I heard the school bell ring bright and early yesterday morning. That can only mean one thing--school has begun again here in Pleantanton. I have to admit, I'm grateful I don't have to deal with the stress of trying to get everyone out of the house so early in the morning every single day. A perk of homeschooling I guess, because we can wake up and have a great breakfast together, do our chores and get started with school right at our very own kitchen table! Although, summer for us wasn't much different that the rest of the year-- we still did our schoolwork every day... ok, not EVERY day...I'm not that mean! Here are some of those fun moments from the past 2 months in no particular order:
Another mini Duke reunion! We ALWAYS love it whenever we can manage one! The Thompsons were heading off to Angola in a few weeks for 3 years, so we wanted to get together for one last hoorah until they return. Metheny's came down from Sacramento and we had a great time as always. We got to meet the latest additions to all 3 of our families, which was wonderful! Love you guys! Thanks for making the trip and we'll awaiting news from the African Continent!
The first toy that Luke has really shown interest in. I was doing the dishes and handed him a cup. He was more fascinated with it than any of his noisy chew toys! I didn't realize this until he started wailing as it dropped to the floor and he saw it slowly roll away, out of his grasp. As soon as I picked it up and handed it to him, that cute smile immediately appeared. Good to see a little personality developing :)
A spur of the moment trip to Marine World! We had free tickets sitting in my pile of papers from a few months ago. I got a call from my sister and she said that the tickets expired "today!" I had no idea. You can't waste free tickets! We packed up and headed off to see lions and dolphins and whales and of course a few rides and a little cotton candy :) What fun!
At the park with the Borges
Just cute. I found them all in Luke's bed one morning when I got up.
I don't think he was put out ;)
First try with cereal, just a few days after his surgery. Kate and Jake were like ravenous monsters as soon as I introduced food to them-- it always shocked others to see them open so wide! I expected the same from our third. I guess I shouldn't have such expectations. He choked, gagged, made awful faces and I think we even got a few dry heaves. Maybe he wasn't ready :) We waited 2 weeks and thankfully that mouth began to show some interest.
This is how Luke sleeps at night with his favorite blanket. He'll even pull it over his head completely sometimes! Freaks us out when he does that, but who doesn't like to be cozy?!
Mixed Emotions. You know when you are THRILLED for someone because of opportunities presented but thoroughly depressed for yourself because it means they're leaving you? This is one of those times. We met our friends, the Merrills, 3 years ago when we moved to Pleasanton. They had moved here right about the same time and we just clicked. The adults clicked, the kids clicked... there was a lot of clicking going on :) We've loved our times together and so when they shared with us that they were moving to Hawaii because Jeff got on as an art professor at BYU-Hawaii, I screamed with excitement and then called my sister and dejectedly told her they were leaving. So.... we had the boys over for one last playdate. We can't wait to see them and hear of their exciting new adventures in just a few weeks when we head over there for vacation. Love you and Miss you, Merrills!
Kate turned 6 years old on August 12th. Six. Wow. When she realized we were actually going to be home this year for her birthday, she was so excited, she planned her entire birthday party before we even agreed she could have one! About 50 kids were on the list...wish we could have worked that! Some beautiful maidens graced us with their presence and we simply had a BALL. We played a few games including Kiss the Frog, we got our nails painted and our faces done up, we made bracelets and put on tiaras and loads of jewelry, we checked our appearances in some really silly mirrors, we had a tea party, a pinata castle and truly felt like we were the real deal.
Kate wasn't the only one who swam this summer. We decided since Kate was swimming at one end of the pool, we should put Jake in lessons at the other end during her practice! Genius! Why didn't I think of it earlier?!
Working on his back floats. Jake had the biggest grin on his face at every lesson. 
During the show. 
Kate and BG
