It's A Family Affair

Yet another year has flown by! Seems like last year's family reunion was just yesterday and here we are....together again....another year later.

Kennidy, Sidney and Linda enjoy the water

Steven and cousin, Ian, join them

Ooops...someone lost a diaper

Little Zack floats around

Zack One and Zack Two!

Kennidy glams for the cam!

Uncle Jamie takes my naked baby down the slide

Ready--Set--Go

SIdney liked it so much, Kennidy took her down next

There were lots of people to help "catch" Sidney after the slide

Kelly and Matthew take a dip, too!

Larry and Carol with Matthew

Dad and Mauri

Cousin, Mike...enjoying his beer

The host with the most!

Mauri enjoys watching everyone swim

Lookin' Good, Chuck

Joshua smiling in the sun

Me and my hubby

Remberto with Sidney and Michael

Larry and Steven discuss cars

Ian, Chuck and Leslie

Mauri, Aunt Linda and Aunt Gayle enjoy some shade and conversation

Sidney kisses Matthew

Cupcake Anyone?

The kids had so much fun selling candy apples that we decided to try a cupcake sale! Each of the 3 older kids decorated 6 cupcakes each. In the end, they sold 5 cupcakes in 20 minutes and then no more within the hour. It was quite hot outside, so the kids decided to retire into the pool after an hour of selling.  Needless to say....WE ate the rest while lounging by the pool all afternoon.

Making signs

Finished products

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

Kennidy, Sidney and I went to the LA Zoo today! We got there right when they opened and were ready to leave right as the crowds really started arriving. Guess it pays to be morning people sometimes. Weather was perfect and we got to see lots of fun things!

Ok...Kennidy and I were not expecting this. This lady looked nothing like Kai-lan. We were expecting someone dressed up in one of those padded costume things. We waited in a long line to get this picture, too. When we got to the front of the line and saw this lady, we both looked at each other and just gave each other a look like, "just go with it." Sidney didn't know the difference...or care, really. It was funny, too, when a lady walked past us with her kid after their picture and said out loud, "that looks nothing like Kai-lan."

This guy was so proud of his wings! He kept holding them up. I just had to take a picture.

Sidney liked watching this guy eat his tree

Happy with her nachos

Which fork should I use?

Blast from the past ALERT!! This is Kennidy in April 2000 at the LA Zoo. Now...you must know....I had her take a picture with this same sign today, in the same pose, because I knew I had THIS picture at home and wanted to compare them. I am soooo sad to say that the picture I took of her today somehow got deleted from my camera, so I just posted this one anyway.

Clean Up, Clean Up. Everybody, Everywhere. Clean Up, Clean Up. Everybody Do Your Share

Recently Sidney has taken an extreme interest in vacuuming. She loves to watch me vacuum. I have even found her sitting in the coat closet next to the vacuum...happy as can be. Therefore, I decided it was time for a vacuum of her own. I found this little guy "Dusty" on Craigslist and adopted him from another family who no longer needed his services. Sidney gets a kick out of Dusty because when pushed, Dusty makes real vacuum sounds and says cute things like, "Who made this mess?" and "I coughed up a furr ball" and "Nobody cleans better than we do" and "Clean you later!"

She doesn't look thrilled here, but she is!! Trust me...my camera just missed the fun!

How Sweet It Is

We have an over abundance of apples on our tree in the backyard (many of which fall prey to bugs before we can even get to them). So...I had a genius idea! Let the kids make and sell candy apples. Well...Linda and Steven thought this was the greatest idea since sliced bread. We all had a job in the preparing process and we all had a great time!

Linda made flyers to pass out to the neighbors

Steven and Sidney helped Daddy pick the apples

I asked Sidney, "Who wants an apple?" She said, "I do!"

My job was to make the caramel candy coating for the apples

Finished products

All set-up outside the house

After their first sale