Someone Loves Her Daddy

This little girl loves her Daddy.

 She has become more and more attached over the last few months.

 I expected this would happen, as it has with all 4 of them.

 Something about Daddy being more fun than Mommy.  Whatever!

 She loves playing around in the yard, or anywhere, for that matter, with Daddy.

 And these days, he's the only one who can get her to sleep at night!

With a little luck, she'll still adore him this much when she's a teen. :)

Santa Monica Swings

Whenever we take the bike path south from Will Rogers State Beach, we always stop off at the ropes and rings near the Santa Monica pier.  Sometimes you can catch some amazing athletes doing pretty crazy tricks on the rings and ropes, and always we like to take out turn to play around.

 This ride in June was no exception.  Brooke had a great 1st trip in her front bike seat.

There goes Grayson up the rope...

And all the way to the top.  That thing is high!

 Th Old Man has still got it!

 

Derek loves flying off the rings!

 "Really cool, you guys".


 He also loves his patented upside down, Batman-esque trick.

Hang on, Grayson!  Apparently, Brooke likes to chew the unsanitary caution tape.

Another gorgeous ride along the beach.  Next time we'll go in the winter so we can actually have some sunshine!

School's Out! And It's About to Start Again...

Who can blog in the Summer?  Ain't nobody got time for that!!  We've been having too much fun, so I have to go waaay back, all the way to June, in fact, when Grayson "culminated" from kindergarten.  We know you'll enjoy this as much as we did.  

To be continued.....

And Just Like That...

Just a year ago, we tore to the hospital in the early morning and welcomed this little girl to the world.

 She was an alert, sweet little thing from the get-go, who was immediately loved by her family.

 One year later, she is even more adored and we are even more grateful for how she's changed our family and for the joy she's brought to us all.  Happy birthday Brookie!

Jog-a-Thon!

Last month Grayson's school held its annual jog-a-thon fundraiser.  Grayson was pretty stoked to run with all of the kindergarteners and couldn't wait to get started!

 Lining up with his class.  Who let the 4th grader run with the littles?

 Off he goes!  Don't run down that little girl, Grayson!!

Stopping to get his card checked off by one of the "coaches".  Grayson did not want to be held back by anyone.  He even declined my offer to run the last lap with him, pushing Brookie in the jogger.  He took off so he wouldn't be slowed down by his old mom.

In the background of this picture, you can barely make out one of the blind kids running while holding onto a rope.  There is a blind school at Topeka Elementary, so all the blind kids in the area get bussed in, and every time I see them learning new skills (walking up stairs, crossing the street, jogging on a rope) I cry.  Gets me EVERY TIME.

 All done and enjoying a well-deserved popsicle with his friends.

Today Grayson was awarded a medal at a special assembly for completing the most laps of all the kinder kids (shocker) at the jog-a-thon.  Then later at another assembly he was awarded a certificate for Excellence in math.  What a great year this kid has had!

The New Blue...

 ...appears to be as bad, or worse, than the Old Blue...which is good for us!!  A losing Dodger team means cheap seats for the family!  Without a lot of traffic we can head to the stadium with plenty of time to play at the park down the street from the parking lot, toss around the football and volleyball, eat some dinner and still get into the park in time to be one of the 150 fans that are there in time to hear the National Anthem.  Seats in Row A of the Loge section for 8.99?  Can't beat that!


 Probably my favorite part of going to Dodger stadium is listening to Vin Scully on the loudspeakers outside and through all the main areas inside.  It's impossible (even for Giants fans) to hear Vinny and not immediately think and feel BASEBALL!

Some of you reading this blog may wonder how/why my children are wearing LA hats posed in front of the LA sign.  Despite the smiles, this was most definitely under protest by the 3 oldest.  There may or may not have been Red Vines and candy hanging on their wearing these hats. ( Also, we told them what happens to people who root for the Giants at a Dodger game...j/k lol)

 This girl had a blast!  She loved the noises, the colorful crowd, the clapping and took a long nap through innings 3-7 (much like the Dodgers).

 Derek was in it for the snacks.  However, don't say Dodger games aren't fun.  Where else do they do the wave...EVERY INNING???  Where else can you count no fewer than 8 beach balls throughout the stadium at any given time?

 "Mom!  Stop it!  Don't take a picture of me in this hat!"

 Trying to get a beach ball from below.

Future and present Dodger fans.  Our poor Dodgers lost another one this night, but that was all right with us.  When you're standing up with your kids singing during the 7th inning stretch with 10's of 1000's of other ppl, life feels about as happy as can be!

Belated Birthday Post

When you turn 9 nine years old, and you're a boy, and your name is Derek, breakfast is a VERY BIG DEAL.  This mom got up with the sun to make sure that the waffles were mixed, the sausage cooked, the eggs fried, strawberries sliced, and the fresh cream whipped.  That all made for an extremely happy guy.  Add to that some new athletic apparel to wear to school and it was about as good as it gets.

 LAter that day I brought the requested sports cupcakes to school (a re-visit of ones i made in 1st grade).  It was his friend, Mei-wa's birthday, too, so she brought the CapriSun and we brought the treats.

THank goodness there are only 24 kids in the class!  These suckers take forever to decorate!!

The class sings to Derek and Mei-Wa.

Brooke was along for the ride, of course.  She's looking back at some newly hatched ducks in an incubator.

A basketball for Derek. 

We spent the whole afternoon and evening in the car heading up to Placerville for a weekend visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Lucky Derek got to attend a Giants game with Auntie Erin, and scored this incredible ice cream cake from Grandma!

We just can't believe our little Mr. DooDoos is already 9 !  We can't wait for years more of silly jokes and stand-up, declarations of , "5 more girls like me now", and great sound effects from this kid!