Little Girls' Weekend: Fun in the Sun

We have a tradition of a "Little Girls' Weekend" at the end of the summer or beginning of fall with my college roomie, Jen VanderMeulen, and her cuties, Ella and Delia. This year they graciously made the drive to the Gilmore Bed & Breakfast for a few days of fun in the sun while they're hubby/daddy Dave was on a trip to Chicago. We took them to one of our fave Fresno spots: Storyland. Of course, we chose a steamy hot Fresno day for such festivities.

The girls loved hearing all the fairy tale stories and nursery rhymes as we walked through Storyland. They used their magic key to turn on the narrator boxes and listen. Here they took a brief rest on Mother Goose's lap.

We took a train ride to the adjacent Playland and hung out at the park's new feature, a kid's sprinkler splash park. What a relief in the 100-degree temperature. The three girls donned their bathing suits and had great fun run through the sprinkler and splashing with the other kiddos.

Saturday evening we had a Chinese feast in honor of the final Olympics showing. Jen is a big fan of the Olympics too. We had fun sharing this time together. We rolled homemade wontons for wonton soup. All of us cheered on the track and field relay runners. We were so grateful for the men's and women's 4x400-meter-relays. At least the U.S. picked up gold in something track & field!

Sunday we all dressed up and headed to our church, The Bridge. This was a fun adventure for the VanderMeulen girls since they're daddy is a pastor and they don't often visit other churches. Ella and Meilani checked out the Busy Bugs class and Delia was a great sport in our church nursery while the parents enjoyed worship.

Sunday afternoon we declared a pool party. Ella and Meilani were pool partners. They had so much fun singing and swimming together. Meilani showed off her summer swimming moves and inspired Ella to do some new tricks. Ella bravely jumped into the water and ventured beyond the edge of the pool. We were all so proud of her!

The girls joined Delia in the kid "hot tub" complete with a water slide.

Meilani did a few Olympic dives for good measure. She entered the water with a big splash but the judges gave her great marks. Nana and Papa Lazo joined us for a Grilled Fajita Fiesta for dinner.

Sunday moved into Monday and we still found ourselves in the pool. (We just couldn't get our little fishies out of the water!) Auntie Jen taught us the "Motor Boat Motor Boat" song and a few other memorable pool songs that Meilani's been singing ever since. The best part of the weekend was just hanging out with our friends. Jen and I reflected on how fun it is to "do life together" with kids. If we only knew in college what our California life would be like now!

All-Sports Back-to-School Luau: Gilmores run the track booth

On Friday, we headed to Fresno Christian School to help Ericlee with the Track booth at the All-Sports Back-to-School Luau. We had a blast. First stop for Meilani girl: the bounce house!

We had two track events at our booth. Kids (and even parents) bought tickets and played sports-related contests. We hosted the standing long jump (pictured here). The overall winner was Mr. Ford, who even beat his track star kids in long jump.

Ericlee manned the 50-yard dash. He borrowed the nifty timing device from Velocity gym where he worked and we recorded the best times of kids ages 4 through adult. They had fun dashing for the finish.

Grandma Chris came to check out the festivities with her Hawaiian grandgirl, Meilani. After the contests, there was a big burger barbeque and all the teams were introduced. The new football coach, Bonner Cunnings, was introduced.

Maybe the best part of the event was catching up with the other coaches' families. The mamas got to chat it up and the kids ran free through the carnival. Here the Schultz girls watch the 50-yard-dash with Meilani.

Aloh-A!

Olympic Marathon: Gilmores host Track team party

Have you all been addicted to the Olympics? We sure have. We've been staying up late and walking around bleary-eyed during the day because we couldn't miss this sports event of the year. Meilani was even allowed to stay up a few nights with Mama & Daddy - especially to watch her fave "Michael Phelpss" and some of the track events.

On Thursday, we hosted a little Olympic-watching party with our Fresno Christian Track team and a few alumni runners. It's always more fun to watch the Olympics with friends and since Thursday was a big track & field night we decided to invite Meilani's track "friends" over. We provided the dessert and munchies but the group provided the entertainment. We all giggled over commentary from Doug. Aliza Ford won our Olympic trivia contest. And, as to be expected, Meilani won the award for best track cheerleader. (You think she's had some training?)

Catching up with Cousins in the City

It all started with a chance to go to the Society of Children's Book Writers "Agent's Day" conference. I've been looking for a book agent for a few years so I thought I'd jump on this one. We ended up using this as an excuse to hang out with our cousins in San Francisco and San Jose.
My niece, Sophia (pictured above), and nephew, Giovanni, flew down from Seattle and met up with us. Our first stop: Ethiopian food to fill the craving of my prego belly. We found a fabulous place called Gojo, which was off the beaten track in San Jose.
Meilani loved the low tables and little chairs with silky cushions. She also had great fun eating with the injera bread instead of utensils. "I use my fingers?"

My nephew Gio is 12 years old now - practically a teenager. Yikes! Outside of teasing his sister, he loves playing ultimate frisbee, creating computer programs and building with Legos. (The kids just got back from Legoland in San Diego with their Grandma Joan.)
After our savory dinner, we headed back to my cousin
Kimberly's place in San Jose for a big cousin sleepover. We rounded up some snacks from the grocery store. Kim blew up a big air mattress and we all sat in front of their Olympic-sized television to watch the Games.


We had to get in a girly picture: Kim with her baby Kalina, Meilani and me, and Sophia. (We missed you, Caron!)

Kalina is so huggable. All the "older" girl cousins were fighting over who would hold her. Meilani entertained her by trying out all her toys and doing little singing and dancing shows. Kalina was so amused she stayed up late with the rest of us.


Sunday morning we slept in and then went for brunch at a cool local place where we met Uncle Frank (my dad's bro) and Auntie Doris. Meilani felt special sitting between her cousins, sipping her smoothie and eating her giant bagel with cream cheese.

Sunday afternoon we met up with Nana Maria at a park. She was staying with her friend, Mae, and daughter, Andrea, and her daughter, Bella (front left), for the weekend. We went to a park to hang out, ride this train and a carousel and play at the playground.

We ended our time with Sophia and Gio at IKEA. Sophia and I had our hearts set on shopping. Gio had his heart set on Swedish meatballs at the IKEA cafe.


Before we left town, we had a visit with my Grandpa Frank. He just had a birthday in August. He's something like 97 years old now. (That's always debateable with Grandpa.) He's still got enough juice to smile for the camera.

Splish-Splash: It's a Party!

It's no surprise that Meilani has one daily mission: swimming. Only she calls it "fimming." Every morning we wake up and have breakfast and she asks me, "My friends come over? Go fimming?" Well, last Wednesday we did lure some other water-lovin' friends to come over for lunch and a little impromptu pool party.

Pepe was the king of the pool. In fact, he didn't get out of the pool for the whole afternoon. He just swam back and forth in this little floaty ring and had some big fun.

Meanwhile, his lil bro, Preston, also got a little dip in the pool with his Mama Jessica. The water was surprisingly calming for the little guy. Guess he's following in his older brother's footsteps.

Isaiah and Amy hung out too - sporting their cool pool look.
Isaiah's younger bro, Luke, was content to hang out in our bowl chair with a shiny balloon to keep him happy all afternoon. We dined on homemade pizza and fruit and all had a splashing good time.

Anyone else up for a swim?

Painting Party

Meilani has been very excited to get back to some of her birthday presents (from May!) that she didn't get much use out of before our trip to Virginia. One of her favorite gifts is her easel from Nana and Papa and paints from Auntie Michelle and Uncle Paul. She's been painting little masterpieces each day. We love watching her be creative and independent like this!

Olympic Cooking Club: Let the Games Begin

Saturday we hosted our monthly Cooking Club. Since the Olympics were in Beijing, we decided to go for a Chinese-inspired menu. We had a costume contest where people could wear their favorite ethnic costumes in honor of the Opening Ceremony. Marcy Pusey stole the show with her outfit from Israel.






The menu included:
Wonton Soup
Sesame Crackers
Fruit Salad
Vegetable Stir Fry
Cashew Chicken over Brown Rice
Fortune Cookies with Pineapple Sherbert


We rolled wontons for the homemade wonton soup. Mia Vasquez looks on to make sure our wonton-rolling is up to par.

Corban Pusey and Niana Holman decided to get in on the cooking action. They stirred up their own concoctions at the kid kitchen. The best part: no mess at their corner of the kitchen to clean up.

This cooking club was a lot about the kids. Our house was crawling with 1-year-olds. Meilani enjoyed playing on the exercise balls with her "older" friend Angel. They tried out their acrobatic skills for the Opening Ceremonies party.
Our youngest cooking club member is Olivia Andrade, who is growing quickly. Meilani (in her Chinese pajamas) snuggled up next to the baby. Olivia's parents, Mary and Antonio, got the prize for the most Olympic trivia questions answered correctly. (Ericlee is the king of Olympic trivia.)
Cori Schmidt was the queen of the Vegetable Stir Fry, one of the faves of the evening. Cori and Darrel were good sports and stayed the latest to watch the athletes representing the different countries march in. We cheered especially for Rwanda, Haiti, and, of course, the United States.

Let's go on a Zoo-venture!

Meilani's been dying to see her friends. She really wanted them to come over to her "new house." She thinks our Fresno home is a "new house" since we haven't lived her for the summer! We settled for meeting up with the McGowens and Toslands at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Meilani loved hanging out with Meliz and baby Preston (pictured here) along with Milani, Peyton, Isaiah and Baby Luke. How she missed them!
Preston was born in the spring so it was fun to see how much he's grown over the summer. Look at those sweet eyes! Meilani's gearing up for a new baby sister or brother.