Last night we had a dinner bbq at our friend's neighborhood pool. Here they are making smores for dessert with their friends, Megan and Connor's Dad. We were there until almost 10:00 they loved swimming in the dark.

Paris attended girl scout camp a couple weeks ago. She LOVED it and was most excited the day she came home with a "bullseye button" because she got a bullseye in archery:) She made this cute tye-dye shirt there too.

We took our annual trip to Berkeley Adventure Playground.

Here's Mason going down the zipline

Trying out a makeshift teeter totter.

That's Alex at the top of this sturdy-looking structure.

And, of course they all sawed, hammered and painted.

Then we were off to fly kites at the Berkeley marina.

Alex recently called me up to his room to show me how he displayed his scary scooby- doo figures.Another check off our bucket list... Fairyland in Oakland.

Mason is a very accomplished artist- he especially loves glue sticks, elmers glue, tape and paint. Every day this summer he has created something out of paper, rocks, glue, sand, glitter, markers etc...He is very proud of this guy that he cut out and decorated.

This is a sticker collection page that he adds to regularly.

He painted this on a little easel, which made him feel like a professional.

These were items that he collected from a park (the tooth picks were ours) and brought home and glued, using an entire bottle of elmers. It took days for it to dry out in the hot sun:)

Another painting.

Action shot of Alex punching...

... and Mason kicking.

Paris and Mason worked on this rock/pinecone/sand creation.

This amazing tree blooms in the summer a few blocks from our house. I always pull over and take pics because I think it is amazing!! Looks like a cotton candy tree.

Paris swimming at her friend Madi's house. When I picked her up they had an elaborate and long performance to show me. The girls, along with Madi's sister did a dolphin training exhibition... Madi and Paris were the dolphins:)

Hamster Update: Here are the four babies huddled up when they were about 1 week old.

Here is a baby at 10 ten days old, with fur but eyes still closed.

... and here are two of them with their mom.

... and the hamsters at about two weeks with Paris and Madi.

Belts, Babies and Hip/Hop

Alex and Mason both passed their belt tests on Saturday and advanced to yellow belt and orange belt. Mason is very proud to be a belt above his older brother:)

Paris, Alex and Mason (lined up in this pic) started taking hip/hop classes. This is a blurry photo taken through the glass but you can see they are hitting a pose here. I couldn't wipe the huge grin off my face while watching the entire class.

Our family has grown overnight ... adding 4 tiny, baby, hairless hamsters. Here is mom, Picolina, and the four babies.

Not a clear picture, but you can see where his eyes will be and his little legs. They don't open their eyes for 10 day.

Here are Alex (tie dye shirt) and Mason (gray shirt) taking the boys only hip/hop class.

4th of July at Alameda Beach

We met our friends, the McCreary family, at the beach for the 4th. The kids carried on from 12- 8pm nonstop... it was a very nice and relaxing day for the adults.

Mason and Connor, enjoying lunch and manly conversation.

The water at the beach is warm and shallow so it makes for great swimming!

Megan and Paris on boogie boards-

It is a little hazy here, but there are beautiful views of San Francisco from the beach. Paul and the boys were taking a walk along the beach.

Alex-

Hard to see, but here are Alex and Mason with sparklers.

... and Paris doing a glow stick/ sparkler dance.

Yesterday we had Paris' school friends over to play.

Paris (complete with corn dog), Madi and Amelia.

The boys had a very big squirt gun war going on.

Paris and Jennifer spent long time decorating her doll house and were very proud of the finished product.

Paris tried another fun recipe... marshmallow cupcakes. Here she is making the marshmallow flowers that go on top.

... and here are a few of the finished product.

Alex and Mason made a super yummy batch of chocolate chip cookies... and were clearly thrilled to be doing so :)

We had Megan and Connor over to try out our slide and make t-shirts.
Chowing down on pizza.
Megan and Paris making sharpie tye die shirts.Cheryl and I had so much fun making the shirts... and lasted much longer than the kids did... it is a fun and easy project if anyone is interested!

Final results- frontal view
... and back!!