Mt McCoy Hike in Simi Valley

Today America celebrates Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in honoring our nation's wars.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
                                 -Moina Michael

This morning we hiked the Mt McCoy trail with the kiddo and Peggy (mother in-law). The morning started off nice although it was pretty hot along the way. With the heat came complaints from the kiddos. Once we mad it to the the top the complaints dissipated a cool breeze came through and the kiddos took in the views. We had a complete beautiful 360 view of our valley; we could see the hanger at the Reagan Library with a great shot of Air Force One.

 As we were heading down the trail we took in all the wonderful wild flowers and and sights. I loved how the Yucca flowers looked against the bight blue sky. It really make me want to plant some and have out whole front-yard verascaped. Here is the Yucca bloom, there are some dead blooms as this is towards the end of the season for them.

Mikayla's 10th Birthday

Ten years ago today my life completely changed for the best when I became a mother for the first time to the sweetest little girl. I am so proud of the person she has become and wants to be. She fills our hearts with so much happiness and love. I am very sad that she is now in the double digits; it feels like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital. 

She woke up today with the biggest smile on her face. It was so nice for her to have Anzia here on her actual birthday, it meant the world to her. She loved all her gifts and was so happy that she got the scooter she asked for. She was so gracious and even let her cousin build one of her new lego sets. The only thing that she absolutely had to have was her traditional birthday apple pie that we made vegan since we had Anzia.

Mikayla's Birthday Party

For Mikayla this year she wanted to have a craft party. It was such a cute theme, all the girls got to make all of their party favors, and they had a blast doing it. She was lucky and had her cousin down from Washington for her party, and Oma and Opa as well. The girls all had such a good time and when they were all done they crated some games of their own. All the little girls were so sweet and it was a blessing to have them all over. It was so fun to watch Mikayla open her gifts she was such a gracious host. I love her!

Jakob is 8......

Today is Jakob's 8th birthday! He woke up early and was ready to get his presents open. The lucky little guy ended up with more Lego's and a new skateboard. Mikayla was happy to make him pancakes and treat him like a king. After building a few Lego's it was off to the Moorpark skate park to test out the new wheels. His wish was to have corn dogs and fries for lunch so we made a pick-nick out of it. Since my boy is not into cake and desserts he wanted a turkey cheeseburger with candles in it, so he got it! I can't believe how fast he has grown, I wish I could slow time down. He is such a blessing to us!

   

Jakob's Lego Party

My little guy is turning 8 on the 14th, he just had his Lego party and it was a blast! This was the first year he had a all boy party. Up until this year the kids always wanted to have their parties together, this was the year of the split. It was so sweet Mikayla was the only girl invited; he couldn't imagine his party with out her. The kids all got to build police cars and race them along with other Lego inspired games . They all had a blast chatting all about Lego and their many builds. I know that Jakob really had a great time with all of his friends, he was grinning ear to ear all night.