Color Me Mine

I love love love what we did today.

I mean like best day ever type of love.

So fun.

We spent the morning at Color Me Mine.

{pottery painting store in Fresno}

Looking back, it was actually kind of silly to think we could take this place on with 6 kids and 2 adults{1 craft nazi mommy, 3 big girls who were very serious about their projects, 2 babies, 1 very active boy and 1 "just-had-hip-replaced-can't-walk-without-walker-yet" Grandma} but it actually went really well and I give us an A+ for making it happen!

Oh and did I mention I was in heaven?

I loved every minute of it.

When I grow up I want to live there and paint all day long.

ok ok enough about me, here's the pictures...

Mailee splatter painting her jar with the sweetest employee ever.

Grandma occupying small busy little people.

With Grandma's help, Caleb's tiger mug turned out great!!

{he wanted to paint the ceramic motorcyle bank, considered the Woody dish, then changed to the ceramic quad figurine but I am into useful items... I *might* have persuaded his decision just a little bit...}

We have made a plate with newborn feet for every child.  Today was Cambri's turn.  She's not exactly a newborn but her feet are still tiny and cute.

She actually really liked the whole process.

The very beautiful Annie assisted us in getting the footprints just right.

*smoosh*

Then Annie offered us $5 off if we let her use Cambri's foot to finish a plate she was working on for the store's display.

I was just fine with that:)

Painted up baby feets!

Thank you Grandma for a special day of fun!!

Can't wait to see how Mailee's splatter paint turns out!

We let Caity paint her plaque on her own for most of the time.

{this is the part where I leave out the multiple tantrums she had over various tragedies and offenses including "I want da pink one", "Me yike da cup better", "Not dat one Mommy", "I want more pink paint, no me yike da blue paint", "I hung-ee", "you not touch me brothee", etc, etc.}

Moving on...

I stepped in at the end and added a few details and we finished it off with her handprint.

She was all over the handprint idea after watching Cambria get her feet painted!

So proud!

Pretty cute:)

Mikayla is usually the first one done when it comes to crafts.  

She finishes the task and moves on.

I noticed that with this she was really enjoying herself and taking her time.

{I love her concentrating feet in this picture}

Here's Maddie with her goblet.  She has a cool plan for this goblet when she gets it home.

We all had a blast, the kids kept bringing it up the rest of the day.  They can't wait to see their finished pieces!! 

The Boardwalk

 Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

We took it in.

We got some pics.

Here's how it went...

Caleb volunteered to pose for a photo.

Rare moment.

Not as rare, Mikayla smiled for my camera.

Classic moment in Banmanland...

Mike and Caleb charging ahead.

Mailee taking a photo. {to the right in the background}

Maddie by my side willing to pose for photo.

Me taking a photo. {Cambria in the "pouch"}

Seriously.

Super cool gumball machine misleading children by the 100's...

It spits out jawbreakers, not gum.

{it did say "jawbreakers" on the machine but when you look at this machine, what do you think? Gumballs, right?}

Within 5 minutes two of my kids' treats had fallen out of their mouths.

{They must have a "keeping hard candy in the mouth" deficiency!}

Super disappointing for the {mostly}sugarless kidlets!

"pouching it"

Me and my bri :)

The kids picked the arcades for their fun of choice.

Firat class crap for prizes!!

They voluntarily watched each other play the games which was great cause it really stretched the fun.

I like that they are interested in what their siblings do.

Caleb was super stoked to ride{play?} this game.

Being Daddy's only boy has it's perks, he had already spent all his allotted amount of tokens but Mike got more just for him so he could do this game.

Awe, I love this!

Mikayla checked out the entire arcade {which was HUGE} and came back to one of the first games she had seen, "Monkeyball".  When we got there, it was surrounded by people and there was a commotion.  The kid in the white Tshirt had just beat the game and the machine was spitting out tickets like crazy.

We ended up waiting a good 20 minutes for the machine to dispense his winnings before Mikayla could play her game.

My favourite thing about the Boardwalk?

The retro-ness.

The place has so many awesome details that have been kept up so well.  

The Boardwalk is celebrating it's 100th year!

Look at my 3 big girls!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love these little ladies???

Silly fun good times.

And the fantastic prizes {crap} that we walked away with?

Plastic lips and plastic whistles for all!!

The prizes most likely won't make it back home to Canada but the memories sure will!

100 Steps

Our rented beach house was a block away from Rio Del Mar.

Here's what we did at that beach...

Caity's favourite beach activity is digging in the sand.

She prefers to refer to this as "making sa-castles"

Mikayla likes to write in the sand.

This beach had lots of little crabs.

The kids started off doing this with the boogie boards...

Cambria had a happy nap on the warm sand.

Mike helped Caleb do a bit of boogie boarding.

He really enjoyed it.

He was so proud of himself:)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I remember taking a field trip to the Aquarium when I was a kid.

I loved it!

The last year that Mike was in school we had a season pass and we took tiny Mikayla a few times.  I was so excited to take the kids now that a few of them are old enough to really soak it up.

Because we spent a lot of time learning about eco systems and environments this year in 

{home}school, the aquarium was an awesome end of the year field trip for Banman Academy!

Caity loved touching the sea stars and other animals in the touch pools.

So did Caleb.

Grossest (is that a word?) thing in the pool?  

Sea cucumber.  

Grossety grosss.

Suishy, slimy.

Yick.

Feeling the suckers.

She was totally into it, we had to pry her away!

Checking out some huge fish "under the boardwalk".

Mailee enjoyed taking photos of everything.

Stay tuned for the girls' blog updates with all of their photos:)

Peeking in on the penguins.

Cait and some other small fries learning how to talk like penguins.

Cambria just goes with the flow.  She rides around in her "pouch" just as happy as can be.

Every once in a while I remember to take her out and stick her in a picture!!

Mike and Caleb went to a special shark presentation while the girls and I explored at our own pace.

(Translation: We took some pictures and checked out a gift shop)

The Monterey Bay meets the Banman family.

Caity was mesmerized by these jellyfish.

I wonder what a 2 year old thinks when she encounters something new like this.

She asked "what is dat?"

I said "Jellysish" and she was satisfied to have a name for them and just watch them move.

Paparazzi at the jellysifh tank.

The tank that the kids are standing at is gigantic.  It's really awesome that we can view these amazing creatures so closely.

The seahorses were a huge hit.

We kept saying how creative our God is to have purposed the formation of so many unique and beautiful animals.