Aquarium

Today after Church and Sunday School, we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The boys were so excited!  We got there at almost 2 and we stayed till 4:20.  We started our drive home thinking we would be home a little before Charlie got home from work at the comic shop; how very wrong we were.  Highway 17 crawled almost the whole way and it took us almost 3 hours to get home.  Lucky me was blessed with 3 wonderfully understanding and considerate children because no one whined, complained, or fussed about being trapped in the car for so long.  They stayed awake the whole time and sang songs and entertained themselves.  They were still very glad we got to go to the aquarium even though coming home took forever and a day.

Before I forget, today Connor had to turn in his banner for his First Holy Communion.  It was to be a family project and here is our finished product.  :)

Also, here is a picture of Charlie I came across this weekend.  I think he was about Connor's age in this picture.

The boys were most excited to see the Jelly fish today.  They asked me to take pictures of almost all of them to show Charlie.

 Connor pointing at the Sting Ray.

 Looking out at the bay

They LOVED this part!  You got to draw your own jelly fish and then send it up to appear on the wall with the jelly fish other people had drawn.

 The wall

 Nicholas' jelly fish

 Connor's jelly fish

His is simple because he had done a more complex one but a kid accidentally deleted it before he could send it and then he felt rushed to let the people behind him get their turn.

 Sea Horses!

 A game where you have to save your sea horse from being eaten!

 It became a group effort to save the sea horse.

 And on our way out, we got Sea Horse shaped lollipops.

Fishing Derby

Today was the Annual Santa Clara Fishing Derby.  They put a bunch of healthy trout into the fountain at the Civic Center and the kids get to go fishing.  The boys LOVE it!  They woke up bright and early with me at 6 so we could go down there.  The derby goes on until 11 AM but the earlier you go, the better your chances of actually catching a fish since there are more of them. 

This is when we first got in line.  They were still so sleepy.

Nicholas did not have a helper at first so he kind of just did his own thing.  

He kept bobbing his line up and down. 

 There are two kinds of helpers there- some are from the Kiwanis and they are seasoned fishermen.  

Then there are teen helpers who are not so knowledgeable about fishing.  

Connor got a Kiwanis member and caught his fish right away.

 Very proud of his catch!

 Since he was done so fast, he decided to give some tips to Nicholas. 

He got Nicholas to stop bobbing the line up and down.

 Finally a teen helper came over and  helped Nicholas and he caught his fish!

 Another proud fisher!

I took a short video of them talking about their fish.  You can barely make it out, but Nicholas says
they caught 'wild' fish because of all the thrashing around.

 Posing for pictures with our newly bloomed Irises.

If you cannot tell, they wanted to go in and bathe because their bags had leaked on them.

 Kyle LOVED the fish and asked for seconds!

 Nicholas was excited to eat the fish, but he didn't love it as much as Kyle.

 While Connor enjoyed eating fish, he admitted there are things he'd rather eat.

Frog Jump!

Today was the annual Frog Jump at Connor's school.  We had so much fun!

Connor's art picture for the Poster Contest.  Unfortunately he got it wet and messed it up a bit but he is still proud of it, as he should be.  :) 

I made decorated sugar cookies and star cupcakes for the bake sale.

 Here Connor is in line waiting his turn to jump his frog.

 He named his frog, "Iron Frog" hoping he'd be as powerful as "Iron Man."

 Cheese!

 Kyle enjoyed watching the frogs, especially when they would jump too far and get close to us.

 When they gave Connor his frog, I was sure it was going to jump far because it was an active one.

 It didn't jump as far as I had hoped though-- only 7 feet. 

Eating our lunch.

 Connor offering his friend, Rachel, a cupcake.

 Connor really enjoyed the dark chocolate cupcake.

 Nicholas was busy enjoying his frog cookie.

 Kyle was also enjoying a frog cookie.

 Kyle made a mess, as usual.

 Connor was thrilled to be able to play with Kyle and Nicholas on the playground.

 Holding hands going down the steps of the play structure.

Hot!

The weather is finally really warming up!  Given this, I  have allowed Kyle to wear only a diaper at home; he loves to be naked.  Unfortunately, this means I have to watch him or he will remove said diaper when I'm not looking.