Back to the Beach!

On Saturday we all went back to Oceanside, and this time we brought the men folk.

Once again, with creative control Mark and I will not appear in any pictures this post.

Rebecca and Reese

Craig was a good sport.  Since he works in the sun all day,

 he doesn't get it  why we love the beach. 

Plus he doesn't like to swim.  Or enjoy sand everywhere. 

That's what an awesome Dad and Grampa he is-

anything for his girls!!

Melissa and Austin, almost 2 on August 9th

 Uncle Greg was in the water helping Luke and Paige boogey board  most of the day.

 Paige is fearless like Luke.  They love the water and have no fear of the waves.

 Luke catching a wave

 Paige's turn to catch a wave

 

Paige and Uncle Greg

There she goes!

  Way to go, Paigey!

 That's our Luke.  Check out the muscles.

Claire and Luke

Greg and Austin

Ever since their beach camping trip,

Dylan doesn't enjoy the water anymore.

Dylan just turned 4 and finally

potty trained in the nick of time!

Cute Claire with Luke, Austin and Uncle Greg

Luke loves the beach, between the waves

and the sand crabs, he could stay all day!

Cousin Time



Our darling daughters, Melissa and Rebecca

It is always fun when the Bryant Girls and the Gargalis boys

get together. Isn't interesting that we have one daughter with

 all boys and the other daughter with all girls?

Ben has one of each. Nick has one daughter so far.



Austin

I adore Fisher-Price toys.  And since

I"ve become a grandmother, I have the best preschool toys. 

Or, on the other hand, because I'm a preschool teacher,

 I have the best Grama toys! 

 All the kids love the cute little Fisher Price Snap 'n Style Friends.  They have hard plastic clothes that snap on and cute shoes and accessories.  They have long hair that is easy to brush and doesn't get tangled.  What's not to love?

 The funny thing is that the boys love these as much as the girls.  The only squabbles were between siblings over who had what accessory. 

 I've watched for them to go on sale at Kohl's, and ordered a few outfits from the Fisher Price store online .  Now I have 3 blondes and 3 brunettes so everyone can play nice.  Paige loves the doll with brown hair and eyes like hers. Those girls play so cute together and love to play pretend and make up scenarios.  Paige especially loves "directing" their play, and has definite ideas about who should play what role. 

It cooled off enough to play out in the backyard a few times.

 They all love to climb on the fort and play with the balls and hula hoops.

 We have had a little tykes fort like this since 1989!  It was a gift from Santa, and that night all 5 of our kids slept in it.  All night long.  True story.  I wish I had the documentation to prove it.  That might be when they began the tradition of all sleeping in the same room on Christmas Eve.  A tradition they continued even after they got married. . . It was all their idea!  I can't take credit for that one  : )

Up On the Roof

I'm humming the James Taylor song as I type this,

bless his heart, but this is not a post about

my favorite singer-songwriter of my life.

One evening last week it cooled off just enough to have the kids play in the backyard.

First, Paige and Luke climbed on the roof of the little play house.

 Not to be outdone, Claire began to ascend to the roof as well.  (see upper right of roof)

She made it!

 TA-DA!!!

Of course, it wasn't long before Dylan and Austin joined in the fun

 Last, but not least, Reese finished off the group.

How cute are these cousins?????



The Beach and The Bryant's

Happy cousins: Paige 6 1/2, Luke 5 and Claire 4

Bless Mark Bryant's heart!!!!! He was able to work out a business trip to California right at the time his brother, Matt was blessing his new baby. Matt lives just 20 minutes away from us in Mennifee. What better to do during his week of working - letting  Rebecca, Paige, Claire and Reese stay with us! We had so much fun with the Bryant's here for 10 days! 

Luke taught the girls the fine art of catching sand crabs.

Austin and Reese weren't interested in the water but had so much fun digging in the sand. 



Paige the Mermaid



The Bryant girls at the beach in Oceanside



We "planted" seashells for the kids to find and they were a big hit and quite the treasures.

My Happy Birthday aka "Cinco-Cinco"

I had a fun birthday this year!  I can't believe I'm 55 - or "Cinco-Cinco" as Craig says.  I love my 50's!  Just wish I was in better shape, but I'm working on that, so "Fabulous at Fifty Six" will be an understatement next year.  Poor Craig had a terrible virus all week long.  Fortunately for both of us, my BFF Ruthie had planned to visit for the week from Las Vegas.  We took her out to dinner for our 36th anniversary  on the 12th, and after that Craig was out of the picture for the rest of the week.  Once we had him squared away for the day, we took off so he could rest and we could play. 

We spent our first day at the movies, and in between we had lunch across the street at Miguel's.  It was a lovely, breezy day so we ate on the patio.  We saw WATER FOR ELEPHANTS - hated it-  an over rated disappointment that morning, and after lunch we saw MONTE CARLO with Selena Gomez.  A cute, fun, feel good movie!  I hadn't heard about it before I saw the trailer.  It was adorable and I highly recommend it!

The next day I began  my birthday by taking Ruth over to the neighbor's for a visit.  Look at those 3 adorable boy!.  Ruth promised Melissa she wasn't blinking when she checked the camera, but apparently she was not wearing her glasses or this could be a framer with all 3 boys smiling AND looking at the camera.

I love the interchangeable beaded watchbands from Bead It!.  I first discovered them when Melissa had a party in the fall and I just went to be supportive.  I went with her to a friend's party a few weeks later and I've ordered several online.  I can't get enough of them and was excited to get invited to an Open House here in Lake Elsinore.   [I'm having a party on Sept 7th if you're interested]

Karen Blackmer and her sister, Misty started this fun home party business.  Look at all those glorious beads!  You select the colors and style you want, pick a watch face, and they teach you how to bead a watch band.  It was the perfect activity!  I knew Ruth would love them too. 

She made several and helped me make one.  I could have stayed there and beaded all day.

 We went to Red Robin in Menifee for lunch and then we went home and rested up and read for awhile.

One of our favorite things to do is just hang out, lay on the beds and read.  Such fun.

Later we watched SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, DANCE, DANCE so I had a truly lovely day. 

All the kids sent wonderful cards and that day I got to talk to and/or Skype with most of the kids and grandkids, and best of all, I got an email from my boy in Afghanistan. 

Thursday we did a little shopping and went to see another movie, LARRY CROWNE with Tom Hanks. 

 A cute, feel good movie.  So we were 2 out of 3 on the movie picks.  It was such a treat to spend 3 whole days with Ruth!  Craig slept through most of her visit, and he felt bad to miss out on all the fun. 

Thank you, Dwight for sharing Ruthie with me for 3 whole days!  And a special thank you to Josh and Charlie for letting Grandma stay with you. Love you all to pieces!