Axel, Phoenix, and Rubix: Parties Galore

Last Sunday was filled with socializing. The kids and I headed to our next door neighbor's house for their daughters Annaprasana Ceremony. We were only able to stay for a short bit, but the hour of play time with Rishaan, Axel's buddy, was well worth it.

After the Annaprasana Ceremony we picked up daddy who was waiting for us at home and then walked over to Axel's house for his 5th birthday party. We met Axel R. a couple of years ago and now time has past and they are in the same preschool class together at Marshall Lane. They get along very well. Axel was the only friend invited and the rest of the party was neighbors and family.

Behind Axel's house there is a creek that he often walks through. The first event of his party was a hike through the creek. Keith took Axel and I stayed with Phoenix and played in the shade with her.

Phoenix had more fun playing with the water bottles than the toys that Mae, Axel's mom, took out for her.

After the nature hike was a water gun fight where all the kids soaked, David, Axel's dad.

After the water fight the kids went inside while the Snake man set up his show, which was a surprise for the kids.

Here is the brave birthday boy with two snakes wrapped around his neck.

Here is daddy being a brave volunteer getting kissed by a giant lizard.

And then there was the "big" snake.

And then Snake man decided to wrap it around daddy who was holding sister.

This is pretty cool......

or maybe not!

The entire family had a great time and we are all looking forward to more play dates with Axel in the future.

On Thursday the kids and I headed to Lemos Farm, in Half Moon Bay, to meet Auntie, cousin Braylin and Grandma Susan. Axel finally was able to operate the tractor. He needed mommy's assistance because the controls were hard to move, but he was still pleased to finally get a try. The first year we went it was broken and last year the line was too long.

After the tractor we rode the train. Axel wanted to sit next to Grandma Susan so Phoenix and I sat behind them.

After the train Axel enjoyed feeding the goats....

and petting them as well.

Phoenix was having a rough day as she had a bad reaction to breakfast and threw up all the way to Half Moon Bay. Luckily Grandma always brings clothing so she had a clean shirt to wear. Her pants were a bit dirty, but I was able to scrap off the junks of food and the milk luckily dried up :) She ended up sleeping most of the time, but did get a bit of play time in the back of Auntie's car while the rest of us ate lunch.

After lunch we went on the hay ride.

Auntie and Braylin were able to join us as the place was pretty slow during the lunch hours.

After the hay ride Auntie picked out her pumpkins while Axel had a pumpkin made by the balloon lady. Unfortunately, everyone was already tired so we said our goodbyes and then headed home. It wasn't until we were saying our goodbyes that I was able to capture a picture of baby Braylin.

Since I forgot to take a picture of the balloon lady making Axel's balloon the first thing I did in the car was capture a picture of his $10 balloon just in case it popped on the way home.

Luckily, it made the drive home and is still inflated 3.5 days later. The balloon lady said to store it sealed in a plastic bag in the freezer. We have been doing that which does seem to prevent it from deflating.

We had a great time visiting with Grandma Susan the rest of Thursday and most of Friday. She brought Axel this super hero cape, which you can see he absolutely loves.

We dropped Grandma off at the train station Friday late afternoon. Saturday we went to our new neighbor's son's birthday party in the park across the street from our house. Axel had a blast with the kids and with the clown lady they hired.

Here is daddy and Axel holding up his new pet snake.