Fun-Filled-Family Week

I had 3 sisters, 1 brother with spouses and kids all get a chance to spend a week with us in California.  They all live in Utah and get to see each other, but decided to make the trip all at the same time.  It was oh, so much fun!

I've borrowed some pictures that others took, so thanks for sharing!

Some flew, some drove, but everyone got in on Saturday May 5th.  We met up at Steve and Mandy's house for a Cinco de Mayo party to kick off the fun.  It was fun to have some time with Mandy and the girls, especially since they weren't able to join in with most of the other playing.

Thanks to the hospitality of my in-laws, we had space for everyone to stay.  Ashlie and Nathan's family stayed at our house.  Ryan and Jackie, Shelly and Zack, and Cori and Jared a long with each of their kids (6 boys) stayed at the in-laws.

Sunday was our one day to relax and prepare for the week.  We had church, family dinner, and time to spend together.

Monday we spent all day at California Adventure.

we had to get a picture of us all wearing gray to commemorate the Family California trip when my mom had the entire family wear gray sweats to Knotts Berry Farm.  We did not insist that everyone wear gray for the rest of the day, but we did all write our phone numbers in permanent marker on each of the kids.  Luckily no one got lost.  This group of 20 was able to stay together all day switching off to go on bigger rides.

Tuesday was an all day event at Disneyland

The whole crew on Pirates of the Caribean

I found out this boy LOVES the parades.  We don't usually watch them, as in the past we've only gone to Disneyland for 3 hours at a time and are just cramming in the rides.  It was also fun that he was tall enough for most of the big rides.  He loved all the 'mountain rides' (splash, thunder and space). 

It was Brielle's first time on the Indiana Jones ride.  She was just barely tall enough (46" with shoes).

Wednesday we spent at the Getty Villa and then to the Beach

Some people (including my kids) were crazy enough to go play in the water, even though the water was cold and it was really windy.

The kids had fun burying themselves

Corinne, Ashlie, Michelle, Megan and Jacquelyn 

Thursday we took the morning a bit slower.  Then went to the Skirball Cultural Center and to Steve and Mandy's for dinner.

Brielle 5-year-old stats

My name is: Brielle (aka Ellie, Bo, Bo-Bellie, Biscuit)
Height: 45.5 inches (93%)
Weight: 43 pounds 3 ounces (71%)
Sleeping: about 11 1/2 hours (7:30pm-7:00am), or, more typically (since we often stay out past bedtime) 9pm-7am with a nap 1:30pm-3pm
Words: Reading, is starting to be more comfortable.  Can read and sound out words, but if she sees a word that looks too hard she'll guess or give up.  Still likes to memorize.
Movement: skips, jumps, climbs.  Is very fast on the scooter and likes to do tricks (stick one foot out in the air, or ride while squatting.)  Rides bike with training wheels.  Is taking a jazz dance class which she enjoys.  Also taking swimming lessons again; she loves the water.
Other: Likes math.  Counts to 100, uses a fabric tape measurer to count to 120.  Since it is the highest number she currently knows, she uses it a lot; such as "These cookies are so good, I could eat 120 of them!"

Is typically a rule follower, but can still be sneaky and get into trouble.  Is very nurturing.  Likes to be the boss.  Is a thrill-seeker (loves all the fast rides at Disneyland.)

Brielle's Response to her 5-year-old Interview Questions 

What is your name? Brielle
When is your birthday? May 4th
How old are you? 5
Who is your mommy? Megan  
What does your mommy do? Clean
Who is your daddy? James
What does Daddy do? Go to Work
What is your favorite color? Purple and Pink, and Orange and Blue...and Yellow!
What is your favorite song? Popcorn Popping (the song we had just song for Family Home Evening)
What do you want to do when you are a grown up? Be a Veterinarian 
Where do you want to live when you grow up? In Michigan
What is your favorite food? Macaroni
What is your least favorite food? Broccoli (I don't think she understood the question, because she happens to love broccoli)

What is your favorite animal? Zebra

What do mommy and daddy do when you go to bed? Work
Who does our family love the most? Their Family
Where do we go to church? In Azusa

Why do we go to church? Because it makes the Holy Spirit and we can feel Heavenly Father and Jesus

What is your favorite movie? Cinderella

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla

Where do you like to eat? Souplantion
Who is your favorite person? Coco (Elise)
Who is your best friend? Coco (Elise)
What is your favorite book? All the Construction books (it is our current preschool theme for the week)

What is your favorite thing to do? Play
Anything else you want to say? I like all my friends and my family.
What do you like about being 5? Doing new things that I've never done before.

Brielle's Birthday

Birthdays are SO exciting, especially when you are a kid.  Brielle was planning her birthday for weeks before the event.  I encouraged her list making and cake designing (handwriting and spelling practice that she loved). 

This is her requested menu for the day

Brielle wanted a Zoo birthday, so we spent the day hanging out with the animals.  Her favorite for the day was the Elephants.

Ethan has been obsessed with Tigers lately (He has changed his name to 'Little Buddy Tiger' and carries around a stuffed tiger everywhere.)  There are 2 baby tigers at the zoo right now that were wrestling with each other.  They were very fun to watch.

Brielle helped me draw out pictures of how she wanted the cake to look.  We used kit-kats for the fences, because they are her favorite candy bar.  I suggested pretzels, but she insisted 'you can't have healthy food on a cake!'

We had a small birthday party at Grandma and Papa Finlay's house.  Brielle called everyone herself to invite them to her dinner party.  Some of the family was out of town, but we had a great time with those that were there.  Papa, Vov, Yogi, Steve, Alana and our family.

She picked out the animals that she wanted.  She wanted me to make them from fondant, but I didn't feel that daring.  She made sure to inform everyone that the animals were not edible.  She was afraid someone might think they were.  She made toys for the animals out of fondant, but I forgot to put them on the cake.  Whoops.

We got home late that night, but she requested we have a family tea party using her new tea set.  We did.  It was her birthday after all.

Lake Arrowhead

James had a conference to go to for work in the mountains at a city called Lake Arrowhead.  Our friend has a cabin there that she said we could use, so the kids and I got to join James for the trip.  

 The conference started on Sunday, but we were able to go up on Saturday afternoon to give us time to explore and settle in as a family before James got busy.

We did some geocaching, which led us to some interesting places to hike and explore.  We also found little patches of snow the kids got to play in, so they were very happy about life.

Here is one of our finds.  The cache was hidden inside the rubber snake.

We went to visit James at his conference.  He helped the kids catch frogs from the river.

Throwing rocks in the river is one of the kids favorite activities.

We did a little hiking as a family

While James was working we played around the lake.

We took some bread and fed the ducks.  In this picture Ethan has his mouth full of the rolls we were supposed to be feeding the ducks.

Reptiles

The LA Zoo opened up their Reptile House called the LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates and Reptiles).  I'd been wanting to go, so finally got a week scheduled to learn about reptiles, which forced me to make time for the field trip.  

A few things from our week:

Activities

After talking about what a reptile is, we went through our toy animals to classify them.  This picture makes me laugh.  For some reason Brielle is glaring and Gavin and Ethan is ???taking a nap???!  I was there, and I still don't even know what was going on when I look at this. :)

We go through so many worksheets.  Those that are good to reuse I usually print and laminate, but I decided to put some worksheets on the touchpad so we could do them on there without printing so much.  It was a big hit.

I saw some really fun ideas to make snakes out of toilet paper rolls, so started saving them a few weeks before.  What the kids wanted to do with the craft was not what I had in mind, but they still turned out okay.

The kids helped me color some pasta to use for patterning.  I had the kids draw out the pattern on paper first, so they could follow a long and remember what they were trying to do.  The made pattern snakes, stringing them on yarn...

or gluing them on paper.

 Food

Snake Snacks

hiding 'snakes' in the trail mix

and eating 'crocodile' popsicles (frozen green-smoothies).

Books

The kids loved the Copy Crocs book.  It was fine, but there were a few things the kids picked up on that I didn't like.  Like saying 'leave me alone!'

We did all love the Cat in the Hat book, Miles and Miles of Reptiles.  There is a lot of information jam-packed into poetry.