Father's Day

Father's Day around here was a bit....

UN traditional!

For my dad, we made some fresh Thai food and took it to his house to share dinner with him. We had Chicken Pad Thai Noodles, Pineapple Curry with Chicken, rice and for dessert Coconut pudding with fortune cookies (they were cute and coconut, I couldn't resist!)

All week I was feeling very mean spirited to my children's father.

I am so tired of him skirting his responsibilities as a father, as a provider and as a human being, yet claiming to be all of the above.

I am tired of doing all the work of a mother and a father in this family, and getting knocked down at the knees all the time.

But then I realized....

If I thumbed my nose at him and refused to let the kids do anything for him on Father's Day (and Audrey was asking to) then I was sinking to his level, and that is not what God calls me to do. God calls me to rise above his level and be a bigger and better person.

Sooo..... 

Audrey and I looked around the house, and came up with the supplies to make a miniature candy bouquet for him. Audrey did the drawings and I arranged the candy in a cute fashion and we called it a gift.

Then he came over to get his present and watched a movie with the kids. For the last year the ONLY thing he has done with

the children is watched movies once a month or so. It is rather ridiculous that watching a movie once a month is his idea of fulfilling his role as a father, but I can't stand in judgement of that, God will judge him at some point, of that I am confident!

After honoring the father's around us I decided that I needed a Father's Day present too!

After all I do the work of both mother and father in our little family!

So I treated myself to a blueberry lemonade adult beverage and some Joyful Cups...

Yum!

All in all, not my favorite day, but I did manage to make it through it with grace still intact and in conducting myself in a manner I could be ok about. Not proud of, per say, but not ashamed of either.

Calling ALL Special Needs Families....

I am SO EXCITED....

We have been offered the opportunity to extend an invitation to some of the families that are our Special Needs Friends... especially the out of the area ones (which is like EVERYONE..)

Have you heard me RAVING about our FAVORITE summer time activity, Project Surf Camp???

No????

Then go check out some of my old PSC posts.... HERE! then hurry back...

Because I want to tell you about a fun opportunity I get to offer YOU...

We have been asked to invite ANY special needs family that wants to come here to SURF at Project Surf Camp on the afternoon of Saturday July 23rd!

Yes, that means YOU can come join us... and we REALLY want you to!

If you would like to join us shoot me an email or leave me a comment here and lets get YOU hooked up to come play with US!!!

Wait... you need to know what PSC is???

Well.... direct from PSC

"Project Surf Camp is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational, nonprofit organization designed specifically for individuals with special needs.

Project Surf Camp uses surfing, the beach, and other ocean activities as an educational modality to build self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy in individuals with special needs. We further provide opportunities to build social skills, improve physical fitness, develop healthy outlets for stress reduction, and foster independence."

One thing we LOVE about PSC is that it is for the WHOLE family... special kids AND their siblings ALL get to participate!

Another thing that we LOVE about PSC is the PEOPLE there... everyone has a heart for and a passion for these kids, so all of the kids come away with great memories and have a blast!

Finally, PSC is INDIVIDUALIZED so ANYONE can participate... the volunteers always work in the campers capability and there is a way for ANYONE to participate!

PSC is SERIOUSLY our favorite time of year... won't you come try it with us???

Okay, to write this post I had to go back and look at PCS post from last year.... and now I m cry tears of joy or what we get BLESSED to do in a few short weeks.... I love life, even life with a Special!

I never did get around to posting pictures of our Spring Break trip (because I JUST finished editing them!), but I do want to share them.

For day two of our trip we went to Gilroy Gardens.

This is the view walking in!

If you have never been and you have small children, this is a GREAT place to go.

It's beautiful.

It's clean.

The rides are fun.

The people were nice and helpful.

And it was SUPER wheelchair friendly!

My parents went on this trip with us too, and I think they really enjoyed themselves too!

The kids are excited and ready to start exploring.

This is how beautiful it was everywhere we went in the park. Lush green plants everywhere. Nice and cool, not cold cool but comfortable cool, from all the plants. And when we left we also realized it had been VERY windy that day, but we didn't even notice in the park because it was so protected.

Nat and Audrey LOVED the spinning garlic. We rode this over and over!

See how much she liked it???

They even managed to talk Gramie and Papa into this one a couple of times!

The little worm eating the apple ride was pretty darned cute!

The waterfalls were simple BEAUTIFUL!

You could even walk right under them!

I love water.....

Then the kids took us driving on a very scenic little road...

Audrey drove Gramie and Papa....

And Nat drove me......

Let's just say it is a VERY GOOD thing that neither of them will be old enough to drive on the real roads any time soon!

Oh look... I actually made it into a picture! Amazing....

Live ducks even...

And check out that waterfall.... I paddled Nathaniel out to see it.

They said it would take 7 minutes there and back..... they LIED!

But he loved it, so it's all good!

Wheelchair friendly train.... SCORE!

Some of the views from our train ride. 

I am so proud of this boy... it was a very LONG day, and yet he did NOT melt.

It was so much fun playing with him and him staying in such a great mood!

One Last spin in the garlic....

One last spin on the carousal (mommy has a thing for carousals...)

Last ride of the day,

Seriously! They rolled the doors down when we got off!

And still big smiles on their faces... I count that as a GREAT outing!

And the super cute grandparents picture of the day...

So much fun!

I hope we get a chance to go back before the kids are too big for most of the rides!

Raising funds for PSC

One of the things I am very passionate about is Project Surf Camp!

I LOVE this organization and have decided to step up and help them out, this weekend my kids and I did a hot dog sale fundraiser for PSC... and had so much fun!

Faline and I baked up a storm, and added those yummies to the regular hot dog stuff we do and we were able to make some much needed $$$ for PSC.

While I was slaving away selling hot dogs, my little helpers had some other ideas of what would be fun....

Thankfully there were helpers around...

To entertain the munchkins....

And play ball.....

And be tortured....

And giggle lots....

All day long!

Until the kids exhausted them!

Overall, it was a very fun day, but I am so thankful that I had my helpers to keep the kids busy!!

Talent Show

It is time for the Spring Talent Show at the kids school, and of course Little Miss Diva was in it!

She and Kaia worked very hard to learn their dance and they did a GREAT job learning it!

I had lots of fun creating their costumes too!

(can you tell?)

Both girls looked darling up there in front of everyone... so brave for 8 year olds!

Now MY daughter had a DIVA day yesterday....

I should have KNOWN that she would pull a stunt!

And a stunt she did pull....

We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed... DANCING

Never ONCE did we discuss a microphone... they were supposed to be DANCING...

So you can imagine my surprise when she walked out on stage holding a microphone!

Ugh.....

The microphone did mess the dance up, but they were still cute....

Kaia did a great job.

Even if she kept looking at Audrey as if to say "WHAT is that crazy girl doing?"

Who can blame her???

So this first video clip is last night, the actual talent show...

The one where Audrey decided to be a DIVA :)

It's pretty darned cute, you should watch it!

BUT this second clip is the day before, at the dress rehearsal.

You should TOTALLY watch this one!
It shows how great both girls actually knew the dance and you can see how much hard work they actually put into this act!

Another year's talent show come and gone.

Another adorable Diva Queen on stage.

I love my daughter's daring to get up there and perform her heart out!