Family Traditions- Christmas Lights Parade

We live in a small-ish town. Our small-ish town remembers when it was a small town and still has it's fair share of downtown events. I love downtown events. I love them almost as much as I love cake. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy (events, not cake).

One of the traditions we really love is the Downtown Turlock Lights Parade. Jon used to march in the Christmas parade when he was in highschool. I always attended the parade with family and I seem to recall being in a parade or two myself. (Debra Morgan dancers- this shout out is for you).

Anyhow, we like a parade covered in lights. We like Christmas. We dislike crowds but not enough to dislike this event.

We got GREAT seats this year. Also, because the rain was coming it wasn't too cold. The rain started to trickle just as we went back to the car which was perfect because it meant Layla wanted to get into the car.

The parades here are long, loud and have a huge variety of random. It's always a good time and I'm glad we went and that we stayed all the way until Layla waved at Santa at the very end.

Eventually more pictures of this event will be available on the girls blog as I didn't take pictures of the parade really, only my kids. Priorities, yo.

Downtown Turlock Christmas Tree Lighting & Festival

If you know me, you know I love a good local event, and Jon...he's a local boy so he's all for going downtown and keeping up a tradition for his wife's sake. Our tradition, it appears, involves Jura's Pizza and Hot Wings followed by the Downtown Turlock Christmas Tree Lighting & Festival.

Layla wanted some flashing green mouse ears, which of course I let her have because how cute is that cookie covered flashing little girl? Very cute... I agree.

Sugar cookies on a stick are something we seem to get at every local festival. They are tasty but she never finishes one. She of course picked the lighted tree since it was the Tree Lighting.

Anyah fell asleep as we were walking around looking at all the vendors, it was past her bed time. She slept right through the tree lighting countdown and everything.

As usual we danced on tables in our new winter coat. The whole thing went pretty well. It was a nice way to spend an evening before the holidays. Maybe we'll see you there next year?

We're hot but we're here

Wow when things get busy around here they really get busy. We've been to the fair (pictures included in this post) and we've got a birthday party this week and another one next week. Jon's 30th birthday is coming up at the end of the month. I go back to work in 2 weeks (well more like 1 and a half now). It's busy busy busy. And I have so much to blog about but I keep writing half of blog posts and not finishing them and I have a few I REALLY need to finish so hopefully I'll get to that soon.

So a few small updates to hold you over.

Anyah is laughing, rolling over, holding her head up, playing in exersaucers, grabbing toys and shaking them and eating...boy is she eating...which means she's growing like a champ. Other than an intense dislike for loud noises and being VERY attached to Mommy she's a very content baby. And right now she is teething (or at least it seems like she is teething) so she's had me very busy with lots of cuddling, bouncing and walking in circles.

Layla is potty trained and we don't really have accidents at home anymore. She's very into puppies (Nannie just got one), ice cream, drawing/painting and acting like a silly crazy tiny person. She really enjoyed the fair and was a good sport about rides until it was bedtime and then she was done and ready to go home. She's a tiny bossy little thing which is amusing since both her parents are also bossy so we just all sit around being stubborn and waiting to see what happens next.

Family life is good. Busy... but good. Birthday's to attend, birthday's and anniversaries to plan, jobs to get back to and a busy hubby work schedule too...

We're blessed to be stressed around here.

Summer

When I was a little girl I could feel summer coming from the day after Easter on. For Easter I always got a few things in my basket that were meant for the MANY days I would spend at the community pool with my friends. I longed for weather above 80 degrees so my mom would let us play in the sprinkler. I checked off the days on my calendar until summer finally arrived and the very next morning I got into my bathing suit where I stayed for most of the next 2 months. I wore shorts and slept in the living room with friends over. I smelled like suntan lotion no matter what I did.

I grew up in a small town. The kind where you rode your bike to your friends house because that was the height of social entertainment. I was blessed with parents that were home a lot and knew the value of fun. Cousins stayed over, we played games, there was lots of junk food. Summer rocked.

I also remember the wide variety of cool trips we took in the summers. Some of them were to do awesome things (like Disneyland) or to visit family. Some of them were to local events my mom found out about. I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's ranch just being a kid with an imagination. And crafts...there were many.

So now summer is here and Layla is big enough to do things with. Add to that the fact that I am home and Jon has been working a schedule that makes it easy to do things as a family and my summer syndrome flaired up pretty bad.

Here is a new extended list of things I'd like to do with Layla this summer...

• A trip to the ocean


• Stanislaus County Fair~ Beach Boys concert & rides & junk food~


• Attend a 4th of July Parade & Write our names with sparklers


• Eat Smores and play in the sprinklers as the sun goes down


• Take Layla to the CrowsLanding Community Pool and teach her to swim ~wear coconut scented tan lotion and eat an ice cream from the ice cream truck~


• Go out for ice cream


• Go to the zoo in San Francisco or Fresno ~depending on the heat~


• Go to the Farmer's Market or the Flea Market and look for treasures


• Introduce Layla to fingerpainting


• Paint Pottery


• Eat lots of BBQ


• Patterson Apricot Festival


• Walk through Old Town Sacramento and have lunch at Joe's Crabshack


• Picnic at the park on Broadway & Play in the kids waterpark there


• Visit the Stockton Children's Discovery Museum


• Take Layla to her first movie in the theatre ~eat buttered popcorn w/ M&M's mixed in~


• Storytime at the Turlock Library


• Playdates at the park with visiting family or friends


• Paint our toenails & let Layla give me a make-up makeover

I actually wrote this list on paper about a month ago so we've already been working on it. The items crossed off have been completed.

**editing note- I am coming back to this post and crossing things off as we do them**

Storytime @ the Turlock Library

Yesterday Layla, Anyah and I went to the Toddler Storytime at the Turlock Library. It was our first time there so I was a little worried about Layla behaving while I was holding the baby but she did a great job following the example of the other kids. It's a very "free" group so it didn't matter that she had a lot of wiggle in her.

You sit through 3 stories that are alternated with songs and poems with hand motions. Sometimes Layla sat on the floor and sometimes on the chair next to me. She didn't want to sit with the other kids yet but at the end another little boy joined her on the floor who was also sitting in the back and scared to join the others.

The dancing was by far Layla's favorite part and I know we'll go back again next week just because she was so excited to be around other kids and we need to make some friends her age.

As a reward for her good behavior we got 3 books and brought them home to read until next week. I told her she could have two but she insisted the last one was Anyah's book and it was so cute I let her get away with it.

So we've officially checked another thing off the summer list I made earlier this year. But I think I need to rewrite the list because I've come up with some better/different things.