Alison's birthday and other summer events

Here are a few pictures from the last month or so. Alison turned two at the end of July and I think we sang happy birthday to her and had cupcakes at least 3 different times with different family members. Now she thinks it is her birthday all the time. There are also a few pictures from our small roadtrip out to Utah. More about that in our next post.


Hanging out on the lawn in front of the Utah state capital. We needed a place to hang out and eat our vacation lunch (sandwiches and other goodies from the cooler) and the grass here was green and there was shade. It was quite warm in SLC that day, something that we are not used to this summer.

Through my smile I am telling Ryan that if he is doing bunny ears, I am going to hurt him or take away wii for a long time.

Alison enjoying one of her birthday cupcakes. Her new hairbows are from her Aunt Dakin.

We had lots of fun with Luke, Zachary, and Elizabeth while they enjoyed their last few weeks in the USA. This is a favorite picture and one we will look at a lot and think of them in their new home in England.

Is it the middle of summer already?

I am not sure what tone of voice I am asking the question in the title. Some days it is "Isn't it the middle of summer yet? Isn't school going to be starting soon? Please?" and other days I'm freaking out thinking that summer is already half over and we have done only two things on the 101 fun things to do with your kids this summer list. School does not start here until September 1st so there are still more weeks left in summer than we have wasted. Wasted is not a good word. We have been busy and have only had a few days to sit at home and do nothing (except complain about doing nothing and watch TV). Our first two camping trips are over with only one left. The 4th of July with visits from lots of family came and went. We took our annual trip to the fair and bought a funnel cake, just for Katy (even though she was not there. Katy, it really wasn't that good. Really.) John and Dakin's trip across the US is in its final stages and we get to see them a few more times before they leave the country. Alison's second birthday is in two weeks but I am not sure how we are going to celebrate considering that we want to leave on our exciting Utah vacation that day. I am sure we will do something but maybe it will be in Utah. Here are a few pictures from the fun events of the last few weeks. Enjoy.

Signs of summer

After a cold and dreary spring, we are finally having some signs of summer here in Fremont.

Sign #1: End of baseball! Closing day was last Saturday. I will not miss sitting at night freezing during 2 hour games but I will miss watching how much Jacob and Ryan enjoyed playing.

Ryan with his trophy and some teammates

Jacob and his 1st place team

Sign #2: The young berries (blackberries) are in! This is a variety of blackberry that ripens at the end of May. I think because of all the rain this spring, our crop is especially abundant. Alison is sporting some of the juice here on her face.

Sign #3: Messy babies, all the time. Why is summer messier than than the other seasons? It just is. (That is chocolate frosting all over from the most delicious chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes)

24 left to go

iron-on t-shirts that is. Twenty-four gold stars that say "Hirsch 2010 1st grade stars". Luckily the stars are small and only take 45 seconds each to iron-on. The shirts are for our spring program on Tuesday where each grade level does a dance and the whole school sings some songs. Kind of like the May day program at Parkmont except parents put this on instead of teachers. There is even a maypole dance by the 6th graders. I am in charge of 1st grade and we will be dancing to "Liza Jane" (a country-esqe version) in cowboy hats and bandanas. Oh, and the t-shirts. Can't forget the t-shirts. It really hasn't been that bad but after already doing 38, I am starting to hit a wall. So, I decided that I should blog. Donna mentioned that it is time that I update the old blog and I was confused because I knew that I have posted pictures within the last 4 months. That was up to date for me. Apparently, it was not good enough. Kristy has been writing on her blog lately and I have been enjoying those posts. Yes, I am a lurker and generally don't make comments probably because I sneak a peak at blogs late at night or during the day when I am supposed to be watching my kids.

John uploaded some photos to our computer the other day so I will go look for some to put up. Tuesday is the last baseball game for both boys and Saturday is the closing ceremonies. We survived our first year of little league. I am surprised how much the boys liked it and how they never complained even after more than 4 months of practices and games. I thought we would do it one year to see how it went, but it looks like we may have to do it again. I may move Ryan up early so at least we are not on 2 different teams and at the ball field Tues-Sat.

Did I mention that I got a new computer? And printer? Yes, John and I bought our first computer of our marriage last month and now have updated our printer after 10 years. I guess it was time. Now, we just need to buy a new kitchen table and a bed for Alison's room and I think we will be good for the rest of the year. Wait, I forgot about new window coverings for the house. It just doesn't look great when your mini-blind slates start breaking and haning sideways off the window. Not too classy. I think that was going to be my birthday present last year, but I never got around to it. Possibly because we had to replace the garage window and door from the house to the garage. Anyway, we should be good after that purchase until it is time to get a desk for the boys room and update the 30 yr old couches in our living room.

To my siblings: you may be getting strange letters from me in the next few weeks. I was going through a box of my school stuff that mom saved and ran across some items that got filed in the wrong places. There are several pieces of John's second grade (?) art work, a report card of Danny's (I know you want that), as well as a journal entry Kristy wrote on the day she was baptized. Donna, I don't think I have anything of yours, but I might. I will try to get those mailed out soon. I found some awesome projects and papers in my pile and pulled them out to put on the blog and then forgot and put them back in the box and asked John to put the box up in the garage rafters. Then, I remembered the next day that I wanted to type some of them out. Ouch. Guess it will have to wait until we move or something because I don't think there is any chance of John getting up there again anytime soon. Anyway, one thing that I remember was a paper from 2nd grade where I wrote about what I wanted to be when I grow up. I believe that I wanted to be the wife of the President of the United States (feminism hadn't quite reached 2nd grade parkmont yet) or a movie star. I think I also wanted to drive a convertible. Ahh, the dreams of youth.

Well, the iron has been on and it getting quite hot waiting for me to type this so I had better get back. Enjoy the pictures. It was nice talking with y'all.

On a family hike at a windy Coyote Hills. Skin cancer inspires stupid hats.

Ryan (3rd from rt) in the A's dugout

Jacob in his Rays uniform

At Ryan's preschool graduation

The crowded car on our way camping for Memorial day. Front right is a pile of stuff (the car chair was taken out).
Guess it is time for a car-top carrier.

Ryan's 5th birthday

Ryan turned 5 on St. Patrick's day. Of course we had green pancakes for dinner and a bright green cake for his birthday. He got a bunch of hot wheel track items and last weekend went to see "how to train a dragon" with Grandma and Grandpa Young (a birthday wish). Ryan also had a pizza lunch with a group of his friends from his preschool. He has a nice group of friends at preschool and we have never had any of them over to play so it was nice to have them over for his birthday. John also had his birthday in March. If you missed his facebook post, he got a wii for his birthday. The boys get to play it sometimes. We had to stress that it was not their wii, but dad's.

Here is a recent family picture. Yes, those are bunny ears. Jacob is in the bunny ear phase. How long does that last?

Winter family visits

The beginning of the year is usually a cold, long, depressing time for me but this year, it went fast since we had a visit from Dakin and her children as well as Grandma. It was really fun to see them here and even have a sleep over! We hope to see them all sometime in the next few months.



We forgot to take pictures until early in the morning on the day everyone was leaving. They were good sports about it even though everyone had just woke up.

With Grandma, after church.

Alison and Elizabeth had some fun times. They both needed to have purses this day.

Whoops, legoland picture from the last post. Oh well.

San Diego Trip

I am finally getting around to post some pictures of 2010. I have given up ever getting our New Year's day trip to Santa Cruz posted (it was a beautiful day, by the way, for all you who were wondering) but I will try to get some of the other events like our family trip, visits from family, and some birtthday put up. I have also almost given up writing on the blog and just posting photos. You will notice the # of pictures have increased while the number of words is decreasing.

San Diego trip summary: Left Thursday before President's day. Returned home the Tuesday after. Went to Legoland, San Diego zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal park. Vacationed with John's brother and his family (who got us great hotel deals). Overall rating: SUPER AWESOME!

The kids and their cousins.

Baby elephant that was born the day before. Seriously.

Let's just say after this picture was taken, there was a bit of gorilla chase and smack-down. The boys could not believe that John had captured the pinch on camera.

At a park in downtown San Diego.

Studying the map at the San Diego zoo.

Mama and baby panda. We rushed to see this since the baby is only out in the morning.

After a full day at the zoo and spending all their hard-earned money at the gift shop. Jacob and Ryan did jobs for the 6 weeks before the zoo to earn money to spend. They were so excited. We came home with a zoo of stuffed animals.

Alison at Legoland. She was too small to go on a lot of the attractions but luckily she was too young to care. She is having fun at a musical fountain.

Ryan at Legoland.