I am so grateful for this 31 Days of Gratitude. It was packed and I mean, PACKED to the brim with activities, events, family time, down time, ups and downs, and fun!
To review any of that crazy month of fun (I was pretty proud of myself for keeping up with the blog-a-day challenge too!), check out my first post here with links to all the others.
There were once in a lifetime events that occurred this time period.
Ava turned 3. Chris and Sophie and I went on a backpacking trip in the Eastern Sierras. I wrote about my little sister's recent bridal shower. Each day had a unique and beautiful sunset.
Some things may happen again around here.
Another successful and fun OktoBEERfest. A wonderful Saint peg exchange. More visits from Grammy and Granddad. The airshow. Lost teeth....
MOST of our lives and memories were still unable to be captured in blog posts though, because life is made up of so many seemingly ordinary little moments that make up each and every day. But it's the small things, the little acts of love lived out daily, over and over, that truly make up our lives. And yes, it's also the struggles. There is no true joy without suffering.
And though I could never even begin to share them, I am so very grateful for them- the joys and the struggles.
On my new diet, I can't eat just anything (in fact there's a whole lot I can't eat). And I can only use certain oils. On the O.K. list, though, are a few of my favs: Olive Oil and Coconut Oil. Unfortunately we ran out of coconut oil. And we no longer have our Costco membership which is where I like to buy it. But my good friend Jacinta offered to get me in and have a "Costco date".
The kids were literally yelling (very excitedly!) about everything as we walked through. "Mom! Look! Christmas lights! Toys! Look at the cakes! Hey Mom! What is that? Can we have that?" They were also really amused by the huge carts (it's clearly been awhile since we've been...). They all had a blast with their little buddy, "Greggy". Ava and Greg were especially cute buddies.
With this many kids in the cart, you can't buy much at a place like Costco....
but that's why Jacinta was pushing another cart. ;) hehe
(these pictures were all taken by Jacinta)
I'm grateful for bulk items (can you say stock up!?) and for good friends. It was fun having here and there chit chat, Jacinta, and get some shopping done too. We love you guys!
Yesterday we joined in on one of the field trips that a fellow homeschooling mom in our group organized to go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. On the way home, I asked the girls about their favorites of the day.
As soon as we got there, Kayla checked the map, and saw that there were flamingos. And of course, we just had to go see the flamingos. And we did. Several times, too, because they had several flocks throughout the park. Kayla's lucky day!
It was so bright that the actual flamingos didn't come out very well, but the reflections are pretty lovely and reflect better what the flamingos actually looked like.
Ok, so moving on from the flamingos....
The other BIG hit with the girls at the park ended up being Robert the Zebra. He was a funny digital puppet that you could interact with (like Crush at Disneyland!) The girls thought it was HILARIOUS. (See the videos below) My favorite part about our visit with Robert the Zebra was watching Sophie in the stroller though. She was bouncing and chattering and smiling. Too cute for words.
Dance party with Robert
For part of the day, we ventured around with a few other families. Kayla and her "twin-friend", Val, were inseparable during that time.
With the group we saw the Birdshow, lions, gorillas, lemurs, meercats, and more that I can't possibly remember or name...
Later in the day, we broke off into our separate groups to just explore the park on our own and saw the elephants, warthogs, antelope, giraffes, rhinos and more. It was just so fun to adventure around the park with my girls and experience the "African Safari" together.
We weren't sure we'd get a group picture of us, so we tried a few seflies.
We actually took 4, and Sophie smiled in every single one. Little ham.
On the way out of the park, we saw this bat photo opp which cracked me up. Random side note: It's probably worth noting that we did NOT see the whole park even; just too much for us to do in a day without hubby and without making it a loooooong day where meltdowns occur. Hope to go back again sometime and check out the rest and take Chris with us.
And when I was snapping the photo above, a woman from our homeschool group walked by and offered to snap one with all of us, so we did end up getting a picture with the girls and I that wasn't a selfie after all. :)
I'm so grateful for our fun homeschooling group organizing this. Kids were free in October and with the group rate, my adult ticket was only $10 plus the parking fee was also waived, so we got a super fun day for the price of gas to the park plus my $10 ticket.
Mostly though, I'm thankful for the memories I made with my little girls and the adventure we had on our "African Safari".
Kayla forgot to mention to me until about an hour before her ballet class that they were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes this week. While the kids are young, we've been trying to have fun with "family themes" for Halloween costumes. Last year, we were all characters from Pixar's "UP". One year, the kids were "the Life Cycle of a Butterfly". This year, we had a few ideas, and when the votes were cast, the girls wanted to do a Fancy Nancy theme (no surprise there). You'll see in another post, but this is our last minute "Fancy Nancy ballet costume" because (though we did pick a theme), we have not actually planned the costumes out yet at all. Procrastinator, much?
Our cute and fancy little ballerina. She came up with all the accessories herself.
I am definitely grateful for this sweet girl and all her "fancy". She is creative, she is silly, and so far she's not afraid to be her. Keep on keepin' on, Fancy Kayla. :)
I snapped this picture (nope, no filter) today when the girls and I headed to the library. We are going to the Safari Park later this week with a group from our homeschool group and we have been checking out books upon books the last couple weeks about African animals.
At any rate, I just could. not. even. when I looked up at the sky. I had to stop for a moment and just breathe and let the beauty wash over me because it was just so pretty.
Doesn't it look like a bunch of waves breaking on the shore? Waves in the sky.
I love clouds. I love the beach. This sky was the perfect masterpiece for God to create today on his sky canvas to put a smile on my face and the JOY, JOY, JOY, JOY down in my heart.
