my little devil was instigating this;
They had a blast and because it was such a nice day, I didn't mind too much. The patio and fence is covered in mud and water, but they had a blast. Three out of the 5 kids were pretty much covered. Aidan's friend Elle was even painting mud on him. 
Good thing it was nothing a little water couldn't clean up! He told me he didn't want me to hose him off though because the water would be cold, so we threw the lot of them into the tub. I know for a fact it was my little mastermind that started it all. But they had heaps of fun!
She worked really hard to find just the right snails and extra hard on the habitat. She was good at making certain the area stayed moist and that the snails could breathe. Just to refresh your memory, for her project she created two different habitats for snails and fed them three types of food; lettuce, leaves, and grass. The snails all flocked to the lettuce and only nibbled on the leaves. Here are the pictures she took of her habitats. 
Everyone ate and they all said it was really good. I waited to eat until after the kids had left for school. Because Lemuel and his boss were working in the office area, I headed to our bedroom to eat and watch cartoons with Aidan. I started to eat my beautiful plate of crepes with strawberries, bananas, cream syrup, and a dolop of whip cream. As I took the much anticipated first bite, I tasted something a little off. Not sure what it was, I took another bite. Then I realized what the problem was, it tasted a bit like this
and a little like this
The taste wasn't very strong, but you could detect a hint of something not quite right. I thought to myself, how is that possible, and then I thought, were all of them like that. So I tried the other one on my plate and it tasted fine. Thinking it was a fluke, I asked Lemuel when he came into the room if his had a strange taste. He said to me, "It was the strawberries." Then I realized, it was the cutting board I had used. I had diced up garlic and onion for dinner last night and left the cutting board on the counter. Instead of loading the plastic board into the dishwasher, Elena had just put it into the cupboard. So all of the strawberries I had sliced on the board tasted like garlic and onions. I was so embarrassed. I said to Lemuel, "Why didn't you say anything? I would have cut up some more strawberries on a different board." My sweet husband said, "Well, I didn't want to embarrass you." And you didn't think that I would be embarrassed knowing that your boss was eating garlicky/oniony strawberrries? I told him to apologize to his boss for me. So when I went out there, as they were getting ready to leave, I told him I was sorry about the stratwberries. He didn't know what I was talking about since Lemuel had yet to say anything, so I said have Lemuel tell you about it! I was humiliated! Hopefully he didn't notice, but with my luck, I'm sure he did! I doubt his boss will be wanting to come to our house to eat again. What a morning!
This tree is in our backyard. As you can see, they are just starting to bloom. Can't wait for the whole tree to blossom. I'll post a picture of that when it happens!
I needed someone in the picture so Max jumped in to accommodate me! He on the other hand would rather be in the snow. He keeps asking if we can go to Utah so we can play in the snow.
The kids loved it as well and wanted to run straight for the water, but we told them it was too cold. (my camera was on the wrong setting here so the first picture is a little blurry.) We told them they could take the stairs down to the beach, and what do they do the minute they get down there? Take off their shoes and socks and run for the water! They caught on real quick how cold it really was, and stayed on the beach until it was time to go. 
The rocks were fun to climb and so cool to look down and see the spout holes that have been made by the water. Aidan loved dropping rocks into them. 
Aren't they so cute? I love Aidan's cheesy grin on his face as he was smiling for the camera, but watching the birds instead of looking at me! 
This is one of my favorite pictures! Little do you know that just after this picture was taken, I slipped on the rock and fell REALLY hard on my upper back. I knocked the wind out of me and snapped my neck pretty good. I am pretty bruised and sore today. I was so worried about breaking the camera, I didn't even catch myself. I literally went two feet in the air and landed right onto my back! Not a pretty sight. Good thing it was just us, so I wasn't too embarrassed. Sore, but not embarrassed. :-D 
My pensive Laney. She loves the ocean just as much as I do. She just kept saying, "Mom it's so perfect here! Can we stay overnight and come back tomorrow?" I had to keep reminding her that we have church tomorrow and we will come back next week. She was so disappointed to leave. But so glad that we came. She said to me, "when my friends and family come to visit, we need to bring them here. They will love it! "
Max loves the water. He asked me, "can we just get some of those 'wet clothes thingys' so we can swim in the water even when it is cold?" I just smiled and said, one of these days. He used the telescope and kept his eyes out for any sea lions or dolphins but no such luck this trip. Maybe next time. 
Aidan was in heaven! He chased and chased the sea gulls and scared them all away, much to the relief of couple who were having a nice quiet valentine picnic (that is until we showed up :D). He ran and ran and threw heaps of rocks into the water and loved watching the splashes he made. He was so proud! 
Thanks to my amazing husband who humors my crazy antics to go out on a holiday weekend and allow me to fill my need of being close to the ocean. It was a busy day. But it was a perfect way to spend a day with the ones I love! 
Aidan told me his monkey's name is "OOO EEE" (or in other words, sounds that a monkey makes) It was so adorable I just had to put up this picture. 