April Photo Dump

Random photos during the month of April:

On the three days Meredith was not in preschool, we played inside while waiting for Eleanor to wake up from morning nap and then went on a daily outing. Sometimes we stayed close and just practiced bike riding.

Park buddies.

Eleanor’s favorite pastime.

Goodies in the mail from Grammy!

The girls had tons of fun spring projects going on at school, including Easter egg dyeing.

The girls wove these pretty baskets out of palm leaves from our yard and were very proud!

 

 

For Meredith’s birthday, we had bought a 3-day SoCal resident pass to Disneyland, and still needed to use up 2 more days. Jake chose a weekend to go to California Adventure with the three older girls, and while they had fun, they don’t love it as much as they love Disneyland.

 

 

The Tower of Terror elevator drop ride is now Guardians of the Galaxy, but is still the same concept with the big drop. I can’t believe Jake took the girls on this, but apparently they wanted to do it again.

 

  

Park playtime after school.

Eleanor’s wakeup brigade.

     

Meredith loves to ask to “feed” Eleanor and then helps herself to her tray.

Cuddle buddies.

Lots of love,

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O’Neill Campout

Jake and the twins embarked on yet another fun campout with our local Adventure Guides group, with the Rainbow Sky Expedition. The twins are in the Pink Panthers circle and look forward to their daddy daughter camping time! This campout was just a few minute away at O’Neill regional park, so because it was so close, Meredith joined for a day and I picked her up at night.
The dads in this group are pretty impressive creative planners and the theme for camp was “Role Reversal”.  It started off with the girls getting to sit in Jake’s lap as they helped park the car into the campsite.
Their favorite activity was the Bippity Daddy Boutique – where dads had a spa day and then walked the Runway in their beautiful makeup and nail polish. The twins won for best makeover!
Scary.
Another activity was “End of our Rope” – a chance for daughters to lead their blindfolded dads through a crazy rope course, connected by a piece of rope the girls got to make.
There was also “Daughters Save the Dads” – a challenging set of puzzles needed to be solved to keep dads from going in the stream.
The girls also like the scavenger hunt with riddles to solve along the way and the game of Giant Twister. They also always love to sit around and play Uno with the other girls, climb trees, and go exploring.
They were excited about finding a huge toad!
Finding some interesting bugs.
    
This looks like something out of a horror show.
The campfire is always a blast and the girls’ skit was really cute!

Moana sing-along!

 

The girls can’t wait until the next campout!

Lots of love,

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6U Softball and Angel’s Game

6U division Spring softball continued with the twins mostly letting other girls run after the ball. They did enjoy their turns at bat and almost always hit the ball without a tee (each batter gets three tries to hit the ball from the coach’s pitch, and then they bring the tee out).

The first few games, everyone got to run to base and there were no outs. Toward the end of the season, they started playing with outs– Samantha was very upset to be tagged out before she reached first and refused to play for a few more innings. Meredith eventually coaxed her out to play toward the end of the game.

Many of the girls on their team are pretty competitive. When asked why she doesn’t run after the ball and at least attempt to catch it, Samantha just shrugged and replied, “Someone else will get it.” Way to take ownership.

Samantha and Amelia’s cheerleaders. Meredith wants to be a part of the team so badly– she hangs out in the dugout with the other girls and interacts with them more than the twins do!

Best part of softball: post-game snack.

 

Team photo lol. Go Pink Penguins.

Samantha had to be bribed for this half smile.

Amelia at bat.

The girls’ favorite part of the season was going to see an Angel’s game with the Capo Softball League. I stayed home with Eleanor, but received picture updates from Jake and random texts from people I hadn’t heard from in a long time saying they had seen Jake and the girls on the jumbo-tron! Unfortunately, Jake didn’t notice they were on the screen quick enough to take a pic of themselves on the big screen.

Before game-time, their league got to walk onto the field in a parade.

Go Capo!

Take me out to the ballgame.

 

They gave out Angel’s jerseys to the team and the girls were super excited. When Meredith got home, she couldn’t wait to show me her jersey, shouting, “I’m part of the team!!!!” She feels pretty official now.

   

 

 

Lots of love,

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San Juan Capistrano Hike and Strawberry Picking

With record rain in the winter and spring, everything near us was gorgeous and green for miles around. Wanting to see some wildflowers close to home, we hiked the Patriot Trail in San Juan Capistrano, which leads to a flagpole at the top and amazing views of the ocean.  We did the hike last year on Memorial Day, but it was so dry last year that everything was brown and we could barely see the ocean because it was so cloudy. This time, skies were blue, the wildflowers were blooming and the hills were unbelievably green and covered with wildflowers.

 

The rolling hills looked like a painting.

A few miles later, and some whining, we made it!

Signing the log book with our signatures at the top. There’s a little mailbox next to the flagpole to leave the book there for the next hikers to sign.

Hello ocean.

Meredith hiked the entire way there and hitched a ride on Jake’s back on the return trip, much to the annoyance of the jealous twins.

Taking the shortcut.

April is not complete without our traditional strawberry picking at Tanaka Farms.

Instead of picking in the fields, we tried the hydroponics instead. So big and juicy.

Eating our spoils.

The girls’ treat was a ginormous chocolate covered strawberry.

From strawberry picking, we went straight to duck feeding at the lake.

 

We love spring weekends!

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