Music. Clambake. Campout. Picnic. Brevin's in town

Brooke & Kevin, that is.

We feel so blessed to have uncles and aunts that come spend time with us quite often.  It's one of the great benefits of living in the best place on earth (SoCal)!  Kevin and Brooke were vacationing in California during Kevin's last break before Dental School starts and on the heels of Brooke's PA School graduation... so they picked Monson & me up at the airport from our spontaneous Seattle trip and drove us home... to party some more!  The highlights:

Music Fest~ Aunt Brooke is a classically trained pianist, so the kids all flock to the piano when she's here and they join in to sing and show off what they know on the piano.  This prompted the subject of Brayden vs. the violin... which he has chosen to take a break from (aka QUIT) in recent months.  After much coaxing and convincing from Brooke, Kevin, and me... showing a few youtube videos illustrating just how cool playing the violin can be and that indeed, it is NOT a sissy instrument ... convincing him that what he has is real talent that could truly bless his life and others... he picked it up and played for the first time in months.

Music to my ears. Thank you, Brooke.

Play Time~ Having an Aunt and Uncle without children of their own has its pluses... because my kids get all their focus = fun for everyone... especially Curt and me who can just sit back and watch the kids glom onto them instead of us!  What kid doesn't love all this attention??

Alexandra still patches everyday (or she's supposed to).  

Uncle Kevin's attempt at being her patching twin- they're both blinged out now!

Stovetop Clambake~ I was happy to find another way to use my expensive and huge outdoor turkey fryer pot that was all-the-rage back in 2002.  I was thumbing through a Martha Stewart magazine and came across this idea... it's one of those things that just sticks and stays in your head until you try it... so the only way to check it off my mental list was to take the plunge.  I went online and found an even better method and recipe straight from Emeril.  It was A LOT of Prep work... but it was a super fun Summer activity even though most of us went to bed with major stomach aches. It was the perfect meal for our kids... who'd rather not use a fork and spoon anyway with their Bart Simpson-esque manners.  Costco & Stater Bros had great deals on seafood... and then the McLaughlin Clambake was born.... a tradition?  We'll see.  Top it off with an IBC or Izze... muy delicioso! Glad we had Kevin & Brooke here to share this fun meal with.  Cheers!

No wonder Brooke had a stomach ache... 

 she didn't really eat that much... we all piled our leftovers on her plate (or did we?)

Campout in the backyard~ Something always on the 'Summer list of fun things to do' that just doesn't ever happen... unless cool Aunts and Uncles are in town to carry it out.  They're much more fun & cool than us boring parents anyway.  They pitched the tent together, we had s'mores by the miniature campfire stove, and Kevin & Brooke were prepared with fun ghost stories and campfire games.  I think almost everyone lasted through the night, wet grass and all... 

The best part was that they also helped clean it all up!  What troopers!

Picnic in Wine Country~  One of the reasons why Temecula has grown on us is its unmatched beauty... for Riverside County, that is.  If you've visited Temecula before, you know how unexpectedly beautiful Wine Country is, and it's minutes away from our house.  So we had a little picnic at one of the wineries there.  Curt freaked out when I told him my plan... to just show up at the winery with our million kids and grub without purchasing wine from their store.  He almost made me turn around... until he saw that I knew what I was doing... there were plenty of others there with the same idea and plenty of shade to share on a beautiful, drizzly Summer Sunday afternoon.

Kevin wanted to show us that he can tie a cherry stem in a knot (without his tongue... smarty pants)

Come again soon!!!

Ode to McKenzie & Monson

Pounding on the piano- the kind that doesn't resemble anything like music... but rather, tests the nerves and makes you want to SCREAM happens OFTEN with lots of tiny busy little fingers in our home.  I asked for it.  I insisted on having a piano so our children could tickle the ivories and fill our home with beautiful music...or sometimes we just call it sound.

We bought a console second hand about 10 years ago...the twinner piano to the one I played on growing up, or at least tried to with the few years I took piano.  My brothers have much more 'for reals' talent in that department.  It's been a great desire of mine to expose our children early to instruments and music to develop possible talents they could stick to and hopefully bless their lives and fill our home with music-not of the iPod variety. 

McKenzie and Monson have diddle daddled with lessons at the school which proved to be unsuccessful with a class of 12.  A couple of months ago I started them with a phenomenal teacher, trained in the Suzuki Method and both have excelled greatly in just a few short months.  Suddenly the 'sound' turned into 'music'!  Joy to my ears!  She uses a very modified Suzuki Method for Monson and a more traditional approach with McKenzie.  Monson does NOT enjoy the lessons and structure, but rather composing on his own has been his forte; whereas, McKenzie has soaked it all in and loves playing any chance she gets.  They have talent and apparently stage fright to go with it.  They both froze during the middle of one of their solos at last week's piano recital.  They eventually turned it around to figure out the notes, but I froze with them for a second as I could feel their fear as their face turned 10 colors of red.  They did a great job with their first performances and I hope there's a round two next year!