Wow! More Food!

Nana decided that she was in the mood for sandwiches last night, so she dropped by with some bread and american cheese slices. Guess I need to hunt for felt for turkey, ham, swiss cheese, tomatoes... this could turn into a full time job. My online friend mentioned making gingerbread men cookies. Wouldn't that be cool? Perhaps I could get some fabric paint and pre-decorate them to make the job a bit simpler.

Food, wonderful food!

A friend of mine showed me some pictures of wonderful felt food that she made her daughter. I was so inspired by her pictures that I immediately ran out to buy some felt so that my mom could whip up some pancakes, eggs, and chocolate chip cookies for Abbie.

The incredible, amazing Nana managed this feat in just under a day and Abbie was able to bake C.J. a batch of cookies when he came home from school today. My friend said that it took her two weeks to make the same food and she wondered if her future inspirations could also be channeled through my mom. Unfortunately, I don't think Nana is taking orders at this time.

Ice Skating - CA Style

This morning we went to the firm's Family Skate Day at the Downtown Ice Arena. In CA, we can skate next to palm trees! The kids had a blast. They were all improved from last year. Even Abbie was able to skate without hands for awhile -- at least until she crashed hard and refused to keep trying. Abbie insisted that the entire family wear our Sharks jerseys. Someone asked us if we happened to know whether the Sharks tickets from last night would get the free pizza. ("If it's 4 in the net, it's pizza you get!") Hmmm. I wonder why they thought we might know the answer.

Look Ma! I've got eyes!

Tired of being called a waif and not being able to keep her hair out of her eyes, Abbie insisted on a haircut. Well, really Nana and Mom insisted, but.... close enough. Here's the new, improved Abbie!

Gingerbread

Tonight was designated "Family Night." C.J. wasn't allowed to go to Kids' Fun Night Out and Brendan and Abbie weren't allowed to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Instead, we decorated the Christmas tree, drank some hot apple cider, and made a Gingerbread house. Brendan got a wee bit frustrated early on, but everyone eventually had a good time. Our house might not be entered into Architectural Digest, but it is fit for a gingerbread man or two. Lest you think I have amazing baking skills, we bought the whole kit from Costco! I'd do it again in a heartbeat -- it was a breeze to assemble and all the candy was supplied.

Turkeys and Tired Puppies

Happy almost Turkey Day! Brendan got a head start on the celebration, as he had a Thanksgiving Friendship Feast at school. The students ate turkey sandwiches, apple sauce, cranberry relish, corn bread, popcorn, and pumpkin cookies. With the exception of the sandwiches, they made all the items! They even made special shirts for the event. Brendan looked adorable in his handmade (literally!) creation.









Abbie had a tough week entertaining Nana and others while Mom helped co-chair the book fair. We called her for dinner tonight, and the boys informed us that she had fallen asleep. It looks like she literally fell over from exhaustion. That Nana sure demands a lot of playing! On the book fair front, sales were up 20% over last year, so it was a huge success.

All Stars

C.J. played in the All Star game for soccer today. Four players from his team were selected. Ultimately, two all star teams were formed with 12 players each (2 from each of the 6 teams). The final score for the game was 3-3 which worked out great. They had a great team and no players got "bragging rights" for winning the game.

Our last soccer game of the season was delayed until next Saturday due to rain yesterday.

Brendan gets his new 'do

Brendan has begged and begged and begged for spikey hair for a couple of years. (Basically, since C.J. got his first spikey hair cut.) Mom said he had to wait until first grade -- the age that C.J. got his cut. Dad missed the memo and just once (but that's all it takes) quoted six as the magical age. Brendan turned six and demanded his haircut. John took him to the barber yesterday and he was all smiles for the entire cut. Here's the end result!

Soccer Season

Soccer Season officially began last weekend with our downtown shutting down for a parade including all the boys and girls soccer teams. This year, Brendan will be playing for the Champs U6 team and C.J. will be playing for the Dragons U9 team. John will coach both teams again.

Brendan shows off his new jersey and dimpled smile.

C.J. proves that you're never too old for a post-game tunnel! Unfortunately, most of the parents did seem to think the kids were too old, and it was a pretty small/pathetic tunnel.

First Day of School

C.J. and Brendan had their first day of school today. C.J. started 3rd grade and Brendan started Kindergarden.

Brendan had a fun day. He said that his teachers (job sharing team) are very nice. They read him books and talked about the classroom rules. He was most excited about recess which consisted of a snack time and playing on the play structure outside. Brendan reports that he made friends, but he doesn't know their names. When asked if he spoke to Amanda, the girl who sits next to him, he replied, "No. Only boys." Hmm. Perhaps Brendan won't be receiving the same marriage proposals that C.J. received in Kindergarden.

Champs!

Yesterday was the Championship Swim Meet where all eight swim teams competed against each other. It was crazy! There were anywhere from 4 to 10 heats for each event. A normal swim meet starts around 9am and ends around 1pm. Yesterday started at 8am (we were supposed to check in and do warm ups at6:30am!) and friends of ours didn't get home until 5:30pm! Somehow the stars and planets aligned and neither C.J. nor Brendan swam backstroke or the freestyle relay. That meant that we were done at the halfway point and made it home by 2pm. Just so that our friends would still speak to us after we deserted them for the 2nd half of the meet, we stopped at 7-11 on the way out of town and brought back Slurpees for their kids. All in all, the meet was amazingly well organized, though.

There was a holding area for the kids to get organized two events prior to their event. The kids were placed in rows corresponding to their heat and seats corresponding to their lanes.


The boys even made friends while hanging out waiting for their events to start. Brendan played rock paper scissors, and the older boys rested their feet. For the record, Abbie was very upset about the older boys' positions and immediately told them "You cannot move the chairs! Put the chairs back on the ground!" Yes, she is bossy.

The kids were then led holding hands to their lane immediately before they swam.

The bigger kids were too cool to hold hands, so they formed a conga line.

C.J. and Brendan beat some of their records. Unfortunately, the team didn't do as well. We came in last place. We weren't even close to the next place finisher. Oh well, at least we have a fun time swimming.

Sesame Place

I took Abbie to Philadelphia this weekend where I met some girlfriends. We had a great time! I had only known most of the women via the internet, and it was great to meet them "in real life." They all exceeded my expectations, and our friendships grew! Abbie had a blast playing with all the other kids (most moms brought one child with them). One friend even used my camera to get some rare mother/daughter shots. We did a lot of kid friendly activities -- e.g. Sesame Place, a water park designed for the preschooler set with a Sesame Street theme.

Here's Abbie at Sesame Place having fun playing in the water: Of course, we managed just a bit of shopping as well. Here we are at a place called Peddler's Village. It was a really cute area with scenic gardens, a water wheel, shops, restaurants, and the requisite children's place area.Finally, a couple of the shots my friend took of mother and daughter together:

The boys stayed home and had fun playing with various people. Brendan got to help Uncle Craig work on a garage door opener for Nana. It was quite a hit! The boys saw two movies with their Dad and competed in a swim meet. Both boys, Dad, and Uncle Craig all went to see the San Jose Grand Prix and had a good time. C.J. and Brendan capped off the weekend with a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's home.

First Bike Ride

Abbie opened her birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa early. It was quite the ordeal! Grandma and Grandpa told Abbie, when we visited them in Tahoe in June, that they would buy her a princess bike for her birthday. Abbie has talked about it every day since then, and she cried when she next saw Grandma and there wasn't any princess bike. (Birthdays and long waits are a tough concept for a two year old!) Grandma brought the wrapped present over and said that we could store it in the garage until the birthday. Abbie wouldn't leave the garage and wouldn't stop talking about the bike. We made an executive decision (for mom's sanity!) and let Abbie open the present early. She had so much fun watching Dad assemble the bike and then going for a ride up the street to retrieve C.J. from a friend's house. Baby had to go on the back, and she put a cell phone in the front.

Roommates... bedmates

Just in case the boys ever complain that we forced them to share a room, I'm saving this photo. Apparently, sharing a room isn't enough for them. They like to sneak into one bed after we tuck them in. Why own multiple beds? Sleeping sideways, I'm thinking we can just line all 3 of them up... maybe we should convert Abbie's room into a craft room. You think it'll be a problem when they start to grow again?

Swim Meet 7/15

I'm a little late on posting, but we had our 3rd swim meet on Saturday. Both boys swam in four events, and it was another long, hot day. You could see the effects of the day, because they definitely swam slower in their last events vs. the first events. I was one of the coordinators for the 6&under boys team, which meant I had to make sure that the boys were properly in position for all their events. It's a bit stressful, and I'm happy to return to my potato-baking job this weekend.

In between events, the boys hosted a poker party. Brendan managed to rake in the chips.


John decided to take a break from the swim meet and check his e-mail. While his sociability might have declined with the arrival of the blackberry, his e-mail response time has shown remarkable improvement.

Great America

We used our season passes to Great America today. I was meeting a friend at the park, but Nana decided to join us (Hip Hip Hooray!) to help corral kids and make it easier (or, more accurately, possible) to ride with the boys when Abbie couldn't/wouldn't participate. Abbie prefers the milder attractions. Carousels are a big hit with her. Fortunately, Nana seems to like the as well.

Nana did convince Abbie to go on one of the kiddie rides all by herself while her brothers were often doing something scary. Abbie loved the first ride, but she did not like the second ride at all. Nana probably now believes us when we call Abbie a little bit of a chicken. It's hard to imagine that she is the same girl who gets into so much trouble.

It was fun to see C.J. and Brendan have fun together and discuss the various attractions. Even though it was a bit cold (80 degrees), we headed over to the water park. C.J. went down a few waterslides, but Brendan didn't go. He said that he didn't know how to cross his ankles. Hmmm. C.J.'s favorite part of the day was watching the big bucket of water fill up and dump out on the huddled children below. Of course, he had to be one of those huddled, shivering children.

Since we have season tickets and free parking, we only went for a few hours. We got there at 10am when the park opened and we left before 2pm so that we could get a nice lunch outside the park. Nana agreed that it made the day much nicer than arriving at park opening and leaving at park closing, which was our usual mode or operation in my childhood.

My goal is to make it back to the park every two weeks for the rest of the summer. I don't think the kids will object.

Aiden Andrew

Our good friends gave birth to their third son on Friday. They decided to go for the third child when we proved that the elusive girl could be obtained. Alas, they are working on developing their own sequel to My Three Sons.

Aiden Andrew was born three weeks early. He's spending a bit of time in the NICU working on being able to breathe and eat at the same time, but he is expected to come home soon. In an effort to prove that he wasn't, in fact, named after my FIL, Aidan, they decided to spell the name wrong. I'm sure it was an effort to keep us on our toes for the next x years of correspondence!

Oops! Apparantly, the father just can't spell. The birth certificate has the "correct" spelling of Aidan. Phew.

2nd Swim Meet

The boys participated in their second swim meet on Saturday. They both improved on their times and had a lot of fun. In between events, they occupied themselves with Game Boys. Kids flocked from neighboring blankets to check out the excitement. It may seem odd to promote video game usage during a sporting events, but swim meets can get loooong. From warm-ups to the last event, about 5 hours elapses. Consider that each child swims all of 4 events for about a 1 minute each, and you have a lot of waiting time.

Earache

Abbie whined for several hours last night about her ear hurting, so I booked a doctor's appointment. Of course, she woke up this morning and promptly said "Ear don't hurt anymore!" I was willing to pat myself on the back for an escaped visit, but a little voice in my head said that Abbie doesn't normally complain about "nothing" and has a high threshold for pain. I brought her to the doctor, and she has an inner ear infection and swimmer's ear (middle ear) infection in the same ear. The doctor was pretty shocked that it didn't hurt anymore. Just to prove what an experienced mother I am, I managed to put the ear drops in the wrong ear the first time. Duh!

To round out my fun-filled morning, Brendan threw up for the first couple of hours. He appears to be doing better, but I'm adding food back slowly. Of course, he is now asking why he never got breakfast... yes, I am the mother who starves her children.

Party Time!

After over 6 years, we finally got invited to a party at our neighbor's house! It's not that we don't get together all the time, but they don't host many official parties. We spent the day in their pool and sitting around eating some BBQ. After dinner, a competitve (at least on John and Jim's part) volleyball game was started. Fortunately, John and Jim were on the same team, so the good-neighbor-relationship is not in jeopardy. I expect my family will be very tired tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July

How do you get 3 kids to smile/laugh for a picture? Have Abbie tell her new joke!

Abbie: "Daddy I have to tell you something!"
Daddy: "What?"
Abbie: "Your butt stinks!!"

Gee, can you tell she has two older brothers?

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!!