1st Grade

Yay! We got through the first day of 1st grade without a hitch. Aidan who usually needs to be nudged for 15 minutes to get out of bed was up and ready at 6:40am this morning he was so excited to start 1st grade at his new school. I'm hoping everyday will be like today and that this is the beginning of a fabulous school year...way to go Aidan, we're so proud of you!

End With A Bang

We sure ended the summer with a bang! We packed up the boys and drove to San Diego for a week of fun. The weather was perfect, except for one exceptionally hot day, the kids were on fabulous behavior, and we were all just as happy as can be.





Spent 2 days at LegoLand, first day enjoying the rides and the second day at the water park. Lots of great rides, shows, and sites to be enjoyed by everyone.






We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo which is an amazing place. Unfortunately, we had to cut our visit short as a result of the extreme heat to be had that day. Most the animals were hiding, taking cover from the blazing heat, and my little beasts wanted the same. We took the bus tour, the sky ride, visited a few animals including this sweet panda and then called it quits. We went back to our hotel and enjoyed the fabulous pool that had some fun seahorse fountains, and just beautiful view of the harbor. That night we took the boys to their first fancy dining experience.





We went to this trendy restaurant in historic gas lamp quarters, called Red Pearl Kitchen. It was dark, the music was going (like being in a nightclub), there were candles on the tables, we enjoyed a delectable Asian fusion dinner, including the boys,surprisingly. The boys were completely riveted by the experience and Daddy and I were so grateful to enjoy a nice meal out with not meltdowns.







Our final day was spent at the USS Midway Museum. We got the grand tour of this amazing battleship including a variety of planes and helicopters. Of course the boys "ohhed and ahhed" over the whole thing. We ended this visit with a ride in the "Desert Storm Simulator", definitely an experience to be had.

One of the sweetest things every evening during this trip was there were fireworks to be watched from our hotel room. I'm not sure what the events were, stadium? concert? who knows? but the boys loved watching them and I pretended they were especially for us so we could end our summer with a fabulous bang!

Family Counts, 6 Counts

We had a nice weekend, especially Aidan who considered it his birthday weekend celebration. The weekend started with a nice family gathering with Auntie Lisa and her girls visiting from New Jersey. Uncle Raymond and Auntie Evelyn hosted this gathering, all the cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents, enjoyed a huge jumpy house and delicious BBQ lunch. The funny part was that Aidan believed this gathering was to celebrate his last day of being 5. Evelyn was so sweet to confirm this belief with Aidan by handing out party favors and congratulating him on his last day of 5. Aidan was so pleased.



Evelyn and I got to commiserate about the challenges of raising twins plus an older one. We are both fortunate enough to be stay at home moms, so we had so much to talk about and had fun comparing notes. I truly enjoyed this time with her and how genuine and kind she is, I only wish we lived closer.



As for Sunday, the big day, Aidan's day, we had fun celebrating 6. We of course did this at Pump It Up. Aidan had been requesting a party there for months. I tried to sway him into other ideas but he held steady on this request. We indulged him and he sure enjoyed it with his brothers and 11 of his closest buddies. It was so much fun to see him so happy.

In Training

A funny conversation while on our way home from dinner:

Aidan(6 yrs old): "Mommy and Daddy are the boss, right?"

Me: "Well we're in charge."

Miles (3 yrs old): "What about me? What about me?"

Daddy: "You're the children."

Me: "You follow the rules."

Aidan: "We're in training"

Daddy and I: *Laugh*

Aidan: "We're in training to be adults."

Aidan Rides

Sorry no pics...

Aidan learned to ride his bike today, thanks to our dear friend Rachel. She took off his training wheels and got him going after 3 tries. Unfortunately, I missed the moment as I was at an appointment with Aidan's brothers but, I did get to see him riding later that afternoon. He took a few spills that made me anxious, anxious, anxious. Though, I remained enthusiastic, trying to be supportive mom, reinforcing how great he was doing while in my mind I was thanking heaven no major road rash, no broken bones. He was so excited about it and I was so excited for him.

Conversation went like this:

Aidan: "Mom I can ride my bike, no training wheels. Are you proud of me?"

Me: "Yes Aidan I am so proud of you. That's great. You must be so proud too."

Aidan: (Beaming with pride) "Yeah, I'm proud...does that mean I get a reward when we get home because I can ride my bike now with no training wheels."

Me: (Rolling my eyes now because Aidan takes any chance to ask for a treat) "We'll see Aidan, learning how to ride your bike is pretty cool."

Aidan: "Yeah, I think I should get a reward."

So we all had popsicles after dinner to congratulate Aidan's newest accomplishment. Still in my mind I'm dreading the many more spills. I know it's inevitable and I'm just going to have to let it go. I won't always be able to protect him but I have to take comfort in knowing that I can make sure I'm there to come to his aid when he's hurt. Another lesson in watching your children grow up.

Meet The Monsters

Meet the "Dark Blue Grrrster", "Milesbot 3000", and Z'Sun'z. These monsters enjoyed themselves searching for moon rocks, flying spaceships and just having silly fun.

I'd forgotten about this Hallmark Make-A-Mask kit that included sticker activity. I found this unopened kit at a thrift store quite some time ago for .30 cents. I came across it again today while digging around in my craft stash for some fun for the kids. This was lots of creative fun making the masks as well as, making up silly monster, robot, alien stories. Masks are fun and easy to make even without a kit and sure makes for good make believe play. As for this kit, it sure was .30 cents well spent.

What We Like Wednesdays: Go Away Monster:

We had fun playing "Go Away Monster". This game is much more age appropriate for Miles and Liam who are 3 but Aidan (soon to be 6) joined in the fun too. This game not only has educational value with it's tactile exploration, shape recognition and need to take turns but it's also lots of fun yelling "Go Away Monster!"

Yosemite Time

More summer good times to be enjoyed with the family... We enjoyed a weekend in Yosemite with Grandma and Grandpa.



Thanks to Grandpa and his travel expertise, we stayed at the Yosemite View Lodge right outside of Yosemite National Park. A really great place that we truly enjoyed. So if you miss making your year in advance booking for the Yosemite Lodge you might just want to give this place a try. This place had 3 outdoor swimming pools, 1 indoor pool, 2 restaurants, one of which was a delicious pizza place (we had a fabulous seafood pizza that had shrimp and crab with a white sauce that Liam just couldn't get enough of) but best of all was, that it was right outside of the park entrance...maybe a 10 minute drive if that.





It's been about 13 yrs since I last visited Yosemite so I'd forgotten the awesomeness of it all. It was Daddy and the boys first time there so it was like we were all experiencing it together for the first time with our skilled tour guides Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa did a great job establishing a daily itinerary for us. I was initially a bit sceptical about a schedule but soon realized that Grandpa was definitely in the know. So thanks to Grandpa we had a great time enjoying the sights.




A short jaunt to Glacier Point to take in the spectacular views of Half Dome and the surrounding landscape,



a trip to Bridal Veil Falls which the boys were thoroughly amazed at water crashing down as well as the flowing river, a short walk through the valley, lots of swimming at our hotel,



fun picnics,





and a final swim at beachy area in the valley.



This was truly a fun trip, the makings of wonderful family memories. It sure is turning out to be a really nice summer.

Good Times

Summer has been full of good times here. I'm not sure why I had fantasized summer being full of lazy days, sipping cool drinks and being crafty with the kids. Although we have had a few of those days, summer with 3 young kids really has been busy busy busy, be it with good times but still busy. It takes time for Mommy (me)to prepare for those good times which really doesn't translate to lazy days.

I thought I'd share some of our good times...


Daddy and I out for a date night, enjoying a spectacular dinner at Pican celebrating our wedding anniversary.



A trip to Masse's Pastries for a sweet stroll down memory lane, a bite of their yummy tiramisu that we served as our wedding cake.




Enjoying family hiking trips, this one was at Redwood Trail.




A fabulous weekend camping with friends, enjoying spectacular views of wine country,


bike riding and



mini golf for the older boys,



a camp fire in preparation for.....



...yummy smores and



fun meals for all,



let's not forget the long awaited and all deserved hot tub time for the mommies. (I borrowed this photo from my friend Rachel's blog but I'm sure she won't mind)


Fun park outing and strolls with good friends.



Dreams of pure contentment..a sure sign that there's been lots of summertime fun to be had.

Needless to say I'm giving myself a break til the end of summer, with What We like Wednesdays, Artful Thursdays, and Friday Food. I'll post those when I can but if I miss it, it's because I'm off enjoying another summer day with the family. I do hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are.