Fashion Forward

This was actually her third outfit of the day. Her first was a purple and pink ensemble- the shirt was worn inside out and backwards, the pants simply backwards. This was worn with her yellow All Stars. The 2nd, a Lebron jersey and sweat pants. She finally settled on this winner- polka dot baby legs, madras shorts and a snow angel sweat shirt. Lets not forget her beloved purple Crocs. Not sure if you  can tell, but the shorts are on backwards. I think it really completes the look. 

Not to be outdone in the style departments, Teigue adds his own flair to his outfit. 

Summer Fun

While Brady and I caught up with an old friend of mine from college, the kids had their first introduction to a water slide. This one didn't exit into pool, but I don't think the kids really minded. It's actually probably a good thing that it didn't. Based on how they are currently obsessed with swimming and being in a pool, if this slide had a pool at the end, I think we would probably still be there.

Beach Day

Today we woke up to a glorious summer sky. After I made breakfast we planned on going to the beach. Oh wait, guess what- I didn't make breakfast for everyone. You know who made breakfast this morning for himself? None other than Mr. Teigue. He decided that he was a big boy and would make his eatmeal all by himself...well with just a little help from me opening up the package. Even big boys need help sometimes.

He even went into the freezer to get the bag of frozen berries that I add to cool the eatmeal down. 

He was so proud of himself and his newfound freedom. When he was done eating he proclaimed to Brady and I that he was no longer a big boy he was now almost a "Grownup".

Since it was so wonderful outside and Teigue didn't have school today, I was certain that we would be heading to the beach early. I was wrong. You see, I cleaned the house last night. We could not go to the beach when the house looked like that! Who leaves a clean house to go play? So we spent a couple hours building a track, hop hop hoping on our new toy, pretending we were a doctor and just basically wrecking havoc on a previously clean room.

All that play makes a little lady quite exhausted and in need a nap. Today the only one that could read her stories was none other than Mr. Grownup.  

Hopefully the sun will come out again tomorrow and we will be able to have a beach day after school. Probably not. The house is clean again.

Father's Day Weekend Day 1

On this first day of Father's day Weekend, we headed on over to Balboa Park with Max, Jill, Teentz and Juice. There was a little Master Gardener Sale were gardeners around San Diego sell their plants and answer questions about the plants that they know best. While we didn't find the sale too impressive, well Brady and I didn't, Teigue was finally able to attain a bromeliad for the yard, a plant he's been begging me to buy for about a year, the kids discovered a very fun area of the park that we have never found before.

Right off the Botanical Gardens there is a small little lawn area that we have run around on for years. Off that lawn there is a mulchy, unkept area that separates the lawn from the side of the Museum of Art. I think that at night this is a perfect area for the local homeless to sleep, so normally I try to avoid this area, except for today (and in the future I will predict). We discovered that there is a fairly high powered air vent that provided a large dose of entertainment for a couple of Foxes. They figured out that if it blows up skirts and shirts, weeds and plants would blow to the top of the building, but rocks and sticks stuck to the vent. 

We loved our little Juice and saw her eyes for the first time. We awed over her tiny toes, giggled when she kicked and tried so very hard not to touch her hands and face. 

We also sadly told her that she wasn't able to go on the slide until she gets a bit older. I don't think she was very happy about it.

Tea and Park Dates

My little lady and I have fallen into a routine of sorts when Teigue is at school. Monday we go grocery shopping, Friday we clean for the weekend and Wednesday we have a peppermint tea (Jayno), coffee (me) and park date at Trolley Barn Park. This past Wednesday we needed to do something else, so we had to make up for our lost date by going today. I love these days. I get some lovely time alone with my favorite lady and have such wonderful conversations. We chat about silly dogs that we see (such as the ones we saw wearing sweaters), the other kids at the park (not much of a muffler on this one yet) and, this week we could not stop talking about how our little 2 week old Juice is not allowed on the slide. She was very concerned over the fact that Juice could possibly head down the slide on her own and how unsafe it would be. We literally talked about it for an hour. We covered all the people that could go on the slide- Max, Jill, Teigue, Stella, Teentz- but my little lady was very very worried that somehow Juice would escape from Jill and head on down the slides. We even talked about it before she went to bed. It's amazing what enters little brains and sticks in there. 

The Nudists

Shorts and shirts seem to be optional in the Fox household lately. As soon as the kids wake up...well after their morning tartoons and breakfast that is...they shed their clothes and run around as free as most people wish they could be. Swimming in the pool? Swimsuits are for suckers. Gardening? Basketball? Painting? All clothing optional.  I must say it is very useful for some things, such as cleaning out the pool. Bath and clean pool all at once! Everyone wins!

June Glooomiest

During the month of June, San Diego has something called June Gloom. Basically the warm air from the desert is moving towards the coast, but the coast is still holding on to the cold air and chilly ocean waters. This creates a lovely, gloomy cloud cover that usually socks in the city for the month of June. essentially it looks like it is going to rain all day but never does. This makes for lazy kids and mommies (and I am discovering garden plants). Thankfully for this family, the clouds parted yesterday and the sun showed us its beautiful warm face. It was perfect timing as we were just about to head to our friend Jasper's birthday. 

We had such a wonderful time at the party. We played with all of our school friends, had some delicious cakes, and we climbed the biggest jungle gym we have ever seen.

When we woke up this morning we discovered that the gloom had returned and brought with it some drizzly, spitty rain. Rain that you can't really go out and splash around in puddles in but is perfect for searching for icky snails in PJs.

and making a home for some Rolly Pollies on top of the cooler (in matching outfits that they picked out).

And finally, the best way to end a gloomy cookie making kind of day. Finally meeting our newest and dearest little friend in the whole wide world- Lola Miles aka Juice (named by Teentz). We have been waiting for this moment for months and months and could not keep our hands off her. Until we decided that we needed to dance to "Purple People Eater" for the 100th time today and Juice decided she was hungry and tired. Look out Juice- I think your summer is going to be filled with bugger filled kisses and lots and lots of love from your not related by blood, but who really cares about semantics, cousins.

Tough

So tough.

Moving On Up

The Fox Family has finally made it. Really really made it. We have installed an indoor pool on our compound. Let the good times roll.

Bars

My kids have a slight obsession with granola bar type bars- Clif, Luna, Trader Joe's- they love them all. Although they are a fairly healthy snack for them, I have always felt that I could probably make something just as nutritious, and probably cheaper. A few months ago I found a granola bar recipe that sounded promising but for some reason I just never got around to making. Then I realized that I have not cooked with the kids in a very long time, so we got to work. 

We mixed in flax seed meal, coconut, chopped up figs, peanut butter, honey, molasses, mixed oat cereal from Trader Joe's, chocolate chips, walnuts and almonds. The resulting bar was sure tasty (and we had a great time making them), but more a granola to put on top of yogurt than a bar. I remember a recipe from Good Eats that had a power bar type recipe. I think that may be next.

Day at the Zoo

Look what we did! We went to the zoo! Can you believe it? So exciting since we never ever go to the zoo! But...we did see some new things- which is crazy seeing how we hardly ever go.

We watched three peacocks vie for the attention of a certain lucky female peacock. We never did see the female, but the males were all about showing each other how beautiful and tough they were. This particular picture was chosen because it gives a great view of Jayno's current coo coo hair.

We then headed over to the Children's Zoo and walked through the Bug House where we wer lucky enough to get a close up and personal look at a very cool and thankfully non venomous although it looks very menacing stick bug.

And pretended that were were our favorite buddies.

Then, while walking through Cat Canyon, we saw up close and personal our current favorite animal in the whole wide world- an owl. Teigue was able to scoot up front and get a great view of the interaction. Stella was back with me and was a little nervous to go up- the picture doesn't show but there was quite a few people watching this. Thankfully she had her brother to protect her and was able to look at the owl in the safety of his arms.

Then to finally end the 3 hour session at the zoo, we massaged our tired tootsies on the Footsie Wootsie- who knew they were so much fun?

They're Back....