Life Is Good

"Life is Good" is the official motto for the Runner Family cabin in Tahoe. Over Memorial Day Weekend we made our annual trip up to relax and enjoy nature. We had a great time returning for all of our favorite, regular cabin activities:

Haylie's proclaimed favorite part of the cabin is "the bears" - wooden bookends that Haylie loves to carry around when she is there. She was very excited to introduce James to the bears this year. She was telling him all about them on the way up:

It is a cabin tradition to put peanut butter on a pine cone and hang it out for the birds. Haylie really enjoyed it this year...
I think she enjoyed eating the peanut butter more than putting it on the pine cone:
Grandpa hung it up for the birds and Haylie wanted to sit and watch for birds all day:
Micah's favorite part of the cabin is definitely the s'mores!!!
Haylie is quickly adding s'mores to her list of favorites as well: 
We all love to hang out by the creek, get our feet wet, play cards and eat snacks:
Raider and Grandpa found some snow a couple miles up the hill and surprised all with a mini snowball fight:
Raider's favorite part of the cabin is definitely when Grandpa lets him drive:

Of course we all love just spending quality time with family:

The Ice Cream Man

The other day Haylie and James had their first encounter with the ice cream man.. and they decided they like him. Haylie is anxiously awaiting that truck to come back!

The ice cream man is one of my fondest memories from when I was a child. I remember swimming in the backyard with my sister and when we heard that music we would instantly go sprinting through house, out the front door, all the while yelling for Mom and Dad to get money and meet us out there. Well, the other day when we were swimming in our backyard with the kids, I heard that familiar song and it was like second nature. I jumped up and told Haylie it was the Ice Cream man. I ran through the house as I shouted for Micah to get money. I burst out the front door and said STOP, Haylie and James were trailing behind, bubbling over with excitement for whatever was in front of our house. We each picked our ice creams from the side of the truck. What a fun day - enjoy the little things right?? :)

When I Grow Up...

Today I got a sheet back from Haylie's preschool class summarizing a discussion they had about what the kids would be when they grow up. It had each child's name and their answer to the question:

"When I grow up I want to be..."

The responses included:

...a doctor

...a police

...a princess

...Spiderman

...a king

...a mermaid

...a fireman

...a motorcycle rider

...a baseball player

...princess Jasmine

...Batman

AND ...Haylie's response... eight!

She has actually come a long way - it used to be all she could talk about was when she turned Five - she had determined that when she was 5 she could be the boss, go to work and be big just like Mommy. Before I know it she will want to be 18!! Oh my! I LOVE my sweet girl!

Haylie's Spring Sing

I just love watching Haylie's little class performances. It nearly drives me crazy, but it also makes me so proud to be a Mom. Haylie is really not a great listener, or follower - she never has been. I think I've mentioned before that in Gymboree class when she was 1 all the kids would sit in the circle and sing while Haylie either stood in the middle and did her own little dance, or wandered around to find something more interesting. It nearly drives me crazy because by nature it hurts me not to be the one sitting in the front of the class following all the directions and doing as the teacher says. But Haylie is different than me and I love her for that!! :) So hopefully you will enjoy these pictures as much as I do and the story of Haylie's spring sing:

(You can click on all the pictures to make them bigger and get the full effect) Before her performance I coached her all the way to school to listen to her teacher and follow along with all of the other kids. She was so excited that I would be watching her in the audience while she stood on the stage and sang. When her class entered the room she was on the lookout for me and she was sooo excited when she found me:

James was ready for the show!
Once Haylie got on the stage she realized James and Raider were there too and she was very happy to see them:
This was actually posing time for the kids - Haylie didn't miss one opportunity to ham it up for the camera!
Here she is not following along and thinking she might take off. The teacher is telling her to stay there and I am mouthing it very seriously from my chair (in between capturing it all on camera and video!)
And the teacher had to grab her! :)
Posing after the show with "the other Haley" in her class:
Haylie and Haley had such a fun time running around and playing afterwards:
Click on this one to make it bigger - this is why I love Haylie. She just cracks me up how the personality overflows from her!
I think this is my favorite picture of the night - she is laughing so hard she can barely stand it:
Meanwhile James and Raider are chillin' until it's time to go home:
Here is my sweet girl - so proud!!!

And here she is in action:

Mother's Day

This year was a first for Mother's Day for us. Both Micah and my Mom decided to ditch us and go out of town :) (one to Cabo and the other on a motorcycle ride to Southern CA) so we decided to get away ourselves. In addition, lately I have had a photo shoot every weekend so this weekend was rare that we didn't have any commitments. Micah came up with a great idea to take the train to San Francisco. Haylie has been really into trains lately and it sounded like a fun adventure. Although we had a great time we have found yet another thing that we will wait to do again until the kids get older!!! It was a lot of work let me tell ya! They liked the train but they certainly did not want to sit in their seats the whole time and we had no car seats to buckle them in and strap them down :) One of the fun parts was not having a car and walking all around town with our backpacks that had all of our clothes, etc for the weekend. It was definitely exhausting though also! Here's our whole fam at The Palace of Fine Arts - so beautiful. 

At the train station:
Lots of tickets for our many people in our family and the bus connections...

Haylie and James really like wrestling lately and the train seemed like the perfect place to do that in their minds:
They both loved looking out the windows and watching everything go by:

We had a great time walking around Pier 39 and enjoying the activities and the yummy food!
Haylie and James cuddling in the morning:
Haylie was talking about pancakes all weekend for some strange reason - so we went to IHOP for breakfast on Sunday.
Then we went to the Exploratorium which was so cool! Haylie and James loved all the gadgets and levers to play with and pull. And the best part was we were surprised to find it was free for Mother's Day!

The Palace of Fine Arts. Thanks to Micah for planning a nice adventure for Mother's day! :)

Best Cousins

We all know how much Haylie adores her cousin Kiley. A couple weeks ago we got the chance to hang out with Kiley and Lea for a free kids day in the park. The girls all had such a good time. It's fun to look at pictures like the one below and think about how Haylie and Kiley will grow up and hopefully be great friends. I am really grateful that they have the ability to be close and spend time together. Maybe some day this will be a picture we use in a slideshow for one of their birthdays or graduation or wedding! :)

I'll have to match this one up to the Easter Bunny picture we took when they were 1, where they were both sitting on the Bunny's lap screaming!

Rockin' out in the park:

Getting their faces painted:

Riding the train with Auntie Nicole:

We Love Hopscotch

When the sun comes out we love to break out the chalk and play hopscotch. Last summer we only made Haylie a hopscotch up to 5 but this year she was ready to handle 10:

And James' attempt to play along: