life is simply...

a bowl full of cherries! or a bucket full in this case. We went absolutely cherry crazy this year. My parents wanted to go cherry picking and invited us to join them. We met them at this cherry farm in leona valley. We all had a lot of fun picking the cherries and Bodhi liked picking them too! Ray and I could not stop. Each tree had better cherries than the tree before and we couldn't help but pick just a few more. Before we knew it we had picked six pounds of cherries. We thought we'd have plenty to eat and enough to bake a cherry pie. Ray really loves cherry pie and I don't ever buy cherry pie, so he was planning to make one. Well it didn't happen cause we ended up eating all the cherries in about two weeks. So Sherry and I decided to go again, just us and the kids. This time we picked rainer and bings. Mind you I was picking mostly by myself since Bodhi and the the other kids decided it was more fun to run around the orchard than pick cherries this time, and I ended up bringing home almost 8 pounds of cherries! whoa, i really went crazy. But we did end up making that cherry pie.

I made the crust and ray made the filling. I've decided that picking your own fruit is so much fun that I can't wait to plan a trip to an apple orchard this fall for some apple picking.

sunday morning

What toys are on sale this week?

learning to drive

Wait a second, I thought you had to be 16 to drive. I think these two have a few more years to go before they are really driving, until then they are having some fun on the Autopia cars at Disneyland.

pretend city

Bodhi and I met our friends Kristi and Vivian at pretend city this week. It is like a city but sized just for kids. They have a post office where you can sort mail, a farm where you can pick fruits and veggies, a grocery store for shopping, cars to drive around town, a beach, cafe, art studio, and more. We spent about two hours exploring the city. We probably could have stayed longer, but we didn't realize they close early on Mondays. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go again. Afterwards, Kristi and Vivian had to go home but since it was lunch time I thought Bodhi and I would go over to the Irvine Spectrum to get something to eat. When we got there and I asked Bodhi what he wanted for lunch he said "Ice cream." Hmm, what a great idea! We ended up having frozen yogurt for lunch. It's yogurt, that's healthy right? We had such a fun day together.

Thank you for calling, Can I take your order?

Building a sand castle

I'm ready to catch a fish!

another day in the gardens and a car named keen

Ray and I took a couple days off work to go back to the Huntington Gardens and to spend another day at Disneyland. We had planned to go back to the garden since we didn't get to see everything last time we went. This time we spent most of our time in the Children's garden area. The kids loved running around.

Disneyland was fun (as usual) and Bodhi was very excited when he saw Mater and Lightning McQueen("Light Keen"). Of course we had to have our picture taken with them.

We also got to take a spin on the Autopia cars since Bodhi is finally tall enough for this ride!

playground

Bodhi and I finally got together with my friend Kristi and her daughter Vivian for a playdate. It had been too long! We met at a great playground near their house and had lots of fun.

Swinging on the big swings!

Wheeoo, Wheeoo, Firetruck coming through!

Bodhi's Entourage

Bodhi is one of those kids that loves his stuffed animals, I suppose he probably got that from his Dad and Aunt Dusty. While there are some that are more prominent from time to time, 5 or 6 of them accompany him throughout the day.

Buddy the monkey.

This little guy is Buddy. He was the first real lovey. Bodhi would ask for him at bedtime and carry him around during the day.

... and hello to you to, Kitty Cat.

His place has recently been taken over by Kitty Cat. She's actually the cat from the Pepe le Pew cartoons (none of us know her real name). I've tried getting him interested in Pepe, too, but he just says "Skunk! Pee-yoo!" and runs away.

Watching some cartoons.

A lot of times, in the mornings, Bodhi will place Kitty Cat on his little couch and ask her "Kitty Cat, watch Caillou?" Then sit and watch TV with her.

Sometimes, he shares popsicles with her, too

Kitty Cat, Big Toe and Big Lion in a power struggle for the chair.

Recently, the very originally named, Big Lion has become a favorite, too. He always wants him to play catch or play blocks with him. He hasn't caught on at bedtime, that's still Kitty Cat's job, but he's a favorite playmate.

You never know, however, who is next... waiting in the wings... plotting their ascendancy. Tomorrow may be Big Monkey's day.