First Day of School!

 Big boy in the front yard...excited to go to school!

Big boy "smiling" in his new classroom, the Praying Ponies

Today was Alex's first day at his new preschool in Moraga, The Nurtury.  He was excited to go to school and there were no tears.  What a difference a year makes, right?  I cannot wait to hear how things went.  Off to some Mimi and Mommy time.  Happy first day of school, Bro Bro!

Morning Cuddles

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

 Daddy and his sweet little "pineapple"

 Daddy and the kiddos at the Lafayette Resevoir

 Everyone in their hats (see closeup of Mei Mei below)

 Is she cute or what?  I just cropped the closeup from the photo above, so it's a little blurry.

 Mei Mei adoring her big brother as usual.

Oooh, cake and ice cream!

Yesterday was Daddy's birthday and he had the day off, so we spent a family day together, going to the Lafayette Reservoir, had lunch at La Boulange, cake and ice cream at home, and just spent time hanging out in the backyard on an absolutely beautiful day.  We wish Daddy a fabulous 40!!

Day at the Beach

Digging, digging, digging!

 Crab which Alex found in the seaweed

 Cutie Tadgh

 Pic of the family with the Birthday Boy

The walk back to the parking lot through the pea and brussel sprout fields

What a fun day we had today!  We spent the day at Cowell Ranch State Beach over in Half Moon Bay to help celebrate Daddy's birthday which is on Tuesday.  It was overcast, as it often is along the coast in the summertime, but there was no wind and the temperature outside was very comfortable.  As you can see, Alex found a little crab and played with him for awhile, in addition to digging in the sand with his buddies and enjoying a picnic on the beach.  Miss Julia took some naps and did a lot of smiling in between.  It's a great beach to visit, just south of Half Moon Bay.  There is about a half of a mile walk from the parking lot and a bunch of stairs to get to the beach, but definitely worth it.  The walk takes you right through fields, which were planted with peas and brussel sprouts at the moment.  Definitely a fun time and a great way to start out Daddy's birthday week!

The Joys of Homeownership

Our handyman cleaning the gutters.  Literally buckets of pine needles.

Friday Night

Little Miss Julia

I can hardly believe that Julia is already 2 months old!  She went in for her 2 month checkup this week and everything looks good.  She is a little munchkin at 9 pounds, but is growing well and the doctor was very happy with her progress.  She is 21.75 inches long and uses her strong little legs to kick alot and she tries to stand up on your lap when you hold her.  She's very interested in looking at herself in the mirror, which is helpful in the bouncy seat or the carseat.  Alex is one of her biggest fascinations.  She loves watching him do whatever he is doing, playing, singing, eating.  She just takes it all in and you can tell that she is just wanting to aspire to be like him already.  He is very good at entertaining her.  This morning while I was getting ready, he was singing to her and telling her stories and she was absolutely fascinated.  I love it!

Lawrence Hall of Science

On Wednesday we went to the Lawrence Hall of Science on the UC Berkeley campus with some friends, to check out the dinosaur exhibit which is there until January.  The animatronic dinosaurs were quite amazing, looking very lifelike and moving and roaring like they were alive.  The kids also enjoyed the "dig site" exhibit, where they could use brushes to pretend that they were uncovering fossils at a dig site.  There is also a big area outside where the kids can play and learn about the forces which shape the Bay Area (exhibits about faults, flowing water etc.).  The view from the outside area is quite spectacular too, since the building is up in the Berkeley Hills.  We enjoyed a picnic on the tables outside and then took in a 3D dinosaur movie, which ended up being a little more scary and graphic than we had anticipated.  Not exactly appropriate for the preschool set, but we exited early and then were lucky enough to be there just in time for a trapeze performance, which was part of a special summer entertainment program.  There were some great performers and Alex's biggest question each time a performer went up, was "how are they going to get down?"

In the afternoon, he was playing in his sandbox and pretending he was a paleontologist digging for dinosaur bones.  He had a detailed narrative about how it took so long for them to get to the spot where they were digging and that in 1984 this was all just sand in the desert etc.  All of the narrative closely resembled the way that the dino movie was narrated, so I guess even though it was scary, he was still picking up alot of information.  It always amazes me how much these little guys pick up in such a short time.  All in all, a very fun day was had by all.

Chillin' with Daddy

Kites

On Sunday morning, Alex asked if we could go and fly a kite.  There was a bit of wind, so we told him that we could walk to the park and see what we could do.  There wasn't enough wind to keep it up in the air for a long time, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.  I need to remember to pick up another one of these kites at Target the next time I go.  It is hard for me to believe that it has survived for over two years!  All of that entertainment for a mere $5....gotta love it!

Fun Friday!

We had a fun Friday, taking in a show at the Lafayette Community Center and then hanging out at the playground with Tommy and Paige.  The performer this past week was Tony Borders, who is a ventrioloquist and magician.  He was great!  Alex was laughing and kept looking back at me to make sure that I heard the latest funny thing that he said.  I would definitely recommend his show for preschoolers, and thought it was funny myself too.  It was a beautiful morning, so the time at the playground afterwards was alot of fun as well. Thanks to the Lafayette Community Center for hosting these shows all summer.  We have really enjoyed them.

Julia's New Quilt

When Great Grandma Grace came to visit us in California, she brought an adorable quilt for Miss Julia.  Grandma has made a quilt for each Great Grandchild and Miss Julia at number 18 is no different.  It is such a bright and fun quilt.  As you can see, Julia enjoys hanging out on it while practicing her smiles!  Thanks Great Grandma Grace!

Fun Times!

Alex and Great Grandma Grace at the Ferry Building in San Francisco

We enjoyed having the Grandmas here for the past week and a half.  Thanks to both of them for all of their help with the kiddos and around the house.  Thanks for playing with playdough, playing t-ball in the yard, helping us decorate our playroom wall, going on the BART adventure to the Ferry Building, reading to us, joining us at swim lessons and our Friday shows, cuddling with us, ironing, washing dishes, doing laundry, hemming and hanging draperies....yep, thanks for everything!  We had a fun time and hope that you did too!

The Little Reader

During one of his "rest" times last week, Alex fell asleep reading Richard Scarry's Dictionary.  When I went in to move him to a more central location on his bed, I noticed that he fell asleep on the page where "rest" appeared, how appropriate.  

Picking Pears for a Good Cause

Fun on Daddy's shoulders

Daddy's better than a ladder!

Julia picked pears in her sleep

Learning to use the tools

Tasting the fruit

Yesterday afternoon we spent some time at a pear orchard which is a couple of miles from our house.  The land is owned by the school district, and the Moraga Park Foundation was hosting a pear picking event, with all of the pears being donated to the Contra Costa Food Bank.

I was curious to find out more about the history of these trees, so I looked at some information from the Moraga Historical Society.  In the early 1900's, apparently Moraga had the largest pear production under one management, in the world.  These trees were planted back then and the commercial pear industry has since moved from Moraga, but these trees have been preserved as part of Moraga's history.  The Moraga Park Foundation hosts an event to prune the trees every year and then also hosts this harvesting event.  Last year over 16,000 pounds of fruit were donated to the food bank as a result of this event.

We were happy that we could help out, and had fun while doing it.  We were able to take a few pears home as well and were happy to do so, since we no longer have a pear tree in our yard, like we did at Carlsen Street.

T-Ball Camp Day 1

 The oh so serious T-ball camper

 Listening to the rules (in the Lincecum shirt)

 Running the first lap

 Warming up (time for Mom to exit)

End of the day, putting on the new Giants team shirt

Today was Alex's first day at t-ball camp.  It is his first day camp experience and judging from the first day, it appears that it was a success.   I expected a small group of three to six year olds attending, but there were about 35 kiddos there, which seemed quite ambitious on the part of the organizers, but it seems like they had it all under control.  It sounds like today was mostly drills to practice hitting the ball, running the bases and fielding.  Tomorrow they actually start to play games, which I am sure is quite good entertainment.  At the end of the session today, the coach handed out team t-shirts for the four teams, Giants, Dodgers, A's and Angels.  Alex is on the Giants, as you can see from the bright orange above.  

I Love My Bro Bro!

Swim Lessons

 Alex with his new goggles, waiting for his turn in the pool

 Purple light kicks

 Doing a bob with Miss Tina

 Alex and Miss Briana

 Miss Tina and Alex

Alex with his swim buddy Garrett

Swim lessons finished last Thursday and quite alot of progress was shown during the session.  There were many bobs by the second week and Alex was really getting into, just as it ended.  Unfortunately, it did not work to continue this week and next, because of scheduling conflicts, but we will find somewhere to take more lessons soon.  Alex really enjoyed his first swim classes without Mom and I was quite proud of him.  He had quite an audience one day last week with Mom, Julia, Grandma and Great Grandma there to cheer him on.  His new goggles seemed to be quite the motivator when it came to getting more comfortable doing bobs under the water.  

On Thursday afternoon, he told me that he wanted to work on a "project".  He said he wanted to make cards for Ms. Tina and Ms. Briana to tell them thank you for helping him at swim class.  So we sat down and made some cards to send out.  It appears that he enjoyed himself :-)