Kind Regards

We went up to San Clemente last night to spend time with the Old McDonald's before we move up to Sacramento. (So glad we've been able to live close to them for as long as we have!) We walked down the pier

 and then ate a delicious dinner at the Fisherman's Restaurant. After dinner, Rylee rolled up her placemat telescope-style and handed it to me, saying, "Mom, this is for Cailyn" (who was sitting in my lap).

 She continued, "It says 'Kind regards, Love, Rylee!'"

 Then she explained the drawing: "That's Cailyn (on the left) and that's her little belly (the round thing below the head that is 5 times as big), and that's me (on the right.)"

I love her illustration of the Delly Belly, as we affectionately call it (:

Life's Mysteries

Throwing rocks into the ocean is one of Cailyn's favorite things to do at the beach.

 In the last 5 minutes, the following questions came out of Cailyn's mouth:

What would happen if there wasn't any ground?

What is ice?

Why is water wet?

Maybe these are typical 3-year-old questions - all kids this age ask why questions. But for some reason they struck me as pretty complex thoughts for someone so little. Especially the one about the ground.

She keeps us busy, this little Cailyn Delly.

McLove-ly Birthdays

 The McDonald kids - two of our favorite little people - had birthdays recently; Avery turned 4 and Liam turned 1.

 All the kids wore their Halloween costumes to Avery's party.

The loved the donut on a string game

 The pinata was hilarious; Shellie made it herself, and it was indestructible!

 All these kiddos (plus a few more) each got two turns without any luck.

No, Cailyn is not wearing her costume here...she fell asleep in the car on the way and slept through the first half of the party. She changed later...

 So it was Hailey Hermione who came to the rescue and finally finished it off.

 

 Love these sailors (:

The next weekend Liam had a joint 1st birthday party at the beach with his cousin, Nixon.

(Can you tell I've been having fun playing with not only my camera, but also starting to dabble in photoshop?)

Liam LOVED the quilt that Allison made for him. He crawled back and forth all over it like it was a play mat, rolling around, trying to pick up the little cars, etc.

 The sunset was GORGEOUS

 

We are so lucky to have these sweet kiddos in our lives (:

Boston Day 4: Castle Island and Bunker Hill

 The first few days of our trip were cool and felt like fall. Then we had several days of temperatures in the mid 80's! We took advantage of the warm weather and spent a day at Castle Island. Such a fun place!

We played on the playground

 {Cailyn could have spent all day sitting on this Kangaroo}

 toured the fort,

 (when Cailyn, who loves all things "beautiful", saw this girl wearing a tutu, she said "Mom, she's so beautiful; she's my friend!")

 played on the shore,

Rylee's collection of colorful seashells

 ate hamburgers,

 and played in the water again.

Rylee adopted herself into this family.

Cailyn took it upon herself to get all the rocks out of the water. This is more of a pebble-y beach than a sandy one. You can guess how that went.

Then we drove over to the Bunker Hill Monument. 

Quinn told the girls the story of the battle that happened on the hill where we were sitting.

Don't you love Cailyn's belly peeking out?

 Rylee had been complaining of being too tired to walk and wanted us to carry her. But once she heard that we could climb up the stairs to the top of the monument she said she wanted to do it. We told her we would do it if she would climb all by herself. Always up for a challenge, she was suddenly no longer tired. Funny how that works.

At the 100th stair...because 100 is her all time favorite number!

View from the top.

She made it! All 294 stairs by her little four year old self!

She is turning into quite the little portrait poser, this girl.

My calves were sore for three days after climbing, but Rylee was just fine! Granted, I carried Cailyn all the way up and down...she was in one of her Mommy Only moods...