Back to School

I am so not ready for summer's end. I mean REALLY, REALLY not prepared. Summer was going along so nicely and them BOOM. Done. I felt like I had things under control this summer and somewhat organized. This is partly because I was putting things off because it was summer. Now I have schedules, parent nights, classes, etc., and the calendar is filling up so very quickly. I flipped backward to July yesterday and saw almost a blank slate. It felt so calm, and I longed for a few more weeks with all the kids home. I am a summertime Mom for sure!

Typically I look forward to fall with more excitement. I usually feel ready for the change, the food, the crisp cool weather, the structure, and all the fun firsts that a new school year brings. But I'm just not there yet.

However, school started today anyway. And I tried to show some enthusiasm even though I am incredibly bummed that our blissful summer has come to a screeching halt. I think the reason we had such a wonderful summer is because we didn't overschedule. We did our tennis, the occasional outing, but stayed home a lot. Everyone was happier and Evan was able to fall into a nice little schedule.

I took the girls school shopping this weekend. We all went looking for jeans and shock of the century, each one of us had luck at the Gap of all places! They have tons of new styles and have recently done a complete overhaul of their jeans for both kids and adults. It was awesome. I didn't expect to actually find jeans that looked half way decent but I found four styles that I loved. And an even a bigger shocker is that they aren't $150 bucks like all the jeans seem to be now. They're around $60. This made for a very good day. Shallow I know, but jeans and bathing suits are so tough and to hit a home run in at least one of those departments was nice. I don't expect the same for the bathing suit search. Somehow Nina smooth talked her way into another new pair of shoes!

Tuesday we had the Meet and Greet at the school. Andrea came to watch the boys while I took Sela and Nina to get little pedicures to celebrate the beginning of a new school year. And their feet were in DESPERATE need of some attention. Sela's were literally stained brown from playing so hard outside this summer. I kept telling her to wash her feet when I would catch a glimpse at home and she kept saying "I did, MOM!! They're clean!" I decided it was time to see the professionals. She and Nina loved the entire process and couldn't believe how soft their feet felt. They enjoyed being pampered and expressed a desire to do this every month. I explained to them that it was a special treat and I didn't get my first pedicure until I was in college. We then headed to the school to see their new classrooms and meet the teachers.

Both girls have wonderful teachers. Sela's class only has 20 children. Two of Nina's best buddies from church are in her class along with a neighbor which helps make the transition easier.

Nina found her bee to place in the beehive. I felt more excited after the meet and greet! There was so much enthusiasm and energy from both the kids and teachers which was fun to see.

These girls were excited...and silly! They had a special breakfast of strawberries and cream, scrambled eggs, and a pan au chocolate. Then we scrambled to the car to meet the bus.

My baby girl off to Kindergarten
More kids at the bus this year!
Nina and Sydney, our next door neighbor!

Nina arriving at school...a little bit nervous.
There's Sela praying I'm not taking pictures of her :) This little boy who sat next to her, Matthew, is the sweetest kid.

Time to say goodbye.

Nina found her friend, Kate. She now looks far less nervous. They held hands all the way to the classroom.

We love you, Nina!

And just like that, we closed the door on summer!

4 Months Old

Nina is totally enamored with Evan. She can't wait for him to wake up from naps and practically smothers him when he's awake...and he totally loves it!

Kale...

Zig planted an entire garden box of kale. He and I both love it. We have it for breakfast almost each morning with eggs. I put it in soups and enchiladas. I give it away to friends. But there is still SO much. I have a secret goal to eat it all, but that is a daunting task.

Enter the smoothie.



Usually I might throw in a few leaves of kale for good measure. The kids never notice, and the smoothie is always a berry color. But for some reason, I just decided not to disguise it one morning. I crammed the blender so full of kale, a few berries, and a little orange juice. Sela happened to walk by and gave me a questionable glance like, "I sure hope that's not my breakfast!" I knew it wouldn't taste good, but I was planning on downing it just for the boost. And I didn't really expect the kids to drink much, but even a little would be so good for them.

Sela had made yummy pancakes and I plopped the smoothies on the table and mentioned how I thought it would be fun to make green colored smoothies.

Nina was the first to taste it and almost choked. "These look like poo and they taste like poo! YUCK!"

Sela concurred.

I taught them how to suck it down with a straw without really tasting it and suggested a friendly competition to see who could drink the most in one swallow.....totally not expecting them to do it.


Getting their competitive juices turned out to be a very good thing :)They drank every last bit. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. I didn't drink half what they did, and it was not tasty. Little suckers!

More California Adventures

We spent the second half of the week with Zig. We stayed in Palo Alto the first two days and San Jose the last three. While Zig was working we stayed at the hotel and rested. I found a Whole Foods quickly and we just took it easy. Friday we went to the TellMe offices to see where Zig spends his time when in Mountain View. What a fun place! Such a different work climate than Microsoft. I'm too tired to describe it right now, but the kids really enjoyed seeing what Zig has been up to and meeting some of his co-workers. They were very impressed with the huge game room as well.

We stayed across the street from Stanford so we took the kids to see the campus one afternoon. We met friends for dinner the other two evenings and Evan's crazy schedule finally caught up with him. It's was rather exhausting trying to appease him for three hours or so. The other major stops were Half Moon Bay where the tide pools were incredible and Santa Cruz where we were all sucked into watching the surfing.

We spent Sunday in San Francisco and went to church there as well. Of course, we did lots of driving around looking at houses and neighborhoods which we always love to do no matter where we are. And we came home early Monday morning. It was very good to be back. We were excited to see all the new goodies in the garden and the kids ran straight to their treehouse. The neighbor kids were over in 6 minutes flat and we were back into our regular summer rhythmn. The only bummer is we have only a week left of summer. I'm seriously mourning the end summer.

Half Moon Bay

Seal Spotting

Tide Pools

Half a family photo

Relaxing with my Evie poo

Breakfast with my silly boy

Zig and Evan (in his cute little outfit from Darcie)

Rollin was fascinated by the Koi Pond

Sela was able to practice her swimming quite a bit (I was happy to do nothing other than sit by the pool!)

Heading to church

Evan was not very photogenic this weekend!


He loves to be held, and I was happy to just sit and chill this week. We're a good team.

Nina takes good care of Evan and LOVES to snuggle up to him.

They're Back!

Darcie, Geoff and the girls are back from France and we just could not miss an opportunity to catch up with them at Geoff's parent's home in Auburn, CA. Even if that meant traveling alone with four children. It was totally worth it and not a bad flight at all. Zig went to the airport with us which was helpful but we split at the curb as he had to catch his flight to San Jose a bit earlier than ours.

We were escorted to the front of the security line because I believe they thought I was as good as handicapped hauling four little ones through the airport. We were misdirected to the wrong terminal and I even asked several different gate agents to verify where we should be when things didn't appear right on our tickets. Only when we tried to board another flight to Sacramento did someone finally tell us we were at the wrong terminal, which I suspected all along but kept being told no. Fifteen minutes till the plane departed and I was in the wrong terminal with all four kids. I almost cried when I looked at the time. Here we had been there an hour early (rare for the serafins!), and I had asked two gate agents to look at the tickets, and now we were most certainly going to miss our flight. But anyway, I decided we might as well try. We ran our very fastest through the airport. I told Sela to lag back with Rollin and just keep running. He was crying (they were all exhausted), but I made it to the gate as they were closing up. However, we were flying Southwest this time where there are no assigned seats....and the plane was nearly full.

Never fear though, those Southwest people always have a sense of humor! Over the loud speaker the flight attendant announces that a woman with four small children is coming on and would anyone like to move seats so she can sit by her children. I can just see the eyes roll. And then we entered the plane. I wanted to crawl in, really. Everyone was looking up because it was time to takeoff. But people were kind and smiled at us. And by the time we made it to the back of the plane there was an entire row open and one side seat across the isle for Sela. People were so nice. I was sweating from my sprint and the kind flight attendant brought us all water before takeoff. We had a smooth quick flight and the kids did swell.

Unfortunately, because Evan and I were totally off of our nursing schedule and he had slept from the moment we left the house till we were on the plane, he missed his usually feeding. I felt my milk let down a few times, each time he was asleep, and I was not in a position to nurse him. Unfortunately, when I got to Darcie's I was feeling feverish and had an enormous headache. Then all the other symptoms of mastitis. Shocking how fast it came on, but it's brutal. I took some natural remedies Darcie had and tried to rest. I looked hammered and felt it too! After about a day and a half though, I was on the mend.

It was so much fun to see them, and I was sick that I felt sick at first! The kids literally did not miss a beat and picked up right where they left off a year ago. By the time we left, they were almost like siblings again :) Darcie and I had lots of time to visit which was so wonderful. Geoff took one for the team and camped out with the girls allowing Darcie and I a peaceful night's sleep. Don't feel too bad for him though, he had his plethora of down pillows, his temperapedic mattress and a room in the tent all to himself ;) The man knows how to camp!


Geoff sooo happy thinking about the night ahead!!

Darcie cooked yummy meals from the garden and I learned a new method for making the most scrumptious rice and kid-friendly ratatouille. The kids loved being able to pick fresh juicy peaches, grapes, and asian pears from the trees. They had a fun little stream running through the property and a pond with a paddle boat. Rollin tried to make an extreme sport out of tricycle riding and had fun with Kipper, the happiest dog in the world, judging by his tail wagging!

The days flew by, as I knew they would and I would have loved more time to visit. We sure miss these guys!




Hauling the blankets down for the campout

These girls love to pretend to read!

Evan in all his chubby glory!


Camping with Kipper

Precious little Ceci

Campfire

How many kids can you fit in a paddle boat?

Make new friends, but keep the old....

The girls couldn't have been more excited to reunite with our old neighbors, the Bians. With a thunderstorm in the forecast and the possibility of a reschedule, the girls were rather morose on Thursday morning. Sela even climbed back into bed when I mentioned the idea of moving it to Saturday when the weather would be sunny and warm. Two years was long enough to wait, they said.

So we went ahead despite the forecast and Sarah, Eliza, Margaret, and Will came over for a long play date Thursday afternoon. There were only a few sprinkles the whole afternoon. We all had such a great time. The girls picked up right where they left off and I'm certain this day will go down as one of the best days of their entire summer. Rollin wasn't sure where his place was in the mix of so many girls so he hung out close to Melissa and I and little Will and munched on her yummy banana bread and my oatmeal cookies. Since we are both crazy mamas with four kids now, it was fun to catch up and compare stories and feel some camaraderie. At one point, we took kids on a little horse-spotting walk down the road and one of our favorite neighbor families drove by. They were heading to a nice, presumably calm dinner out with their 9 year old daughter while we were trying to keep our small tribe of children from lying down in the road, scaling the fences and running wild with the horses. They must think we're a little nuts....Melissa and I with 8 little kids between us. Oh, what a contrast! But we both love it amidst the craziness......although a nice, calm dinner out doesn't sound too bad either, and that day will come. I hope :)

An abundance of squash...what to do?

Squash baseball, of course. These kids are never short on creativity!






We decided to keep this little game a secret from dad. If he knew all his hard work in the garden was getting squashed, well, he might not be so thrilled!