Evening At The Park

  We headed to the park to enjoy the summer night. Bikes, scooters, soccer ball. Something for everyone. EL had her 1st go on a two-wheeler. She did a good job, just needed to think about pedaling forward, not backwards (hello brakes!) Guess with #3 we are just skipping right over the training wheels. We sent those to storage when we moved. EL gave it a good try and I am sure we will be practicing more shortly. MA was happy to ride around the park at a nice speed that didn't make me nervous. DB loved racing down the hill. Go figure! A little soccer and a play on the equipment there and it was time to head home. 

Craft Party

  MA had a few friends over for a crafty birthday party. She wanted to make fun flip flops. The girls had a great time and did a wonderful job with their shoes. Then they had some cupcakes and made a dash to the pool. They finished off the afternoon poolside, playing mermaids, jumping in, and doing dives. Fun for all! EL & DB even got in on the splashing. 

Back To School

 How is it time for summer to be over and head back to school already? I love having the kids home with me during the day. Lazy days just swimming and hanging out. But uniforms are w ashed and backpacks are ready. All three kids were up early and excited to head to class. MA is in a class with a big group of her friends. DB has the same teacher as last year and a bunch of his buddies.

EL is off to Kindy. All day! At school! She is so excited to have her best friends in her class. She walked into the classroom and was off! Hello friends, goodbye mum. I am really happy for her and glad she was so ready to be there. Made it easier to leave as a mum. I only checked the clock 100 times that day and couldn't wait until 2:45 to arrive.

As soon as I got there, she gave me a huge hug and said, "Mummy, I can smell you!" My eyes about popped out of my head. Thankfully, she followed that statement up with, "You smell like the shower." She was all smiles and singing songs while we walked over to get the older two. DB had a great 1st day and MA was quite happy too! Looks like the school year is off to a good start.

 

8 Is Going To Be Great!

  MA turned 8. Doesn't seem possible to me that we have an 8 year old. At the same time, I can't remember a time without her. And some days I think she is 18 not 8. We are truly lucky to call Miss MA our daughter and can't wait to see what she accomplishes and grows to love this year.
  We started the day off with a Facetime chat with the fam back in IL. Complete with a coffee cake with candles. And getting to open an early present from them. Made her wait until dinner with daddy to open the rest. DB worked really hard and made some special and thoughtful gifts. I was really proud of him. He used some of his own supplies (tape is like gold to him) and wrapped a few things for MA. He also made her her name out of various things he rounded up from the house. All on his own. He is such a good brother, when he isn't making his sisters crazy!

The Long Way

  We loaded up to grab some ice cream. Plugged in our destination and followed the GPS to ice cream. We drove past Baskin Robbins but opted to keep going to get our favorite brand of ice cream here, New Zealand Natural. The GPS said we had arrived, no ice cream shop in sight. So we did a quick google search and found another location just down the road. Then we hit traffic! It was at a standstill. So what would have normally taken less than 10 minutes, took us over 20 minutes. The GPS took us to a random loading dock and said we were there. So back into traffic we went. And headed straight to the Baskin Robbins we had passed 30+ minutes ago. The kids were worried that we were going to a bad ice cream place. No one had any complaints once their ice cream was in front of them. EL tried rainbow sherbet. After a couple bites she said, "Mommy, I only like rainbows in the sky, not my ice cream."
  The next night we just walked right over to BR and enjoyed a cool treat. EL tried chocolate chip in vanilla. Much better choice for her.

 The sun setting on a wonderful holiday!

 My daily run included amazing views like this!

Christmas 2013

  Christmas day started bright and early. The sun was shining and the kids were dying to see if Santa came back after they went to sleep. It is such a wonderful thing as a parent to watch their faces light up. We opened stockings and handed out the gifts. We took our time opening gifts, taking turns so everyone could see what the other got. Breakfast on the patio and then it was time to play with some of the new toys!! DB tried out his new helicopter, EL got her babies out to play, and MA was all over her ipod.

 Someone snuck into our bed early Christmas morning. 

 Of all the gifts Santa left, this Dora key was what she grabbed first and carried around!

We ended the afternoon with a game of Clue

After dinner we drove back to Mr. Phil's to avoid the traffic on boxing day.