I remember clearly watching The Muppet Movie with my parents and listening to them belt out the song Rainbow Connection.

I cannot hear this song and not think of my Father. He was the biggest dreamer and believer in the magic of things that I have ever known. Of course The Muppet Movie also included the “Fork in the Road” joke that always thrilled him and made him laugh, no matter how many times he had heard it.

When I saw the rainbow cake on a blog I knew that I wanted this cake for Madeline’s 5th birthday. My parents made so many cakes in my lifetime. With the exception of one year all my birthday cakes were homemade. They were gorgeous works of art and I loved each one. My parents always got such a thrill creating the perfect cake. They even made my wedding cake. I asked my parents if they could figure out how to make this cake and they told me they could.

They dyed the cake batter and made the cakes.

When I first saw the text with these cakes on it I was concerned that they looked so much like playdoh. Then they stacked up the cakes and sent me another picture of the height of the cake.

You can see my Father’s hand, literally, in each picture. He was there creating the most beautiful of all the cakes I had ever seen. As I had said before I wanted the cake to be a surprise for Madeline. The reveal was an amazing moment.

I loved that cake. I still love that cake. Of all the cakes my parents made for me it seems so appropriate that the last cake they made together was a rainbow cake. I can’t see the cake without smiling (and choking up), but smiling. It is peace and happiness in cake form.

I have always loved rainbows. I always will love rainbows.

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it,
And look what it’s done so far.
What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
All of us under its spell,
We know that it’s probably magic…
… Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name.
… Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
It’s something that I’m s’posed to be…
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
Laa, da daa dee da daa daa,
La laa la la laa dee daa doo…

Baby club tends to grate on my nerves. (Listening to whining and crying tends to do that to me.) I generally try to tolerate it as long as I can because while the sound is annoying they are all so cute.

So bring your floaties if you feel like whining and talking baby talk, I am sure the kids will want to play with you.

When we got to the pool clouds were rolling in. Unfortunately they pulled everyone out of the pool before our lessons could begin. We were able to get in the pool a couple minutes before swim lessons but that was it.

All the kids loved the time at the pool. Paul loves to have his head under water and this picture shows that perfectly. Grammy is hovering near him in case he needs help, even though he rarely does.

It was a great swim lesson season. All the kids are swimming really well. I am excited for our last two weeks of summer without having to worry about getting to swim lessons on time. Hooray for another successful season of swim lessons.

As I mentioned in the last post I didn’t know fully how good of a reader Madeline had become. If I had sat her down to read to me I would have given her a easy reader.

At the beginning of summer I had enrolled Paul in the Mommy&Me class. This week he dove off the diving board and swam to the side of the 13 feet deep pool! How did I not know that he was that mature.

While most parents are out there over exaggerating what their children are capable of here I sit downplaying it. I am always amazed by them.

In case you ever wanted to know what Bill does for a living.

There is no love like the unconditional love of a parent. My Parents gave me unconditional love. Even Bill, who loves me with reckless abandon does not have the same love. He could pick up and leave me tomorrow, a parent would never do that. (Or at least mine wouldn’t since I do know of parents who have done that.) Bill could get so angry or frustrated with me that he would never speak to me again. My parents would never do that.

Nobody will ever love me like my Father did and being without that love hurts. I used to have two people who loved me like that and now I only have one. A while back my Mother shared with me a page from my Father’s journals. It was a page about when he found out he was going to be a Father. Since I was the first child born to my parents that meant it was a page written when he found out about me. It talks of dreams and hopes for me. I won’t share the entire letter because it is just so personal to me but I will share the last lines of it.

Of course I did learn all those things and I do, in fact, value love over anything else.

As readers know I struggled to build my family. To create a unit of people that I would love with this unconditional love. I am now consumed with the knowledge that one day I will leave them too, just as my Father left me. It will hurt them. There will be a hole in them that I will not be able to fix, that nothing can heal. I won’t be there to help them move forward, they will have to struggle with it just as I am.

These are facts of life, but it doesn’t make them any easier. Perhaps being a parent myself makes this even more hard.

The drive up was nice and peaceful. Just Bill and I in the Mini Cooper hanging out, chatting, listening to our favorite tunes and just being us. When we drive with the kids we generally have music on they enjoy and we can barely hear each other (since the van has yet to offer the plexiglass option.)

When we arrived it was a cool 93 degrees so we walked down to the Prescott Courthouse and sat under the trees.

When it was time for our reservation we walked back to Murphy’s to eat. We ordered and enjoyed the quiet dinner.

My prime rib

Bill’s Filet with bearnaise

Dinner was fabulous. Having time to hear ourselves talk was amazing. It was a wonderful treat.

We walked back to the Courthouse square and listened to some live music for a little bit before heading home with the top down. We really enjoyed the time with the top down, until we arrived back in Phoenix, where the overnight low was over 100.

It was a great night. Time to reflect on all the things we used to do and all the things we enjoy now. Life is such a delicate balance and it was nice to feel in sync with all our values.

It seems hard to imagine Paul and I just hanging out at home for 5 hours a day. He has gotten so used to having the Girls here to entertain him. He plays one thing with one of them and when he gets tired of it he goes off and finds a different sister to play with. I am sure that there will be an adjustment period once the Girls go back.

Annie and Kimberly are chomping at the bit to go back to school. They miss hanging out daily with friends and have high hopes that they will learn something in first grade. I hope that happens as well.

Annie is more upset at the thought that school is only 30 days away. Annie loves just staying home. She relishes in pajama days and in pursuing her own adventures. While this is good for her she needs to spend time honing the skills of following a simple set of directions as well. School provides the structure that Annie needs to become successful in life.

Kimberly is overly excited that school is coming soon. She is making a mental checklist of all the things we need to complete before school begins. She wants school supplies and a new outfit along with a pair of twinkle toe shoes. We will acquire all the things necessary before school is in session.

It is hard to think that Mimi is ready for kindergarten. I am still in shock each time I see her maturing face. She is amazingly determined and smart as a whip. She is determined to do things as well as Annie and Kimberly which drives her to be the best. She is so bright that I worry she too will learn very little in kindergarten. It will be very interesting to see her growth this year.

We have 30 days to soak up the lazy days and enjoy the sweet luxury of doing nothing.

We had a pizza lunch and then took a swim. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. Mikaleigh even let Annie wear her spare swimming cap. They had such fun.

It called for self-rising flour, and though I didn’t have any on hand I googled it and found out how to make some at home with ingredients I already had.

So we set out to make the paint. The kids helped mix the colors and paint. We found our paint brushes and we were ready to go.

We painted our pictures.

I popped them in the microwave. I had to cook our a little longer than the tutorial had suggested but maybe we put the paint on thicker, not sure. It worked out just fine just had to add 5 seconds here and there. The kids were amazed when I pulled them out!

We had such fun making these paintings. It took about 10 minutes to get all the paint made and to get set up. It provided about an hour worth of entertainment for the kids. Certainly nice way to break up the long summer days.

We were only there a week but I developed a serious coconut cake habit. I am so glad there is not a Sweet Jill’s Bakery near my home. Their desserts were out of this world delicious.

Grammy, Mommy and Kimberly went out in search of seashells. We each have different projects planned for when we are home and we needed several containers full of seashells. We had a nice quiet walk and found a lot of shells. We also found a little side-walking crab. We brought him back to the beach house to show Mimi and Annie. They were excited to meet him and hold him. Later when we went back to the ocean we released him.

One of the gorgeous things out in California is the foliage. They have so many beautiful flowers and plants. We couldn’t help but get a couple pictures of them on our stroll. It is so lush here and certainly a contrast to the landscape in Phoenix.

We got ready to go down to our last big ocean adventure. Paul really didn’t want to get his bathing suit on which was fine since he NEVER goes even remotely near the ocean.

Paul sat down and started sifting sand once he arrived at the ocean. He really enjoyed scooping sand and putting it in buckets, and then scooping some more. I was amazed at how long scooping would keep his attention. When he wasn’t scooping he was kicking his ball around on the beach, helping someone find more shells, or destroying sand castles. He loved it when someone would make a sand castle for him to destroy.

Madeline loved the beach and the ocean. She would ask people to take her out in the ocean. She had a healthy dose of fear about the ocean she wouldn’t go out there without a hand holding her and when it was pulling back she would hold on tighter. It was fun to jump over waves with her. She also loved the shoreline. She would look for interesting things, roll in the hot sand after being in the ocean and help dig holes.

One thing that we were reminded of on this vacation is how much Madeline needs her alone time. At home she will go off for a couple of hours and play by herself. She really needs that time, at the beach house she was not able to get any time like this. The shoreline was the only place she could find her own space. You would see her off singing and dancing to herself on the beach or playing in sand away from everyone else. I know she will be relishing the time when we are home and she has her own space. After living in 700 sq feet I know we all we will loving our big house.

Kimberly really enjoyed the ocean. She would call to the waves, “bring it on” and loved to try to anticipate how big the waves would be. She enjoyed making sand creations, packing and scooping sand. She made a lot of great things. If anyone started a project in the sand Kimberly was ready to help out. She loved to play in the ocean and was good about holding on so she wouldn’t get carried away. Kimberly enjoyed combing the beach for treasures and was always up for an adventure.

Annie, as always, was the ultimate beach lover. She loved the sand, surf and shoreline. She would impulsively run into ocean, run out and roll in sand and run back into the ocean again. She was rarely holding on to anyone’s hand in the ocean and had to be reminded often that she was going out too far. When on the beach she was usually digging sand through her fingers, drawing on the shoreline, and flipping sand through her legs like a dog would dig. In fact if you asked her to help you dig she would only do it if she could dig through her legs.

Her favorite thing about the beach was that I didn’t complain when she walked on all four limbs. This is Annie’s desired method of walking and don’t allow her to do it normally, unless we are at home and she is playing. I am not sure why this feels so natural to her, but she insists it is the most comfortable for her. Weird, especially considering the fact that Annie didn’t crawl as an infant. She went straight from Army style crawling to walking. She would run up and down the beach on all fours. Digging with her hands if the mood struck her.

We wrote our names in the sand and watched the ocean wipe them away. I watched the children play, listened to the waves crash and enjoyed the sunshine. It was a nice vacation. Bill and I were able to sneak away for a couple of hours for a nice dinner while Grammy and the kids hung out at the beach house.

We all throughly enjoyed ourselves and are ready to head back and enjoy the rest of the summer. It has been heating up while we were gone. Today we leave the 70 degree days and go back to our warm climate. I think it is supposed to be 110 degrees when we get home. I bet that get rid of that chill in my feet.

Bill and the kids worked on a trench to the ocean. Kimberly kept hovering around him because she really wanted the shovel so she could dig another hole.

We finally decided that today was the day to bury Bill in sand. We got him buried up to his neck and the kids decorated him with shells and seaweed. Madeline wanted to be buried after Bill.

After napping and cleaning up we went over to my friend Cindy’s house for dinner and more portraits of the kids in her studio.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with her family. Between the two families there are 10 kids. It was a noisy but wonderful time.

Paul found himself a new friend. He loved Falyn and would follow her around anywhere. Maybe one day Cindy and I will be related. They sure make a cute couple.

The kids loved feeding the lorikeets. Mimi and Annie both held birds on their arms and as much as Paulie wanted one to climb on his arm, they wouldn’t.

Unfortunately our camera finally stopped working. It had been on it’s last leg for some time but it finally went kaput in the middle of the aquarium. I was without a camera to take snapshots. Thankfully Grammy captured some pictures of the kids enjoying the rest of the aquarium.

We left the aquarium, had lunch and then went to the beach. It was quite windy out so we didn’t stay very long—only a couple of hours. (It really is crazy how fast time passes when you are hanging out at the beach.)

After the beach we ventured out to Costco to pick up a new camera. Now we have a camera that we can use to capture the moments from the rest of the vacation.

We made a big hole for us to sit in. Each of us dug a little bit, even Cousin Wyatt helped out for a while. Kimberly was the servant and she worked on packing the sides. Madeline was the Queen and Annie laid a beach towel on the entrance for a fancy carpet for her.

With all the extra people Bill and I even had a moment to sit on the beach together.

Everyone had a great time playing in the sand and in the ocean.

After the Girls caught a bucket of crabs, Paul had a great afternoon playing with them.

That evening we walked down to the pier and had a nice dinner at the Ruby’s diner. The kids loved strolling down the street and playing in the trees. Grammy was taking plenty of pictures of them climbing.

She caught this gorgeous one of Kimberly.

Once there Bill set up our camp area and we started playing. Grammy brought a bag of toys and taught the kids how to play horseshoes. They all had fun. They spent a lot of time in the umbrella/windbreaker until the sun started shining.

Bill had wanted to body board the first day but he forgot the boards, but he remembered them today. He went out and tried his hand at it. He isn’t as young as he thinks he is . . . that is all I am going to say. Poor thing is pretty bumped up. Of course that didn’t keep him from going back again and again.

While Bill was out in the ocean he found a dead fish. It was huge but I knew the kids would want to see it. Bill pushed it out of the ocean with the boogie board. The seagulls were sure glad he fished it out of the ocean for them to eat.

Madeline wanted to try the boogie board but she soon got tired of it. She didn’t like how unstable it was. I thought it best for her to get out of the ocean anyhow.

We watched Bill for a while and then went up to the shade/wind shield of our umbrella. Kimberly opened up a cake shop inside and made each of us some special cakes.

We went back to the house and got all cleaned up, took a nap and got dressed for pictures. We were meeting our friend, the amazingly talented, Cindy Minear and have our photos taken at Huntington Beach. They came out gorgeous. You can see a sneak peak here. If you are ever in Orange County I would highly recommend her for photographs.

After pictures we headed home and got some much needed rest. Mom and I played cards for a while and Bill joined in on the last couple hands before we called it a night. It was a good, but cold day. Hoping tomorrow will be warmer.

With all our gear in hand we headed out. The beach was so nice and quiet when we arrived. I am sure most people were still sleeping in on a Sunday morning, but since Paul had woken us up at 6:45 we were ready to have fun. We set up our spot, got lotion on, set up the umbrella, and the kids started running around playing.

It wasn’t long until we took all the kids in the ocean to have fun.

Annie and Madeline cannot get enough of the ocean, no matter how many times they get bombarded with waves, they still want more. Paul still is very afraid of it and doesn’t want anything to do with it. Kimberly likes it but only getting wet up to her thighs, otherwise she enjoys the sand and frolicking along the shoreline.

Madeline asked me to make her into a mermaid, so I did. She remembered it from the July Vacation to San Diego, three years ago. Grammy helped pack the dirt and shape the fin. After Mimi Kimberly wanted to be done too!

Annie and Bill dug a little pool and Paul made sandcastles and destroyed them. Everyone was having fun. Then we started digging for mole crabs. Grammy and I were helping the kids dig and catch them before they burrowed back into the sand. I cannot post the pics of us digging for them because Bill was the photographer and he only took a couple of shots and they are of my Mother and I in bad positions. The kids had a great time doing this and we found a couple that were quite large. The kids had a fun time playing with them the rest of the day.

After the beach we went back to the house for lunch and to get showers. The Navy base was allowing people to go on the boat so we walked down to check it out. Unfortunately, by the time we got there they were no longer allowing people to go in. When walking back to the beach house we passed some trees and the kids couldn’t help but climb them.

Bill and I had planned one surprise for the Girls on this trip. Today was the day we decided to do it. We loaded everyone up in the van and headed up to Beverly Hills to go to the American Girl Store. They were so excited when we got there. Unfortunately Kimberly and Annie did not pack their dolls, but we had Bitty baby and Baby Paul along for the adventure.

Each girl got to pick out a special outfit from the store. It took them forever to walk around and around choosing the perfect outfit for their dolls. Once they finally made their selections we paid and they each got their own bag to carry home.

It was a fun day and we all had a great time.

The kids got themselves dressed, we got showered, and we headed out of town, stopping to pick up Grammy on the way.

Throughout the drive Annie, Kimberly and Madeline kept asking how many more hours it was going to take to get to the beach house. It took a lot longer than expected because of traffic and the large amount of bathroom breaks we had to take. But after 7 hours of traveling we arrived at the beach house and after unpacking and relaxing we headed off to an afternoon stroll at the beach.

We also went down the pier and scoped out Main Street.

This was Paul’s first time seeing a beach or the ocean up close. We had been to Washington with him last year but we didn’t go to a beach and we only took a boat on the water. He was pretty much afraid of the water, which is kind of nice since I would rather that than him having no fear of it. He loved running up and down the beach and stayed clear of the water.

When we were sitting watching the sunset he decided to try a bite of sand. I kinda thought we wouldn’t have that problem with him given his age and the first time he has seen sand but I guess every kid has to try it. I am just glad he wasn’t like Madeline who loved to eat sand so much it was like sitting her down at an all you can eat buffet.

Annie loved the beach as much as always. When we were watching the sunset she found a long piece of seaweed that she called her seaweed dog. She was dragging it all over the beach.

Madeline still loves to spend time with Bitty Baby. She packed up all Bitty’s stuff for the trip. When we were getting ready to go down to the beach she got Bitty dressed in her bathing suit and in the backpack carrier. She took Bitty out once we were down there and let her put her feet in the sand.

As I spun around the parking lot, I spied something intriguing:

I stopped the van adjacent to it and everyone was perplexed why. I said, “Get out and jump in that sand!” Screams immediately erupted as they realized what was going on. Only rule: no throwing sand—though Paul had to be reminded of that repeatedly.

We jumped and rolled and cavorted. For me, it’s getting acclimated to being caked with sand.

A bad time was had by none.

The Girls are really enjoying the time spent in the pool.

Kimberly “surfing”

Annie flipping

Paul jumping in

Mimi practicing her strokes

Summer is here! Enjoy!