Kindergarten orientation

Last night was kindergarten orientation. We found out that Brandon's new teacher is Mrs. Wong. We were told by another parent that she is a really good teacher. I guess that makes up for the fact that he's in the afternoon class. We were disappointed to hear that the kids won't have a lunch break, though. With afternoon class being 10:40 - 2:00, that seems really ridiculous. Luckily my boys are used to eating lunch at 11, so making them eat even earlier shouldn't be a big deal. It just would have been nice for Brandon to have lunch at a reasonable lunch hour.

State Fair photos

State Fair

We took the boys to the State Fair on Friday. Brandon & Dylan had the best time. Of course, their favorites were the rides and the games. We made sure we saw the livestock and the county exhibits, as well. Dylan even went on a pony ride. Brandon said, "No thank you," when we asked if he wanted to go with Dylan. He loves to look at animals, but forget about touching them. Those two enjoyed everything we did at the fair. Can you believe Dylan even shared a basket of fried artichoke hearts with me? He was upset when I had eaten the last one. Unfortunately, Owen spent most of the trip in his stroller. He was hot, tired and not feeling well. His mouth was making him miserable, and the heat made it too uncomfortable for him to nap much. We bought him a fruit smoothie at lunch time to ease the pain in his mouth. That mellowed him out for a little while. It was a good few hours, and they are looking forward to going again next year.

Owen sleeps through the night!

Not only did Owen sleep through the night Wednesday, but he did it again Thursday night as well! I was in complete shock that he gave us a repeat performance. Friday we weren't so lucky, and neither was he. The poor thing woke up at his regular 1:30 a.m. with a full diaper and a 102 degree temperature. He's teething right now, too, so I think that's what may be causing the fever. He has two molars forcing their way through and he's just a miserable baby.

Owen has a favorite show. . .

. . .and he can tell you what it is too: "Einstein." He loves the Little Einsteins cartoon. He was sitting with a Little Einsteins sticker book a couple of days ago, and I could have sworn he said, "Einstein." Then yesterday Diane told me that she had heard Owen say it, too. He said it again today when we were picking out a video for him to watch. He grabbed Baby Van Gogh, pointed to the logo and said, "Einstein."

Owen sleeps through the night!

Owen is almost 15 months old and he has finally made it through the night! I'm not holding my breath for a repeat performance tonight, but it's good to know that he's getting closer to letting me get some rest finally.

Kindergarden is coming

We received our letter from Brandon's new school yesterday. We were disappointed to see he was put in an afternoon kindergarden class. I called this morning to see if switching to the morning session was possible, since the afternoon session ends right in the middle of Owen & Dylan's nap time. I was told they were over-enrolled and that switching was impossible unless they added a fourth class. Looking to be a really rough year for me and my little ones!

I've been so irritated today, that I'm wanting to enroll him somewhere else at the last minute. It's probably not even possible, but I'll be making some calls tomorrow. I'm probably overreacting, but it doesn't hurt to look at other options, right?

One less carseat!

Brandon has finally gotten so tall that he doesn't fit in his carseat any longer. He loves his booster seat. It has cup holders that fold out from it, and he loves to put his toys in them. It's pretty darned cute.

Brandon's first soccer practice

Brandon was so excited about his first soccer practice. He met his team for the first time on Thursday. Brandon tried so hard to do everything just perfect. That's Russ's son for you! He did really great. He was disappointed that he wasn't the best one out there, so he feels a little lukewarm about the sport now. We told him that it was his very first day, and he was learning all new stuff about soccer. We told him that it takes practice to become a really good soccer player, and we could help him do that. I only hope that he enjoys playing on a team. Keeping my fingers crossed...

July catch-up

Ya, ya, ya. . .I know, I've been really bad about our blog. July was an extremely busy month. My last blog entry was started weeks ago, and I finally finished it today. (I didn't bother to change the blog date though.) I was really crunched for time at the newspaper. I think we had two weeks to put the August issues together. My head was spinning by the time we were done. The nice thing, though, is we had two weeks off until the September work started rolling in. I took the kids swimming at the office on the one free day we had together. They loved it, and keep asking when we're going back. I showed Brandon how to use the swim noodle, so he's dying to spend the day using it again.

We had Brandon's birthday party at The Bounce Spot on his actual birthday. He LOVED it! He was just glowing, because it was his birthday and he was the center of attention. He played really hard in all the bounce houses with his friends, especially the ones from preschool. He loved his Wall-E cake and his mountain of presents. He said it was the best day ever. What more could we ask for?




We left the next day for a trip to the ocean. The boys were giddy with excitement. They were so giddy, we were ready to pull our hair out. They were bouncing off the walls, running up and down the stairs, playing with the two recliner chairs, running around all the decking that surrounded the house, yelling, screaming, fighting, laughing. . .and that was all within the first 30 minutes of being there! It continued the next morning, so we loaded everyone up for a long car ride into Felton to visit the Big Trees State Park and Roaring Camp Railroad. Dyan and Owen fell asleep and missed most of the Big Trees. It was wonderful to be in the forest and show Brandon how beautiful it all was. He thought so many things were just so cool.

We spent a couple of days at the beach. Owen hated all the sand at first. In fact, he spent the first hour at the beach sitting on Russ's boogie board. If the sand touched his feet he completely freaked out. You would think his feet were being severed from his body. Thank goodness he finally got used to the sand. The boys spent the days building sandcastles, searching for sea shells and playing in the water. They especially loved taking a hot outside showers with Daddy when we got back to the house.

We also spent some time at the Boardwalk riding some of the rides and playing games in the arcade. We also visited the wharf so the kids could look at the seals. Of course, they loved all that too. Dylan was completely upset with us when we told him it was time to leave.

The trip was just long enough to get away for some fun with the kids, but short enough to feel like we had just gotten there. The kids sure did keep us on our toes, though. We came home needing a vacation from our kids, and luckily our moms stepped up and took them all. We had a pretty quiet weekend to rest and recoup from our family vacation.

Santa Cruz Photos