Backyard Fun

Gardening

Potty training

Joy

Splash

Glee

Picnic

Little Fish

A Visit From Uncle Sean and "Ju-Wee"

Recently Uncle Sean and Julie came to San Diego for a visit.  

The obligatory forced smile seems to be something he inherited from his uncle.

Kaden wanted to be just like his Uncle Sean.  

Here, Kaden closely monitors his uncle and then copies his actions.  Could be worse role models, for sure!  

And, to be clear, that is not a cocktail, Kaden just really liked the stirring straws or "teeny-tiny staws" as Kaden called them.  

The trip included a day at Sea World.  We may have set a new world record for the amount of things seen at Sea World in the shortest amount of time.  The real record was that we only went on one ride in the Sesame Street Bay of Play!  Some days, Kaden would prefer spending all of his time there.

Kaden, Julie, and Uncle Sean saying "Hi" to Shamu and feeding the dolphins some ice.

The Shark Tank

The penguin exhibit can be a bit stinky...so thoughtful little Kaden helped Uncle Sean.  He said that I should hold Julie's nose, but Julie decided that she could handle it on her own.

Getting ready for the Shamu show - which Kaden did not sit through.  And, of course, Abby's Spinning Stars.  Uncle Sean had us spinning so fast that all of the adults were discombobulated the rest of the day!  Kaden, however, LOVED every second of being pinned to the rim of the cup.

Their last night we went to what has quickly become our favorite spot for fish tacos - The P.B. Fish Shop.  Kaden likes to survey the fresh options before choosing what to eat; and then always chooses the Fish and Chips.  He also likes the "Giant Marlin" that hangs outside.  

Our Train Adventure

Like everyone else we look forward to Fridays, and this was a Friday worth looking forward to!  Kaden and I hopped on a train with some friends and chugged up to San Juan Capistrano for the day.  Kaden couldn't have been more excited about his first train ride.  We settled into some seats on the West side of the train and enjoyed the ride up the coast!

We chose San Juan Capistrano because there is a petting zoo directly across from the train station, although immediately after getting off the real train Kaden wanted to try his hand as train conductor of a miniature train. 

We purchased a little basked of carrot sticks that the kids bravely fed to all the animals.  Kaden's favorites were the ostrich, the llamas (he asked which one wore the red pajamas featured in Llama Llama Red Pajama), and the super soft and cuddly bunny rabbits.

The kids LOVED their pony rides - real cowboys/cowgirls in the making - and the mommies got excited about a family vacation at a dude ranch once the little ones aren't so little!

Kaden riding his pony, Shadow.

How does one end a ride with flair?  By celebrating with a post pony ride dance, of course.

Before heading back to San Diego, we stopped for lunch and yummy ice cream cone!  TGIF indeed!!!

A Day on the Farm

One of Kaden's best friends recently had her third birthday party at a local dairy farm, and Kaden had the best time!  It was the perfect set-up for kids, all sorts of activities and plenty of room to roam.  Sentimental note:  the overalls he's wearing in these photos were mine as a little girl.

An ingenious "trampoline" was created by placing six mattresses together and surrounding them with bales of hay.  The kids thought that this was a terrific idea, though they haven't looked at a bed the same since!

Kaden liked petting all the animals in the petting zoo, but most especially this Mommy goat.  He spotted her udders and kept pointing at them and saying, "I see milk, I see milk!"  I think he half expected them to work like a water fountain, waiting for the milk to come flowing out.

The party included a tractor tour of the farm.  Kaden wasn't a big fan of the smelly cattle barn and held his nose through most of the ride.  Half-way through he looked at me and said, "what am I going to do with my nose?", as if he was going to permanently smell the stink!  We also had the awesome experience of seeing a baby cow take his first steps after birth.  Speaking of afterbirth, we saw the cow's mommy shed hers and then proceed to eat it - quite the eye-opening and educational third birthday party! 

Kaden's favorite part - every farmer needs a trusty front-loader!

He also got a kick out of the hand-washing trowel, he loved that he could turn the water on all by himself.  I think we washed his hands thirty times during the three hour party!

Savoring his cake pop was the grand finale!  The little man had such fun that he woke up from his nap crying.  When I asked him what was wrong, he gasped out between tears, "I wanna go back to the farm now, but I know I can't."  Who knew this CA boy would connect so strongly to his KY roots on the farm?

A Day at the Museums

This Tuesday, the free museums at Balboa Park were the Natural History Museum and the Model Railroad Museum.  Kaden liked exploring the Natural History Museum and seeing the life-size dinosaur replicas - he was fascinated by the hypothesis that asteroids struck the Earth causing a global climate change and thus extinction of the dinosaurs; he asked why the fire engines didn't help put the fires out.  

While the dinosaurs were cool, he was itching to get to the model railroad museum.  First, he checked out some of the different model railroad set-ups...then he saw the play area, and that was that.  This quickly became his favorite museum.  

 

We followed our museum visits with another picnic at the park.

And what picnic is complete without a ride on a purple dinosaur?