Casa LaQuinta

A happy July 4th was spent at Casa LaQuinta. A day of BBQ, pool, beer, margaritas, poker and celebrating not only the birth of our country but also that Baba and Nana (aka Dad and Trish) are now California natives. The house at LaQuinta was a sunny playground for the little ones, and besides some sunburn and sleeplessness, it made for a fun and relaxing weekend. Here's the photo overload.

The pool at Casa LaQuinta.

The girls with Baba LaQuinta.

The Athena fish logged about five hours in the pool.

Aquatic midget tossing.

Dousing the baby in the waterfall.

The Lady of La Casa.

A couple of cute dudes.

La Casa loco.

Following the pool activities we play a few hundred rounds of Texas Hold 'em. The girls took turns being Baba's "helpners" -stacking chips, throwing in the antes and say "check."

Until they got too tired and had to lounge under the mist on the settee.

It was around 103 in the heat of the day which was fine, when we got too hot we just jumped back in the pool.

In the evening there was Bocce ball in the shade of the side lawn.

Or, just as much fun - running around with a stick and dog toy.

After a lovely dinner, the worn out Dude crashed in his Nana's arms and she refused to pass him on even though I think she lost all feeling on her left side.

We had such a great weekend, thank you! We love having you guys on the left coast!

Buckets + Water + Rocks

Sometimes all you need is two buckets, some rocks and water. Plunk...and again...plunk. It's fascinating.

If I frame this picture, will it embarrass him so much when he's 11 that he'll have to go and hide it before his friends come over?

How about this one?

Evidence

The Dude does not always abide.

Reason No. 528

I owe a ton of blog posts, but this scene was too cute not to share immediately, check back for pictures from the weekend.

Amis!

We are very blessed to have people in our lives who like us enough to disrupt their tour of beautiful Northern California and drive five hours into the blazing heat of Bakersfield. We were plagued by a swarm of flies that ruined our outdoor BBQ one day and then disappeared the next and a Basque cultural festival that was misrepresented as something fun, but it's not what you do its the company you keep. And there is no better company to keep than time spent our cousins from Montreal, Didier, Lam and Mila, the sweetest and loveliest family imaginable.

Stroller buddies at the Farmer's Market.

Sisters at the flower booth (about to touch all the flowers).

So hard to get a photo of FOUR kids all looking in the same direction (Athena was not happy with our many attempts).

Our adorable "cousine" Mila - the kids all share the same great-grandpapa, Adjutor Bernier, but she called everyone "Amis!"

Lam and Mila enjoying the 97 degree heat.

Dude playing basketball with Didier.

Beware this guy!

Because he will steal your grapes (and eat all of them).

Time spent with my cousin and our kids (priceless).

Lam, Didier and Mila, we loved having you guys! Anyone else from Quebec wanna come visit?

Slacker Mom No More

I confess, I am a slacker Mom, evident by the fact that for two years we've live in a place that gets hotter than the surface of the sun but just yesterday my girls had their first swimming lesson.
In the hot months we're at the pool at least twice a week, so swimming without real lessons have lead to very bad habits. Athena will not enter the water without her bright orange arm floaties and Zoe is quite used to always being held.
The girls were very excited about starting swim lessons, but when we got to the pool Athena asked for her floaties right away. "No floaties for swim lessons!" I said cheerfully which sent her cowering to her "baby penguin" position - tucked into a ball sitting in between my legs.Zoe, meanwhile, started lifting up my shirt and looking for my bathing suit. "I didn't bring mine you're going to be swimming with your teacher." She didn't like that idea at all and suggested I swim naked. Taren showed up right about then all smiles and light and led the girls to the edge of the pool. I hightailed it out of there as quickly as possible, they are always much braver when I'm not around.
I snuck back in 20 minutes later to find Zoe talking a blue streak to Taren and both girls having the time of their lives. They learned to get in and out of the pool, float on their backs, make a sandwiches with their hands, plus a few new songs about swimming.
Tomorrow we going in head first!

Fifth Father's Day...er Sixth...

Anyone can be a Father but it takes a special man to be a Daddy.

Summer Down Time

Ah lovely summer. The girls are down to three days of a "camp-like" preschool which they love - otter pops daily, water play and lots of theme parties. The other four days of the week find us doing all sorts of downtime activities, some planned some spontaneous. There's certainly lots to do on our non-work/non-school days, and so many ways to spend an empty afternoon,

why not run through the sprinkler with an umbrella?

Or "play" with your favorite toy, the "little bother"

or enjoy a Luau-themed play date with best friends also on a summer schedule

followed by more "playing" with the bother

or go get your feet wet in the Pacific ocean

or simply covering yourself with chalk and chase your Mom around

or build a fort in the dining room with all your blankets, sheets and Mom's tablecloths.

on the weekends we get dressed up for church

or practice "reading"

or eat homemade pink lemonade popsicles

which are truly delicious

and enjoy hanging out and looking cool by the pool

all followed by a serious nap attack.