The Clarks Come To Town

We love it when family comes to visit! My parents and my sister Kristi came with her two daughters. Ashley loved it when Brooklyn and Alyssa had to go to school...she had Kinzie all to herself. They had fun pretending that they were sisters:)It was scorching hot on Saturday and so the kids all went swimming. Each of the girls took turns diving through a ring. Ashley succeeded...
Alyssa succeeded...
Kinzie made it...
Brooklyn...well, I'm not sure what happened with her:)
Hunter mostly played with his cars and sat on the step in the pool
Alyssa is my daughter that LOVES babies! She spent so much time holding and playing with my niece Whitney. My girls (and Rob) have been begging for another baby all weekend.
Ashley had another soccer game this weekend and we all went to see her play. She scored the first goal again...and missed probably 10. I think she might be a little aggressive:)
Hunter, Alyssa, Ashley and Whitney
Yesterday our friend Amber from high school came to visit. All of the kids (and Rob)are fascinated with her many exciting stories...mostly of the men she is dating:) While she was telling us about her new boyfriend that she is dating who is a pilot from Brazil(ooh lala)...the girls all sat on the bean bag in awe of her...listening very intently to all of the juicy details.
Amber even jumped on the tramp and played air hockey with the kids. They think she is AWESOME!!!
We had a birthday party for Mckinzie last night and I couldn't find a match box to light our "strike anywhere" matches. No worries here...Amber whipped out her zipper to light the match:) Nice!
Kinzie and her sister Whitney

Hunter
Hunter adores Whitney. He is such a gentle giant. He is so good and soft with the baby. Aren't they adorable?!!!

Ashley's 1st Soccer Game & Star Student of the Week

The Dragon Bolts first soccer game was actually the Saturday before this game, but since Ash was sick with the stomach flu, this was officially her first game. Once she got past the whole idea of wearing shin guards, she had a lot of fun. After she put on her shin guards and soccer socks, she said, "How can people stand to wear these things?...they're boyish!!!" This is Ash scoring the first goal. She is #2 (in yellow, you can really only see her pony tail:). I really didn't realize Ash was so competitive. She also scored the 2nd goal with help from Spencer Nielson. Those two didn't seem to understand that they didn't need to kick the ball away from each other because they are on the same team...refer to the video below.

Aren't these kids adorable?!!!

Ashley is also Star Student this week in kindergarten. She helped me fill out the poster for her class. I'm so glad that all of my girls have inherited their artistic gene from their dad. Isn't that sad that a 5 year old can draw better than I can?

Just Call Me "Grace"

I almost always have an unexplained bruise somewhere on my body. I run into doors, walls, tables, etc...almost daily. Poor Brooklyn has inherited my clumsiness, but she has somehow avoided breaking any bones(so far). Not me...I have broken my nose, my finger, my pinkie toe, and now I think I may have broken the toe next to my pinkie(either that or bruised it really bad). How, you ask? Simply by walking from the bathroom to my loft. This morning I kicked the corner of the wall so hard I thought I had broken three toes. If all of my kids weren't standing there looking at me, I'm sure I would have muttered many very un-ladylike words. I started with a long shhhhhh...but luckily ended with ooooot! I'm very disappointed in myself for being such a klutz, but at least I can't pat myself on the back for not cursing in front of my 4 innocent children:) Yay me!!!

Our week...in pictures

I can't believe how much crazier life gets each year. The older the kids get, the less time I seem to have. I am desperately trying to help my kids excel in extracurricular activities without over-scheduling them.

Brooklyn is taking piano lessons and tennis this year. Piano is my choice...tennis is hers. Brooklyn is such a trooper to go through life as a 100% left-handed girl in a right-handed world. At tennis she can't do what the coach is doing or what the other kids are doing, because it is backwards for her:( She is doing awesome and I love going to her lessons so that I can learn how to play as well! She also got put on student council today at school...Yay Brooklyn!

Alyssa is my gymnast. She has taught herself how to do a back-handspring and aspires to be a cheerleader. We took her to Desert Devils Gym yesterday for her trial class, only they accidentally had her take the gymnastics class instead of cheerleading. After our commute of 25 minutes each way, I am debating on sending her to a closer gym. Does that make me a bad mom?:( She is also taking piano lessons this year and is so great to practice without even being asked. What kid does that?!!!

Ashley is doing soccer and hopefully gymanstics starting next week. She is so excited to play, but Coach Benson had to get after us this week because she didn't have her shin guards on. She thinks they are "boyish". Benson, I promise she will have them on for our game this Saturday! Apparently this isn't the only time Ash has been unprepared this week...today she told me that her kindergarten class had P.E. the other day and I forgot to have her wear tennis shoes. She told me that her P.E. teacher made her sit on the stage all by herself instead of doing the activities with the other kids. She told me she almost started to cry...What kind of teacher punishes a 5 year old for wearing flip-flops??? It was clearly my fault, not Ashley's. I have felt like the WORST mom in the world all night tonight! My girls have a long history of wearing flip-flops everywhere! You should have seen Alyssa play t-ball in pink flip-flops. We obviously have a house full of girls!Hunter is intensely enjoying his boy-time with his cousin Blake. I had a hard time getting the two of them together for a cute picture of them playing ball. Hunter has found a new best friend that he looks up to. When we were in Newport together Hunter would follow Blake around and try to actually have a conversation with him. Anyone who knows Hunter knows that he is very quiet and doesn't have much to say. When Blake is around...he suddenly tries to act older.

Hunter & his cousin McKenzie

This is just a cute picture I took of Alyssa and Hunter the other night. Hunter is really good about going to bed in his crib, but he has never fallen asleep with just one of his sisters. The other night I had sent the girls upstairs to go to bed while Rob and I were downstairs. Hunter disappeared too, and after ten minutes I started to wonder where he was. I went upstairs to Alyssa's room, and this is what I found...

This Weeks 3 Favorite Things

Imagine motherhood back in the days when there were no washing machines, no Clorox disinfectant wipes, and no disposable diapers...Yikes!!! I have been cleaning up vomit and diarrhea for the past week. Every time I think we're over it, somebody throws up again. I have washed countless loads of towels, blankets, sheets and yes, even undies:) I have been thrown up on numerous times, both while I was awake, and asleep. I am changing twice as many diapers for Hunter...When will this end? I don't know what I would have done without Clorox wipes. Imagine having to hand wash cloth diapers...YUCK!

Disneyland & Newport Beach

This past week we went to Disneyland again. This time I didn't lose my pictures...it's a good thing because this was our paparazzi moment. We watched the Jedi Training at Disneyland right next to Agent Hotchner from Criminal Minds (one of our favorite shows). He was also Greg on Dharma and Greg. Why are people so obsessed with celebrities??? We definitely were:)This freaky guy came up to Alyssa and kept staring at her until she would look at him. She did a pretty good job at pretending he wasn't standing next to her.
This is one of the few pictures that we took with characters. I am so sad that my girls are getting to the age that they don't want to chase down all the Disney princesses for their autographs:(
Poor Ashley is tall enough for most of the rides...but not all. The older girls and I went on California Screamin, while Rob fed the little kids slushies. Hunter always insists on eating with utensils...it is soooo messy!
Friday was scorching hot! We thought this was about as wet as you could possibly get on any ride at either park...later, we found out we were wrong.
The new Pixar parade at California Adventures is soooo cute! Hunter was so excited to see Lightning McQueen.
Later in the day Rob's parents and his sister and husband met up with us. This is Grandma Jeanne riding in the bumper cars with Ashley. These are the same ones that Alyssa got kicked off last time because she forgot that she had turned 7. This time we were smart enough to practice answering the question of, "How old are you?" She got it right this time:)
Aren't these two little "love birds" cute? I don't know how these two grown men ended up on the caterpillar train together...I don't know how they fit either:)
Rob's sister Brittany, Grandpa Bob, Hunter and Alyssa
Is there a weight limit on Splash Mountain? I think there should be! We almost sank a log! Rob sat in front, Ryan M. next, then Grandpa Bob, Grandma Jeanne, Brooklyn, Ashley and Me. We didn't just get wet on the big hill, we got wet on every tiny little hill on this ride. There was no line when we finished the first time, so the ride operator let us ride again. By the time we were finished, we were drenched and they had to take our log out of circulation because it was full of water. Rob even ruined his cell phone:(
Ashley-trying to pretend like she didn't have funThis is how wet we all were. Hunter of course wasn't on the ride, he just wanted to be in the picture.
Rob & Hunter
After being at Disneyland for 13 1/2 hours with no nap, Hunter was exhausted. He fell asleep while sitting on Rob's shoulders. Cute!
Ashley fell asleep in the stroller. Too bad I got lost on the way back to the hotel with these two tired kids. Rob told me our room number which was 2225. Which floor would you have gotten off the elevator at??? Don't most hotels number their room with the first number the same as the floor number? That's what I thought. After I tried multiple times to get into room 2025 (thinking I had heard the number wrong from Rob), I finally decided to call the front desk from the phone in the hallway. They informed me that I was at the wrong room on the wrong floor. It was actually on floor #4. Duh!

We spent the first two nights of our vacation at the Disneyland Hotel. We had so much fun! It was so nice being able to just walk to the park instead of having to empty out our stroller and load everyone onto the people-mover from the parking garage. They have the neatest Peter Pan swimming pool with 2 water slides for the kids.
The kids with giant Mickey
On Saturday we moved on to a beach house that Rob's parents rented for the week. It was soooo nice and right on Newport Beach. The first night Jeanne had the kids make picture frames with seashells.

Do you see poor little Ashley's head falling off of the air mattress and lying on the wood floor? Every night the girls woke up to a deflated bed:( Rob and his dad tried everything to get that thing to stay inflated...no luck.
Jeanne bought all of the kids chef's hats and aprons so they could serve the adults dinner. My girls now have high aspirations of being "server girls".

What family reunion would be complete without taking family pictures? These are a few of them...
Once I figure out how to use Photoshop, I will lighten these pictures up.
Our family

The girls
Hunter
I LOVE this picture!
Our only regret from this trip was having to come home 4 days earlier than everyone else because of school:( My kids do need a good education...right?:)