We had a great time camping at Doheny State Beach, as we always do. We had a great group of friends, yummy food (& s'mores), bikes (which Landon barely spent time away from), sand toys, snuggle time in the tent (when Daniel went to bed one night, Brooklyn didn't even open her eyes and just scootched right over to cuddle with her daddy), boogie board surfing down the sand hill, little waves and a chilly ocean.
Guess who started Tiny Princess Ballet classes this month? Brooklyn loves doing the side shuffle while facing her and Zoe's tummies together and holding hands, "unicorn walks" with her fingers, "Cinderella walks" on her toes and "mermaid stretches" laying on the ground the best...and wearing tutus and "ballerina hair" (bun).
This boy loves building and creating things! Legos have taken up most of our time this month. We take them very seriously!
So much so that we've had several dinners in the front yard between rounds of riding. Labor Day we rode bikes in the neighborhood and ate hot dogs & cupcakes with the cousins, Uncle Peter & Auntie Amber. Brooklyn LOVES going as fast as she can on her balance bike...
...and she has caught on to riding a pedal bike! We're still working on starting and stopping, but she can balance and pedal all on her own!!!
We had a fun adult night out in Temecula (drinks at Luke's, dinner at Devilicious, a missed reservation at the speak easy, Pub House after and Daniel and me to Lucky Stone) to celebrate Daniel!
Grammie and Papa babysat. They're the best! They even came to Brooklyn's preschool because she wanted to show them the toys there. Grammie came with me to pick Landon up from school so Landon could show her his classroom. She played babies with Brooklyn, balloon volleyball with Landon and Legos with both.
We watched a whole bunch of home videos, mostly of when Brooklyn was a baby and Landon was 2.5-3.5 years old. They were SOOOO cute! It was only 2 or 3 years ago, but it seemed like so long ago (and we forgot about so many of the cute things they did!).
Most days when Landon's at school Brooklyn and I play her favorite game, princesses and snakes (with the snake castle from Uncle Matt Matt). A few days we've recently gone to the library.
Landon joined Daniel for part of his workout.
We had a play date with Briella and Keela where the kids hatched (hammered) dinosaur eggs (dino toy inside ice inside a balloon). It was fun to hit the ice really hard and get big chunks off!
Daniel and I had a long weekend away in SLO and Santa Barbara. It was an amazing trip! We started out with a hike up Bishop's Peak with some random horses. One of the horses came right up to us and wanted to be pet.
We went to Firestone, Sycamore Mineral Hot Springs and Farmers' Market.
We spent time at Pismo Beach and The Cliffs happy hour.
Unfortunately, the Pismo Pier is still under construction, but we walked on the pier in Santa Barbara, right down the street from our hotel. There, we found a pelican and a sea lion!
Our big night out was to dinner and the Jason Mraz concert at Santa Barbara Bowl. We had great seats (my birthday present from Daniel), and had a fantastic time!
Meanwhile, Landon and I went to the movie theater to see "Christopher Robbin" and played together at Veteran's park.
Landon and Jacob participated in Crazy Hair Day at school. They both had yellow color in their spiky hair with glitter, though it's not easy to tell in this picture.
We had a bit of construction in our yard. They took out the grass, trees and bushes on the side yard, built a retaining wall near the fence and cemented the rest. We're all excited to have use of that area for basketball (Landon and Daniel have been playing a bit of "HORSE" lately, riding and games (and as an outside toy storage area so the rest of the backyard looks nicer)!
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
Landon loved watching the guys work (and the cement truck too!) and has decided that instead of being an astronaut (since he now knows they have to wear diapers) he wants to do some sort of construction or gardening when he grows up. When the guys were partially done with the retaining wall Landon an I went outside to check it out, and he said, "It looks so good I can't even stop looking at it!"
And we finally got a new BBQ!
I began volunteering in Landon's classroom once a week. It's fun for me, and, even better, Landon loves it! After introducing me to his class, while the teacher was talking about parent volunteers, he reached his little hand up to mine, held it and scratched the inside of my palm (our super secret way to tell each other we love the other without anyone else knowing we're doing so). On the way home he told me that I did a great job and asked if I could go everyday, and at dinner he toasted to me being in his classroom. If only he knew how happy he made me!
I love the relationship these two have! They have so much fun together...and they think the other is soooo funny!
Amber took Brooklyn and Zoe while I dropped Landon at school, and, of course, Brooklyn was having fun but refused to smile for the camera.
The photographer tried to get her to smile by asking, "Who's your favorite princess?" Brooklyn replied, without breaking her straight face, "I don't LIKE princesses." Luckily Zoe was there to make silly faces at her, which worked like a charm!
Once I got there, we checked out pumpkins, raced around the hay circle and had a picnic snack.
After that, Brooklyn and I went to the Temecula Duck Pond to check out the ducks, turtles and this big bird.
We had a breadstick picnic and ran/twirled around on the grass. Later she asked for "almond eggs." It took me a few minutes to figure out she wanted an omelette ('omelette eggs').
Landon is really having a great time playing soccer this season. He is more aggressive and goes for the ball. It's much more fun to watch! He has even scored 2 goals (one was a kick-off that the other team totally missed) but was more proud of his pullback move that he did (they practiced it during practice and the coach told them to do it during the game, and he was excited to be the first one to do it)! He even loves practice - he has a great coach that does fun drills & games and really fun friends on the team (that they get to play with on the playground before practices)!
I can't get enough of Landon's notes, cards or anything he writes on his own. The transitional spelling is so cute and reminds me of when the kids were just learning to speak.
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| Nobody can come in here (the kitchen) unless you are hungry. |
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| 4 turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) |
I spent a day making pierogis for the family. I was excited that it took less time than usual with my new pierogi press...until Daniel calculated that it took over 4 minutes per pierogi to make. In any case, it's a yummy tradition. We started a new tradition that day as well. We had our first family meeting, and the kids got their first allowances ($1 per year of life). (They were more excited about the snack and activity at the end of the meeting than the allowance!)
Landon has started enjoying making breakfast for himself and Brooklyn occasionally. When he does, he wants to do it without any help at all...and it always includes a peanut butter and honey sandwich (his favorite thing to eat...for any and, possibly, every meal). It's really fun to see how determined and proud he is!
The kids love playing hide and seek before bed. This particular night they couldn't find Daniel and, for some reason, thought he was hiding in their bathroom. Both were too scared to go in, then when they heard him in our bedroom they were even more scared. It's like they were in a haunted house!
We love going back into their bedrooms before we head to sleep to kiss them goodnight and see what positions they're in. Landon is usually sprawled out on an edge, and Brooklyn is usually snuggled up under her comforter against the wall.
