Visiting Davis

Last weekend Eddie and I went to Davis for Leila's birthday party.  Cassie had invited us juuuuuuuuuuuuust in case we wanted to come...and of course we did!  We were lucky that Dave needed some alone time to get the newly textured sheet rock primed in the downstairs bedrooms.  So off we went on Saturday morning after waking up late, having breakfast, and packing up the van.  It was so refreshing to not worry about packing up the dogs and tons of stuff--just the toiletry kit and a change of clothes.

We made on pit stop in Petaluma for snacks and then went straight to the party.  It was at a gymnastics place we'd never been to before, which was fun.  Cassie was the only one who knew we were coming so it was really fun when all the other parents got excited to see us walk in.  Ahhhhh, I really felt loved.  Eddie took off immediately toward the trampoline with his Davis bffs, Leila and Isaac.  I didn't see him for the rest of the party except for a lemonade request and then cupcakes/candy at the end.

A kid and his croissant and juice.

The party was a circus theme, complete with buckets of peanuts and popcorn and TONS of candy.  Each kiddo got an empty paper sack to fill with candy as their goodie bag.  Eddie did the reasonable thing: he tasted each thing and kept what he liked and handed me what he didn't.

All the kiddos enjoying their cupcakes.

Eddie's cheeks are rosy red from intense tumbling. 

Before we moved away from Davis, I decided that we should play at every single park in town. I found a list/map online and began checking them off. In July we left with two remaining on the list.  So after the party ended and Cassie went out with her family, Eddie and I headed off to those parks.  The first one was disappointing, having only two baby swings.  Seriously, nothing else, not even a bench to climb on.  However, the last park did not disappoint.  Eddie proclaimed it as his favorite park in town, but I think his memory isn't very good.  Rainbow City definitely wins the prize for best park, not this one on Redbud.  It was small but we had a good time together.

I love these rotating seats--and especially that green metal umbrella thing in the background--it spins and spins you around when you hold onto the bars with your hands.

We headed back to Cassie's to spend the night. The kids ate pizza on the couch with Leila's dad and uncle while Cassie and I chatted at the table. Everyone crashed around 9 pm.  I usually hate sleeping with Eddie because he's a thrasher but this night wasn't too bad. The worst part of the night was all the noise from outside. Cassie lives a block from campus and it happened to be the Saturday night before school started for the year.  We were serenaded until midnight with shrieking girls, bike bells, and chanting frat guys.

We slept in the 'infant room' of Cassie's house, a room she uses for her daycare.

That morning I was in serious need of coffee so we all walked downtown to Pete's.  We let the kids play at the park for a bit before heading back to the house to pack up.

They were playing pirates, I think.

It was hard to leave because we love Cassie so much...but it was also fun to run errands with Eddie after we departed.  He got to pick out two new fish and an aquatic snail at the pet shop, plus 20 crickets for his classroom lizard.  Then we headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up a few odds and ends, including whichever <$20 toy Eddie wanted.  He'd been so good with all the driving and change in schedule and he hadn't gotten a new toy in a while so Dave and I agreed to let him pick something out.  I steered him away from certain things and he settled on an Iron Man action figure.  It has recorded sayings on it and he thought of them said, "Popsicle bread."  I finally realized it actually said, "Possible threat" and tried to correct him, but he's sure he's right.

Cassie gave Eddie a huge sack of old princess/fairy dress up gear before we left. Here you can see Kiki, who got to eat her very first food while we were there.  She's a chow-down champ!

Eddie was asking all sorts of questions while the gal scooped out his fish.

Lab meetings and school have started up again but I'm on leave for the quarter. I'm planning on going to campus for the meetings and some lab work/focused writing time/professor meetings once or twice a month. So...until next time, Davis!