June 2015

 June felt like summer, but Hazel still spent half of it in school.  That turned out to be a good thing, because Todd was gone for two weeks, and having the schedules and the end-of-year activities really helped me make it through that time.  Also, not spending any time in the kitchen unless I was making cinnamon rolls or cookies helped as well.  Who needs dinner?

Jack finished preschool.  They did a really cute, but quite elaborate graduation ceremony, which made all the sentimental moms cry.  (What is my problem?)  When I asked Jack if he was excited for summer break, he said he wished he could go back to school the next day, but that he didn't want to practice the graduation songs any more.  Ha!

Jack's been intimidating his parents with his brains, reading and doing math problems already. Todd said we need to start telling him he's going to be a doctor when he grows up.  I threw that out there one afternoon, and Jack rolled his eyes at me and said he didn't want to be a doctor.  I listed off some other careers geniuses have that he could potentially look forward to in his future, and apparently he liked the idea of programming computers, because that's the answer he gave his preschool teacher when she asked what he wants to be when he grows up.

Talking about the end of the school year was a taboo topic with Hazel for the last six weeks of school.  Every time it was mentioned, her eyes welled up with tears.  She spent many a prayer asking that it would feel like she had a hundred more days left of school, and said she wished she could go to kindergarten all over again instead of moving on to first grade. 

What a progression!  She used to claim that she hated school, although I think she mostly just hated being pushed out of bed and out the door in the morning.  She obviously loves it now.  She has thrived under her phenomenal teacher's guidance (Mrs. Elise Allen).  She started out only reading a handful of words other than names, and refusing to work with me on anything academic.  We had hit a wall.  Now she is reading at a mid-first grade level, and is one of Mrs. Allen's best writers of all time.  I am also relieved that she was consistently helpful and respectful all year long, working hard and being a really good girl each day.  She has grown a lot emotionally, academically, and socially.  

first day of school

last day of school

We got a kiddie pool for the backyard.  It's been a big hit with all three kids, although I think Gemma loves it the most.  We also started swimming lessons.  Hazel and Jack are taking semi-private lessons together, and so far it's been fab.

 

The first week out of school was kid's paradise.  Everyone was happy to have Hazel home all day to play.  Hazel was thrilled to have time to set up scenes, build Legos, and do all the projects that have been building up in the back of her mind that there just wasn't time for after school between homework and chores and dinner and neighbor kids.  The love is starting to wear off now that it's been almost two weeks, though.  Sadly for me, time to regain some structure...

tea party

I don't even know what was going on in here.  They were together in the forts for hours.  I just let it be.  

 We took a beach trip to Santa Cruz with our friends Maggie, Alyse, and Grace one Saturday while Todd was still gone and Maggie's husband was also out of town.  We hit traffic on the way and had to stop on the side of the road for a potty break.  The kids stumbled upon a deer skeleton and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Peer pressure worked in our favor: Gemma finally pushed past her sand phobia. Usually, she will not get off the blanket.  She was burying my feet and hers and having a grand ol' time!

The kids got a little silly after a few hours.  Everyone was pretending to sleep, then popping up.  I think Gemma and Grace were wishing for naps for reals.

Hazel's a doodler.  And she's got a shining testimony.  She makes  me proud, the way she expresses her faith.

Gemma helped me get lunch plates ready one day when she was underfoot.  She did a fine job, as long as you don't mind a little rabbit nibble or two out of your produce.

Hazel's been reading aloud to Jack and Gemma and to me a lot.  I think she likes that she can read a lot of regular picture books now, that she can handle text that's not from easy readers.

Todd got back just in time for the NorCal Pirate Festival. We had a blast!  The people-watching alone makes it worth the drive.  It's amazing.  The children's activities are pretty cool, as well.  The kids got to try their hand at launching cannon balls, steering a ship, playing a dice game, learning to tie knots, and swabbing the deck.  We listened to live music while we ate our lunch and watched a ship to shore battle.

They also watched a puppet show and met some real mermaids.  The mermaids were everyone's favorite part of the festival.  They handed out treasure and splashed the crowd.  Jack and Gemma spent a lot of time pretending to be merpeople the following week.

Father's Day was low-key.  Everyone just wanted to play with Todd and he just wanted to chill, so we played games at home and went for a bike ride along the trail over to Marshland.  And, of course, we had steak for dinner.

 The next day, some friends from church took us boating on the delta.  I figure that's as good a Father's Day present as any.  Todd loves boating.  The kids each gave the knee board a go.  I did, as well, and got up on the wakeboard for the first time ever. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

These two have been buddy-buddy lately.  I love it when it's like this.  We keep wondering how long they can share a room together, but it really fosters a tight friendship and I don't want to give that up.  I also don't want to mess with Gemma, who is still in a crib and sleeping great.

I found this graffiti on Hazel's dresser.  I was disappointed she drew on the furniture, but I love that she loves school so much.  I hope it lasts.

We keep vacillating back and forth on how stable we feel here in Livermore.  Sometimes it seems like we may not make it another year before we need a change; other times it feels like this might be it forever, like we may even buy this house and stay here-here forever.  Who knows - definitely not me.  But during the times we feel stable, we go on spending sprees and spruce up the house a bit, make it more our own.  Last weekend, we bought this gorgeous dresser to go in our long, wide entryway.  I'm excited to dress it up.  

Our cheap Walmart bookshelf died its final death, and we already had more children's books than we had shelves to begin with.  Todd took it as an opportunity to use his tools and built us some beautiful, custom-size book shelves.  I love them!  It just makes me happy to look over and see them all gathered together on display like that.  

May 2015

Man, May felt like a long month.  Looking back, we definitely packed a lot in.

 Hazel got invited to a birthday party that was being held on a Sunday.  This is the first time we've had to turn down an activity because it conflicted with our Sabbath Day values.  As soon as I looked at the calendar and told Hazel the party was on a Sunday, her face fell.  I was so proud of her that there was no discussion, no attempt to negotiate or make an exception.  She is a good girl who always tries to do what we believe is right.  It's a cool thing to see her testimony already.

Todd helped me spend some money, and we spruced up our front porch a bit.  It feels much more welcoming now that there are decorations in place to distract you from all the leaves and spider webs.  The kids and I love to sit on the bench and read outside.

We made a family trip to San Diego.  There was rain on the forecast for most of our trip, so we prioritized.  We knew we had at least half a day of sunshine and wanted to spend it at Sea World.  Hazel was tall enough to hit all the rides.  Jack could have ridden most of them as long as Todd or I went with him, but he was too timid to try any of the big rides.  He loved the kiddie ones, though.  

Hazel rode the roller coaster with Todd, then came to get me and ride it again.  I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe something dinky like the roller coaster at Happy Hollow.  It. Was. Awesome!  I screamed and laughed the whole time, and since there was no line (thank you, rain!) we jumped right back on for a second trip.

The kids fed sea lions and bat rays.  Cool experience.

Jack is still (three weeks later) talking about how much bigger than him bat rays can grow to be.  That really interested him.  

We watched a dolphin show that was really, really cool.  Lots of people diving and fun costumes and tricks.  It was very visual and exciting.  Later, we went to the Shamu show, but that's when the rain decided to pour.  Everyone was miserable and we almost packed up to leave.  

Luckily for us, the rain slowed down early enough that we decided to stick it out til closing after all.  We all loved observing all the animals (the penguins were especially cute) and playing on the playgrounds.  It was a really fun day.

The next day was forecast for rain all day long, so we scratched our plans to visit the San Diego Zoo, and spent the day at a children's discovery museum instead.  Todd and I got a little bored after a couple of hours, but all three kids were in heaven all day long.  They made paper, built with blocks, painted, sculpted with clay, and played with plenty of creative apparati (is that a word?).

The sun came out mid-afternoon, so we were able to spend a few hours at the beach.  It was too cold to want to get in and use the body boards like we'd hoped, but it seemed like everyone was pretty happy just to dig in the sand and collect shells.

Overall, it wasn't quite the trip of our dreams, mainly because of the bum weather, but we had a great time.

Lately, Gemma has wanted something in bed with her while she sleeps.  It doesn't much matter what, just whatever she's been playing with right before night night.  She does a great job of not staying up to play, but it gives her something to do when she wakes up.  She's funny.

 We found a garter snake outside.  Gemma loved it and is still talking about it.  Hazel was afraid it was going to kill us.

These three are good buddies with each other.  I'm so pleased that they all play together nicely, and everyone has a unique and strong relationship with their other two siblings. I couldn't have asked for anything better.  I was worried someone would always be left out with three kids, but so far, so good. They manage it well.

Legos are still going strong over here.  The way Hazel and Jack play reminds me so much of how my sister Emily and I used to play with Barbies.  They create a setting, then talk through a story with the people, coming up with really cute dialogue.  It's fun to eavesdrop on, and they spend literally hours every week with it.

Our friends the Moss family came up one Saturday to hang out.  We hadn't seen each other in about a year.  I love these real friendships I've got in my life, where it doesn't matter how long it's been since you've seen each other, when you reunite, you feel close and can talk about anything, and feel truly cared about.  We had a scrumptious barbecue lunch, played at the house for a long time, then went for a hike and did a little geo caching.

On Memorial Day, we drove down to Santa Cruz and hung out at the beach with Todd's brother KB.  It's been fun for the kids and us to be able to see him more often while he's living close by.

The last weekend of May, I had a girl's overnight get together with some of my best friends from Sunnyvale.  We met in Tiburon and stayed in a hotel.  We strolled through the cute downtown shops, went out to eat, swam in the hotel pool and even choreographed our own little synchronized swim routine!  Ha ha.

We stayed up late talking and playing games and eating chocolate.  The next day, we went on a hike with awesome views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and Angel Island.  It was truly beautiful outside.

The rest of the day contained lots more talking, more games and chocolate and restaurants, and pedicures.  The whole trip was so rejuvenating, to be with people who feel like sisters, where we could be silly and confide our fears and feel safe and appreciated and loved.  I am so blessed with these good friendships I've formed.

April 2015

 We planted our very first garden.  Todd's been studying Square Foot Gardening and making multiple trips to the local nursery to talk with the experts there.  We had high hopes.  We even made our own potting soil and built our own planting boxes.  The kids have been super excited to water the garden and to watch sprouts pop up.

Unfortunately, the wildlife that hang out in our backyard has been excited about the sprouts as well.  We're not sure if the culprits are birds, raccoons, skunks, squirrels or cats, but after a few days, everything disappeared.  We covered it all in wire and the spinach grew back, but we lost everything else.  

Todd went out last week and bought a few starter plants.  He says he has sworn off seeds forever.  We shall see.  So far, so good.  We really don't know what we're doing.  

Easter was low-key this year.  We hid eggs in the yard three or four different times because the kids loved the hunt so much.

Hazel left a note for the Easter Bunny, asking for a real, live bunny to be left in her basket.  Uh.... Nice try, but no.

Todd's sister Missy and her family came out to see us for a few days during their spring break.  We loved having them!  Mostly we hung around home because my kids were still in school, but we took them on the trail by our place, went out to eat in Oakland and watched Todd heroically rescue a toy from the sewage drain (disgusting!), and met up with Uncle KB in Santa Cruz for a nice day at the beach.

Hazel went on a weeklong streak of waking up before me and setting up breakfast for everyone, complete with placemats and soda.  It was lovely to have her completely ready for school when I rolled out of bed, with a stress-free thirty minutes to read with her before she left each day.  I wish it were like that every day.

Hazel's school held a fun Bubble Festival we went to one evening.  They had multiple areas set up to play with bubbles and experiment with different ways to make them.  All the kids loved it.

Our ward spread new wood chips on Hazel's school playgrounds for our Mormon Helping Hands project this year.  Jack was one of the hardest child workers there - made me proud - and Hazel was excited to email her teacher a picture of herself in action.  

We had spring break right after our cruise, so Todd had to get back to work.  It was up to me to keep the kids entertained with activities close to home.  Our favorite day was when we drove down to Sunnyvale to visit with Nova and Spencer and their families.  We're grateful we've been able to keep up our friendships despite the distance between us.