First Day of School

Luke was incredibly (I mean, really, he was over the moon) excited to start school today, which makes me ridiculously happy. I'm so, so glad that he really loves his school, his teachers, his friends ... all of it. In fact, he asked me about 3 weeks ago how many more days it would be until school would start again.

This year he is attending Mandala's afternoon Pre-K (Bumblebee) class with primarily other 4 year olds, most of who will be going off to Kindergarten next year (he is very proud of this "promotion" on the preschool spectrum!). He is going on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and we've signed him up for an extended day so he will be there from 12-4, an hour before the official school afternoon begins, to have lunch and do some extra activities.

First Pig Tails

I've been waiting for this day

Sibling love

Recently we have struggled with teaching Mia how to express her frustrations with her brother (or anyone, really) using words and not her hands. Her vocabulary is rapidly expanding (pretty incredible right now, actually), but is still not quite extensive enough to convey all of her wants, needs, or feelings. So she hits ....

BUT, she has become very good now at saying "sorry" and then hugging or kissing the person who she has wronged. Tonight she really wanted to let Luke know how she felt ... she knocked him right over with her hug, and then they laid there for a few minutes just hugging.


Very sweet. They are actually becoming even more loving towards one another and it absolutely melts my heart. Lots of hugs, kisses, and "I love yous."

A Special Kind of Love

I know that I'm biased, but I think that I have the best grandparents ever.

That being said, Luke and Mias' grandparents (both sets), are definitely contenders for that title.

With Grandma and Grandpa from New Jersey visiting us in California, some pool time, and a short trip to Tahoe, Luke and Mia had a lot of extra love and attention given to them over the past week.

Here are a few shots from last week ...

Day 1: A visit to the pool where Grandma (who I'm pretty sure wouldn't get her hair wet for anyone else) jumped right in with Luke ... and Luke got tossed around by his grandpas (and showed off his swimming skills with Paw)

A quick weekend trip to Tahoe filled with backyard fun ... and a visit from Mia's sweet friend Sayde from next door.

What do you do for lunch when you have grandparents in town? You eat ice cream, candy, and try a gumball for the first time!

Time for S'mores ... it was Mia's first s'mores experience - they both loved it (what's not to love?)

Grandpa (Jim) was behind the camera, and somehow we didn't get him in any photos ... we'll have to make up for that next time we are together.

Two very, very lucky kids to have so much love around them.

Potty Training (again)?

Over the weekend we took the little potty out just in case our little house guest decided that she would like to use it :). On Sunday evening, after our guests had traveled home, I took the kids up to the bathroom for our regular routine (potty, tubs, stories, etc.). Luke will often sit on the big potty if he has not "gone" yet that day, which was the case on this particular day. Since Mia is very much into doing anything and everything that Luke does, she followed suit and sat down on the little potty across from him. I didn't think much of it until....

... she went!

And I'm not just talking about a tinkle either!

I could NOT believe it ... I mean, we haven't talked about it, I figured she was too young, and she hasn't really even explored the little potty or anything. She just sat right down and went about her business.

Needless to say, we are leaving the little potty out. I have no inclination to potty train her right now - honestly, I feel like we just finally finished potty training Luke and I was hoping for more of a "break." Just goes to show me (yet again) that in this particular area I have absolutely NO control ... and we'll just have to follow Mia's lead on this one.

One last hurrah ... until October

The four families got together one last time while our friends were in town. We had a BBQ with lots of kids, lots of food, lots of fun, and some crazy bounce house jumping to round off the evening!

The kids' table


This girl LOVES to swing!

And I figure that someone has to carry on the Tri Delt hula-hooping tradition

BOUNCE!


Matching PJs as we head to bed


Thank you Darin, Steph, Ava, and Baby Gavin (who I didn't get one picture of, but is the sweetest baby and was the best house guest we've ever had - seriously, we hardly knew he was here) for coming to visit. We are so glad that our goodbye is only until we all meet in Tahoe in October (and add two more families to the mix!).

Happy Hollow with Friends

Of course, with Ava and Gavin in town we just had to take them to Happy Hollow. What fun to have Charlie, Jack, Aidan, and Bailey join us as well! To think that the mommies of this group were sorority sisters and roommates (and I swear it wasn't THAT long ago), and now we've grown into this group of families - pretty crazy!

A favorite: Danny the Dragon

Luke insisted early on in the day on riding the roller coaster again. He claims to "love" it, but when I review the photos and see the look of terror on his face, I wonder why he insists upon torturing himself. Aidan is LOVING it ... and Ava appears to be hanging onto her Daddy very tight (although she also claims that it was "fun").




Michael rode the Frog Hopper with the kids. I love the look between Michael and Ava - they've always shared a mutual adoration.

Holding-hand-girls and riding-with-Daddy-girls

Some of the boys just after lunch

SEESAW!

Carousel rides

Somehow this Mommy's least favorite attraction always seems to be the kids' most favorite ... feeding the goats.