the driveway. Big Boy in fact even got to pretend drive it!

Because Grandma & Grandpa were going to be in town both Papa Vaughn and I took Friday off. That gave us all a great chance to really enjoy some nice family visit time before they left at noon on Friday. Yes, a very short visit, but fun nonetheless! We did squeeze in some time for a nice walk around the neighborhood which the kids really enjoyed.

It was like Christmas with the amount of presents Grandma & Grandpa brought the kids from their trip. Not to mention the goodies that Papa and I got, some of which were things from my Grandma Carol's estate and things my Grandma Mergler in Virginia wanted us to have now!

Big Boy LOVES his new truck lovingly nicknamed "Chocolate Milk Big"!

Bath time with Grandma brings many smiles!

Grandpa's make great perches for playing video games.

Let's go for a walk!

Big Boy did a great job taking a picture of Grandma & Grandpa!

It was discovered on our walk that Big Boy is part frog. Ribbet!

Quick Vaughn family picture. None of us with brushed hair, looking a bit ragged, but a fun family nonetheless!

Pottery Anyone?

Just to show that it never hurts to try for free stuff, I have to share about the beautiful FREE mug I received from Emerson Creek Pottery. On their site they invite bloggers to share their blog with the chance to receive a free mug. Well, not long after I emailed them, I had a nice little package on my doorstep. Although it doesn't match the pattern my parents picked out for me from their showroom, it is a nice piece all by itself. Supporting local owned shops like this is just fun and my parents have enjoyed the staff and pottery each time they go back east to visit my grandma in Virgina.

Vintage Days!

Boy, once you're behind in blogging it sure takes a bit to catch up! Last weekend we enjoyed another gorgeous couple of days outside. Saturday was spent just the 4 of us out at Vintage Days which is a arts and crafts and kids fair that the University puts on. It's great for the kids. They charge only $2 for a wristband that allows them to play in any of the bounce houses, go into the petting zoo, ride a pony and participate in crafts! Needless to say the kids didn't want to leave!

The petting zoo had turtles, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, a llama, camel and even a zebra! Big Boy especially loved petting everything! Boopy wasn't thrilled with the goats, I think mostly because of their size and that they really want to eat the food you could buy to feed them. She did however really like the ducklings and rabbits.

We could hardly get Big Boy out of the bounce houses. He wanted to try every one of them out there. Boopy climbed in to the first basic house but chickened out since there were so many big kids. She did however brave the large obstacle course one we found in the front section meant specifically for the bigger kids. Go figure.

We stopped and enjoy some of the music and had a taco/burrito lunch. Big Boy even took our picture! Not too bad, even if I did crop it in a bit.

Just some Boopy cuteness.

Boopy did catch some attention for her ability to belly dance. There was a presentation of belly dancers going on that caught her eye and she started rocking out to the music. I was holding her at the time and she insisted she wanted down to dance. It was the funniest thing. Can't quite tell by the pictures but she kept putting her arms up and moving to the music like she saw the dancers do.

Big Boy especially likes climbing on the big "V" statue that is in the back of the art building near where we parked. I managed to get a couple good shots of Big Boy actually looking at the camera and the kids together. Enjoy!

Kitchen Labor

Anyone looking for kitchen help? I have two dish washers for hire. They aren't the fastest and they use a bit more water than they need, but they work well as a team and sure like what they do! Give a call - they're a bit pricey and you may have to do some of the work, but they're fun to watch!

Big Hat Days

Two weeks ago, it was Drill weekend for Papa Vaughn so the kids and I ventured out to find something fun to do. Well, as luck would have it the weekend happened to be the annual "Big Hat Day" in Clovis. I called the usual friends, Mother Michelle, Auntie Jenn and Anne and we all met out there. Its basically a big craft fair with fun things to look at, good food, and overpriced kid rides. All in all a fun event.

Of course I couldn't go without my camera. While we waited to meet up with Auntie Jenn, we found Mother Michelle, her husband, Jeff and daughter Mikayla, who I've mentioned before. I had fun trying get some cute pictures of the kids together. First we tried my two. For starters, it was VERY windy and VERY bright and sunny. Because of the wind though it started out fairly cool, hence Big Boy's long sleeves. Boopy had a sweater I had already taken off and later I switched Big Boy into short sleeves. Anyway, enjoy the pictures below!

Boopy was a bit of a snob with Mikayla. Not sure why other than it could be that Mikayla is her size and she thinks she's much older than she is. Regardless, the silly girl just sat there, pretending Mikayla was not sitting by her. She even ignored her hat flying off! Hopefully we can convince her that Mikayla is quite fun to play with as I know they have many years of great adventures written for them already!

I did managed to get this adorable picture of the two of them looking at each other. Just so neat knowing that Mother Michelle and I have been friends for going on 20 years!

Big Boy thinks Mikayla is great and enjoyed playing a bit with her while we waited. I'm sure Mikayla probably would be much nicer to Big boy than Boopy can be. Little sisters aren't always the easiest to live with and yes I know because I am one and I have one! (Love you Guya!!)

Mikayla is such a happy sweet little thing - I love this picture I managed to snap of her.

Boopy perked up when her Auntie Jenn and Uncle Chris showed up. I'm hoping Boopy will do a good job for Auntie Jenn when she is the flower girl in their wedding this October!

We did indulge the kids in a few overpriced bounce house moments. The smiles and giggles were well worth it!

We had to go our separate ways after the bounce house time but since I still had some time, Auntie Jenn, Uncle Chris and I let the kids go on the big bounce house obstacle course. Boopy perked up and had to do everything Big Boy did, although she froze at the top of the slide and I had to coax her down. I did get some help from a little girl who helped give Boopy a small little push down.

After playing at "Big Hat Day" the kids took a nap in the car on the way to watch Russell's baseball game and hang out with Anne, Linday, Russell & Diego. I'll post some of the cute pictures from the afternoon later.

Easter Day

Due to the crazy busy week prior to Easter, it was already planned to be pretty low key which it kind of stayed. We got up around 8 am so that the kids could hunt eggs and we could get everyone ready to go to Merced for church with GG Cedarholm. The kids really enjoyed the little goodies in their baskets from the Easter bunny. Boopy got the Lucky Ducks game, while Big Boy got a tail pull game. Both had fun Easter eggs with goodies, Big Boy's had a matchbox vehicle in it and Boopy had a miniature My Little Pony.

In the hallway upstairs the Easter bunny followed a tradition I grew up with and scattered change (pennies, nickels, dimes, etc.) on the floor leading to the Easter eggs. Boopy, who is very much into money these days, was quite excited, while Big Boy was more into the eggs.

Here they are checking out more plastic eggs with goodies hidden downstairs by the Easter bunny.

After a busy few hours home, we drove up to Merced and enjoyed a nice Easter service with GG Cedarholm. After church we went back to her house where the Easter bunny had made brunch and hid MORE eggs, this time with CANDY, for the kids.

Waiting for GG at her front door - I played a bit with Photoshop.

Papa Vaughn helped Big Boy put together the wooden airplane he got in his basket at home and then the kids got ready to head out to the backyard for egg hunting.

And while that would have made for a fairly eventful Easter day, we ended up with a bit more adventure than originally planned. Grandma Vaughn was originally going to drive down to meet in Merced for church, brunch and egg fun. Unfortunately, she fell ill and ended up in the hospital the night before and was being held for observation. So, since she couldn't come to us, we went to her! GG, Papa, the kids and me all drove the hour north and hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn in Grandma's hospital room. Not wanting to wear her out, we didn't stay long, but in the meantime the kids had a good time entertaining everyone and playing peek-a-boo with the room divider curtain.