Nevada City and beyond

Last weekend we had the opportunity to get away for some much needed relaxation and family time. We found out about a children's festival and Micah planned a fun little trip for us from there, with multiple stops and several fun things to do:

The first part of our trip included wandering around old town Nevada city. It was such a cute little place - I really love little towns like this with boutique shops and antique stores.

First stop was of course a candy / ice cream shop. Oh how the kids love Daddy!

Micah is such a good Daddy and planned such a good trip for us. There are so many pictures I liked from the trip I am breaking up our weekend into 4 parts!

Dinner - so delicious:

Big Brother

Surprise gifts from a very nice big brother = two very excited kids!

Big Sister

I love how Haylie takes care of her brother - helping him at library storytime/songs this morning. They finished their first rows of the summer reading program and earned free books and bookbags.

Fireworks

For fireworks on the 4th we headed over to hang out with all of our Bible Study friends, which we have done for the past couple years. We were missing some of our girls this year. The kids and Dads swam for a little while. And then they were anxious to get to the fireworks. The Dads always enjoy the fire part!

James still really isn't into the fireworks so Haylie has no problem doing extra sparklers for him!

It's a Kid's World

It seems like we go from one fun activity to the next these days with the kids - carnivals, fairs, festivals, etc. I wonder how all that excitement and stimulation will affect them in the long run. They'll probably be like their Mommy needing to be in a constant state of activity. We have so much fun watching them have fun though, it's hard to resist going when we hear about fun events. To celebrate the 4th of July we made our second annual trip out to a local carnival / 4th of July event. It was blazing hot but the kids loved the rides and bounce houses anyways.

This was the kids' first time in a carnival "fun house." They liked walking through the different rooms but they were a little scared by the spinning wheel at the end:

They made it through!

Happy 4th!

Dinner with the girls while Sarah was in town:

Summer Blast

I have been wanting to teach Summer Blast since I last did when I was in college, however, ever since then I have had something in the way, called a job! Since I officially became a stay-at-home Mom last month I was so excited to be able to teach again and hang out with the kids for the whole week. Jaime decided to teach with me and we had such a fun time with our cute little 4-5 year olds.

Jaime was such a good teacher:

Haylie's two best friends from school were able to come with us every day and Haylie loved having them there:

My crew for the whole week:

One day, Jack spent the night and then we had even more fun in the car:

It was fun having Kiley in our class:

James even got to attend - he was with the little kids and didn't get to do all of the activities but he still had a fun time singing and dancing and doing some crafts.