Happy Birthday to Me!

I post about everyone else's birthdays in our little family, so I might as well do mine. I had a great birthday, which was made great by so many people wishing it for me. I'm wearing the earrings in this picture Chris gave me. I got a beautiful handmade quilt, some towels, Silas made me a little ceramic bowl, and I was taken out to lunch by my momII and grandma. The gifts were great, and the many messages, cards, and phone calls really made my day.

Happy Birthday to me!

Baseball

Here's Silas's official baseball photo. His team did great, winning 10 out of 12 games (most of them by a landslide). Silas became a consistent hitter and a brave catcher. He got hit by the ball several times as catcher, but in most cases he walked it off or sat out for a bit and got right back in the game. It was a good season!

Happy Mother's Day 2011

I feel so blessed on Mother's Day. Not only do I have 3 great moms [Annette (birth mom), Sharlene (step-mom), and Kathy (mom-in-law)], but I have 3 great kids!

I got a nice new table cloth, breakfast (German pancakes and fruit smoothies), flowers, and lots of cards and pictures. I feel so loved! Thank you!

Happy Easter 2011

Happy Easter from the Rauch bunnies! We had a really hard time getting smiles instead of silly faces this morning! The kids enjoyed their Easter basket goodies, we all enjoyed the Easter program at church (I sang in the choir), then we had a nice dinner with family (Chris's parents came up). It was a good day!

UC Davis Picnic Day 2011

Picnic day is a fun event! There's a great parade, fun activities, and departments of UC Davis open their doors so you can see some of what they're working on.

It wouldn't be Davis (a platinum bike city) if there weren't historic bikes in the parade. Davis is home to the Bicycle Hall of Fame. Cool old fire trucks are a must.

Cultural groups abound.

Fencing club!!

As a largely agricultural community & university, there were LOTS of horses and horse drawn carriages. I thought these old west folks were cool.

Then there was face painting! Keilah got a butterfly and Silas got a snake, but Zeke wasn't interested.

We missed out on the very popular Chemistry Magic Show because the line was too long, and there were too many events to catch everything. Some things we saw that I couldn't get adequate pictures of include: cockroach racing, cow milking, and the Doxie Derby (wiener dog races - hilarious!). We're looking forward to Picnic Day next year!

Spring Break - Legoland

Our second adventure for Spring Break was a day at Legoland. Under 10 is the perfect age for this amusement park since all the rides are geared toward this age range. These pictures don't capture half of what we did and saw! There were fun roller coasters, amazing Lego creations, and other fun rides. Below is the mini-Legocity of San Francisco.

One of the many rides that Zeke went on. He won the joust. Silas rode his own "jetski" while Zeke and I were on another one. The whole family went for a boat ride.

The Lego lion ate my children.

Legoland has a partnership with Volvo and there was a driving school for Zeke and one for Silas (picture to come). These Lego cars were completely controlled by the driver! Both boys did great (must be all those driving video games).

We also saw Legoland's Sea Life Aquarium next door. It was very well done and we got to see a few sea animals that weren't at Sea World like sea horses and jelly fish. What a fun adventure!

Spring Break - Sea World

For Silas's Spring Break we headed to Southern California to visit Chris's sister Cami and her daughter Billie. We went to Sea World with them on our first day there.

Of course, you can't go to Sea World without seeing Shamu!

Their Arctic collection included polar bears, penguins, walrus, and boluga whales. The dolphin show was quite entertaining. It featured acrobatics and high diving skills as much or more as the dolphin's skills.

The sea lions were barking so loud we had to stop and see them.

Touch pools are always fun.

All-in-all, it was great fun!