Keira turned 5!

Our littlest girl is all grown up. Well, as much as you can be for 5. She got lots of presents which she tore open with glee. She just wanted to play with all her new toys for the day. We even got rid of her sister for awhile (a friend has the same bday as Keira invited her to get rock star make overs), but she just wanted to dress up in her cheerleader uniform, play with her toys and Leapster games. We went out to ice cream to celebrate and she picked a truly unique combo of toppings for her Chocolate Vanilla swirl. Rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, whip cream, M&M's, Nerds, Fruit Loops and Candy Corn. If that doesn't say Happy Birthday! what does?

Would you rather...

I went to the library today and picked up books for the girls. Cassidy was not too happy with her selection since I got her The Weather Fairy #7 book, and she has #1-4. "What do you think, Mom? That I want to read them out of order?" *sigh* How insensitive of me. Keira was more pleased with her selection. Would you rather... It gives a lot of crazy options. My favorite was "Would you rather be... Crushed by a Snake, swallowed by a fish, eaten by a crocodile, or sat on by a rhinoceros?" And Keira replied, "No thanks. I don't want any of those." She's a smart girl.

Little Luau Girl

(June 12, 2008) Keira did a lovely song and hula inspired dance for her end of year party. She enjoyed her year at the school, but like her big sis she's off to a new school in the fall. They had a wonderful chocolate fountain, which the kids loved. Keira got to say good-bye to her friends and her teacher. Now it's time to enjoy the summer!

Last day of Kindergarten

(June 5, 2008) Kindergarten is OVER!! There was a great party at the park. Here's Cassidy and her best bud, Ava at the water balloon toss. I think Cassidy and her partner were the only two actually trying NOT to break the balloon. It was a bitter sweet day. The kids did a song about saying goodbye, which really got me since Cassidy is starting a new school in the fall. Ava will also be moving on to a different school. Seems the school system does not know what to do with intelligent kids. She made some good friends and so did I. Overall I think it was a good experience... for both of us.

A nice easy hike

We visited Oma at Lake Tahoe last weekend. We decided to go for a hike, something nice and gentle, so the girls would remain in okay spirits. It was crowded and it took us quite awhile to find a parking spot and then we headed on to quote my Mom "an easy hike". Notice the steps. This was after the first switchback that looked almost the same. We made it up to a waterfall and the girls even got to slush in some left over snow. It was a beautiful hike, but I'm not sure it qualifies as easy.

Self stylist

Keira has a little red haired girl in her preschool class. She has bangs. Keira did not. Until right before this picture. It was quite in the house, which is usually the first sign that something is going on. Jeremy went into the bathroom to find her with a pair of scissors and some hair in her hand. He thought is was just that little bit of hair until he saw the trash can. We thought we were going to have to take her to get it 'fixed' until we brushed it out. And realized, she gave herself a decent hair cut.

New Cat in Town

Jeremy's parents came out to visit the week before Easter. We did tons of stuff, most importantly 3 Easter Egg hunts. The girls were very happy and full of chocolate. Jeremy and his Dad had some male bonding time working on the shed/office. Nothing like manual labor and wiring to bond. The day before Easter I went to pick up my new cat. Shortly after Mischief died I wanted another cat. Lots of things came up to delay it and well, finally I got him. His name is Chester and he had no problem getting used to the house. He sleeps on the girls beds at night and plays with Little One (the resident cat) and swats at Buddy's nose. He likes to snuggle and play and has been the perfect addition.

The BIG move

Here's our new garage. Here's our new garage filled with all of our old things. Minus all the furniture which is packed into our itty bitty house. By the time I took the photo I had already unpacked several large boxes. But you get the idea. Floor to ceiling. Boxes and boxes. It should be fun to figure out what I have. And, yes, a garage sale is in our future.

She's growing up!

Can you guess who just turned 6? Things have been very busy around here. Cassidy had the week off of school, and Keira had just a couple of days off. But... the stomach bug had other plans. Keira ended up with it, and had it for the entire week. Oma and Grandpa took Cassidy to Lake Tahoe for her birthday. Cassidy came home to presents and cupcakes. Yum! The next day, I came down with the stomach bug. Blech! Jeremy also got it, but Cassidy got a birthday wish and missed getting it! Yeah! For her party we did a pirate princess theme. Little girls in princess dresses hunted for treasure using maps and had to unlock a chest to get at the booty which was put into their goodie bags. It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun.

You know your kid is growing up to be a good person when the kindergarten teacher uses her as an example. For Dr. Seuss's birthday her teacher read the story about the Sneetches. Who seperated themselves because some had stars on their bellies and others didn't. The teacher asked the class what the story was trying to teach us. I missed Cassidy's answer (I was in the classroom getting prepared to do projects with the kids), but I did hear when the teacher said, "That was well said, Cassidy. Would you please stand up and tell the class what you said again?" Cassidy said, "Well, it's that we shouldn't decide if we like someone by how they look on the outside. It's what's inside that is important." Now if only adults could really think like a 6 year old. Well, my 6 year old. This Mommy is beaming with pride.

Muir Woods

And we are caught up. This weekend my friend Liz came to visit. She was in town long enough for one trip, so we decided to go see the tallest living things in the world. Muir Woods has coastal redwoods. They are tall and are tucked into a little valley near San Francisco. It allows for a rain forest like atmosphere. It is incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Even if the girls galloped around the entire park on their imaginary horses. They at least sat still enough for one photo. They also got to see their fist banana slug, which I almost convinced them tasted like banana if you licked it.

Zoo v.2008

So this one should have been towards the end of January. We used Nana's gift and visited the zoo. It was cool, but all the animals were out and active. The girls had a great time running around and seeing new kinds of animals. We were slightly disappointed they don't have a Komodo Dragon, but they do have a snake slide and lots of cool things to climb on, like an alligator. Or is it a crocodile?

Guitar Hero's Bday

Okay, this post should have been back in January. What do you mean I'm behind?! Keira had her birthday and she told us that she wanted a pink cake with white icing and chocolate chips. And to play "Rock Band" at Robyn and Jen's house. So we imposed ourselves on Robyn and Jen and had her birthday party there. Keira is also enjoying playing "Guitar Hero" at our house. We had to snap a photo in this outfit. Sort of an early Madonna or Hole outfit. Hopefully Keira will have more talent then either of them though.

Tis the season

December has been a whirlwind! I hate to look back and see how long it's been since I've blogged. Oops! The girls are a lot of fun right now. They are also a lot more work. Thanksgiving was a nice time. Then things sped up. The highlights being as follows.

Girls dressed up as angels to pass out poem with sparkles to other little kids for a Christmas parade. I should have used this our holiday card, maybe next year I'll have it more together and do that.

Buddy ended up in the hospital and having surgery to remove a foreign object, although we didn't know that until right before the surgery. We really thought his number was up and this was it. We stopped by the vet office on our way to the airport to find out the news that he should be fine since....
Jeremy and I went back up to WA to check on the house and for some work stuff, namely a party. He had a great time reconnecting with his co-workers and playing games with them. I made it out with my old co-workers to check out the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) and walking around downtown.

When we returned home we brought the rain with us. Which prompted Cassidy to say after the 3rd day, "When is it going to stop raining?" How quickly she has forgotten the last 5 years.

Keira has kicked up her language again. Although she can sometimes still be difficult to understand. Especially since she's at the age that making up silly names for things is fun. For example, one of the boys in her class is named Mateo, yet she says "Matato". I kept correcting her until I realized she was trying to make it sound like 'potato'.

I know they have done tons of other cute stuff, but it's forgotten now. Darn, that's why I'm supposed to blog!

Life Lessons and Monkey Bars

Keira had quite the achievement this week. She crossed the monkey bars herself. It was amazing to watch her swing across grabbing the bars and moving so fast. The last couple were hard for her, since she was a bit tired, but I only helped her land her feet. She was so excited and I was so proud of her. This great accomplishment was allowed our family an opportunity to learn.

Cassidy has not crossed the monkey bars on her own. In fact, she seems to not want to hang from them for long. So she was quite upset that Keira did it when she's 3 and Cassidy hasn't when she's 5. We often try to tell our girls that everyone has something that they are good at and that they are special in their own ways. Yet, this did not seem to be helping Cassidy's ego. Seemed she saw it as a competition between herself and her sister. I knew that had to be stopped. Finally it dawned on me that when someone gives a compliment to another person does not mean they are saying something bad about you. After all, if I say Cassidy you had good manners, does that mean Keira had bad manners? Cassidy, thankfully, understood.

Then I realized that it is a life lesson that many people miss out on. Too often when we hear a compliment for someone we think that it means we aren't special or deserving of a compliment. Funny how something that is meant to be nice for one person we (okay, I'm talking about myself) turn it into a negative comment about ourselves. Hopefully we are all going to learn from that lesson in our house.

Duck, duck, goose

It has been a crazy week. Flying, packing, driving Uhaul, unloading, and settling in. Today was our first almost "normal" day. Jeremy came "home" from work, we had dinner, and then headed into the backyard. There was a rousing game of duck, duck, goose followed by cloud shape observations. Cassidy excelled at this, although I think she was inventing some of the clouds.

Fishing 101

Cassidy finally got to go fishing with Grandpa Oma. He and his fishing partner took their grandgirls out. They all had a good time and caught lots of fish. Cassidy actually hooked a few herself. :) She brought in more than Grandpa did. Which, I think, made him proud. Have it on film too, will get some DVD's out when it's ready. Fun Fishing!

Apple Hill

Oma and I took the girls up to Apple Hill yesterday. It was nice going up midweek as there were no crowds. We picked some golden delicious and made friends with a wonderful little kitten at our first stop. Oma took some great photos (inculuding this one). And helped the girls climb the trees for photo ops. Keira tugged an apple free while sitting in a tree, and then came tumbling down. Thankfully she only scratched her nose, and was ready to explore quickly.

We headed to the next place that had a fishing pond. The girls found some sticks and pretended to fish. Keira got a little close to the edge and slid into the pond, feet first. She scampered out, and didn't seem to upset by it. She was more upset that she had wet socks and shoes for the rest of the day. We picked up some great apple cider and Oma got the girls some fudge covered apples. Time to go make some apple pie!

CA State Fair

We hit up the CA state fair today. Ashley treated us to our tickets and we finally got to meet baby Everett. It was great fun! Amazingly we stayed for over 6 hours. We hit up the rides early on, while it was cool. Keira loved the ferris wheel, but Cassidy was not so happy with it. Thankfully Ashley was with Keira, so they got to enjoy the ride, while Cassidy and I got off early. They then hit up the dragon roller coaster, and somehow that was okay. After lunch, which included a deep fried Twinkie, we headed to see the fuzzy and furry animals. We took a monorail ride over, under and through the fair. After that it was time for a turkey drumstick and funnel cake. We headed out after that. We were really happy with how well the girls did, and it was fun to go with 'family' who helped us watch the girls so we could eat and talk and really enjoy the day.

First Day of Kindergarten

Cassidy has started kindergarten. She was a bit nervous about the new school and not knowing anyone. Mostly she was worried that they were going to do "hard works". She was a bit confused when the bell went off, but held her teachers hand and led the class, skipping, down to their classroom. She was bouncing when I picked her up as well. She had one a prize for doing well, and she picked a medal. Then she told me that if we have any old toys that we don't want anymore we should bring them in for the toy prizes. "So you had a good day?". "No!" She also told me that she didn't get to play that much, "only during free time, which wasn't long at all". Then she had to do some "hard work". Writing her name and the letter A, Big A and little a, "a bunch of times". "There was a bowl with a spoon and I had to circle all the big A's, and another bowl and spoon and I had to circle all the little A's." She shakes her head, and puts her hand to her forehead.

Later on, someone asked if it was a hard work because she found it hard to do, or if it was because it was easy. She replied quickly, "It was easy". I knew she would need to adjust some, but overall I think she likes it. Jeremy asked her, "How was your first day of kindergarten?" She replied, "Stupid." I just grinned and Jeremy had the look of dread, since his Mum loves to tell the story of Jeremy having a "dumb" day. Gifted children! What are you going to do?

One week to kindergarten!

The whole family made the 15 hour drive from overcast and rainy to the sunny and warm in order for us to have some time to settle before Cassidy starts kindergarten. The drive was not as bad as we thought. Girls only got antsy towards bed time. It was the next day that was tough. The girls schedule was all out of whack, and of course we headed to the pool, saw cousin Ariannah. After calling the school that is slotted for Oma and Grandpa's house and getting no answer, we drove past and found out that open enrollment started the next day. We were in at 8:30 and thankfully got in. Phew! We are happy, and Cassidy is anxious. She's not happy since it isn't her classroom in WA. I'm only concerned since she is used to a full day program and is now doing a half day. I'm sure she'll be fine, but what am I going to do??