The Clifford Family: July 2008

Daddy's Home!

Cliff got home today! After 8 days of being gone, we finally got to celebrate his birthday. Since I documented the kids cakes I felt it necessary to do his as well. He isn't much of a cake guy, so we celebrated with Blueberry Cobbler:

Stoked with his new dirt bike upgrades and the NFL Sunday ticket on Directv for the season, here is Cliff blowing out the candles:

We have barely any furniture left in the house at this point. We sit on the floor on pillows and dine around the coffee table. Here is the cat on top of the tv tonight trying to catch the guy on That 70's Show. Was much more entertaining than the show!

Happy Birthday Cliff! We are so happy to have you home for a few days!

It continues!!

We got the word that we can start moving things to the new house!! So we are furiously packing the house and moving it all into the garage. All we have left in the old house is mattresses, clothes, a tv and a coffee table...livin at its best!
Here is my stab at an artistic photo of my dad following us in the big truck with Micah:

Parked in front of the new place:

While we unpacked, the kids got their first opportunity to enjoy our amazing new back yard. Grass is great...just ask Micah:

Happy face on the slide:

Ella driving her truck on our new path:

While the kids played, the grown ups continued to shlep out front. Here is my dad unloading:

The new garage:

Other view:

We are almost there! Closing on the 25th, 3 more nights in the old place! Unfortunately Cliff has to leave on Thursday:(, but we look forward to him coming home to enjoy the new place with us!

On Sunday we finally got some good ol' fashion down time. Micah got some boy time with dad before his trip, they played football in the living room (can't wait to get our new backyard so they can actually play football outside!)
Here are my Boston boys:

Micah throwing his killer spiral:

Going for the touchdown!

For Ella's birthday she requested to spend the day at the pool. Now that she is a swimming little fish, it is her favorite place to be. I pushed them off until 1 o'clock and we stayed until 4. Then we went home packed up some dinner and ice cream and headed back down for dinner from 5 until 7. Here is Ella in her goggles getting ready for her swim:

Micah just chills on the steps. Here he is chillin with his crocodile:

After dinner, I snuck up to the clubhouse to make some birthday ice cream sundaes. Here they are enjoying their treats:

Happy Birthday Ella!

Back to packing for now... until Cliff's birthday on Friday!

And it begins...

We have offically begun to move now. The boxes are piling up and we are working hard to get it together and stay organized. Cliff brought home a little something to help with the progress, a large truck to be filled before his return.....at least the kids like it!

This is what our house will look like for the next week...

Happy Birthday Ella!

Let the celebration begin! For the first stop on the Ella birthday tour, we went out to lunch with Val. We went to the Buckhorn and had lunch and milkshakes, nice relaxing 2 hour lunch! Valerie got Ella a beautiful gift that Ella had picked out, some "princess slippers" as Ella calls them:

I am holding Valerie personally responsible for any kind of shoe fetish this child ends up with!

Somehow these pictures ended up backwards in here and I'm not sure how to fix it. Anyway together with my mom, we got Ella a new bike for her birthday this year. Because Cliff is leaving early on her birthday, she got her present on Saturday, the day of her party. She wanted one with streamers and a bell. Here are her and Micah at 7:30am taking a test drive on the new bike:

Ella enjoying her new ride:

We left it in the garage and asked her to go out and find something for us, here she is with the bike:

This year for her party Ella requested "Tinkerbell cupcakes" because I now refuse to purchase a birthday cake, this is my stab at purple Tinkerbell cupcakes:

A shot of the bike the night before in the garage:

Saturday was also the day of her party, these pictures also ended up backwards....oh well! We went to the East end of Donner Lake this time, to Ella's favorite beach. There is boat only access, so we had to shuttle everyone over. We had a nice mellow time on the beach. Here is Ella and her friends blowing out her candles, Colton helped a lot!

Micah surfing at the lake:

I love birthday parties, but I HATE goody bags. There is something about handing the kids a plastic bag full of useless plastic toys and candy that just feel wrong to me. For Ella's party this year we got all the girls swim rings and the boys beach balls. We put them each in a little brown box and hid them. I made a treasure map and the kids had a blast having a little "treasure hunt" to go and find their goodies. Here are the girls swimming in their new rings:

The girls in their rings, from left, Kaelin, Ella, Tessa, Summer and Cora

Ella on her way to the party in the boat, so excited!

Summer and Tessa enjoying their cupcakes:

Ella and Cora:

Ella and her cupcake:

All the girls and Micah on the tube. Nice work Micah, its going to be a hard life for him!

Colton and his cupcake face:

Tiny little Peyton is pretty in pink:

Sorry for the confused picture order! Ella's birthday was a success and we even had some smoke free skies for most of it!

This weeks adventure!

It almost Thursday and all I have to show for it is a bunch of boxes. It has been super hot and smoky here, Cliff has been gone and the kids have been AMAZING! After a weekend packed with fun, the last couple of days the kids have been entertaining themselves and playing games while I begin to pack the house. Sorry there are no pictures of the kids, but the only thing going on in our house lately has been this:

We did manage to make it to the pool for dinner tonight, but I left the camera at home. It was time to hang out with the kids, not snap photos of them.

Hopefully more fun soon!

LOOONNNGGG Weekend!

Happy 4th of July! This weekend was just the beginning of the busiest month in the Clifford family. Filled with birthdays and summer activities July is non-stop around here. This weekend was filled with activity and lots of fun!
On Friday we got up early to help the kid's preschool build their float for the Truckee 4th of July parade. The theme this year was "Truckee a town for all seasons", our float was broken into the 4 seasons, here is a glimpse:

Here are the happy float riders getting ready to go (they were summer):

The kids being on the float means that Cliff and I get the morning to cruise around and do what we please! We brought our beach cruisers down and rode around town helping get stuff for everyone on the float, riding down the middle of the street as if we were a part of the parade and grabbing a beer with some friends. Here are Cliff and Jeremy being part of the parade:

We stopped by Dave's Ski Shop where they have a big party for the parade. We had a beer and visited with friends, here we are kid free:

We got to watch the kids go by, they loved riding on the float:

After the parade we made our way back home for our big block party. We got together with all of our neighbors and blocked our street off for a big 4th of July blow out. Lots of food, kids running wild, games, music...it was everything that a 4th of July block party should be:

Saturday we woke up early to peddle our belongings in our driveway to strangers. After a couple of hours of haggling over pennies for baby clothes, I was done! Paul and Betsy were in town and we headed over to Oscar and Jennas for a BBQ. After a terrific dinner we went out back to have s'mores and an outside movie. Here are the kids enjoying the movie (yes that is Micah's butt climbing in the tent):

When we got home it was time to get ready for Micah's birthday party the next day. I worked on Micah's "Rocket Ship" birthday cake. Here is how it turned out:

Sunday was Micah's birthday party at West End Beach. It was nice and hot, a perfect day for the beach. Here are Ethan and Gunnar playing on the beach: