Faceys – Page 8 – thosecoolkims

…and now for something completely different!

Today was truly a day of epic proportions! After a full day of Kendall and Jordan, ages 9 and 7, we took on Mikayla and Ethan, ages 5 and 4. And what a fun, full day it was…and a completely different experience!

We started off the day driving to Balboa Island, taking the Jeep on the car ferry across Newport Bay. Even Carrie, who like Ed had lived in SoCal all her life, had never been on the ferry before. Basically, you drive your car on the boat and the boat does the rest of it for you. The kids got a kick out of being on a boat…in the car!

Believe us, Ethan was enjoying it way more than he looked like in the pic.

Afterwards, lunch at Ruby’s and a carousel ride…

So what next? Nothing could have prepared us for just how much wetness was about to ensue….behold Castle Park: home of the water cannon bumper boats! Carrie was perhaps the smart one, staying off the boats. Ed, on the other hand, got a thorough soaking along with Mikayla and Ethan!

After taking the kids to see Ratatouille (grown-ups, especially you foodies out there, see this one. We’re serious. Best Pixar movie yet…especially for grown-ups), dinner proved to be fruitful, with Ethan even learning to write his own name!

Now we’re home, and both Mikayla and Ethan have taken to Sophia…they both learned quickly to be gentle with her, and Sophia returned the favor with lots of love.

Great day…it was a trip too because people really seemed to think Mikayla and Ethan were ours…they certainly could pass for them, couldn’t they?

We’re gonna miss all four of the Facey kids so much!

Facey Kids, part one

This weekend we finally got to have the Facey kids over to stay with us. We have been looking forward to having them come over for such a long time, so we made a lot of plans for an action packed weekend! Since having four at a time is a little frantic for us (we’re kid rookies), the plan was to keep two with us, while the other two were at Grandma & Grandpa’s. Then, we’d swap with them the next day and have the other two over. Today was Kendall and Jordan day, ages 9 and 7. They are really fun girls and we had a blast getting to spend some quality time with them!

We began the day at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. That place was a blast. They had all kinds of fun things for Kendall & Jordan to do – like climbing the rock wall to the Pirate Adventure where they searched the place for clues to solve the puzzle. A few highlights:

Climbing the rock wall

Jordan is pulling herself up on a rope in a chair.

Uncle Ed does the same.

Kendall is learning about erosion – who knew that was so fun?

Uncle Ed is helping the girls push a cloud out of the hole.

Kendall took this one!

The popular favorite – a Pirate exhibit!

Panning for gold.

Auntie Carrie hanging out in the “pet section” of the Kid Supermarket.

After the Discovery Center, we all agreed it was Pizza Time! We indulged in some delicious pizza and then headed on to the next adventure – Color Me Mine in Downtown Brea where we could make some art!

Kendall decided she wanted to paint a small box with a cat on top…

Jordan opted for the same, but with a dog…

Auntie Carrie & Uncle Ed decided to work on a set of food and water bowls for the kitties.

Besides being a lot of fun, we were also glad to have an air-conditioned place to hang out in for awhile – it was 105 degrees today!

Kendall & Jordan surprised us with their attention to detail and committment to their projects! We were very proud of them. The final results…

A polka dotted cat and an adorable golden retriever puppy! Way to go girls! As for C+E, here’s the kitty bowls:

After wrapping up, we came straight home so we could jump in the pool and cool off! Auntie Carrie helped the girls with their swimming techniques, and Jordan swam the width of the pool with her face in the water and “big arms”!!! Kendall did a great job swimming as always and she was happy to show that she remembered all of her skills. Once we got out, Uncle Ed grilled some hot dogs and we got to teach them one of our favorite games, Guitar Hero. Yep – the girls know how to rock!

We’re exhausted! Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we swap kids with Grandma & Grandpa and have day two of adventures with Mikayla & Ethan!

Eric turns the big 3-0!

We went out to Perris today to visit my lil’ bro & the family to celebrate his birthday. I can’t believe my little brother is thirty years old! It’s pretty amazing to think that he is appoaching his 10th wedding anniversary and has 5 children at his age! I’m an extremely proud big sister – he is a good guy and a great dad…and I am happy to see him so happy in his life.

It had also been too long since we got to spend some quality time with the kids. They were as cute as always. They just love their Uncle Ed:

Ethan can be such a stinker. He runs and hides as soon as he sees the camera come out. But we managed to get a half-picture of him in the backyard:

And Miss Ella is growing…she gets cuter everytime we see her!

We also got a chance to look through Kendall’s sketchbook. At just 9 years old, she’s got quite a thick book, and she is so smart! We got a real kick out of this chart she made:

We know its kinda hard to see, but she has listed that she is 50% white, 25% samoan and 25% “chinees thai”. That kid just melts our hearts. She really does.

Plain Wicked.

This past Christmas, Carrie’s parents decided to send the kids & the spouses to see Wicked (the Musical) and have a swanky pre-theatre dinner at Lawry’s Prime Rib. The four of us agreed that it was a pretty slammin’ gift! Yesterday we finally got to redeem our gift, and it didn’t disappoint – the show was absolutely fantastic and the dinner (of course) was superb. We were pretty excited about the evening of course, but we were even more excited to spend some “adult time” with Eric & Shirley (having 5 kids means they don’t get to be sans-children very often!). We talked, told stories & laughed without being distracted by the kids (don’t get us wrong – we love to see the nieces & nephew!). We had a really good time and got a kick out of seeing Eric & Shirley enjoy the show so much.

A few highlights of the evening:

The Kims do Lawry’s.