happy papa's day

For father's day, we gave daddy two presents...the 1st one is a video montage of daddy a Jayden...you can see the smaller version of it here (WARNING: it's 12 minutes long)


Father's Day Montage from Lauren Mack on Vimeo.

The 2nd present was made by the little man all by himself-- Jayden made his papa some works of art.

Here are some pics from the 1st round (where I put down three 11x14 pieces of paper and let Jayden work his magic). I only took a few pics because I was nervous he was going to get paint everywhere.

And here is one of the framed masterpieces (papa thinks it looks like birds and if you turn it sideways he thinks it looks like 2 people dancing...his 1st comment was "wow, perfect use of negative space"...artists are a little wacky!)
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A few days later, when we went to the store to buy a frame for one of the masterpieces, and I saw this canvas and decided we had to make another piece of artwork for papa because we wanted papa to be able to have several pieces of art from his little guy so he can leave one at home and bring one to the office. This time I was much less nervous of J getting paint everywhere-- I just let him do whatever he wanted and I clicked away. We had so much fun and I think it came out pretty cool!

The blank canvas, ready to be painted!

And here is the finished piece...pretty cool, huh?!

Father's Day Weekend Part I

We spent the morning playing in our apartment, hanging out with daddy (who woke up early because he was so excited about it being father's day weekend!). After Jayden's morning nap we headed into the city to go to the Exploratorium (the Science museum in San Francisco). Jayden (and daddy) had so much fun and both passed out as soon as we got home.

Happy almost father's day Papa!

Breakfast (yogurt, Cheerios and shredded cheese...yum!)

EXPLORATORIUM

Hanging out in the toddler play area! Such a big boy=)

The coolest table ever!

Jayden made a friend!

Daddy proud of his little man playing all by himself

Peekaboo giggles

Enjoying the perfect weather

It has been absolutely perfect out, so Jayden and I have been spending most of our days outdoors. Yesterday we hung out at the park in Foster City. Whenever we go to a park, all Jayden wants to do is crawl all over me. He spends the entire time pulling up on me, standing on his own, falling down, and then doing it again. He can now stand for a good 15 seconds- he puts his arms out like he's surfing and his feet are in a wide stance...so stinkin cute! He always looks like he is REALLY concentrating hard, but if you catch his eyes he will smile at you, and then lose concentration and fall. Every time I grab my camera to take a picture, he looks at me, and then leaps forward to try to grab the camera.

Jayden's solution to teething pain (his 4th tooth broke today)

Shakin' and groovin'

After the park, we came back home for Jayden's nap, and then headed to the pool to go for a quick dip before getting papa.

Today Jayden's friends came over for a pool party. He had so much fun splashing around in the pool with his friends (it's usually just us in the pool)! The mommies also had fun cooling off too, since it was almost 90 today!

Most of the gang: Natalie and Izzy, Anne & Oliver, Steph & Lucy, Lisa & Jack, Mama Mack & J-dawgs...missing in the pic: Jenny & Clay (picture taker), Kate & Oliver (visiting family in Boulder) and Laura & Mac (work)

After our pool party, we picked up Daddy and headed to downtown San Mateo for a concert. The city has a concert in Central Park every Thursday night in the summer. Jayden had a blast-- there were so many families picnicking and enjoying the music and Jayden was just in awe of all of the children running around in front of him. Hopefully we'll be able to do this every Thursday!

Enjoying the concert with daddy

ROCK STAR

Park photo shoot

After almost 2 weeks of crappy weather, it is finally summer and we couldn't be happier-- the weather couldn't be more perfect these days...sunny and in the 80's with a slight breeze. Yesterday we met up with Jenny and baby Clay for a picnic lunch at the park and then we came home and went for a swim in the pool. Today we spent all afternoon at the park playing and watching the "big" kids celebrating their last day of school. When the big kids left, we had a photo shoot (since you can never have too many pics of the cutest baby in the entire world!)...Jayden now strikes a pose and gives me a huge smile when he sees me pull out the camera- such a ham!

Yeah, what's up...look what I've got!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The money shot!

Pure happiness

Hammin' it up

Since my leg wasn't available for him to pull up on, he moved on to the stroller.

A perfect day in sunny Saratoga

A LONG time ago, Grandma Mack gave me a gift certificate to a spa in Saratoga. Before Jayden was born, I went to the spa to get a pre-natal massage, which was amazing. I still had enough $ on the gift certificate for another massage, but never could figure out a time to go back down to Saratoga again now that I'm with Jayden 24/7. My back has been killing me lately, so I decided today would be a perfect day for a massage and a family trip... we figured since Jayden has never been to Saratoga and we hadn't been there since we moved to California 2 years ago, it would be fun to make this a Team Mack trip and spend the day hanging out in Saratoga. We spent most of the day at the Japanese Gardens, which were so beautiful and so peaceful. We had a picnic in one of the pagodas and then hiked around and looked at the amazing views. Later we headed to a local park and Daddy and Jayden hung out while I went to get my massage. After my massage, we had a snack at an outdoor cafe and listened to some LOUD live music, and then headed back to the park so Jayden could go swinging. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had so much fun exploring a new town.

Bamboo gardens- soooooo beautiful!

If you click on this pic, you can see Jayden's top tooth

View from the top

Picture perfect view