Other Rainy Day Activities?!

Play dates, play dates and more play dates! Last week was full of afternoon play dates... this is from Ben's play date with Sammie last Wednesday, Ben and Sammie had tons of fun chasing each other and jumping on these boxes. Sammie is the daughter of Jen's high school friend, Monica.

What else to do on rainy days? This week we start 2 classes... music class on Monday afternoon and tumbling on Wednesday. Of course, Jen scheduled these month long classes last week when we were ankle deep in rain and stuck indoors and as we watch the weather forecast, this week is supposed to be in the 70's... go figure. Regardless, Ben will love his new classes.

What to do when you can't play outside?

You become very creative indoors in order to entertain your toddler!

There are some scrub jays who dive bomb our back yard a few times a day and/or sit on our patio furniture and hang out. Well, usually we are out and about having fun in the sun but with the rain, we haven't been able to be outside much. So... as we were locked inside this past Saturday, we tried to lure the scrub jays to hang out on the patio so we could watch them have fun otuside.

Here is the lone scrub jay eyeing our back yard.

 Jeff put bread all over our patio so the scrub jay would come to dine while...

 we wait patiently in the living room so we can watch them... First problem, scrub jays are smarter than we thought and could see us through the living room doors hence they didn't want to dine with an audience. Second problem, Ben is not patient.

 Third problem... the pretty blue scrub jay was scared off by the big, nasty black crow (pictured below sitting on our fence and keeping watch on the bread) who actually scared us a bit, too.

You might be wondering how this little experiment ended... well, by 7:00pm, Ben lost any interest and went to bed. When we all woke up Sunday morning, the bread was gone. We were, unfortunately, out smarted by the birds.

Sunday at Gilroy Gardens

Sunday was the first non-rainy day in a LOOOONG time. Seriously, it has been raining for soooo long. But, with the sun out, we had to take advantage of it and do something fun. And it just so happened to be opening day at Gilroy Gardens which is an amusement park for kids up to about 6 years old. Ben had such a good time and it was great for us because he got to run around the whole park and get his energy out!

Gilroy Gardens has rides for kids his size, a train ride, mazes, water rides and carosels. For any local parents who haven't been to Gilroy Gardens yet, your kid will love it there.

 This is Ben's tough face... we were on the water ride and he was done with the camera!

He's a Climber...

It is hard to tell from this picture but he climbed up this ladder all by himself, his Dad is just there to spot him. This probably sounds like a broken record by now but this little man is climbing EVERYWHERE... literally!

Saturday Rain Day

It has been raining non-stop for weeks here in Northern California and there is only so many indoor activities you can do to entertain an active toddler who refuses to watch any form of tv, movies etc. So... Saturday morning came with more storms so we decided to take advantage of a quick lull in the rain fall and take Ben out for one of his most favorite past times... puddle jumping!

Who Was Excited for Paddy's Day?!

 Take One Guess... It's the wild Irish man jumping up and down on the couch...



In Honor of St. Patty's Day

We went on a quick hike after lunch on Sunday in the Toro hills. Much to our surprise, the hills we filled with sheep. Literally sheep everywhere. With the green hills, the sheep wandering all over the place and the slightly overcast weather, it felt like we were back in Ireland! What a fun surprise just in time for Patty's day!