Happy Birthday America!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I know we did. We had a small BBQ at our home and then went to the park to watch fireworks with friends and neighbors. I brought dessert and coffee to the park. The kids played on the playground. A fun time was had by all. Now this is great way to celebrate America's birthday!

I've always wanted to take photographs of fireworks and for one reason or another (CK and O) I haven't been able to. I finally got my chance! Here are a few images from our evening at the park.

Last Day of a Great Week in Lake Tahoe

This morning TC and I had some girl time and went into Tahoe City. We had a great time, walking up and down Tahoe City window shopping. We found some great little shops. Very fun.

After lunch the Dads and I took the three girls down to the Lake (Little T was napping so TC stayed at the house with her). Another relaxing day at the Lake. The girls made a new friend, collected rocks from the Lake and washed all the dry ones to make they "pretty". O sat for about 10 minutes burying M's foot in the sand. The girls watched in amazement as their Daddies jumped from the end of the pier into the Lake! It has become a tradition. This year the water was much colder than last year. (since we were here in July last year) Those two guys are CRAZY. Does make for some great pics, I must say.

What a great week. A much needed vacation. We are all ready to go home. Tonight O must have told me three times "I want to go home". Poor thing. So tired, from staying up too late and not getting regular naps all week.

Look for more Tahoe trips during the summer. We are hoping to get back up here with family and other friends. Also look for our big Southern California vacation at the end of July, beginning of Aug. We should have web access. At least a few days out of the two weeks. I'll try to update the blog during the trip. If not, as soon as we get back.

Next week, I go to a professional photography class. I can't wait!

A Day Hike to Eagle Lake

Today we went on a day hike to Eagle Lake (#7 in "best easy day hikes Lake Tahoe" -at the house). What a beautiful way to spend the day. It was just spectacular. We hiked 2 miles total (elevation gain: 400 feet). The girls all did wonderfully. O is our little billy goat. She is so sure footed....and fast. I could barely keep up with her. Her and C were our leaders. Little T had it made. She was in the Baby Bjorn. What a way to hike.

The reward for a tough 1 mile hike up the trail was just spectacular! What a beutiful little lake. Tucked in the mountain. The only way to ge to it was hike. There is no beach, however, we sat and enjoyed the beautiful view from a tree stump and granite slab. Putting our feet in the water to cool off after our long hike in.

The girls were all tired on the hike back but did great, not one complaint the entire mile back to the car. Little T fell asleep on the hike back and the other three fell asleep in the car.

What a perfect day.

Hanging out at "The Lake"

The "B" family arrived yesterday afternoon. Our third annual Tahoe vacation together. Today after lunch we walked down to the lake. The water was ICE....ICE!!! Did that stop the girls (all four) or C? NO! You'd think we were in Hawaii the way the girls played in the water. The cold water did affect C, but he still jumped in. Yikes!

Little T, now 1 year old, scooched right down to the water. I'm sure she came back to the house with rocks in her diaper. She didn't care. She wanted to know what all the fuss was about and what the big girls were all doing.

Tomorrow, I believe, we are going to go on a day hike. Can't wait! Should be fun. Look for an update tomorrow evening.

Cleaning up the front yard for Nonna

Yesterday afternoon and this morning the girls and I cleaned up the front yard here in Tahoe a little.

Yesterday I swept the driveway. You can park three or four cars in it now. I started weeding, but needed some gardening gloves. Pine needles and other little things pinch!

This morning the girls and I took a nice walk to the PDQ and picked up some gardening gloves. Much better! Here are a few pics of our clean up job. It's a good start. We need to do more of the path, but it got to be lunch time. Maybe later or tomorrow morning. We'll see if we get back to it or not.

Note: click on any image to enlarge.

Another Tahoe Adventure

We can't have a Tahoe vacation without some type of adventure. It's either a blow out tire in a snow storm (with two babies in the car), a flat tire in summer, or now the Alternator needed replacing. We're lucky we made it as far as we did.

Well, we had a great afternoon in Tahoe City waiting for the car to be fixed. Love the Chevoron in Tahoe City! Those guys are great. While we waited we walked down to Rosie's and had lunch. Then we walked down to the little mall and went to the bookstore. Always a great place to be. It is just beautiful up here. Dark blue sky with huge cotten clouds. Just paradise.

On our walk we discovered a wonderful lake front park, Commons Beach. They (Tahoe people) have been restoring this strip on the Lake right in Tahoe City. There is a small parking lot at the end of Commons Road (between the Firestation and Tahoe Community Center). There are picnic tables (some with BBQs), a nice play area for the kids, complete with climbing wall, restrooms, grass area right at the lake and a place to play in the water. Everything you need all in one spot. If you walk from the street in Tahoe City there is a nice paved walk all the way down to the Lake and play area. They have signs posted all around this area with the history of Tahoe and Tahoe City. There is a historical home-the oldest log cabin in Lake Tahoe, and a jail. Very fun.

We had a great time. O says "Mama, next time can you remember to bring our swim suits and put them on us!" Sure, if I had planned this. We just went into Tahoe City for a few grocery items, a push broom, and a rake. We didnt' plan on spending four hours there.

We were home (Tahoma) by 4pm, car fixed. Exausted but relaxed and ready for naps. We all rested. O took a nap. Then the girls and I went out front to sweep the driveway and weed a little. (see next posting) What a wonderful family day! Boy did we need this vacation!

Keep checking the blog for more posting through the week.

Spring Cleaning Starts - The Garage Gets Cleaned OUT!

Most of you have seen our garage. How embarrasing. We litterly had a little path from the house into the garage around junk to the washer and dryer and to the back door. It was horrible. Some of the boxes we never even went through from when we moved TEN YEARS AGO. How bad is that? Pretty bad!

Well, I can finally say we are all moved in. We cleaned out everything. Four and a half days, two full Suburban loads of donations, one dumpster size truck load of garbage and lots of going through memories later the garage is cleaned out and organized. The very best thing.....the Subaru is now IN THE GARAGE. The second best thing....C found his shop apron he had been looking for for years. He was so excited, I cried.

The girls were great these past four and a half days while we cleaned out the garage. On Sunday, while C slept, I started putting all the items I already knew I wanted to donate out on the front lawn (then into the Suburban). I also cleared out the side of the garage where the garbage cans are. There was just garbage piled there. I put that out on the front little strip of lawn....starting our garbage pile. The whole day on Sunday the girls were playing and digging through all the donation things. A few things came back into the house. They thought we were having a garage sale and set up their little store. They did not want to hear we were not having a garage sale and that no one knew we were here with our stuff. They had a great time anyway and played all day.

We are exhausted, but feel so much better that the garage is cleaned out, organized and the car is in. This will be much better to be able to have the car in the garage. Heat, rain, late nights out with the girls when C is at work. Much better.

Next project - THE OFFICE. 99% of that is my stuff. I'll start on that next week.

Girls New Play "House"

The girls and I have been outside enjoying the yard and beautiful weather the last several days. O has also been in PANTIES since Thursday! Thank goodness it's been nice and she's been outside, because she has "accidents" at least twice a day! If you know O, she only pees three times a day and she drinks a lot of water. I can't turn back now. I have to keep her in panties. She is doing MUCH better. Wish me luck! I'm affraid to take her out any longer than bringing or picking up CK from school.

The girls and I have also fixed up a nice play "house" under our Japanese Maple. It's a perfect spot. I had to move the compost bin, but found a better spot for that anyway. It's the coolest spot in the yard. I finished fixing it this morning and the girls played all morning under the tree. They ate their lunch there too.

I would love to landscape the side yard now. I'm not sure what to do. I have always wanted that side yard to be a "secret garden" type of spot. I also like to have my vegetable garden in the summer, but I'm slowly loosing all my nice sun in the side yard. The darn pine trees on the other side of the sound wall are growing too tall!!!!! I might have to look for a totally different spot. I need to find a good, cheap landscape person. Know one?

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather. I hear we're getting rain on Tuesday.

O holds a brand new Baby!

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've just been so busy. But, I just HAD to make time to enter this post. It's TOO CUTE.

Our friends had their baby! A boy! O was amazed the entire time A was pregnant. Watching the belly grow. O just couldn't believe there was really a baby in there. When I told her last Friday the baby was born her eyes were as big as can be. Last night we went to visit. The baby is now 6 days old. O asked if she could hold the baby. A got her all set on the sofa with pillows so she could hold Baby N. How happy is this girl?! Look at that face. She was so excited to see this baby. Her baby N!

All CK wanted to do was play with her friend, a new big sister. Baby, yea, I've seen those. Big deal. I want to play! It only took a minute for O to want to go and play as well. Very calmly O says to me "Mama, can you take the baby now? I want to play."

Congratulations J, A, and big sister K! You have one beautiful baby!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Daddy took us to work to see Santa. The girls loved seeing Santa. It was really fun not being at the mall. The girls brought him their wish list. Santa, of course, new what a My Little Pony was so the girls are set. They've been very good this year, so Santa should be bringing them exactly what they want.

The girls and I have been getting things at home ready for Christmas. We decorated our tree, finally. It took a while. I got a new tree from Costco - 9' slim pre-lit tree. I love it! It's beautiful. One minor problem when I started putting it together. One string of lights was only half working. Took a while and several phone calls, but I got a new string of lights from the manufacturer. I replaced the string and we're set. It looks beautiful. I'm so glad I did not return it. We also put cloves in a few oranges. I love the smell. I have then in a bowl on my island. Everytime I walk into the kitchen I can smell them.

The only thing I have left for Christmas gifts is to bake my biscotti. I'll do that Thursday or Friday. All my gifts are wrapped and under the tree. It looks beautiful. I can't believe I'm done with all my Christmas shopping and wrapping so early.

As some of you know, CK has been taking piano lessons. She is doing great and loves playing. She even practices all on her own. Here is a pic of her playing and O helping her follow the music.

An Afternoon with Aunt D and Nordy

A few weeks ago, the girls and I took a ride to Scotts Valley to visit Dana and her horse, Nordy. What a beautiful animal.

Nordy (short for Nordlicht-a German name) is about 12 years old and is just the most beautiful horse. The girls were in heaven to be at the stables near all the horses for an afternoon. Aunt Dana taught them all about horses; what brush to use on what part of his body, what type of sadle she uses, etc. They loved watching Nordy eat carrots. O didn't want to feed him any, but loved watching him eat them. I think Olivia even liked getting "sneezed" on.

The girls can't wait to go back to visit again.

A playdate for O

O has been having a very hard time since CK started school. She fusses and cries every morning because she misses CK so much. Poor thing. Sometimes Mommy time works out to be okay. We will often arrive at a store too early and there is ALWAYS a coffee shop near by. I love my special time with O. I had a lot of special time with CK, now it's O's turn.

I've been setting up playdates for O. I need to do them more often. Either Daddy or I take O to Happy Hollow with a friend and her son every few weeks. The kids have a great time. This day they happen to match. They look SO cute together!

Another Garden Update

Our garden has been doing very well. We even got corn. Small (only 3 1/2" long), but corn nonetheless. We've harvested several Japanese Cucumber and tomatoes. More of both to come soon. More corn as well.

We got two beautiful, and small, sunflowers. I don't know what happened to all the seeds we planted. The birds must have eaten them. Darn birds! At least I got a great photograph. I'm going to blow it up (poster size) and hang it in our bedroom.

Carrots are still growing. We might get a watermelon after all. The plant is finally starting to grow. We'll see.

The girls and I have had a lot of fun with our garden. I hope to plant a winter garden. If this one ever finishes. I might just wait until spring.

"The Greatest Show on Earth"

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. With school starting it's been pretty busy around our house.

On 27 August the girls and I, along with friends A and daughter K and my niece M and cousin's daughter R, all went downtown and saw "The Greatest Show on Earth" - the circus.

Fun was had by all. What a great show. No longer do you see lion and tiger acts. They now have cat, dog and bird acts. So cute! It is amazing what this lady could get cats to do. O was very excited to see Dumbo. Who am I to burst her bubble. She didn't seem upset that he didn't fly. CK loved seeing the horses. I think everyone's favorite was the motorcyles in the giant ball. We couldn't believe that they didn't' crash.