Oh, to be three...

The comedian Ray Romano has a bit about seeing his young daughter smiling to herself as she gazes out the window of their car and asking her what she's thinking about. She responds, "Candy."

Isn't it wonderful, the sweetness and innocence of a child's thoughts?

Tonight Gwen was having a hard time getting to sleep and wanted me to sit by her and rub her back. While I did this she told me how she wanted a "tiny giraffe" to be her friend. She was so sweet and happy thinking and talking about her tiny giraffe that I fell in love with my little Gwen all over again. 

I find the experience of having children to be a lot like a new romance. That child is the most wonderful person in the world and they can do no real wrong in your eyes. Sure, they may have flaws, you're not totally blind, you can see that, but their flaws are charming, harmless, endearing. The more you're around your child the more you love them. You think about them too much. Talk about them too much.   Sure, they can be frustrating and hard to understand, but what person isn't when you're in a new relationship, trying to figure out exactly who that other, wonderful person really is. 

So even after 10, 8, 5 and 3 years, I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in the minds and hearts of my children and falling in love with those insights every single day. Especially when it's tiny giraffes.

First day of school!

We had 3 excited kids (and one oblivious 3 year old) at our house this morning chomping at the bit to get back to school. In spite of our attempts to entertain them with trips to Disneyland, Utah, Lake Tahoe, and Laguna Beach, in spite of countless days swimming with friends and hours of swim lessons and swim practice and swim meets, in spite of days at the movies, a house full of toys, and more electronics than you can shake a stick at, the kids were "bored". The fact of the matter is, not only is summer vacation not 104 days long, it is nothing at all like Phineas and Ferb would have you believe. Despite a mother's best efforts there are seemingly endless hours in the day to fill and the kids were tired of trying to fill them. Bring on the school year!

Nate and Gwen clearly didn't get the point of the fingers being held up in this picture. Brenna is starting 5th grade, Ava 3rd, Nate kindergarten, and Gwen is rocking the home life with mom for a couple more years. Please note, she is also rocking the pink cowboy boots, which she wears all the time. 

So I started the day off with a bang by not charging the good camera last night. These were all taken on my iPhone.

We park several blocks from the school and walk the kids in on the first day, along with almost every other family.

Nate's teacher must know a thing or two about 5 year olds, particularly 5 year old boys. She had a bowl of Unifix cubes at each spot for the students to play with as they arrived. Kindergarten has "legos"! Nate was a happy boy. I, on the other hand, found myself unexpectedly teary-eyed and was grateful for my sunglasses so I didn't look like one of "those" moms.

Brenna and Ava didn't even peek in their classrooms. They simply set their backpacks outside the door and headed out to the playground with quick farewell hugs (if we were lucky).

At 2:45 Gwen and I headed to the bus stop to pick up the kids. Nate and Ava are supposed to arrive at 2:50, and Brenna at 3:10. Finally at 3:15 Ava and Nate's bus arrived, with NO NATE ON IT! The kindergartners wear wristbands to make it easy to tell which bus they need to get on and what stop to get off at. I had filled out the wrong wristband for Nate, designating the right stop but on the wrong bus. I realized my mistake this morning and told his teacher that I needed to make new wristbands for him, but she assured me she had already noticed the mistake and had filled out new ones. Turns out that she must have noticed some other kids incorrect wristbands. So I asked a friend who lives around the corner if Brenna could come home with her for a few minutes when she made it off the bus because they would surely take my kindergartener back to the school when he didn't get off because he never saw his stop.

Ava, Gwen and I hurried back to the house to find Nate standing in front of the garage door (which I had left open), sipping a Capri Sun he had gotten out of the garage fridge. He was perfectly happy, and said in a pleasant voice, "Where were you guys?"

Since he had ridden the wrong bus, he saw the bus stop that Brenna and Ava used to get off at 2 years ago and got off there. He then proceeded to walk the 2/3 of a mile from there to our house all by himself, without getting lost or even perturbed. Apparently being a big kid implies a lot more to him than it does to me!

So all is well that ends well. Nate feels like a brave adventurer and I've written a note to make sure the teacher knows which bus he should ride from now on.

The kids were all glad to see their friends and learn the rules of their new classrooms. They were also all in need of some mindless escapism the moment they hit the door (that, a drink of water and a big helping of Texas sheet cake with vanilla ice cream).

Here's hoping tomorrow is another good day.

Bidding summer a fond farewell

 We dove into one last swim meet:

This summer brought more swimming than we've ever done in our lives and it was wonderful!

We live 20 minutes from a company that sells caterpillars and ships them all over the world. We've seen their ads on TV many times, but lucky for us they're so close that we can go see where they grow their caterpillars, butterflies and ladybugs. We picked up a few caterpillars and brought them home for our favorite summer science experience. 

We watched our caterpillars grow and fatten up, change into chrysalises, and finally emerge as beautiful butterflies that we released into our backyard. Here's the gang with the butterfly house.

Brenna reaching in to pull out her butterfly.

Ava's stayed on her hands for quite a few seconds.

Then the butterfly surprised her by flying right into her hair.

Gwen just after releasing her butterfly.

Nate reaching in to pull out his.

He was lucky that his stayed on his hands for a few seconds too.

I still need to post a couple of pictures from our trip to Laguna Beach, but I've got to retrieve them from my phone and the morning's events are looming. Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's back to school we go!

Gold Digger

Tonight Nate made a wish while throwing a penny into a fountain. Afterward I asked him what he'd wished for. His answer? "I wished to marry somebody rich!" Any takers?

Fighting words

It's what every mother likes least about summer: the fighting amongst her children. It makes me want to pull my hair out, at least until my 3 year old drops a rage-filled word assault on her brother like this:

"Liar, liar, on your pants!"

What could I possibly say to that? I decided it was best not to say much of anything, given that I couldn't keep a straight face.

Random stuff

I was just looking through my photos and found some that I thought it would be a shame not to include here. A lot of these are from Disneyland. Can you tell I'm ready to go back? We can't go during the summer (not that I want to...too busy!) but our season passes are good to go again next week. My kids don't need to go to school, right?

Brenna apparently being hit on by a storm trooper.

Ava and me on my first ride down Splash Mountain.

Gwennie on Thunder Mountain railroad.

Self portraits at the end of the day.

Gwen ready to swim early this summer. Awesome, right?

This is how I keep the littles in line when we're at Sam's.

Gwen and her best friend Lila at the school garden at the end of the year open house.

At Brenna's softball practices the other kids would hunt for toads. There were plenty to find, including some pretty sizeable ones. I beg you to try to ignore my sweet daughter's insane looking hair.

First pool party of the summer.

Back to Disneyland with our storm trooper friends.

When checking on the kids before going to bed one night I found that Nate had climbed in with Gwen. I love how they're holding hands.

Some of our friends bought a boat and took us wake surfing and wake boarding.

I took a trip to L.A. with some of my best friends to celebrate Laura's birthday. We went to the temple, ate out, and hit the 3rd Street Promenade for some shopping. Katie, Lindsay, Kim, Atrena, me, Laura.

Gwen loves boots. Even to wear with nothing but a swimsuit before swimming lessons.

Nate digging into a dog at the Juicy Burger.

Ava and good friend and Disney buddy, Kea, at Disneyland.

Take a hike

Before we left Lake Tahoe we took a family hike through Tahoe Meadows. The kids posed on some rocks at the beginning of the hike.

We had not been on the trail for more than 20 steps before Nate started telling me he was thirsty and in need of a snack. Oh brother! I know this drill, we go through it any time we go on a bike ride or walk. So I refused to give in until the designated snack/drink point about midway through, so for about 30 minutes I heard this:
"thir"
take a step
"sty"
take a step
"thir"
take a step
"sty"

Interspersed with, "My legs are too tired!"

This from a boy who can jump off every piece of furniture in a house for the better part of a day.

I felt like a crazy person by the time we took our beverage break.

This was how everyone looked by the midpoint. At least the older two were enjoying themselves!

It was a gorgeous, and in spite of what Nate might tell you, easy hike and a great way to end a great visit.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe has been on our California "bucket list" for, let's see, five and a half years now, which is long enough. On our trip back from Utah we decided to take a detour and check the place out. I have no desire to be there come winter time, given that I don't care for skiing, driving in snow, or snow in general, but in summertime it was heaven on earth!

We stayed in a great cabin, tucked away in the mountains a bit, with plenty of room to play. We found Incline Village to be the perfect getaway with access to all of life's necessities. After we rolled into town we all hit the grocery store and gathered supplies for the weekend.

Given that this was our substitute for camping this year we decided to make use of the giant fireplace and the 50-something night time temperatures and toast marshmallows for s'mores. Here are our two firestarters after they achieved success:

The kids liked playing darts.

Ava and Brenna playing ping pong on the kitchen table.

After a good night's sleep we made ready to hit the lake. Nate immediately jumped in to the crystal-clear water with his water gun.

Miss Ava.

This picture says it all. The lake was COLD! When the kids talked me into jumping in with them I discovered that it was cold enough that I quickly went numb and no longer felt the pain of being cold, without being so cold as to quickly render me hypothermic.

Gwennie and her golden pigtails dug in the sand.

I don't have a picture of my favorite part of the day: kayaking with the whole fam. Ava, Nate and I started first on one kayak, and a few minutes later Brenna, Gwen and Scott joined us on theirs. As we got close to each other, little Gwen (who looked unbelievably adorable and tiny in her lifejacket and pigtails sandwiched between Daddy and Brenna) called out to us in the most excited voice "Look, guys! I'm in a boat!" She was grinning ear to ear and giggling. So precious! We had fun exploring the water, which was clear and blue and very deep.

We headed back to our spot on the beach, where the kids dug in the sand, played in the water, and attempted to catch crawfish.

We also enjoyed the playground and heated pool. I'd love a lakeside house at Incline Village. Once I scrape together $5 million I'll see what I can do about it.

That night we grilled and ate al fresco on the balcony: steak, Caesar salad, fresh strawberries, and bread. And of course, s'mores for dessert!