Sunday Night Bonfire

I have been wanting to do a bonfire all summer long, and here it is now Fall and we finally pulled it of last night. We gathered around our fire pit with our friends, roasted weenies and marshmallows, and watched our kids fill their pants and hair with sand, it was great! There's something so cozy about being on the beach at night when it's a little chilly and warming up to a nice fire. We can't wait to do it again!

Family Fun

We had a lot of fun with Aiana's soccer team this weekend. It was the annual daughter vs. parent game followed by a BBQ. I loved watching the girls laugh so hard!

Oh the days of red rover

flower child

Moms Night Out!

I think it is so important for moms to get some time away! Friday night I was able to do that with a fabulous group of friends. It's amazing how many hours us ladies can spend chatting, laughing, ...and well, dancing too!

More dance pictures

I had to get a couple more pics of Caylin at dance class.

Dancing is so fun with buddy Kaylee

Time for ballet
Tap dancing to Puff the Magic Dragon

What happened!

Putting make-up on in front of the mirror used to consist of finger paint, or chocolate.

Now....
Dress up used to be for fun and play
Now...
She's growing up so fast! With the little ones there's times when I just want this season of poopy diapers and no sleep to go by faster, and then there's times that I just want to freeze.

Fun at the Childrens Museum

Eventhough it's nothing like I remember it being, we had a great time today visiting the Children's Museum. We walked over with our friends who live pretty close and enjoyed the excitement of seeing the trolley up close and personal. Then met up with more of our friends for tons of fun! Caylin loved all the hands on fun. Her favorite was painting a car, a real one. This car had about 2,000 coats of paint and Caylin managed to cover her hands and arms with about 2,000 coats of paint!

What an awesome night!

One of the events I love to watch during the Olympics is gymnastics! And tonight Will, Aiana, and I went to Frosted Pink with a Twist (which is a campaign supporting women’s cancer) and got to see the US gymnastics team perform live!! Not only that, but perform to live music by Cyndi Lauper (love the 80’s!), Kenny Logins (whoo hoo footloose!), and more. I just love Shawn Johnson, she is such a sweetie and has great energy! One of my favorite routines was Shawn Johnson performing on the beam to "True Colors" (I was going to post a clip, but we were sitting so high up it wasnt worth the time, especially since the show is going to air on TV). It was such a treat! The show will be aired on ABC on Oct 12.

Visiting with Angela!

My step-sister and her husband Donal are visiting from Ireland. They live in a small town called Spiddal on the West Coast of Ireland, near Galway. We were able to hang out with them for a while this weekend and catch up. I’m not ready to take on such a long trip with the kids, but I would LOVE to go visit her one day!

Go Toreros!

Our niece Torey plays volleyball for USD. I wish we could make it to all of her games, they are amazing to watch! But of course, having 2 little ones it’s hard to get out. But this weekend Will took Caylin on Friday night and Aiana to a game on Saturday. Caylin could not stop talking about “Towey” and now knows the #8, because that is Torey’s number. She also dug out her bicycle knee pads and has been insistent on wearing them, I could not figure out why until she told me “now I’m like Towey”. She even had to sleep with these on! Aiana and Will had a great time on Saturday and of course the Toreros won both games! We are hoping to get Aiana to check out Volleyball camp next summer at USD with Torey!

My favorite models

I went out with a friend and a few other photographers last week for a little photo fun. Of course I had to post a few of Caylin and Anika (my other favorite model was in school)...

One busy week!

This has been such a busy week! Soccer practice 2x a week, band practice once a week, doctors appointments, MOPS meeting, and Tuesday was Aiana’s first day back to school! She was very excited and ready to go back. This year, now that she’s a big 7th grader, she just wanted to be dropped off, not like last year when I walked her to her first class. (I would love to have more pictures, but I guess it’s not so cool to have your mom follow you to your class and take pictures when you are in 7th grade). While she was at school, Caylin and I went to orientation at her new school. I was so impressed with the organization and cleanliness of the school. Her new preschool is only in session during regular school days, so Thursday will be everyone’s first day back. During orientation we toured the school, did a craft, had a snack, and sang songs. We left feeling really good about her new school. Aiana came home pretty confident about this year. She’s says she’s not looking forward to her Spanish class, but she spends time everyday studying. She said that World History is her favorite class because she’s got a cool teacher.
Today was Caylin's first actual day of school. I thought she’d be excited, but when she learned that today mommy wasn’t going to stay she freaked out. As we drove to school we counted all the children who were walking to school. We talked about her teacher’s and how nice they are. (She cracks up at one of her teacher’s names, Ms. Kronk. Whenever I say her name, Caylin laughs. She told me “That name is so Spanish, it’s so not adorable”. I don’t know where she gets some of her sayings!) Anyway, we were on a good roll. She was happy to see her school, but when it came time for me to leave, she made a run for the door and grabbed onto the gate outside, screaming! Her teacher came out and got her and took her into the class. All the parents were given a “parent survival kit” with tissues, a kiss, and a lifesaver. I needed my tissues! By the time I left, she had stopped crying. Later, the director called me and said she was doing fine. When I picked her up she was very happy to see me and very excited to go back to school! Yay!

Labor Day Weekend

We spent the weekend with our good friends. Caylin was ecstatic to have her buddy Gavin and his little brother Parker over. We took the kids to Seaport Village on Friday. It was so cute to watch the kids together.

Sunday we went to another concert in the park with our friends, and Monday we spent the evening over at my moms with my brother and his family. We took a walk down to the beach and didn’t realize the kids would be going for a swim! (We should know by now!).