Hike to White Cloud Falls

For our hike this year we went to White Cloud Falls. Beautiful views, gorgeous water falls, and a great hike.

Again, all the girls did fantastic. O is still our little billy goat. She doesn't stop, doesn't complain, just keeps on hiking. Usually at the front of 

the line. TB had it made. She was able to ride the hike again this year instead of hike it.

These are some of my favorite images from the hike, including two pooped out girls at the end. There were actually 4 pooped out girls, but I only have pics of my two.

Relaxing by The Lake

We have been relaxing in Tahoe since Monday. We are here on our 5th annual Tahoe vacation with the B family. It is so much fun watching the girls grow up at the lake year after year. What wonderful memories.

The girls all play so well together. This is the first year TB is able to play with the big girls. She was scooching around on her tush last year. This year she not only walked all the way down to the lake but walked straight into the water. As you can see, O enjoyed relaxing in the beach chair. What a little beach bunny.

New Walkway

We recently had a flagstone walkway put in. I'm finally getting a chance to share the pics. We love it. It will especially be nice in the winter when the grass is wet and muddy.

We also had the strip of lawn on the left side of the garage removed. There is now a nice concrete strip there. This widens our driveway and we can fit three cars or C puts his truck there and I can get in and out of the garage easily. We love it. Our gardener did a great job on both.

Father's Day

I know, I'm a few days late. Such is life in our house. We actually celebrated Father's Day on Saturday. C had the day off. He asked for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off, but they only gave him Saturday. What do you do with one day! You enjoy that one day. That's what you do. 

On Saturday after dinner we walked down to our "lake." It's really a percolation pond, but I call it our lake. People water ski on there. These pictures are from that walk.

Sunday morning, C made breakfast. Some people make breakfast in bed for their husbands, the father of their children. Not in our house. We were going to go out, but the girls and I needed to get ready for Tahoe.

Once C went to work the girls and I left for Sacramento. We spent the night and left for Tahoe Monday morning.

We are now in Tahoe. Our annual Tahoe vacation with the B family. The girls are all getting so big. It's great to see them together at the Lake every summer. I'll start posting those pics later.

It's Official - It's Summer Vacation!

CK has been out of school for a week, but today was O's last day of school. We are now officially on Summer vacation! YEAH!

I know by the beginning of August I'll be asking when school starts, but for now we're looking forward to lazy Summer days at home, camping, the beach, Tahoe, Girl Scout Day Camp, and getting together with family and friends.

Next week is our first Summer get-away...Tahoe! We are all looking forward to a few relaxing days by the lake!

Tell The World

Sunday afternoon the girls and I attended The Choral Project concert, Tell The World. It was a superb concert of wonderful Gospel music.

My mom is in the choir and Papa records them. I haven't been to one of their concerts since the girls were born. I miss it. I went to every concert when C was in the choir with my mom.

This was the girls first Choral Project concert and they loved it. It was such wonderful spiritual upbeat music. It really kept them entertained. All though O did fall asleep. I don't know how anyone can fall asleep during a Gospel concert, but O managed to do it wonderfully. What a talent she has.

During intermission and after the concert the girls had their programs autographed by the wonderfully talented soloists and, of course, Nonna and Papa. That was CK's favorite part. O liked the singing the best.

This concert will be released to CD. I'm going to pre-order one for us. It will be a wonderful memento for the girls. They will be able to listen to this wonderful music anytime they want.

Outside

CK:  "Mommy, when are we going to go outside next?"

Me:  "What do you mean? You can go outside anytime you want. We go outside all the time. We'll be outside tomorrow."

CK:  "I mean outside, so I can wear my new tennis shoes."

Me: "OH! You mean a trip to the park or something."

CK: "Yea." with a smile on her face.

Eventually I get it. Sometimes it takes me longer than others.

"I don't know how to read!"

Monday Afternoon:

O: "Mama, I'm bored."

Me: "Why don't you go and get a book to read."

O: "I don't know how to read!"

Me: "Are you kidding me? You just read every word on Super Why, before the show said the word."

O: no comment

I then printed a learning to read book from one of my favorite educational websites (www.starfall.com) "Zac the Rat." I helped O read it. I needed to help her with a few words, but she pretty much read it. I still don't think she is convinced she can read. I don't know what other proof she needs! For crying out loud!

This morning when I was dropping off O at school I was telling her teachers "You probably know this, but O can read. She doesn't think she can read, but she can."

One of her teachers, Ms M, said she was going to talk to me about that. She agreed. It happens often they said. O especially is a perfectionist and gets very upset when she can't do something (anything) perfect. I mean upset, crying, tantrum...the whole thing and not just for not reading or writing a letter.

Ms M was then telling me how they are teaching the kids (Pre-K) sight words. They put the word the on the board and asked the kids what the word was. All the children sat and looked at each other, looked at the word, the teacher. No one knows what the word is. O then pipes up "THE!" Drawing the word out very emphatically, as if to say DUH, what are you stupid.

But, she doesn't know how to read. Oh no.

Mother's Day...a little late

Sorry, I'm a little behind on my blog. I've been SO busy with the end of school. I can't wait until Summer vacation! 4 days for CK and 5 days for O! But, who's counting. 

Since I'm so behind and I have a minute I'm going to tell you all about my wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

It started on Saturday with a Girl Scout Mother-Daughter Box Social. My mom was able to join us. We did crafts, sang songs, and had a picnic lunch. There was even a talent portion and my very own CK played the piano. She did an outstanding job! Not one mistake. She played her song in front of about 30 people and she had to go first! I was so proud of her.

After the box social C was able to join us for an afternoon symphony concert in the park. Papa was playing and we didn't want to miss it. C, for some reason, had the night off. Can't remember now why, but I have learned not to ask why. You take weekend days off when you can get them! They are few and far between.

After Papa's wonderful concert we had a family dinner out. Just the four of us. We went to

 our favorite restaurant and walked around Santana Row. It was such a treat to be able to do this on a Saturday night.

On Mother's Day we had brunch at my brother and sister-in-laws house. C then went to work. The girls and I took a ride with my mom to Monterey. We had a wonderful afternoon shopping on Fisherman's Wharf. The girls even got to hold a parrot. What a treat. They both loved it, as you can see from the pictures.

Papa joined us for dinner after recording a concert. We had a wonderful dinner overlooking Monterey Bay. The girls had a dinner show watching the Seals and Seagulls from their window seat. What a beautiful day. What a special weekend.

The Spider and The Fly

Is that a children's book? If it's not, it should be. Maybe I have to write it. After this, I'll have the story.

About a week ago CK and O saw a "daddy-longleg" spider in the garage and wanted me to catch it to put in their new "bug" box. Oh the joy to have something in their new box that was alive. They had a spider in there, but it went in dead. So I got a piece of paper and got the spider in the box.

After watching the spider for a few minutes CK announced "It needs water." Great. I've gotta figure out how to get water to this spider. No, I don't....my daughter saw the cap of a water bottle and thought that would make a perfect water bowl. It did. I then put the new water bowl in the box. CK's not going to do it. She has a bug phobia. (MUCH better now, obviously. This is light years ahead of where we where a year or two ago.)

The spider seems to be okay in her new home. (Girls said it's a girl spider.) She made a web, she's hanging from it at the far end of the box and their is spider poop on the bottom of the box. We look at her every day. Yep, still in there.

CK is trying to figure out what to feed the spider so she won't die. I tell her they catch insects, such as flies, in their web. CK says she is going to ask her little friend at school (a boy, who knows about such things). "Blood" he tells her. She doesn't believe her mother, but does believe the boy at school. Nice boy, smart. I know his mother, but HELLO. It's already starting.

Anyway, so the girls saw a fly in the house this afternoon and told me I needed to catch it in the other "bug" box so the spider can eat it. "I should catch it in the same box as the spider, so she can eat it. Don't you think?" I ask the girls. "Oh, right." CK says.

After about 5 minutes or so, I was able to get the fly into the box with the spider. YEA! Everyone is excited and we sit anxiously watching to see what the spider will do. At this point I wasn't sure how the spider was doing. She looked dead to me. NOPE. Boy, that spider perked up. She bounced up and went after the fly. It was great! The fly was a little too fast. The fly did get caught in the web, but not enough for the spider to get it.

CK, O and I continued to make crepe paper flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week and checked in on the spider and fly every so often. The fly is now walking around the box trying to figure a way to get out. I was watching it and he puts his little feet through the holes. It's funny.

Check in for updates on "The Spider and The Fly."

NOTE: in the picture the fly is on the left, in the blue circle and the spider is on the right, in the blue circle.

Mommy Doesn't Share her Tape

This was my conversation with O the other day.

O: "Mommy, why do you not share your tape?"

Mommy: "Because you and CK will use it all up."

O: "Yeah" (with a little smile on her face)

Mommy: "What happened to your tape?"

O: "I used it all up." (with a big smile on her face)

There you go!

Jack

The girls and I went out to dinner and shopping for a house warming gift tonight. On our way home I was telling the girls about the house warming party and who would be there.

O asks me, "Will Nonna be there?"

"No, I don't think so." I told her.

"Oh" with a sad sigh. "What about Jack?" she asks.

"Jack? Who's Jack?!" I ask. Couldn't for the life of me think of who Jack was.

CK says, "You know the navigator."

NONNA'S GPS? O wants to know if my mother's GPS (which she refers to as Jack) will be at the party. AND, did my 6 year old daughter just use the word navigator? Wow, 10 points for her.

"No, honey, Jack will not be there." I told her, very sweetly.

"Oh" O says with another sad sigh.

The girls must have really liked that GPS when we went to my uncle's with my mother a few weeks ago. We'll have to go on another drive with Nonna so the girls can hear Jack give directions. They liked confusing him the best.

My Sweet Girls

C and I both have bad colds. Funny how we both started feeling like we were coming down with something on the same day (Thursday night). Anyway, by Friday night, I knew I needed to rest. I told the girls, "Tomorrow is Saturday. I am not going to stamp club because I don't feel well. I going to sleep in. I don't want either of you coming into my room early to wake me up. I want to sleep in, because I'm sick." They replied with a, "Yes, Mommy." I knew they understood. Whether they would comply is something else.

At about 7am on Saturday morning O comes to me and says, "Mommy, I just wanted to check and see how you were feeling." So sweet. She wanted to check on me, but also wanted to make sure I wouldn't be mad. 7am....not bad. O usually wakes up much earlier.

I was able to rest. I wasn't able to get anything done, but rested. The girls played in their room for a long time before I got up. It was so nice. Even sick, I love listening to them play.

Saturday night I told the girls we would have soup. They jumped at the chance to get the soup cans form the pantry in the garage. It was so cute. I asked if they needed help, they said no. I asked if they wanted a stool, they said they would get it. I did need to help with one can, but they were so cute. So sweet to want to help me.

Yesterday, CK tells me, "Mommy, let me know if you need something. I will get it for you."

I'm feeling better today. I'm looking forward to feeling 100% again. I don't have time to be sick. I feel bad for C. He was feeling just as bad, but had to work. Poor thing. I'll let him rest on his weekend.

CK Lost Her First Tooth

FINALLY. CK has been waiting a long time for this tooth to fall out. Yesterday was the big day. I picked her up from school and she came running out of her classroom waiving a zip-lock bag yelling "My tooth fell out!"

Spring Concert for O

  O had her Pre-K Spring concert today. You can't help but laugh, smile and have a warm feeling in your heart when you see 21 five year olds singing together.

The concert was classic TV theme songs; The Monkees, The Addams Family, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, The Partridge Family, The Flinstones, The Brady Bunch, Mickey Mouse Club, Green Acres, and The Carol Burnett Show. They did a great job (for excited 5 year olds).

C filmed the entire concert. I also filmed 4 songs on my point-and-shoot. I put them together in one movie. My first time using iMovie. You'll be seeing more of these. How fun is that program?! Anyway, enjoy O's mini concert.

CK Composes a Song

CK wrote this song for me and played it on my birthday. I love it! What a wonderful gift!

 "Mommy" by CK

Video Clips

Here are two video clips.

1. O singing Happy Birthday

2. CK singing and playing Happy Birthday

Enjoy

A Wonderful Birthday

I have the best husband and daughters. They really made my birthday, on Monday, special. I first received three "Happy Birthday" wishes in the morning. Starting at 1:30am when C came home from work. Then each when the girls woke up.

I had a breakfast date with my husband after dropping off the girls at school. He had to work Monday day and night, so that was the only time we had. I even got some quiet time in the morning before picking up O at school.

The girls and I had a simple dinner and then they sang "Happy Birthday" to me and CK played it on the piano. CK even started writing me a song and played it for me. (see three videos below in next entry)

Everything was going very well, until O broke out in hives (for the 7th time in a week). She got one on her upper lip, which made her look like she got a huge fat lip. It really scared me and I was a little stressed with C at work. It didn't seem to bother her, but I called the doctor anyway. 

While the girls and I were sitting waiting to see if O's lip would go down CK said the sweetest thing to me, "Mommy, I'm sorry it's your birthday and Daddy has to work, and O is sick." That just made my day. My girls are just the sweetest, most carrying children.

O was fine and I was much better after C came home early (11pm) to be with me on my birthday. What a wonderful surprise. I told him I didn't care about my birthday, I just was worried about O. She was better by the next day.

The girls took these pictures. 

My Little Teacher

This morning dropping off CK at school, I stopped to ask her teacher (Mrs. C) about the upcoming field trip. CK then asked me to give a note to daddy. Mrs. C tells me she hopes O doesn't mind CK collecting papers for her. I wasn't sure what she was referring.

After dinner tonight, I understood. CK was getting papers out of her backpack. She seems to collect them in there for a month. CK pulls out two packets she has made of papers she says are "to quiz O."

You should see these packets. They are extra 1st Grade worksheets CK has done in class. She has stapled them together, writing across the top, "O's Work Book." The other packet says, "O's Practice Book." This one has a cover sheet CK made. It has addition problems with a square at the bottom with instructions, "Draw a heart." Just like her math worksheets. CK even made a "finished" bin for O to put all her finished worksheets in. SO CUTE.

As I am writing this entry CK is having O do her worksheets. O doesn't seem to mind. She is excited to be doing the work her big sister has collected for her. O is going to be at the top of her Kindergarten class in the fall, if CK has anything to do with it.

They Keep Me Thinking

A day or so ago, O came to me and said, "Mommy, I want to make a book, but I can't snap it."

Snap it? It took me a second, but then I realized what she meant—staple it. Snap works. So, I helped her “snap” her book and she was off.

A Family Day of Art and Fun

It's Spring Break, beautiful weather, Daddy has weekdays off, so we planned a family day in the City visiting museums. We ended our perfect day with a wonderful dinner with Aunt D and J in the Castro.

We first went to the Legion of Honor and saw some fantastic art. Medieval, Renaissance, & Mannerist Art, French & Italian Baroque & Rococo Art, 17th to 19th Century Decorative Arts, Sculpture (many of Rodin's most famous works are in the Legion's collection) British Art, 17th Century Dutch & Flemish Paintings, Ancient Art, and more. The Legion also has two special exhibitions right now; Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority: The Dead Sea Scrolls & 5,000 years of Treasures, and Annie Leibovits—A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005. That is what got us to the Legion of Honor to begin with. I haven't been to a photography exhibit in years and could not pass it up.

The girls were fantastic. CK walked around with daddy and he filled her brain with all sorts of information about the art she was seeing. He said she understood it all. He was pretty impressed with her. Needless to say, CK loved the museum. Her favorite was the Dead Sea Scrolls and Treasures, specifically the Table, Byzantine Period, late 6th-7th century C.E., Caesarean Maritima, Gold and glass mosaic. O was good too. She declared “I want to go home” after being in the museum for about 15 minutes and every once in a while reminded me, but overall she was very good. It was lunch time after all. O's favorite was the “horse” statue (Joan of Arc) in front of the museum. (By the way, O took the picture of CK and with daddy—not bad.)

After the Legion of Honor we went to the Presidio. We found a very expensive, so-so place to each lunch (La Terrasse). Expensive was not our intention, but we were very hungry and the place was there.

After lunch we went to the Presidio Officer's Club Exhibition Hall. They had some things on display, such as old officer's uniforms and items found on site. It was fun to see the old building. They also had a modern art exhibit, Transforming Art, the art of Chris Hardman. It was very different. The girls loved the 3D room. They put the 3D glasses on and had so much fun with the art. They didn't want to leave. After seeing the rest of the exhibit they wanted to go back to the 3D room.

We weren't sure what to do next. The girls played on the lawn around the old cannons while we figured out what to do. Then C got an idea. “I have a surprise” he told us. The girls were curious, but daddy wasn't saying anything. As we walked back to the car O says, “Oh, I needed that.” They always feel better when they get to run around a little.

So, we headed off to our surprise. We were still in the Presidio and had a great view of the Palace of Fine Arts. The landscaping was beautiful. It's been fixed up and renovated by Lucas. Yep, we were at Letterman Digial Arts Center. The new headquarters for Lucasfilm and ILM. It's just beautiful. All the old brick hospital buildings.

We had coffee (hot chocolate and chocolate milk for the girls) at Starbucks. Where else of course. I'm sure Lucas got it put in just for his employees. Everyone is walking around with art/poster tubes. We were so curious to know what was inside all of them. C thought there was a public area—museum or store—but we didn't see anything. C asked one of the many employees walking around. There isn't such a place, but we could see the Yoda statue. Off we went to find Yoda. There was more inside the lobby of Lucasfilm headquarters but we weren't sure if we should go in or not. We stood outside for a few minutes and I thought for sure C would say we need to leave, but he went in! The girls and I followed, and boy am I glad we did. It was so cool to see all the Star Wars memorabilia. I got pictures, of course. Here are just a few.

After hanging around Letterman Digital Arts Center we headed toward The Castro to meet up with D and her boyfriend (J) for dinner. We went to Home for dinner. Great place. Good food. We had a nice walk to and from dinner. After dinner we had dessert back at J's and he taught us how to play the Wii. What a fun game. CK was really good at bowling. We'll have to take her for real. C got a little carried away trying to help O play tennis. He was tossing her around. She didn't seem to mind. We had a great visit.

What a fantastic day. We came home thinking about all the wonderful things we saw and learned. The day ended perfectly with our visit with D and J. Thanks for dinner, btw! We need to go to The City more often. So much to see!

Celebrating Easter

Easter Sunday was a busy day for us. We went to mass, then my God-Father's house to visit and then Nonna and Papa's for our annual Easter Egg hunt and Easter dinner. It was wonderful to have Grammy join us this year. Unfortunately, C had to work and missed Easter dinner. I saved him lots of leftovers. He was very excited Monday morning.

We also celebrated E's birthday. It was on Good Friday. A very special birthday for her. She will never have her birthday this close to Easter again. It reminded me of when I was little. We always celebrated my birthday on Easter Sunday. I miss that.

Easter was a perfect day. Not only was it a beautiful sunny day, but we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and celebrating Easter. 

Coloring Easter Eggs

It has been our tradition, for about 3 years now, to color Easter Eggs with our friend M and her son, CM. It just wouldn't be the same without them. The kids seem to be getting better with their egg coloring and less messy. Although, CM really likes to stir that egg in the colored water. I think we have more fun each year.

Here are a few images from our egg coloring event.