Kelepouris Family: September 2018

We love living in a place where we regularly see hot air balloons on our short commutes to work/school/the gym in the mornings. What a beautiful way to start the day!

Brooklyn attended one last Messy Play and had a great time!

We went to the splash park with Jackson one fun and wet afternoon after Jr, Droid Camp (which Landon loved!).

The kids love going to the gym (Kids' Club) with me so they can watch the TV and play with Zoe and Lucas after. The cousins pick berries & bark, play tag and run around together.

Speaking of the cousins, we had Jacob, Zoe and Luke over for a sleepover one night after the little kids and I went to the park. We watched "Bolt," Luke played with Tyson, the girls whispered themselves to sleep and Landon and Jacob stayed up to play Pictionary with Daniel and me.

Landon worked hard toward his goal of reading all of the Bob Books in the pack before the sleepover (so he could read his Star Wars book to Jacob).

Daniel and I took the kids to Moonlight State Beach in Oceanside for the day. We had the BEST time! Both kids had a great time in the water, so Daniel & Brooklyn and Landon & I went farther out into the waves. Landon and I were laughing the whole time we jumped or floated over a wave, and we could hear Brooklyn squeaking and squealing the whole time with Daniel. It was a blast!!

After the beach we took a walk up to get Handel's ice cream. It was delicious, as always! Then we played at the Rogers' house.

Landon and Tyson really seemed to enjoy having each other as bed buddies...until Tyson kept waking him up in the middle of the night to go outside. One night, as Landon was letting Tyson out of his room he said, "Mommy, Tyson has to go potty. And I don't want him to come back to my room after." Poor tired boy.

I was able to spend a summer afternoon with Addison and Kaylee at the trampoline place and getting froyo. I had a fantastic time with my adopted nieces!

The last 2 years Brooklyn has had to sit on the sidelines and watch Landon at multi-sports camp. This year was her first to play, and, boy, was she excited when I signed her up! I couldn't be there the first day so our babysitter, Mikaela, took her, and she did great!

The next day I took her, and it was less successful. She didn't want to participate...or even stand more than 2ft away from me. It was a tough morning.

We had a fun rest of the day, though. Both kids went to Science and Animal Camp where they created an oven (out of a box and some foil) that made s'mores and did fun activities that revolved around animals. It was at someone's house that Amber knows, and they had a blast! Later that evening, Amber & Zoe and Brooklyn & I went to dinner and got the girls' first pedis all together (to celebrate Zoe's 4th and Brooklyn's half birthdays). Brooklyn LOVED every minute of it!!! I look forward to the many mother-daughter pedicures we'll get together. :)

Daddy took Brooklyn back to multi-sports camp, and she did great again!

But then I took her back the next day and she was a mess again. She participated in, very much enjoyed and did great at one of the football drills (running to her mark, the coach throwing to her, catching the football and running back), but, other than that, she just cried (even when bribed) and wanted to be attached to me.

Since Daniel was going to be out of town (floating down the Salt River in Arizona), the kids and I went to Grammie's house! One day we went to Pacific Marine Mammal Center to check out the sea lions and seals that have been rescued then met Papa for lunch and continued on to Pavion Park. We enjoyed Grammie's waffles with whipped cream & strawberries for dinner!

And when we got back the kids got to watch the construction on Grammie's street.

The next day we headed to an old favorite that we hadn't been to in a couple of years, Pretend City. This was Brooklyn's first time here as a "big kid," and she loved it just as much as Landon always has. They both enjoyed so many of the activities, from gardening, harvesting & checking out baby chicks to planning & building a house (drawing out the plans, running electrical, pipes, & bricks, measuring, sawing, painting and roofing) to the marina & beach to the dentist's office to the library (Grammie read the same book 3 times in a row, by request) to the 9-1-1 dispatch & jail to driving to building some more. It was a fun, long day! The following day we met Erin, Syd and Kenz at a fun new playground, Victory Park and ate Mongolian BBQ on our way home to see Daddy.

We missed Daddy while he was in Arizona, so when we all got back to Temecula we took an extra day to go to Legoland as a family. We visited both the regular park and the water park. Landon and Daniel rode the medium and big roller coasters, and even though Landon was a little hesitant leading up to them he liked them when they were done and plans to ride more roller coasters! Landon also rode with me on the water coaster, and Brooklyn "swam" on her own (with a life jacket) in the wave pool and loved it!

We had another successful trip to the dentist this month. It certainly helps to have TVs on the ceiling (but they aren't very talkative with the hygienists because of it!). Brooklyn kept a tight grip on the sides of the chair the entire time she was reclined.

Both kids started school this month, Landon in kindergarten and Brooklyn in her first year of preschool! To round out the summer and kick off the school year, we baked cookies on School Year's Eve to have as an after (first day of) school snack. I hope to keep this as an annual tradition! Landon's toast that night was "To good teachers!"

The night before kinder...what an angel!

We kicked off the first day of school with a teddy bear breakfast (and a lollipop craft with a picture of his teacher, Mrs. Evantov, that he made the night before at Rancho Elementary's Back to School Bash).

Brooklyn was excited finally to be a big enough girl to have her own picture frame to hold next to her brother!

I can't get over how much they love each other and how cute they are!

Landon's first day was orientation for both the students and the parents. Daniel snuck out of work to surprise Landon as we walked into school. Auntie Amber, Zoe and Luke even stopped by his classroom to wish him luck.

Leading up to the first day of school I asked Landon how he was feeling about starting kindergarten, and his response was to ask, "Is it nervous when you don't have any friends there?" :( And he was definitely feeling nervous the first few days. The first day at lunch he said he cried because he missed his teacher. He cried at lunch the next day because he was scared of the noon duty lady. The following day he cried again at lunch because he missed Mommy (but was friends with the noon duty women now). On day 4 he made a friend(!!!!!), and it's been smooth sailing ever since! He just needed the comfort of knowing he had a friend...no more nerves. (The following day he was the 4th member of a "spy team" at lunch...even though he didn't know what a spy team was.) Thank goodness for friends! And having a teacher he loves!! After the first day I asked if he made any friends. He said, "No, but I like this one girl's (Julianna) shirt, so maybe we'll be friends." He told me he liked her dress the next day too...a few days later they were "almost friends"...then the next day he and Julianna got e-tickets (reward system) for not talking to each other, so I think they might be buddies with a chatting problem.

Brooklyn's first day of preschool was smoother. She was lucky to already have a friend (cousin) in her class (of only 5). She has had a couple of days where she wasn't sure about me leaving but only had day where she cried (just for a minute or two).

The preschool is really cute, and the teachers are great! It's a converted garage, just like the preschool that Grammie ran when I was Brooklyn's age.

After school cookies!!

We took our annual trip to Palm Desert with Grammie and Papa and had a great time! One night we went to dinner at a restaurant where the servers sing. Brooklyn wanted to dance with Daddy during one of the songs. She decided to hold his pinky instead of his hand because it was a better fit.

After a few rounds of Kids' Sequence the kids were super excited about their vacation beds being right next to each other (not that they wanted to sleep).

In the mornings, they snuck into bed with us.

Of course, there was lots of swimming and playing in the pools!

We even snuck in a movie at the private theater. And a snow cone party!

Soccer season has started up again! Landon is on the Rainbow Dragons and is doing so much better this year. He has friends on the team, so that makes it a lot more fun, of course. He also seems to understand the game better and is more aggressive. It's really fun to watch him this year. Coach Jason realized that Landon and Jackson must be separated at all times (too much wrestling and not paying attention - oops!).

I love how sweet Landon is. Here he was eating a snack and decided to pretend to feed his stuffed animal, "Walla," from when he was a toddler.

He also loves to help Daddy measure and fix things around the house, so he was practicing his hammering one day.

The girls headed to Irvine to see Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker in concert. We had a great time!

Daniel and the kids didn't skip a beat with Mommy gone. They had a blast and even went mini golfing!

Landon's first soccer game landed while I was out of town, but Daddy said he did great!

Landon had his annual appointment with the pediatric allergist and to speak with her about asthma. She officially diagnosed him with asthma (due to the fact that he had to have a steroid prescription more than once within a year). The poor guy had to have "tiger scratches" (allergy skin tests), which he is so afraid of (and wasn't thrilled about).

But we celebrated it being over with froyo, so all was well in the end.

At soccer Landon is much more concerned with not allowing the other team to score than he is with scoring himself. It's so cute how he hangs back or runs back to play defense. He's very serious about it! When he was taking his turn on the sideline, he was explaining to me exactly what he was going to do, where he was going to go and how, his entire strategy. He finished with, "You HAVE to have a plan!" totally seriously. We think he'll be a great defender or goalie!