Our Visit To The Dentist

Saturday the girls and I headed up to the dentist. As many of you probably know, we go to my uncle and cousins. They are all in practice together. We have to drive 45 minutes, but that's all I know. I've never gone to anyone else. Going to the dentist is just another family visit. Sometimes a painful visit, but a visit at that. I enjoy seeing everyone. Usually it's a family reunion in the waiting room, but not this visit.

For some reason I schedule my cleaning at the same time as the girls. I don't know how this happened or why I did that. Usually I stagger them. When the very nice office ladies called to remind me of our appointments I asked them about it. I wasn't worried about CK at all. She has always been great at the dentist and has never shed one tear. O, on the other hand was great her first check up, but cried the second time when the dental hygienist tried to do x-rays. O didn't like that and has been nervous ever since.

Six months ago, at our last appointment, the girls saw my cousin, Dr. N, for the first time. He had just finished school and was now officially a pediatric dentist. His office is beautiful! He is wonderful with kids. CK was fine....O cried. Dr. N was not able to really examine her too much, let alone clean her teeth. He was patient and calm and said we would just try again next time.

Yesterday was next time. I checked the girls and I in, filled out our health update forms and waited. Dr. N came out to talk to me before he saw the girls. Normal questions; any problems, how are they doing, etc. I told him about O sucking her thumb, but she is finally starting to not want anyone else to know she still sucks her thumb. (nice of me to post it on my blog) Dr. N was going to use this information to his advantage to try to get her to stop. (good luck)

I told Dr. N I was nervous about O getting upset and that I was going to be getting my teeth cleaned at the same time. He wasn't worried about it at all. He said they would take it slow, if they need to stop and wait, it's not a problem. He was so calm and matter of fact I wasn't nervous any longer. He took the girls in. They have a big TV in the cleaning room and the girls got to watch Cars while they were getting their teeth cleaned. (Lucky! Heck with the grown-up side....I'm going to Dr. N next time.)

As I waited my turn I thought I would peek in at the girls. O was just starting to get upset and cry. I didn't like that. Poor thing. My heart was telling me to rush in and hold my baby and tell her everything would be okay. My brain was telling me to leave her along. Dr. N was there, CK was there. She would be better if I didn't rush in. I was so strong and listened to my brain.

I had my cleaning and when I was almost finished the girls came in, finished with their cleaning the office ladies helped them find me. Big smiles, prizes, new tooth brushes, travel toothpaste, and brushing timers in hands. They were happy. Good sign.

I checked with Dr. N after I was finished. No cavities! Yeah! O did cry a little, but CK got up to hold her hand and tell her everything was okay. (what a great big sister!) Dr. N took it slow with O, taking breaks and talking with her. He was able to examine her mouth and clean her teeth. No fluoride treatment this time, but that is a huge improvement over the past several appointments. Yeah!

Both girls did great. I think O will be much better next time. BTW, love the brushing timer!

Chores

If you have read my Busy Moms Culinary Club blog (link to the right) you know I've started a new chore planner system. I love that someone else has made my chore list for me. I try to complete all my chores every day. It doesn't always happen, but my house is already cleaner and I feel better, even after just one week on this planner. I just need to take 15 - 20 minutes a day and do my chores. Doesn't seem that hard in theory.

The other day C was working and after dinner I told the girls I would like them to help me with the chores. I showed them my list and I started assigning chores. They were very excited. (go figure-lets roll with this while they're excited!)

Sweep kitchen floor = O

Wipe out bathroom sinks = Mommy, CK and O

Feed cat = O

Vacuum 1st floor = CK

Clean toilets = Mommy and CK

Clean bathroom mirrors = Mommy

Replenish stock of toilet paper in bathrooms = CK and O

Both girls wanted to learn how to clean out the bathroom sinks and CK wanted to clean the toilets. Really? Fine by me! Although, before being married and having kids, I liked to clean too.

I showed both girls the disinfectant wipes and how to clean out the sink and counter. Telling them to wash their hands really good after, of course. I showed CK how to put the toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet and scrub the toilet with the brush. She was excited to learn how to clean the toilet. Great! She can have that job! After cleaning the bathrooms, CK vacuumed the entire 1st floor. 

It wasn't all done perfect, but we had fun doing it all together and it even went pretty fast. We were done in no time and still had time to play before bedtime! Chores and cleaning is so much fun with my daughters!

First Day of School

Anxious, a little nervous, joy, excitement, meeting new friends, and catching up with old ones. Our big 2nd Grader and Kindergartner both had great first days.

CK was a little nervous. She didn't know her teacher, but she had a class filled with kids she knew. She has a great teacher. Great class. All very well behaved kids. This is going to be a great year, I can tell.

O was so excited she couldn't wait to get to school. We got there about 25 minutes early. Lots of time for Mommy to take pictures in front of the door, and in front of the school sign.

O went right into her classroom, picked out her name tag and knew to go straight to find her cubby. She was sitting on the rug in 2 minutes flat. Didn't need to be told what to do.

I was so proud of myself, I didn't even have one tear, UNTIL I saw another Kinder mom sobbing. Her husband had his arm around her consoling her. I saw her and lost it! Darn it!

C took me out to breakfast to celebrate. Both children in school. I have five mornings a week with no children. Wow. This will take some adjustment. I need to get into a new routine.

O came running out of her classroom after school with a huge smile on her face. She is so excited to be in Kindergarten AND at the same school as her big sister. 

I stopped to see CK at lunch (right before picking up O). She was eating with her friends and was having a great day. No more nerves. When we picked her up after school I asked how her first day was she said, "Fantastic."

School Starts Tomorrow!

Need I say more?

Inspiration from our Olympic Athletes

We have been watching the Olympics. Gymnastics, swimming, diving, volleyball, basketball, fencing....etc. This week will be equestrian.

Our American athletes are so inspiring. Dara Torres, Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, Nastia Luikin, and Shawn Johnson are among our favorites.

In an interview Michael Phelps was asked about reaching his goal of 8 Olympic Gold Medals in these games. His response was he worked hard and in his dreams he had done it. Dara Torres will tell her daughter "I guess I'll tell her don't put an age limit on your dreams."

We can learn so much from these athletes.

Michael Phelps: always believe you can reach your goals and dreams. It's a done deal.

Dara Torres: never think you are too old or it's too late to reach your dreams.

I'm so glad we have been watching the Olympics as a family. The girls see how hard these athletes work to reach there goals and because of their hard work have received Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals at the Olympics.

They now, of course, want to swim, dive, do gymnastics and play volleyball. They already want to ride horses. They will for sure after watching equestrian events on Thursday.

Getting Ready for Back to School

Last week my sister-in-law, G, and I went back to school shopping with all our kids (5 all together-WOW). The four girls are typical. CK wanted to match E, then had to match M. O had to match E. No...don't like that....but love this. It took forever.

Baby Blues describes how my nephew did his back to school shopping to a T!

This is how I'm feeling today:

Don't forget you can click on each image to enlarge them. They might be a little hard to read here.

Baby Blues is great. Look for one more on Monday. 

Want to check out some Baby Blues for yourself? Check out the Baby Blues Archives.

Surprise Breakfast

I have so many things I want to post, but I need to post this right now!

O woke up at 6:30am this morning. I'm a bad parent and she sits and watches cartoons in my room. CK is still asleep. At 7am O comes to me and says "We need to make a surprise breakfast for Daddy and Kiki."

WHY? I want to sleep. I put her off and put her off. CK wakes up, I still put her off. I'm tired, I was up late last night paying bills and crocheting (I'll tell you what I'm making in another post).

Finally, I get up and O and I go downstairs to make this surprise breakfast for Daddy and Kiki. O pulls out the box of cereal, "Kiki and me will have this cereal."

"No way," I tell her. "If we're doing this, we're doing it right." I ask her "Do you want pancakes or waffles?" "Pancakes." Great. 

I tell O, you set the table and I'll start breakfast. This is our breakfast; banana pancakes (from scratch-ran out of Bisquick), breakfast sausage, juice, milk, and coffee. O set the table with; yellow, green, & red Provence place mats, orange paper napkins, forks, knives, butter, maple syrup, and flowers. (orange paper napkins? I wasn't going to say anything.)

I keep the pancakes warm in the oven until I'm done making them all. Then O goes and tells Daddy and Kiki breakfast is ready. They loved it.

It was a very good breakfast, I must admit. It's all thanks to little O who wanted to make a surprise breakfast for Daddy and Kiki. How sweet.

Our Vegetable Garden

The girls and I did plant a vegetable garden again this year. I just haven't had a chance to post it on the blog. We planted it early this year. In March, I believe. We have 10 tomato plants (5 cherry & 5 regular tomatoes), 2 yellow bell pepper, 2 red bell pepper (green if you pick them before they turn red), and celery. We also had lettuce, but it's done now.

Everything is doing well. Celery never really does well, but I thought I would try it again. The only thing that we don't have that we usually have is Japanese cucumber. The store didn't have any when we bought our plants and I never got a chance to go back. We do miss having them.

The tomatoes are doing wonderful. The girls go out and pick several for dinner, almost every night. They are SO good!

We also have a bean plant. It was a school project for CK. They started with a lima bean in a paper towel. Once it started sprouting roots they transferred it to a cup of dirt. They watched their plants grow and then took them home. We watched the bean plant grow in it's little cup of dirt in the kitchen for a few months. I finally transferred it to a pot outside. It's doing well and it now has a bean pod growing! CK is so excited.

This is a great way to get your kids to try new things, BTW. Anything we plant in the vegetable garden the girls will at least try. They have helped me plant, water and harvest. It's so much fun!

I really like this veggie collage I put together. I might have to print it and hang it in my kitchen. Just gotta find a spot. Not too many walls in my small kitchen.

Getting Ready to Meet a Queen

As you know, on the nights C works the girls and I often have movie night. I always let the girls choose a movie. Tonight's movie was The Princess Diaries. One of our favorites.

We've seen this movie, at least, a dozen times. Usually it ends and the girls are playing Princess Mia for a week. Not tonight.

Tonight the girls both wanted to know if there really was such a place as Genovia and Queens and Princesses. Well, sorry girls, no such place as Genovia. It's a made up country, however, there are countries, I told them, that do have Queens, Kings, and Princesses. OOOH, that was exciting for them to hear. I told them England is such a place. 

Now, they want to go to England. They expect to meet the Queen when they get there. (I don't know how they understood if you go to England you get to meet the Queen.) I told them if they are able to meet the Queen they are really going to have to be on their best behavior. Even more than going to fancy tea with Grammy. They understood. I could tell CK was thinking about this a little.

CK comes to me a few minutes later and asks "Mommy, will we get to practice before we meet the Queen?" My little perfectionist. "Yes," I told her. "For sure, we will practice."

Guess I'm not only going to have to plan a trip to England, but meeting the Queen will need to be on my itinerary. I'd really like to know how I am going to pull this one off.

Old Fashioned Summer Fun

One of the things I remember as a kid is the Slip 'N Slide. We didn't have one, but I remember wanting one. Well, a few weeks ago, we were at a sporting good store and they were on sale! Can't pass up a sale. They were only $10. How can you beat $10 for some old fashioned summer back yard fun. They are now called Slide 'N Splash, BTW.

Today I took it out and the girls had a great time playing on it. They need to learn to dive, but they had a blast. See for yourself.

Yes O, there really is water in the end.

A Week of Memories, Friends, and Traditions

The girls and I just spent a week at Girl Scout Day Camp. CK and I have been going for the past two Summers. This year O was old enough to join us. She was SO excited, she couldn't stand it. She was so happy all week. We had so much fun.

The girls neighbor friend joined us as well as CK's entire Brownie Troop. Talk about a fun and exhausting week. So many memories!

I volunteer to help out at the day camp for the week. I'm camp photographer. This year along with taking all the little unit photos and all camp photo I also took 500 candid shots for the entire week (and those are the good ones!). I'm sharing the images with all the campers.

The girls and I have lots of wonderful memories from our week at day camp. So many things we did...singing, singing, and more singing (I'm still singing Peel, Peel Banana, The Pirate Song, Hermie The Worm, Make New Friends, and more), crafts, games, box oven cake, flag ceremonies, skits, and more.

The friendships the girls make last a lifetime. The leadership skills the girls learn are invaluable. The Girl Scout traditions are wonderful to experience.

Here is a collage of images of our wonderful week at day camp.

Last Days of Vacation

We are actually home now, but I wanted to post the last four days of our vacation. We stayed with our good friends CC, R, and boys V and B. They live 1 hour North-East of San Diego. 

We arrived on Saturday morning. Just in time to go and see V's flag football games. Daddy R is coach of course. We didn't expect to see him this trip. He was away on business, but he surprised us and was able to come home just for Saturday for the football games. We were all excited to see him, but O was the most surprised. Especially when he came out of the garage and she didn't expect to see him at all.

O was so excited about this trip to see her God-parents! She told everyone "Auntie CC is my God-mother!" It was extra special that she also got to see her God-father, even if it was only for an afternoon.

O usually starts saying she wants to go home or that she misses the cat after the first day of being away. Not this trip! She did not say it once! As a matter of fact she cried because she didn't want to go home. She wanted to stay with her God-mother. It was so cute. I felt bad. This was a good visit for her. She was really able to connect with CC and have some quality time with her God-mother. Next visit we'll make sure Uncle R is there for longer than one afternoon.

I took an idea from my friends blog (thanks MM!) and put together a little collage of images from our four days with CC and the boys.

They put in a pool last year. It's beautiful and the girls loved it! They really did a fantastic job on this pool. The heart shaped pool has a medium grey bottom. On all the steps and seats around the inside of the pool there is a square tile boarder. It's a great way to help see that there is a step/seat there. The flagstone edge around the pool is beautiful and along with the rock seat, diving rock and waterfall, it really makes you feel like you are in your own little pond. I love the addition of an umbrella in the top step of the shallow end of the pool. Right in the step. I love it.

Yes, that is me you see in a bikini. That was my San Diego souvenir. I've been wanting to get a bikini again. I haven't had one since before the girls were born. C has been asking me to get one, so when we were shopping at UTC I found this one. C told me to get it. Who am I to argue?

We also were lucky enough to be able to help B celebrate his 7th birthday. We took him out to lunch and we all ate his HUGE slice of chocolate cake. YUM!

We had a great vacation. It's good to be home. Huge thanks to the B family for having us in their home. We had a great time.  The only picture we didn't get was me and CC. (Can you believe that CC?) Bummer! 

San Diego; Crepe Breakfast, Museum, & Mall

Our day started with a wonderful Crepe breakfast with JK and her family (brother, sister-in-law, & Mom). CK and O enjoyed a banana and Nutella crepe. What better way to start the morning! I was able to take some shots of cutie pie little R. She is 8 months old and just started crawling. She is a very good baby. She let mommy and daddy eat breakfast and everything.

After breakfast we headed to Balboa Park and went to the San Diego Air & Space Museum. What a fun place. We thought of Papa the entire time. He would love it!

We saw the Apollo 9 Command Module. HOW COOL! Amazing those three astronauts fit in that tiny little thing. We also saw many aircraft from WWI, WWII and much more. The girls loved it. They wanted to go into every plane and cockpit they could. 

For lunch we went to Horton Plaza Mall in downtown San Diego. OMG, what a cool mall. Full of color. It's about five levels. So confusing! Mom: never go there alone! Seriously, I don't think I want to go there alone. It has so many paths this way and that. It's smack in the middle of downtown, so it's really a neat place and great to photograph. I could have been there all day photographing so many different aspects of it.

After walking around the mall for a while we went back to the hotel to rest. O and I took a nap and then we all jumped in the pool and hot tub for a few minutes. We had a wonderful dinner in our hotel room; french bread, salami, provolone cheese, and wine (well, C and I had wine). It was nice to sit and have some non-restaurant food. Nonna and Papa; the girls are ready for a trip to Europe. They loved sitting on the floor eating a picnic dinner. 

Tomorrow it's off to Temecula to visit CC and the boys. We can't wait. O is very excited to see her God-Mother! I'm not sure I'll get to update the blog there. I might only be able to enter text and not pics. I don't think they have wireless. We'll see.

A Perfect Day in San Diego

Today we went to La Jolla Shores Beach. This is the beach we spend the day at every San Diego vacation. Usually JK is able to play hooky from work and join us, but not today. (Sorry JK! We missed you!)

As you can see the girls had a great time, running and playing on the beach and in the water. I forgot to bring sand toys, but that didn't stop our two little beach bunnies.

We sat right by the lifeguard station. I was watching the lifeguard since he opened the station that morning. They never do anything but sit in the lifeguard station. Nothing ever happens. Not that I want something bad to happen or someone to get hurt. Don't get me wrong, It would just be cool to see the lifeguard do something else. Well, I got my wish. All of a sudden the lifeguard grabbed his stuff and ran out to the water. I immediately looked to see if someone was hurt (as I grabbed for my camera). No one seemed to be hurt (thank goodness). C and I watched to see what he was going to do. He scolded a couple of girls who were boogie boarding where they weren't suppose to. That was the best reason to see the lifeguard in action. No one needed to get hurt for me to see him run down to the water.

After spending the morning and lunch at the beach we headed over to UTC (University Town Center) Mall. It's a beautiful outdoor mall. (Westfield Shopping Town, of course.) The kids play area is even outside. I told C our girls were not allowed to go to UCSD for school. We'd be broke. This is too nice of a mall for them to go to school so close.

They had this beautiful fountain that had dolphin sculptures in it. It was beautiful. I love this image of the girls with the fountain. Too bad people get in the way! I'll try to Photoshop this guy out. It'll take a little time. Just pretend you don't see that guy.

With C's blessing I bought myself a San Diego souvenir--a bikini! It's beautiful--white with flowers on it. If we go to the beach tomorrow, I'll wear it. Otherwise, I'll wear it at CC's (our next stop on our San Diego vacation). I'll post pics then. I haven't had a bikini since C and I were first married. I'm excited. Thank you Honey!

We went to The Fishery for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner. Not just because of the wonderful food, atmosphere and the fact we are on vacation, but C and I received the absolute best compliment two parents could receive! In the middle of dinner this women, who was leaving with her husband, stopped and told us they could not take their eyes off our children. They were so well behaved (as she patted C on the back). OMG, I just about cried. I hate to brag, but it just made us feel so good, SO PROUD of our girls! Validation that we are doing something right. (The yelling all day is sinking in. ) The girls were all smiles when we explained what the women said and how very proud we are of them and to say we are their parents.

A perfect ending to a perfect day. Another perfect vacation day is in store tomorrow. We will start our day with breakfast with JK, her brother (and family) and her mom. After that, who knows....

Sunny San Diego

We are on our family vacation in San Diego. We drove down and arrived at about 5:30pm. After checking into our hotel we had dinner with our friend, JK--who is lucky enough to live in this beautiful city!

Our San Diego tradition is to go down to the beach first thing. Well, we had dinner first, but we did walk down to the beach after dinner. Our favorite place on earth is the beach. All four of us! Doesn't matter what beach, what city. If there is a beach and an ocean we're a very happy family. As you can see from this picture I took of the girls running on the beach.

Tomorrow we will sit on the beach in La Jolla and then C will take us shopping. Sounds like a great day to me. The beach, La Jolla, shopping, what is there not to like about that?

4th of July

Our 4th of July celebration began on the 3rd. CK was in the Patriotic Sing. They started with a performance on the 3rd. Her cousin E and good friend K were also a part of the Patriotic Sing. The three girls did great.

We all got up bright and early on the 4th so the girls could be on a float in the parade. How fun! Not getting up early (had to find parking and be on the float by 9:15am). CK loved being in the parade. The Patriotic Sing float was #44, so CK was able to sit and watch the rest of the parade with us.

After C went to work the girls and I barbecued at our good friends. We then went to the park so the girls could do one last Patriotic Sing performance and watch the fireworks. Well the girls got to sing - in front of thousands of people, BTW, but there were no fireworks. They had to call them off. It was too windy. The girls were very disappointed, as you can imagine. Better to be safe, but they waited MUCH TOO LONG to decide to cancel (that's another story).

Did you miss the parade? Did your town not have one? Maybe you would like to see the parade again. Here is your chance. Our Patriotic Sing and 4th of July photos are online! I did it all by myself. Thanks to Lightroom.

Summer Fun

When we think of Summer we think of things such as; vacation, no school, the beach, 4th of July, and water sports. I also think of a family car wash. It just seems so Summer to me.

After a few days of promising the girls they could help daddy wash the car, C did have the girls help him wash his truck. They had a great time.

Riding at Sunset

As promised, I took the girls back to the spot we found last week to try and take a sunset shot. It was nothing like that one night. We were in Sacramento on Saturday and Sunday and couldn't get to taking sunset pictures until last night, however, we did get an extra treat.

We meet a cowboy. He was riding his horse in the field as we were taking sunset shots. His house and stables were across the street from the field. Great spot and just 5 minutes from our house! I just love were we live!

The girls loved seeing all the horses and watching the cowboy. When we were getting packed up to go home the cowboy was riding in. CK said to me, "I want to know the horses name. Can you ask him for me?" I told her no. "I don't care what the horses name is. If you want to know his name, you need to ask." She did not like that answer. She tells me she is shy. Well, I was not going to ask him. She needs to learn if she wants to know something, she needs to ask. I waited to see what she would do. I started to pack up my camera.

Apparently, O also wanted to know the horses name, so when the cowboy came up on the sidewalk she ran over and asked, "What is your horses name?" He told her (Gold in Spanish is all I remember.). She came running back with the name. That took care of that.

Beautiful horse (don't think I've ever seen an ugly horse actually) very nice man. He asked how my pictures of the sunset went. Okay, I told him. Not as nice as the other night would have been. I told him I am a photographer, gave him my card. He might be contacting me to take photographs of him and his horse. I would LOVE to! I already know exactly what images I want to take. I'll keep you posted.

Sunset

The girls and I saw the strangest sunset tonight. We were on our way home from dinner out with friends and saw this giant red glowing sun through the fire smokey air. A giant glowing ball low in the sky. We raced home (very safely) to grab my camera and tripod. We went up the hill behind us to try and find a good spot to take photos, but we were too late. The sun had set too fast for us. The girls were disappointed. O says "I hate missing stuff!" Poor thing.

I told them with the sunset you need to be fast to get the shot. CK says "You need to just always have your camera with you." YES, Miss Smarty Pants. She's right, but it's just not possible to always have it.

On the bright side, I did find a great spot for the future. It overlooks part of the city. We'll try again tomorrow night. With all this smoke in the air from all the fires, it should be the same tomorrow night. We'll be in Sacramento. We'll see what we get up there.

Mommy Goes To Summer School

I just got back from my annual class at Golden Gate School of Professional Photography (GGS). GGS is a wonderful way for photographers who are starting or building their businesses to learn more about our business. There are classes on every aspect of a professional photography business. It's also a great way to network.

This year I took a class on kids and families from professional photographer Jennifer Wilson. Jen is an award winning kids and family photographer. She was great. I learned a lot and can't wait for my next portrait session.

Wednesday night when I got home from class C and the girls took me out to dinner. On our way to dinner they sang to me,  "Everything" by Michael Buble. It was so sweet. I cried. It's such a beautiful song.

Today one of my new friends and fellow photographers emailed me a photo she took of me during class. I showed it to the girls.

Me: "Look this is a picture of me at my class. This is my teacher and she is taking pictures of a family."

CK: "Is she showing you what to do?"

Me: "Yes."

CK: "So, you weren't paying attention then?"

SMART ASS kid