Happy half!

Last night we had Zach's "half birthday" party. (As most people know, Zach's bday is right before Chrsitmas, so we celebrate in summer) The beauty of the half birthday is we are a bit loosy-goosey about when we actually have the party.

We started in the late afternoon by going to the movies--the new Harry Potter. I had no idea this was a 2 1/2 hour movie! We all enjoyed it, and I was surprised at how fast the time flew.

Next we came home for pizza and a night swim.



Followed, of course, by cupcakes and ice cream. Zachary's new sport is football, so I made football cupcakes.


I used a chocolate covered almond for the football. As you can see, I made the goal posts with pretzels. I was going to dip them in melted white chocolate, but didn't have time. I used frosting to hold the sticks together. Unfortunately, after they sat out for 10 minutes, all the posts started to fall apart as the frosting softened (duh!). I think if I had dipped in white chocolate they would have been fine. Or maybe used fondant instead of frosting. Nevertheless, they were fun and easy to make!
What you can't tell from the picture is that they are jumbo sized cupcakes. I found the pan at Target. Awesome!

Joey's turn!

Now it is Joey's turn to go to Kennolyn! Because it is his first year, we decided to put him in the 1 week session, which is why he did not go the same time that Zach went. He is lucky enough to have his twin cousins Peter and Gian there at the same time though! Since they are all 7 years old, they will be in the same cabin.


Upon arrival at camp we learned that Joey is in Angels camp, the cabin of the youngest boys. Zach was happy to show him to his cabin.


His counselor, Brandt, seemed very enthusiastic and got the boys busy making a name tag for their bunks.Our good-byes were pretty brief. Joey did great and had no problem seeing us leave.
I am curious to hear how meal times are going to go for him. He is my worst eater, basically living off of pasta, hamburgers, pizza and chicken nuggets. I am hoping that he will be so hungry that he will actually try new foods. I am not holding my breath though. I weighed him before we left--he was 46 pounds (fully clothed). Any guesses on what he will weigh when he gets home?

He's home!!

We picked Zachary up from camp today! I can't believe how excited I was to see him. So excited I was the first one to arrive at camp, a full hour early!

The day started out with each cabin coming out, introducing the counselors, then giving a little cheer. It was amazing to hear all the different countries the counselors were from.


I then got to spend the morning following Zachary on an abbreviated tour of all his activities. This year the kids picked their own activities upon arrival (instead of ahead of time). It was fun seeing what he chose to do.



The first stop was the Ropes course. He did junior ropes last year, this was a bigger version. I watched him climb a tree, walk across a rope, then do the big zip line.


The following picture sort of gives you an idea of how high up he was!

It was so exciting to see him fly across!

The next stop was the climbing wall, also something he did last year.


Much to my surprise he also chose rifelry. I had a chance to try it out as well. It was fun! I even got a bullseye.


Next stop was the singing circle. The whole camp gathers together and sings fun camp songs.



After singing, Zachary had tennis. Tennis is a sport that neither Peter or I have ever played. I don't know anything about it, but it seemed that Zach really had the hang of it.




Next up was archery. I had another chance to jump in and give it a try myself. I was surprised at how difficult it was. Out of 5 shots, only 2 hit the target. And my arms were sore afterwards.


Zach hit the target every time!

Our final stop was wheel pottery. This was another choice of Zach's that took me by surprise. I didn't expect Zach to choose any of the arts stations. He was so excited to show me what he made. How great to see Zach trying so many new things!


This year he hit it off with one of the boys in his cabin, Keaton. They had most of the same activities together and really seemed to click. Hopefully he will be back next year!

Seeing all the activities still was only a glimpse into camp life. They also had "outpost" on a couple of occasions, which is when they hike out and sleep outside. They went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk one day, and to the beach another. Not to mention campfires, games, etc...

Zach wanted In and Out for lunch, so Pete met us there with the boys. They were all almost as excited as I was to see him!

After In and Out and frozen yogurt, we wnet home for a good scrub down. It seems he only took the minimal 3 showers the entire 2 weeks. EEEWW! At this rate he will be using the same bar of soap until his career at Camp Kennolyn is through!

Why have lunch?

When we can have yummy frozen yogurt instead? (hey, at least I put fruit on mine. Along with caramel sauce, whoppers, crushed waffle cone and heath bar.)

Yum!!

Jungle Fever

Yesterday was The Jungle Run in Los Gatos, a half marathon race. A month ago I didn't think I was going to be able to run it. I have been battling achilles tendonitis in my left foot and had to take a break from running. While it isn't completely better, it finally improved after I bought a new (more barbaric looking) night splint to wear. It was a challenge sleeping with it, but has been worth it! I started running again about 3 weeks ago. I wasn't able to get as many miles in as I would have liked to, but decided to try to run anyway.

The run was great for so many reasons. Los Gatos is only about 15 minutes from my house, so it was nice to not have to travel anywhere. When I saw the map of the run, I realized I was quite familiar with all the trails. I have run them all at some point or another. The other great thing was the size. There was only 1000 runners! I have only done races with 20,000 + participants. It was so nice being in such a small run right in my own community. I saw a few people I knew there.


Peter took a picture of me before I left. I was on my own for the run because Peter and I had volunteered to do the sports clearance physicals for the Pop Warner football league. Peter had to be at the high school later in the morning to get started.

The race itself was really a lot of fun. Although it was a bit warm out for my tastes (65 at the start, I am guessing 75 by the finish) I really was feeling good. Unfortunately the battery was dead on my watch, so I could not follow the time. I figured there would be a clock at the mile markers, but I was wrong. Not a single clock! Maybe because it was such a small race? I honestly had no idea how I was doing and couldn't even begin to guess my pace. I told myself I wanted to do 2 hr 5 min, but secretly I was hoping to break 2 hr.


You can't really see it, but the medal has a gorilla on it. Pretty cute.


So what was my time? 2 hr 2 min. sigh... I had to stop once at mile 6 to use the bathroom, so I suppose my actual RUNNING time was probably 2 hr, but I know that doesn't count. Unfortunately I tend to have bathroom issues when I run (yes, I know, TMI. Too bad though, it is my blog.), so not likely I will ever do a run that length and not have to stop. I think if I had a watch and knew my time I may have been able to pick it up a bit at the end.

I am planning to do the San Jose Rock-n-Roll half in October. Hopefully my foot will be better and I can train properly. I will beat 2 hours!!

After the race I rushed home, showered, and ran to meet Pete at the high school. We then spent the next 5 hours doing sports physicals on roughly 50-60 boys!! It was fun, but I was exhausted (and hungry) by the end.


We laughed at our set up. It felt like we were in a 3rd world country. It was blazing hot and we were in a parking lot in this tent. We used an upside down box for a table. It was fun though, and felt good helping out. Also? It means no working in the snack shack for me this season! Woo hoo!

Have fun Zachary!!!

Hard to believe, but Zachary has left for another year of Camp Kennolyn! Last year was his first year and he loved it! He couldn't wait to go this year.

Last year he was there the same time as several of his cousins. This year, for various reasons, none of them were able to go. Zach took this news in stride, shrugging his shoulders and saying "It's not like I saw them very much anyway".


This year he is in Davenport cabin. We found out that 4 of his 6 (or was it 5 out of 7?) bunkmates were all in his cabin last year! How awesome is that! It sounds like that is pretty typical for this camp--the same group keeps coming during the same sessions.

True to Zachary's (very) independent nature, drop off was very fast. He was anxious to see us go. Not wanting to cramp his style, (also, there about 50 steps to climb to get to his cabin and I was exhausted lugging Christopher up them!), we gave him one last kiss and said good-by.



Have a great time Zachary! Don't forget to shower!

"FYI I'm expecting a post tomorrow on ur vacation!!!"

That was the text I received from my Mom a few days ago. It was followed yesterday by ""Hope u put vacation pics on blog soon..." I was afraid I was going to start getting threatening phone calls soon so decided to finally sit down and get some pictures up. I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of pictures I had and as more time passed wasn't sure how to go about the post. Do I back date? Do I do a separate post for each day? Too complicated. So here goes.

Last week I took the 3 younger boys (Zach stayed home with Pete to play All Stars) down to Southern California to visit family. My mom flew up then drove down with me. Overall the boys did well, but there was still a fair amount of whining, especially when we hit horrible traffic in LA (at 2 in the afternoon! LA traffic sucks!) What is up with that? I am sure my sister and I didn't complain like that in the car and we did not have the gameboys, DS's, and DVD's that these kids have. Sheesh.


The first day we took the boys over to Balboa Island. We rode the little ferry back and forth.



There is a ferris wheel that we all rode. It wasn't crowded at all when we were there, so the operator let the ride go on for quite along time. There were beautiful views of the bay.

That night we went to the Pirate Dinner Adventure. The kids loved it! There was a live action show going on throughout dinner.

The kids were even part of the show for the last few minutes.

Here are the kids posing with our pirate. It seems this band of pirates gets fashion advice from the Chippendales dancers!


Vinnie didn't take off his pirate band for 2 days. He even put one on Larry the dolphin.



The next day we drove down to the San Diego area for my cousin's party. My family is spread all over SoCal from San Diego to Riverside, so this was a great chance to see everyone at once.



I rocked that limbo stick! Even with a mini skirt.



My mom wasn't too shabby either!

Christopher with his great-grandma Lil.


The entire family! A mixture of aunts, uncles, cousins. Can you figure out which one is my sister? (No guessing if you are a fmaily member! Or Suzie!)



We took one day to go to the Long Beach Aquarium. It wasn't quite the size of the Monteray Bay Aquarium, but was really wonderful.

Christopher actually pet a shark! No thank you!



My favorite part was the Lorakeet forest. Not quite sure what a bunch of birds was doing at an aquarium though. Anyway, you can purchase a little dish of nectar, then feed the birds.


The boy in the red shirt is my sisters, ex husbands, son from another marriage, Jason. Why was he with us? I guess I didn't think I had enough boys as it was! He was a cute kid and fun to have along.



We went to a couple of different beaches while there, Huntington Beach and Crystal Cove (in Newport Beach. Apparently this is where some of the scenes from Beaches was filmed.) These were my favorite days. The kids loved playing in the sand and water, and it was very relaxing for me (well, except the part about watching to make sure 3 kids running in and out of the ocean didn't drown!)


I love this picture of Joey's goofy smile! Get a load of those jacked-up teeth. We are currently accepting donations for his future orthodontics.


Can you guess who the sand sculpture is of? Answer to follow...






After a long day at the beach, the kids were totally wiped. Most peaceful drive of the trip.



Thanks for showing us a great time mom! Please give our apologies to the next door neighbor who complained about the loud boys!

And thank you Shannon (my moms trainer that I got to work out with 1 day), for the great work out!!

(The sand sculture was of Farrah Fawcett. Did anyone guess?)