Backyard Moments

Jayden dances.
Ollie climbs.
Zach helps out.
This is the scene out of our kitchen window every evening as I prepare dinner. Jayden and Zach keep a watchful eye on Oliver so he's managed to avoid serious injury and ingestion of foreign objects. Although just yesterday I retrieved a snail shell from his mouth. It's amazing how relaxed I've become as a mom :)

Hula

One morning while chatting with the other moms at preschool
I discovered that Jayden had quite the rep on the playground.
Camryn, Jayden's bestie, had begged her mom
to buy her a hula hoop of her very own
so she could practice because "Jayden is soooo good at it!".
Apparently they were spending the entire recess dancing in the plastic hoops.

I had no clue about these mad, swirling skills
because we didn't have a hula hoop at our home.
That is until we had Miss Camryn over for a play-date,
and Jayden begged her mom
to buy her a hula hoop of her very own
so she could practice because "Camryn is soooo good at it!"

Here she is...

Fathers Day

Began with a pancake breakfast.

Then off to church.

Lunch at In-n-Out.
Followed by a leisurely drive to Oxnard to dig in the sand,

and fly a kite.

At the end of the day Marty declared it to have been his best Father's Day yet!

All Aboard!

Last week we joined forces with the Ikenouye clan to caravan through the dreaded 101/405 merge and land at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Our purpose was to board our 6 kids onto a hands-on experience inside Noah's Ark. The day began with a picnic lunch on the Museum's front steps. Then it was hours of fun climbing through the boat's inner decks, cleaning up after the animals' "messes", jamming in a drum session, crawling all around, crafting ark inspired creations out of recycled materials, and running through a rainbow-making mist-er. This was the 1st of many Sarkisian/Ikenouye Summer adventures so stay tuned! Jayden, Taylor, Kelly, Nate, Cole, Ollie, Me and Zach...and Tia Becca (Kelly's awesome sister who snapped the photo).

1st Summer Swim

I can't recall if we used the pool at all last summer. Ollie was brand new and the sleepless nights didn't provide much energy for slathering little bodies with sunscreen and playing lifeguard. But we're sure to have a wet summer this year! Official swim lessons begin on June 14th, but until then we are enjoying late afternoon dunks in our community pool. Marty is the Sarkisian family swim coach and has been floating around with Jayden and Zachary after he gets home from work.

Our goal is to get the kids water safe before our big adventure to Family Camp at Forest Home this July!

Memorial Memories

On Memorial Day Weekend we were blessed by a visit from our dear friends the Millers. Patrick, Tracy, Laney, and Baby Miller (due 10/10) arrived from San Diego on Friday eve and stayed through Monday morn.

The dads managed to pack in hours of manly adventures. All day Saturday they 'worked hard' on a fishing boat to make a catch for a delicious backyard BBQ. And after church on Sunday they played GI Joe at a shooting range in Piru (live free or die :) ). Tracy and I donned our Supermom capes and entertained the kiddos with sprinklers, and a live Sesame Street performance at the Thousand Oaks Civic Center. Oh yea, we did manage to sneak out for a pedicure and a delicious lunch -- hooray for babysitters!

Mommy's Day

Last week I had the privilege of attending 'Mommy's Day' in Jayden's classroom. She got to cozy-up on my lap for circle time while Mrs. Sylvester read a story about love, and then she joined her friends to perform a song.
Then together we made a flowery bookmark; she designed, I glued. Next we shared a delicious coffee and strawberry snack. Then the students gave us a tour of the classroom and their recent masterpieces. This is Jayden's 'portrait' of me. She designed me with "red and black hair" because, well, at the time I had red and black hair -- sounds so punk rock. And I was the only 'mom portrait' to be wearing pants (all the others had adorable dresses/skirts) because, well, I wear jeans everyday of my life. My daughter knows me what can I say. In a couple of weeks Jayden will have her last day of school and then summer begins. She has flourished at Bethany Christian and we are thrilled to be able to send both her and Zachary in the Fall!