Blake Came to Visit!!!!!!!!!

Blake and Rachel went to preschool at CCLC in Sunnyvale together. We won't talk about how much trouble they got into there... let's just say they were two peas in a pod. Blake lives in FL now, and visits his dad in China during summer vacation. This year, he stopped in CA on his way back!

First, we took Blake to Challenge Auto Racing, but I didn't have a camera. So I made sure to get pictures of the tough martial artist after he went to class with Sean.

The next day, Ken woke the kids at o-dark-thirty and took them rock cod fishing. I think they liked it, but it was ALL DAY, so they would have liked it better if it ended a lot sooner.

Oh, I almost forgot, Rachel's soccer team had a big party to celebrate the end of their killer team camp, so Blake got to be the only non-little-brother male there. Tough job, but someone's got to do it.
Uncle John and Merlin came over for a rock cod dinner. Merlin just started chemo for doggy lymphoma, but he seems like he's doing great, and we hope to be able to spoil him rotten at our house for lots more years.

Two Mitzvah Kittens ADOPTED

Sigh, such a happy/sad occasion. It's hard to see them go, but I know they got a really great home. When a 13 yr old girl cries on them, you know how badly she wanted them!

So Shalem Tov and Nushica live with Kayla now. I hope she sends pictures and stays in touch.

Poor lonely Hishamru even enjoyed being mothered by Cassie tonight. Then he slept on Rachel's bed. He needs his own forever home, but not today. : )

Guards Day 1

Poor neglected bloggy, I didn't mean to NOT post for so long. But an event like the first day of Junior Guards on the beach DEMANDS attention!

Both kids are in this picture somewhere (click on it to open it bigger.) This is the hotel they face and count out their jumping jacks at 9am, just to make sure everyone's awake. You'd be amazed how many people come out on the balconies to watch.



Junior C's to Little Guards "Hey Little Guards, HOW DO YOU FEEL???"

Little Guards back to C's "We feel good, oh we feel so good UH!"

Race you to Tower 4 and back! (Way the heck down the beach, on the first day! And then they swam out to the first finger-buoy!)

Go Sean GO! Little stud-boy, first day of Junior Guards, not in Little Guards anymore. I think he felt the difference this morning when he tried to get out of bed for Day 2. : )

Shaver Lake

Startup Man actually took three days off work and drove 4 hours for vacation time! We stayed in a huge cabin at Shaver Lake, Walter's first experience with water that didn't attack him.

Silly Walter, I can't throw THAT stick for you!

Better hang on boys, Momma's driving the boat. Photo by Rachel.

New Reef Fish

Okay, not a perfect shot with my new camera, but you get the idea. I have a new purple Coral Beauty angelfish for my reef tank. It's nice to have a subject that doesn't care how many pictures it takes for me to get it right. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold still.

Sean's new fish, on the other hand, hovers in place all of the time. His new Long-Horned Cowfish (juvenile, no horns yet) is even eating out of his hand, after only 3 days.

Cub Scout BBQ

Time for the end of the year Pack 608 BBQ. It was Den 5's turn to cook, so the Ken's went to Costco. Only 4 phone calls to me asking for directions in Costco, and they had all they needed. The boys did a water balloon toss, tug of war, and got their earned badges/beltloops.

Martin Rd Fire

Okay, so it's not THAT close to us... it still looks scary close when we can see where the plume starts. Here's hoping the wind stays low and the fire is contained before it jumps the ridge and heads for town (and us.)

Hot Days

Here are a couple pics of ideas for hot days. Sean and Willy are playing in the arena sprinklers.

And Sean's Fourth Grade class is in a friend's pool, teacher and all! But she had to turn and tell a kid to behave, so I missed the shot. (old camera, not brave enough to take the new one to a pool yet)

Kittens at Day 30

Finally, two of the puff balls are eating wet food from a bowl. Only the orange male still only eats from a bottle. Here's Walter playing nanny dog.

The Mitzvah Kittens

Ethan's bar mitzvah torah portion is something about caring for animals, so he and Rachel decided that they would raise Project Purr kittens for their mitzvah service projects. It's not hard to put in 13 hours with kittens, especially when they need to be fed 4 times a day. So they spent a whole Wednesday night temple school class picking names for the babies we got that afternoon. We're calling them the Mitzvot.

The little black female is Nushica (kisses).
The orange tabby male is Hishamru (beware). Yes, he earned it. Feisty boy.
The tiny brown tabby boy is Shalem Tov (wholeheartedly good). Love his white mittens on all four paws.

So that's why I've been neglecting this blog! Hope I made up for it today. I wish I could say it will never happen again... but we all know better. The Brook Knoll yearbook is almost done, baseball and soccer are over for a few months, and school is almost over. So I'll have more time to blog, right?

Tea Helpers

These are the four cadettes who helped: Sarah, Zoe, Rachel, and Sydney. They were totally exhausted at the end of the day.

Girl Scout Tea For Two

This year, Rachel and I signed up to work all day at the Tea, instead of being guests and ending up helping anyway. There were only four cadettes there, and they did most of the table set-up and clean-up, and led the younger girls in games the whole day. They rocked.

Bubbles Dance

Jessica is in Samoa, so Rachel and Olivia had to go to the dance without her! SHOCKING!

Happy Mother's Day

My Mommy came to visit this weekend!

This is my mommy and my big sis.

Mommy and ME!

My big sis Alysa and my niece Amy, her clone.

Grandma Judy, Grandpa Art, Bryan, Amy, Sean and Rachel. Those two scorpios have to stop dressing in matching colors... bad enough they act the same!

Alli comes to play

Alli came to play on Wednesday! Sean decided that little girls needed to learn how to play with motorcycle jumps. Go figure.