Evie's artwork

We bought Evie some oil pastels like she uses in her art class and she was so excited. She sat down and got right to work. About 15 minutes later she was asking me to come look at her drawing. I love the detail in her fancy drink. She said it was a coconut with a cherry and mango on the straw. Ethan scribbled on her drawing so she circled his scribbled and wrote the No Ethan with the arrow pointing to his scribble. Just to make sure I knew it wasn't part of her drawing.

His teachers say how perfect Ethan is in class. He never steals a toy or fusses or is ornery but to Evie, he can be so ornery sometimes that I find what they say hard to believe.

Fireworks at the beach

We went to the beach Friday night for an evening school fundraiser with fireworks. This organization puts on this annual event for all the schools of SC to make money through raffle tickets and food, etc at the event. We just had dinner at the Good Shepherd school's booth and now we're on a mission for something sweet.

We stopped by home for a brief moment in-between art class and the event to grab warm clothes, etc and there was a care package at the door from my friend Amy. Among the other perfectly thoughtful goodies were these glow sticks which were perfect for the night. The kids had fun putting them together in the car on the way and by the time we got to the event it was dark. I don't think the gift could have been planned any better. Thanks Amy!!

It's getting late and Evie is getting really tired. She insists that she wants to say until 9:00 but she is fading. They are having fun with their glow sticks and eating sandy popcorn.

I'm not sure what the turnout number was but it seemed like there were a lot of people there. This is looking behind us, away from the water where the food venues are. We parked at the top of the big hill you see in the background. I am sooo proud of Evie and Ethan. They were so tired at the end of the night and they both trucked up it with out a complaint. We actually wound up watching the fireworks from the top of the hill. Evie was nearly asleep on the blanket and the fireworks were running really behind schedule. We made it to the top of the hill just as the fireworks started. We watched about 10 minutes before the kids said they wanted to go home. They were too tired to watch anymore. Poor things.

Ethan had fun burying his glow sticks and then finding them again.

It was getting cold so the kids had fun snuggling up.

The kids were asleep immediately as we started our drive. When we got home I opened Ethan's door and thought it was cute that he was asleep with his glow stick. They really had so much fun with them. The kids were so asleep that I brought them in and changed them into their jammies with out so much as a twitch. I was surprised with Evie. I had to take two layers off over her head and had to work to get her arms out of the sleeves and she never moved.

Sunday morning

The kids got to serve donuts at mass today and represent their school, Good Shepherd. They thought it was cool to wear their uniforms to church. I was proud of both of them. I was intimidated at first because I was solo with Joel still in France but the kids did amazing. Ethan stayed right there, anxiously waiting for his own donut and Evie was perfectly helpful handing out napkins and making small talk with the guests. When the first people came out of church she said "here come customers".

After mass we went for pancakes. Both kids were saying how starving they were which I found hard to believe since we ate breakfast before mass and they each had a donut but they were right. They cleared their plates and then some of mine. They each got balloons to take with them.


"mom, look...I have a holder for my sword"

Daddy's home

Video: When daddy is on the teeter-totter with the kids it's a whole new ride.

Evie's Spanish song...

Video: Evie and Ethan are learning basic Spanish in school and Evie surprised me with this song one afternoon. We were on our way home from swimming and she said "mom, want to hear the song I learned at school". I was expecting one of her many other songs but not one in Spanish. She knew her numbers and a few words before but in addition to that they are learning colors, etc.

Evie's portrait

We met Joel's friend Dew in San Jose this weekend. He's there as a percussionist for the band Chicago. I think Joel travels a lot and then finding out Drew is gone half the year doesn't seem acceptable. At least he loves what he does. He just came off a three year tour with the Foo Fighters. On our way to lunch Evie spotted this artist drawing portraits and quickly started a conversation with him about wanting to be an artist also and told him she was in art classes. He was a sweet man. He offered to draw her portrait after lunch.

Evie would sit absolutely still and then jump up and look at his work and give him the thumbs up and then sit back down. He got a kick out of her.

Ethan, Joel and Dew went to the Tesla car showroom a few doors down. When they got back Ethan had to get in his words too.

Evie admired her picture all the way home.

morning at the pump track

Ethan and I met his little friend Jaden from his preschool class at the pump track this morning along with her mom and brother. Jaden rides a run bike and is pretty daring. She turns three next week.

Ethan is still getting the hang of his big boy bike. He can barely stand over the bike but when he's riding he seems to have good control. He loved the track and riding the whoops.

Video: Ethan on the lower part of the pump track. He can barely stand over his bike so going up some of the hills are hard. It was cute to see his little tiptoes working over time.

Video: Ethan on the whoops at the pump track

Video: Ethan on the whoops at the pump track. Ethan told me to say Green (for go).

Little lovers...

I gave the kids a bowl of frozen watermelon the other day and sent them outside. Six chairs around the table and they share a chair. It funny that they love being so close to each other. I know that will change as they grow but I loved looking out the window and seeing them in the same chair.

Evie's schoolwork

Evie brought home her first classwork the other day. Nothing has been said yet, but I suppose I'll have to direct the little artist inside of her to keep it separate from schoolwork but I did enjoy her creativity. These feathers belonged to little Indian girls.

The horn was making noise

This girl was ringing the bell and in the overall picture below you can see a person sleeping too.

The park after swim lessons...

After swim lessons the kids get to play at the park next door. They have a typical park with slides, swings and sand but the kids seem to spend more time running around in the trees behind the park. I love the tall redwoods here. (Amy, this is the spot where I was talking to you on the phone)

The park with swings, etc. is just to the right of the train. The swimming pool is just behind the train.

I was trying to show just how micro the kids are next to the tall trees but this isn't even half of the tree. They are just soooo tall.

So after the park we stopped at Costco for a few things and the kids got a hot dog the size of them. I can't believe this didn't give them a bellyache.

My big helper in the school garden

Ethan was my big helper at school as we got the life garden ready for the kindergartners to plant. The playground is near the garden so he would play and then help me weed, etc. It was fun.

After we were done in the garden we stopped by to see his teachers in the PS room. Ethan showed one of his teachers an old ouchie he had and she pulled out this box of cool skateboard bandaids. This screaming hand is actually the graphic Ethan has on his skateboard at home. He was stoked.

Being a goof and showing off his bandaid..

Blu - from the movie Rio...

We just watched the movie Rio via Netflix and Evie is pretending to be Linda, Blu's owner. Blu is perched next to her drawing there...only he's white. Anyway, she got these crazy glasses from a parade we went to a while back but they work perfectly for Linda's big round glasses.

Ethan is busy drawing too. It's funny where I find them playing. Most often they don't sit at their little kid table to draw or play...they are almost always on the floor or under something somewhere.
Evie's self portrait as Linda holding Blu. She is so quick with her pen. I think I heard her pen for about three minutes before she popped up from under the desk to show me her work.

Evie's Clifford project

Evie's class project is taking clifford home along with a bag of books, clifford snacks and a juice box with clifford on it. The kids are supposed to write in a journal how they spent their day with clifford and enjoy the treats while they read clifford books. It was pretty priceless to pick Evie up and have her run from her room excited to show me that it was her turn with clifford.

Evie got to take Clifford to swim lessons after school.

And to the park after swim lessons

At home, Evie pulled up a chair for clifford as she ate her snacks. She actually took really good care of him and took him everywhere.

This was Evie's journal page. A few pictures and sentences from our afternoon and a picture drawn by Evie.

Evie's picture is of her throwing a Frisbee to clifford

This was taken in the morning as Evie was off to school. Good bye clifford, until next time.

My birthday evening

We had planned to go to the boardwalk on my birthday evening because just randomly the date was the same day as a whole bunch of great deals at the park. Usually rides are $3 a person and they were $1. They also had food and drink offers for a buck. Unfortunately, when Joel got home from work he wasn't feeling well. It was a good think the kids and I went with out him. He called us not long after we left and was getting sick...he thinks it was food poisoning. Could have been a touch of something also but it hit him hard. He didn't sleep much that night but woke up feeling better.

The kids are stoked - this was their first time with cotton candy. Of course they loved it.

Beautiful Evie and aggressive Ethan at the wheel...

It got late fast. The kids had a blast and as any parent knows, when your kids are happy...you are happy. I had a fantastic night too.