Summer Visit

The past few summers we've had out-of-town guests and this summer it was my cousin and dear friend Diane from Texas who visited. She came into LAX on Friday night and left this morning from Ontario. We tried to pack as much as possible into her short time here and in doing so, we were busy having fun. I realized I didn't take any pictures until she was leaving...at the airport, but I guess that's better than nothing!

I look lovely, with no make-up on, but...it is what it is! :)
horrible picture and the kids are in their jammies b/c we had to leave early
We...
had In and Out
spent the day at the Regional Park
had dinner/dessert with family
talked until it was way too late
went to church
went to the camp
ate with my folks
swam all afternoon
had a drink in the shade
sat by the fire pit
roasted smores
made breakfast burritos and ate outside
cleaned up a million messes
had lunch at Martha Greens
had dinner outside with the family
ate chocolate bars
talked way too late
got up too early
got Starbucks
and then drove to the airport!!!

Di, Thanks for coming to visit! We loved having you and can't wait for you to come again! Love you!!!

Camp Out

Question of the day???

3 Big Kids- "Mom, can we sleep in the tent and have a camp out?"
Me- "Ummm, Sure, I guess!"

The funny thing is they have slept out there for the past 3 nights :) I guess that's part of the fun of summer. The first night we figured they'd be inside within an hour, however they lasted most of the night, we thought... Zach and Grace were in their beds when I woke up at 5:30, but Hope was still in the tent sound asleep all bundled up in her sleeping bag. When I asked Zach and Grace when they came inside, they said "after a little while" "because we were too cold", "but Hope was already asleep."
So, I guess they came in before they even fell asleep and Hope slept outside all by herself :) We didn't even hear a thing! hehe! Apparently she didn't mind.

The next 2 nights they all slept in their the entire night and even slept in a bit too, which was nice. This morning I snapped a few pictures while they were still asleep :)
I love a sleepy kiddo!!! They're all snuggly and lovely and they melt my heart! So glad they can have fun sleeping in the back yard, making memories that will last them a lifetime. Ahh the fun of summer!

The Destroyer strikes again!

My boys now have new names, Destroyer 1 (Grady) and Destroyer 2 (Wesley.)
Having said that there are only a few words needed for the rest of this post...

The Destroyer One strikes again!

My little bakers

My boys love to get into things, usually resulting in a large amount of cleaning up for me. This morning I was adding flour to the large bin I have in the pantry, (normally used for baking not playing) and there was a little left in the bag when the bin was full, so I left it on the counter thinking I would just bake some bars later. (my first mistake) The boys were both still eating breakfast, so I went upstairs (my second mistake) to change the laundry and a few minutes later my boys came up too...COVERED in flour. They had decided to make a trail downstairs and throw it on each others heads...I grabbed the camera as they both ran back downstairs. I have a ginormous mess to clean up and washing it out of their hair took 3 tries.Me- "Grady what do you have?"
Grady- "I baker Mom, See?"Me-"Grady, what are you doing?"
Grady-"I building a castle"Me-"Wesley what are you doing?"
Wesley-"Cheese?"
I guess playing in flour is fun :)

Cliff Notes

Life is crazy around here, not for any particular reason, just the reality of having 5 kids that are involved in sports, church and homeschooling...I just can't seem to keep up with my blog. Spring has long passed and now summer nearly has too, but not without a lot of fun.
Since my last post we've....
-finished up our first year of homeschooling
-gone to Spirit West Coast Del Mar and had a blast
-finished spring soccer
-been to Disneyland at least 5 times to use up our passes that have since expired
-been to the aquarium of the pacific, the regional park, the beach, lots of play dates and tons of swimming
-celebrated James' 34th b-day
-worked on lots of home-improvement projects (finished a few)
-Camped at Cachuma Lake
-visited family in Solvang
-Gone to Spirit West Coast Monterey
-took swimming lessons
-celebrated our 13th anniversary
-enjoyed the Redlands Bowl
-played lots of dress-up
-had sleep overs
-started a dance class
-worked out at the gym
-enjoyed a great Bible study
-practiced piano
-took lots of pictures
-had many good meals with friends
-searched for our "forever" house
-watched a lot of movies
-worked too many hours
-stayed up way too late
-been to some amazing weddings
-had too much to drink
but most of all had LOTS of fun!

We are so incredibly blessed to have a loving God that always provides, family who loves us unconditionally, friends who share their lives with us and a life that is GOOD!

In a perfect world I would be able to blog with come consistency about all of these things, write a few words that can articulate how enjoyable, yet crazy our life really is, all accompanied by great pictures of my adorably cute kids. However, we all know the life we live is FAR from perfect! :) So, while I will attempt to catch-up, for now this is the cliff note version of the Oates for the last 4 months!

Pool Pals

All summer long our church does a weekly family adventure. This week it was a pool party at Gpa and Gma Nydams (funny, but no Nydams were even there) with Chick-Fil-A lunch. The kids all had a blast and I a took a few fun pictures... (I didn't get any of lunch)

Here most of the kids...
I love this sequence! The kids stood in a line a dove in time after time.Jessie was everyone's favorite today! Grady was a champion jumper
Pretty pool hair, Jessie and Hoper
Jessie and the girls
I love pictures of water and think these are so cool!

Thanks Debbie for all the planning that goes into making summer fun for all the River families! We appreciate all that you do and always have a blast!

The Music Man

I love the Redlands Bowl! I love the spirit of it, the feel in the air, the people and definitely the sounds. My parents are great about taking the kids, alternating each week with a different kid all summer long. It's so much fun to picnic, play games and then listen or see what's playing. At least once a season we all go as a family and make a night of it. This year the Music Man was what we all chose to see.The night was fabulous! I made a yummy salad, chocolate chip bars and we had some wine (shared by friends-thanks Mercers) We saw lots of friends and even some family there too! Part of the fun is before the show. We got there about 6 and ate, played games, chatted with friends and the kids ran around after eating popsicles.
Nana and Gracie
Wesley's "cheese" face cracks me up! I love this kid!

I love this picture! The kids sat like this all on their own and made me laugh, each of them enjoying their popsicle and oblivious to me!Hope had to share her popsicle tongue with me
This is what you get when you add water to dirty hands and wipe them on your faceThe show was very well done and the kids really enjoyed it. Grady conked out about half way through, but Wesley sat on my Papa's lap and stayed awake the entire show!
We are looking forward to a few more summer nights spent at the bowl!