What a great day

My boys are both sleeping. It is close to 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon. We have had a great day so far. Max woke up around 7:30 and came to see us. We watched some Mickey Mouse in bed. We had bagels for breakfast and decided to go to the Zoo in San Francisco. On our way there, we stopped for coffee in Palo Alto. The Zoo was great. It was cool, around 61 degrees and overcast but refreshing. We watched the gorillas for a long time - Max's favorite. We saw the bears. Polar bears and grizzly bears. They were sleeping. At 1:00pm, we watched the Zoo keepers feed the lions! We stood near the indoor cage where a large, male lion was let in from outside. He was hungry. His meat was hid in a bucket and he found it in seconds. He was beautiful. Max was asleep shortly after we left to drive home. It is sunny and mid-70's in Santa Clara. What a great day.

Loving the beach!

Daddy's shoes fit...almost

Out for a ride with Dad

Max turns 3!

Our little baby is no longer a baby...he is 3 years old! Everyone always say "kids, they grow up so fast" and they truly do. There is nothing baby about our Max any longer. He truly has become a little boy.

One day in the car a couple of weeks ago on the way home from pre-school he said "mommy, my birthday is coming up". When I asked him how old he was going to be he proudly held up three fingers and said "three"! We talked about Gi Gi and Pop Pop coming to visit from Dallas on the big jet to celebrate his birthday with him. We talked about the birthday party we were going to have with all his little friends.

Gi Gi and Pop Pop arrived a few days prior to the big day (June 13th) and with their help, we were able to get everything organized for the birthday parties. On Saturday, we celebrated together with the Uffelmans with a lunch in our backyard. Luke and Max are just two days apart and it has become tradition to celebrate the boys birthdays together. On Sunday, we had a party at Vasona Park with Max's friends from school. Lilly from Half Moon Bay and Luke were there too. Although it was miserably hot outside (why is it always so hot around Max's birthday and then perfectly nice and cool days later??) the kids had fun playing, riding the carousel and running around. We were all exhausted and napped as soon as we got back home. Max had fun opening all his presents and that evening, he received his big family gift...a Lighting McQueen race car! After driving it around for a while on the side walk he and Dad wiped it down and parked it in Max's room. He loves his car!

Here are some pictures from the two days of celebrating!

I have not been blogging for a while now. It has been a little bit stressful around here, to say the least. The kitchen renovation, which started off so well, became a nightmare. Don't ask. I guess it is just the way it is. Can any construction work EVER go just as planned? I doubt it. At least our kitchen stories are not as bad as some of the ones I have heard. Moving on. Everything came together (enough) last week, the day before Gail & Dom (Gi Gi & Pop Pop that is) arrived from Dallas. We still have trim work and touch up painting left and need to choose and install back splash. But, everything is back in the cabinets and the kitchen is fully useful. Here are some pics from the nearly finished kitchen. Try to ignore all the blue pieces of tape on the walls marking the areas that need paint touch-up!

Neighbors

I just want to mention how wonderful our neighbors are! During this kitchen renovation project, both the Sanders and Uffelmans have had us over for dinner AND let us do our laundry. How great are they? Thanks guys!!