Class is in session

Like Father, Like Son

This past weekend was the US Open and just like his father, Ben could not get enough of watching the US Open and cheering on his favorite golfers! Ben doesn't care about watching basketball or football, but turn on golf, hockey or baseball and this kid is mesmarized!

Looking fine, Mr. Bolger

What to do with a toddler...

... when you are out to dinner at a seafood restaurant and the active little man has no interest in sitting down or keeping calm? Well, you play with the clam and mussell shells, of course. Yes, the people at the table next to us were not thrilled but talking shells is much better than screaming toddlers...

Pool Time for Father's Day

This Father's Day, the sun was out and the pool was calling so we made a day of it and hung out at the pool with Gommie and Papa. Jeff went golfing early in the morning with his boy friends so he missed out on pool fun but Ben sure had a great time swimming and splashing with Papa and Gommie!

Jeff got to golf (& sink a 50 foot put!) and Papa got to spend time with his little man... not a bad way to celebrate Father's Day!



Napping Toddler

Apparently Ben was pretty tired after his play date with Papa this past Sunday...

Hot Tub Season Is Upon Us!

Hot tubbing time is here, let the fun begin!

Birthday Party, Part 2

Birthday Party finale post...

This is a cute pic of the always fabulous Shannon Koontz, me and Ben with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background...

Papa Zach Koontz and his little lady, Khloe, who is almost a year.

Here, Ben is staring down the little kid next to him that was eyeing Ben's cupcake. The little kid quickly backed up and stayed far away from Ben's coveted cupcake. Mission accomplished.

We went to lunch with the Goineses and Koontzes after lunch and the highlight of the lunch was this fountain that Ben and Jake absolutely looooooved.

Parting pic of some of our most amazing friends and their tots :)

Birthday Par-Tay, Part 1

This past Saturday, we drove up to San Francisco to celebrate the 2nd birthday of Jenny and Josh's son, Jake Goines. His party was a train theme and took place at a great park in the Presidio. Ben always has fun with Jake who is only a month and 4 days older so they are at the same stage in life. Ben also really loved hanging out with Khloe Koontz, he really has a thing for cute blondes.

Ben is addicted to bubbles, or "Bubboshe" as he calls them. He was at the bubble station a good majority of the party. Here he is playing with Jake Drogin (standing) and Jake Goines (center)...



There was a point in the party where all the kids were in the club house and I noticed this cute little girl in purple with really wet kinda sticky hair. It looked like hair gel so I assumed her Mom tried to do her hair but just did a really bad job. So... on the way home from the party, Jeff was driving and I decided to take a peek at the pics Jeff took all day... and I see this pic... now I know why the cute girl in purple had wet, sticky hair... all thanks to Ben Bolger bopping her on the head with the wet bubble wand over and over. I guess that is one way of flirting with the ladies.



Outside of the gated club house was a fantastic park and a huge lawn and of course, Ben made it his mission to get out of the gate to get to the big kid play ground. After 2 escapes, we had to get a tad smarter and jammed the locks a bit so the toddlers couldn't get out. Well, Ben and Jake got a little cranky that we locked them in... Here they are egging each other on trying to find some way to get out... but they didn't.

Parents = 1, Toddlers = 0

Long Day at the Office

New favorite past time

Ben finds himself in an ethical pickle every morning... he knows he is not supposed to jump on Mom and Dad's bed but... he can now climb up it all by himself and it literally just stares at him and I'm sure he would tell you that the bed is saying... "Common, Ben. You know you want to jump. You're a big boy now and can climb up all by yourself. Go for it, big guy, you deserve it. Jump away."

Sunday Funday

What do you do when you have a 3 hour window of no rain on Sunday and you have no plans but you want to have some fun?? Well, you risk it and go big, of course! So... we took that advice and went to Gilroy Gardens on Sunday and beat the rain. Gilroy Gardens is one of Ben's favorite places and it is always such fun to see him run around from ride to ride.

Wow!

For my birthday, Elida made us a home-made chicken enchillada dinner from scratch. And when I say 'from scratch,' I mean literally boiling the chili peppers etc. It was unreal!

Fabulous Fondue

For my birthday dinner, Jeff and I went to a small Swiss restaurant in Carmel for fondue and were not disappointed. It was really fabulous! Apparently, it is a Swiss tradition to 'kiss a cow' on your birthday after you blow out your candle. So, after I blew out the candle on the chocolate fondue (seriously yum-o), the red cow came in for a litte smooch. Let's hope this Swiss tradition pays off because I made a great wish!

Birthday Weekend

It was my birthday this past Saturday and the weather was not on my side, unfortunately. It rained for a majority of the day but we still managed to have fun anyway. I spent the day with my boys and my parents and had a great day relaxing and enjoying the day! Mom and Dad took Ben Saturday night so Jeff and I went to a great fondue restaurant (pics coming tomorrow) and had a pint of Smithwicks at an Irish Pub, in honor of our 30th birthday trip to Ireland exactly 3 years ago.

What Baby Proofing?!?

Ben has reached what he thinks is a HUGE milestone... he has faced the 'baby proofing challenge' head on and won. Not so lucky for Mom and Dad, though. He now knows how to get into every door, cabinet, cubbord etc that we (well, pretty much Jeff) spent hours and hours installing through out the house. What does this mean? Hmmm... I guess we try to find a new 'baby proofing' method that Ben will, I'm sure, master in a month or two?!?

Trampoline Fun

We can always count on Ben wanting to be in the pool & hot tub at Jon's house in Rocklin nearly the whole weekend when we visit. We found out this past weekend that his new love is the trampoline in Jon's backyard. Ben and Joel were either jumping, running or playing basketball on the trampoline literally 75% of the long weekend. By the end of his jumping and running sessions, Ben's hair would be standing on end. He had so much fun (& got out so much of his energy) that we're thinking we will need to get one pretty darn soon.

(PS There is a safety guard so he can't jump off or fall from the side of the trampoline... much safer since Jeff and I were kids.)

Hot Tub Fun!

Hot tubbing in Rocklin at Uncle Jon's is a must and we definitely got our fill during our Memorial Day weekend visit. Looking forward to our next weekend trip!

Memorial Day Weekend in Rocklin

We went up to Rocklin for our annual Memorial Day weekend at my brother and his family's house. We celebrated Jon's birthday on Saturday and both Papa and my birthday, too. The weather wasn't as warm as we wanted but fun was had by all.

Here we are celebrating Papa's 70th birthday a bit early since we were all together.

Going out to dinner with Ben is a 50/50 gamble. Half the time he is a perfect little man. The other half of the time he isn't. This dinner was the not-so-perfect type dinner so one of us took Ben outside to run around about every 10 minutes. This pic is him on one of his many outings during dinner and looking at the many birds he would have rather been chasing...

Morning Routine

Every morning after breakfast, Ben gets really excited to go upstairs (while Mom gets ready for the day), sit in his chair and watch Calliou. In all honesty, he spends a maximum of 15 minutes watching Calliou but he does get so excited anticipating his favorite show. He sits with his water and repeatedly says 'Calliou... Calliou... Calliou...' until the TV is turned on.

Fun Date Night Out

We've been pretty lucky this month with two date nights out. Not the norm but very fun. A week ago, we went to a benefit for a local elephant rescue organization based in Salinas. We got to dress up and...

 hang out with some pretty awesome elephants!