finger painting

all I want for Christmas...

bbq birthday

so, its seems slightly extravagant to buy a bbq when we know we will be here only a year ... but, Chris does love to cook for us :-) ...

Bears Bears Bears

Took a trip to Fresno to have a look around ... discovered a supermarket that stocked dessicated coconut (unsweetened) ... roll on a baking day and well be able to make all sorts of the kids favourite baking - most of which it turns out contain either coconut or golden syrup or both :-)

We also knew there was a Build a Bear shop there ... and after an hour or so, a whole months pocket money each (plus a kickin from us!) happy happy faces ...

San Francisco Park

huge playground, people everywhere, only one person i talked to was local to the city ... maybe the locals come during the weekdays when you can get a park ...i can see why people say San Francisco reminds them of Wellington - it has the feel of a city by the sea, the hills, and the huge trees - lots of the same types (eucalyptus is the only one i can name reliably!)...

On the way home we stopped off for dinner, Josh loves onion rings and he certainly was impressed by this stack ...

Labour Weekend

We got a holiday that made this weekend just that little bit longer - on the Monday we braved the traffic and drove to San Francisco to meet up with an old university friend on his way home after a huge trip around overseas ... we met up at this great playground - it had sand and water :-) and an amazing Carousel that we rode on a couple of times.

yard sale finds

the costumes - not the kids! a new friend showed me around the town while yard sale-ing ... great fun and along the way I spotted some new playgrounds with sand to take the kids to ... hooray, we've been missing digging in the sandpit!

level up

the happy smile of leveling up in an ongoing strategy game!! we've been working at this game for a year and a half now ... it's loads of fun and takes lots of patience, strategy and perseverance...

the last piece of the bikers puzzle...

Ben wants an even more challenging one next time ... and with the weather getting cooler we are spending more time outside ... so it might be a while before another gets completed - he has his eye on a 2000 piece one next!

why the island was invented

to keep the rest of the kitchen benches clear of course!

puzzles to beat the heat

we've rediscovered our love of puzzles - with staying indoors in the peak of the heat (ok, ok, most of the day it seemed last month) - we've already completed a couple of 550 piece puzzles Ben and I ...

we liked the picture of the 1000 piece when in search of a new challenge ... it may be some time before you see a completed picture of that one, as the weather has cooled off slightly the last week or so, and we've been out and about exploring more instead!

playgrounds galore

there are so many playgrounds around here ... this has turned into one of the kids favourites after the ice cream truck came by when they were there with Chris on a weekend... we need to keep going back just in case the ice cream truck comes by!

when I tried to find it again for the kids, the first visit for me, we found three others in the general location before finding this one - we had to try them out of course, but, this remained the fav...

washing line

and this is why when the lawn sprinkler turns on the washing gets wet! ... of course it is hanging this low through both design and function - design: well, I like quirky things, function: Josh and Bethany can reach to help hang the washing ...