Never seems to be enough hours in the day...

As I sit here, I am shocked that I have absolutely nothing to do... Kind of a nice feeling, but a strange one. The house is picked up, the kids are all in bed and asleep and I am enjoying this moment of quiet.

This fall is going to be a busy one, but I would be bored if it was not. Thank goodness all the planning sessions for the different clubs is just about over. Tomorrow night we have our first Brownie meeting, and yes I am one of the leaders... I never imagined that I would be a brownie leader but here I am. Next week we have our first MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting and I am so excited about the upcoming year. I hope that all the moms will get alot out of it. I loved my first year last year and I am so excited to be on the steering team this year.

The kids are in the thick of school... Miss M is now getting homework every night and she seems to be doing well. She has made friends and looks forward to going to school each day which is a relief. She will start her Religious Ed classes in a couple of weeks and Brownies tomorrow night. There is a chance she will also be taking piano lessons and a gymnastics class until it cools off and we can start soccer. Miss A is loving school 4 days a week. She feels like a big girl to go almost everyday. Miss A is also in a music class that she loves... it is a program that will teach her all about music and notes and how to read music... which will get her ready for piano. She too will be doing gymnastics and then on to soccer when it is not 115 degrees outside.

Little one is still along for the ride... she is thriving and is completely sitting on her own... she even catches herself now when she starts to fall over. We had our first stomach bug for a good week so our solid food eating took a break, but we are back on the schedule now. Favorites seem to be peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots... She even had some cheerios today and did great with them. Tomorrow she will be 7 months old and we can hardly believe it.. time flies!

We are constantly on the move with the 3 kids but are loving every minute of it.. just wish there were a few more moments like this one I have had tonight...

Best Buddies

A new team that has come together in the last couple of weeks... too cute...

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL HYSTERIA!

So, yes we were one of the many houses that had a big high school musical party and sleepover. Miss M had her first sleepover with a friend. Miss A had a friend over as well for part of the movie. They all had a blast.. Pizza on High School Musical plates, icecream sundaes with all the fixins and of course the movie... My kids know all the lines and songs from the first one and I am sure it will not take long to learn everything from the second one! And we just read HS Musical 3 is already in the shooting stages and HS Musical 4 is in the planning stages.. God help me! :-)

Gets Mommy all to herself...

Now that Miss M and Miss A are back in school Little One and I have had lots of uninterupted time together.. It is nice. We are happy when the big girls get home from school but Little One and I have not had very much one on one time since summer started! Her favorites these days are Peek-A-Boo, her rooster, musical toys, and holding anything... her different stuffed animals, rattles etc. She has even started sitting in my lap and we are reading books... she holds the book while I read!

Miss A Goes Back To School

Miss A headed back to school today... She was so excited to see all of her old friends and even made some new ones. She loves her teacher and has been working all summer on perfecting her name so she could "Sign in" when she got there... She is excited to go back tomorrow!

Miss M goes back to school....

Miss M headed back to school last week but we had to take our pictures in phases... we did not want to do anything that would not be considered "cool"... So, we went to school and took pictures in front of it with out any kids around before school even started, we took pictures in front of the house on the actual first day and we took school bus pictures today! Like I said it has been done in a phased approach!

Miss M days before school offically starts!

Miss M on her actual first day of school... so excited!

Bus time! Miss M loves the bus.. except on the really hot afternoons!

Bathtime!

Poor little one is a very long baby and has been outgrowing her baby bathtub quite quickly so we finally went and got her a bath seat that she can use in the bathtub. She loved it as soon as we put her in it. Splashing around and having a great time.. the only time she got upset was when it was time to come out of the tub!

YUMMY!

The time has come for rice cereal! Little one has been so ready for a while.. staring at us while we eat... we have felt pretty bad for her! :-) But, the time is here and her sisters are so excited she gets to sit in the high chair and eat with us!

Time to start it up.. rice cereal was a hit.. we have moved past oatmeal as well which she LOVED! Now we are into the mixed cereals.. next week will get interesting with veggies!

All done and a happy baby... Hopefully now she will be able to gain some weight.. we are still barely at 15 pounds at 6+ months... Her sisters were already 17-18 pounds at this size... She seems to love her solids though and is really getting the hang of the spoon and keeping the food in her mouth!

Back to the Beach

Of course.. when in California we always have to play a day at the beach... we had a blast... got our usual place set up and the big kids had a good time digging, and building a "kingdom". All was well until someone trampled Miss A's kingdom.. she went on to chase after them yelling, "How dare you! You ruin my kingdom"... I can laugh about it now, but in the moment it was horrifying...

Little One had a great time... she sat in the wonderful Bumbo for a while... just taking it all in and watching everything.. she is such an easy and happy baby...

Little One also decided to put her toes in the Pacific... This is her second time at the beach, but the first time was a lot colder. So, we walked her down and let her stand in the water.. she seemed to really like it!

Finally, it was time to head to our usual lunch spot... RUBYS! So, we got all our sandy kids together and called it a day at the beach.... Seriously though.. you have never seen so much sand on 2 little kids!

We left our hearts in San Francisco!

San Francisco is one of our favorite cities... we have spent so much time there and had so many special moments there... So, we decided to head to some of our favorite spots... Going across the Golden Gate bridge was beautiful.. but so foggy and so COLD! It was 56 degrees! We were freezing.. but had to get some shots!

The kids loved seeing the boats and all the fog... they thought it was neat.. even though it was cold!

Picture perfect!

No trip is complete for us without a visit to the Wharf and Pier 39.... We took the kids to the Acquarium on the Bay... it was a very small scale acquarium but perfect for them.... There were 2 glass tunnels the kids could walk through... very neat.. the first one was of all different kinds of fish. The second was sharks and stingrays. Miss M was not thrilled about that one... But, she made it through with her sister urging her on saying "get over it... it is not scary!" :-) We moved on down the pier and got our sourdough bread bowl with chowder, saw the seals and Alcatraz... and ofcourse hitting the merry-go-round on the pier.. it was a great day!

A visit with old friends...

Our vacation continued with a trip to Northern California... Such fun to see all of our old friends... the weather was beautiful and we had a great time. The first few days in town we kept very busy hitting alot of our favorites places with alot of our favorite people.. We went to a great little park and zoo called Happy Hollow and we tried our hand at bowling.. the kids had never been but they did great... Miss M even came in 1st place. Our friends also had a very fun get together so we could see everyone at once.. sorry, no pictures for this one... We do not post pics of our friends without permission! :-)

A Visit to California

We looked forward to our vacation to California all summer... We love going to the beach, and seeing our family and friends. The weather was fantastic as well... Many times I heard.. "Mom, it's cold!" We had a great time.. starting with our adventure in Orange County... The kids kept very busy.. the big girls seemed to love swimming the best... and Little One loved just hangin out in her Bumbo with Mum and watching everything around her... I swear that Bumbo is the best invention of all time... I wish I had thought to invent it! :-) Here is Little One Playing her new favorite game with Mum... Peek-A-Boo!

The big kids loved having the pool in the backyard and had a great time jumping in, swimming with Dadddy and Pa and the dogs... Seemed everytime we opened the back door a dog was in the pool before we knew it...

Miss A "flying" into the pool!

Miss M has become quite the swimmer this summer... practicing strokes, diving and doing flips in the water.. she loves to swim... She also had some fun trying to get Pa wet with her new trick... blowing water through the noodle...

We had a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

getting caught up...

Ok, so I know I know... I go on saying I am going to keep up a blog and it just did not happen... The summer totally got away from us. But, I am up for the challenge now.. and it helps that we have a new digital camera and it is easier to upload some shots.

As I said the summer kept us busy... We started out with our first official photoshoot of the 3 kids. Miss A has not been to a photo shoot since she was 18 months old... she was such a pill trying to get her picture taken that I could never muster the strength or patience to deal with it again... I figured being 4 years old now she could handle it. Little one also got her first picture taken and she was so good... smiling the whole time. Miss M felt like a "glamour girl" and was so excited to pick out a "big girl" outfit for her picture.

Little One... 5 months old!

Miss A... 4 years old

Miss M.... 6 years old