Ella’s First Hair Cut

I remember the excitement centered around having Owen’s hair cut for the first time…

August 2010…Owen was 16 months old and the curly little locks were cute but needed to go.  I was kinda sad that day and Daddy was so proud…he even video taped the whole thing.

So Ella turned THREE and still hadn’t had her hair cut…and it was beautiful and long but a little trim was needed.

She was so excited to get to sit in the car like Owen does…and watch Little Mermaid. She had a little trouble remembering to follow the directions (head down, don’t move, look forward, etc.) but after they braided her hair she felt like rapunzel (her words.)  How adorable is that.

Being that Ella is the second (and now middle) child you can tell that things are different..Daddy wasn’t videotaping…heck he didn’t even come with us! haha

And Owen is a pro at hair cuts now…boys are a pain in the ass when it comes to hair…they need hair cuts all the time!

Valentines Camping #souzascampingfun

Planning back to back weekends camping is CRAZY. But we did it!! We had booked Yucaipa Regional for Valentines weekend 6 months ago and the Super Bowl Camping was something that was kinda of put together somewhat last minute.  Both weekends were 3 day weekends so camping sounded like a great idea.

I was tired from the weekend before so we opted to head out to Yucaipa on the Saturday morning rather than Friday night after work. 

Yucaipa Regional is a beautiful campground. I really liked it!

Camping with lots of little kids makes parenting pretty easy…other than always needs SOMETHING. But they play together, eat together, and even snooze together.

We tried different sleeping arrangements…Making the kitchen table into a bed and leaving Owen and Ella on it.  Worked great until Ella fell out in the middle of the night. Then she went into the middle bunk with Daddy.  Maggie and I are still sleeping in the queen bed together so I can’t complain…sleeping is pretty good for me.

Sunday morning was Valentines. And very  low key. Cards and chocolates for the kids and Daddy. I never really planned out anything more.

Group breakfast. Ella is crazy…she was covered in mud before the eggs were fully cooked! Oh camping.

No camping trip is complete until we burn a few hours at the park!

Our kiddo group pic

Corn-hole. Bubbles. Treasure Hunting. Some of us were even studying (silly Gonzo!)

Also when we camp with other kids my children ALWAYS find other people’s toys WAY more fun than any toys we have.  This trip Owen got to try out his buddy Rylee’s skateboard. I was nervous about him riding it without any knee pads or anything. We all know that Owen isn’t exactly the most coordinated kid..but he surprised me.

I sat back and watched him master that board. Only took him a day.
And it made me so sad…his Uncle Paul was definitely smiling down from heaven that afternoon.  Paul was good at a lot of things…and skating was one of them.  He was a very talented skater before skating was “a thing”.  Back in the day when Active was only a skating brand, before the clothing store. I like to think that Paul would have been the “cool” uncle to my kids…buying them their first skateboards and stuff.

Owen asks about his Uncle Paul a lot more now than he ever has. Hes getting to the age where he understands that he had an uncle that he never got to meet. And he asks questions that I don’t always know how to answer.  Another new phase of life…

I posted this black and white picture on IG and I just love it.  Owen looks like a real boy…and Paul would have been so proud of him!!

 

So another great camping trip!! I want to go back to Yucaipa…its a nice little place to camp! But for now we are going to let Sally have a little rest from camping right now.

SuperBowl Camping – #souzascampingfun

A few weeks after our Lake Skinner camping we brought good ol’ Sally out for Super Bowl weekend to Lake Perris.  Yosh’s old stomping ground.  He lifeguarded there for 5 years.  And that's actually where he met and became so close with most of his current best friends.

Anyway…we had the whole campground to ourselves which was nice. What wasn’t nice was the damn hurricane winds!!! I seriously HATE the wind.  Our friend John works at LP so he arranged for the kids to get a museum tour…and Jack the volunteer showed us the ropes of rabbit killing! lol

(pic taken by Owen)

The kids got to make animal track books…or should I say I got to freaking make 2 kid books!! haha

And then we practiced killing rabbits with a stick! And I might have to brag here…and add the fact that I was the only one who knocked that rabbit out of the paint can!! woot woot.

Have to say…everyone who owns a trailer needs to own a set of Cards Against Humanity!  Its a super fun game to play after the kiddos are in bed!  And it makes all the husbands and wives hang out together around the campfire.  It was all fun for us until a) we caught sight of the HUGE raccoons going through our trash cans and b) Joel got PISSED that Jessica and I stole his chair.  He got up and we switched sides of the campfire since we were in the smoke for the first few hours.  Joel wasn’t happy….haha #funnynotfunny

Lake Perris was a nice place when it wasn’t windy!! And I heard its also nice when we are the only ones there!! haha  Not so nice in the middle of summer!

Super Bowl Sunday was fun.  We had about 50ish people.  Everyone brought an appetizer, our friend had 2 TVs and more pools and “games” for the big kids to play.

The guys played in a “Money or Muskets” pool…where if they won the square they could either take the money OR forego the money and take the “muskets” which were shots from a paintball gun.  And they got to pick who they wanted to shoot at and they had to go shirtless.  It was actually pretty entertaining.  I can sometimes get annoyed with the guys and how out of hand they get BUT they did make everyone laugh.  And it started with my hubs allowing himself to get shot at in order to be allowed into the pool for free (he was out of cash…even all the borrowed money from Bank of Taryn!)

I didn’t get to watch a minute of the game…or even any of the commercials…(3 kids does that to you!) BUT I’m pretty happy that I won a few of the pools!! woot woot.

Thanks for organizing a fun weekend John and Jessica!! Hope this also turns into a Super Bowl tradition!!