Saturday Morning

Jeff's out of town this weekend, backpacking in the Sierra with some friends. So the kids and I are on our own and having a special mommy/kid weekend. The five pictures in the slideshow above are from this morning. We lounged around in the big bed for a while, taking turns singing songs (Andrew is nearly there with the ABC song), and eventually moved to the playroom for some princess/car action.

I am struck by the fleeting nature of these carefree days. Before long the kids will be big and will have their own plans and I'll be left to watch from the sidelines. I want to remember what they look like, how they act, in these days when they are just three and nearly five. Already I find it hard to conjure memories of them as babies and toddlers that aren't tied to a photograph that I took of them. Remembering how they moved, how they sounded, how they smelled, how they felt as babies is already hard. Just imagine how much harder it will be when I have teenage versions of them crowding out all the impressions of their younger selves. Hence, the camera coming out this morning to capture them just as they are, today, bed hair and all.

Julia is the much more enthusiastic poser. I've got to get Andrew in action, because if I ask him to smile he gives me the goofiest grin that contorts his face such that he doesn't even look like himself. That won't help me remember what he looks like!

Julia's first graduation ceremony

Can you believe it?! Preschool is already over. It went so fast! Here are a few pictures from her graduation ceremony earlier this month. Congratulations Julia!

Happy Halloween

Boy did this cowboy have trouble lasooing Red Ranger and Cinderella for a picture!

The kids were flying high last night. I've never seen them so wound up! They had a marvelous time. We started out at a party in the nearby Willows neighborhood. Boy do they know how to party. The Willows has so many young families, and so much spirit. It's a great community (Andrea and Craig, take note!)

We did a bit of trick or treating in that neighborhood after the party, and then headed back to our neighborhood for more trick or treating with the neighbors. We have a spirited neighborhood too! I was impressed by the number of houses that really went all out with their Halloween display. We heard scary music, saw ghostly cemetaries complete with dry ice fog, saw caged skeletons banging their bars, an erie giant eye blinking from a window, a full-out haunted house in a neighbor's garage, and many more fun and spirited Halloween fun.

The aftermath is always a little less fun than the night, however. Andrew woke up crying with nightmares, and Julia is cranky in the extreme this morning. We've had fights over candy, some illegal candy eating before breakfast, etc.

On a nostalgic note, I wanted to honor the Halloween service of the bag shown below. Julia carried this bag trick or treating on her very first Halloween at one year old. It's survived all the Halloweens since, and Andrew carried it last night. It started ripping halfway through the night, and finally broke completely open late last night back at home. I don't think it'll make it to next year! But it served us well.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Pajaro Dunes Weekend

Can't beat the beach as a great setting for pictures. We spent a couple of nights at Pajaro Dunes the last weekend in September, and here are a few of my favorite pics. With the exception of the two dead elephant seals rotting on the beach right in front of our rented house (nature happens!), the weekend was a ton of fun with games taking the starring role for entertainment. Among the favorites for kids: Monster (Grandpa, are you recovered yet?), Preschool, Trains, Dress Up, and Chase; and for the adults: Carcassone, Ticket To Ride, Lost Cities. Great times!

A hot chocolate morning

Fall is here! One chilly morning we decided to wrap up and drink hot chocolate on the back deck.

Julia's first day of school

I finally downloaded pictures from my camera, and found this one of Julia that I took on her first day of school in September. She looks like such a big girl! She is a Butterfly now at her preschool, Footsteps.

Vacation update

Hello, We're on vacation this week, but we have a computer with us, and a camera... so, thought I'd say hello via the blog. We started out in Oxnard, where we stayed at a hotel at the beach. It had a great pool, which the kids LOVED. And we had our bikes with us, (Jeff just bought one, with a seat on the back for Andrew), so we had a great time biking along the beach as a family. Julia loves to ride her bike!

With the Holman grandchildren all in one place (Brad and Kim and Kira were at the beach too), it was an opportunity not to be missed. Here are Nana and Grumps with Kira, Julia and Andrew, sitting on a great driftwood log Nana and Grumps found.

And we took the opportunity to get a rare picture of the four of us together. I have so few pictures of the whole family, since one or the other of us is always behind the camera.

We are in Big Bear now, but I haven't downloaded pictures from here yet. We've been having a great time exploring, climbing rocks, biking, boating, board gaming, and napping. Today we're going to try the ski lift which should be a fun new experience for the kids.

So long from here!

Julia and GG

We spent the morning at the beach yesterday for Julia's 4th birthday party. We had a fanstastic time, got great turnout, and even saw a pod of WHALES go by! There are tons of amazing pictures of all the fun. So many that I'm going to have to share them via shutterfly, or load a slideshow or something. But I'll put a few up here on the blog too, starting with this one of Julia and Jay. We were very glad GG was able to join us at the beach. And I must say she looked fabulous in her red sweater. Here's the birthday girl (complete with princess tiara) and her beautiful Great Grandmother on a driftwood log at the beach:

Happy 4th Birthday to Julia!

Julia is FOUR!

Today was such a fun day. It started with the opening of just one gift in the morning from Nana and Grumps, this darling ballet outfit complete with tiara. She LOVES it and wore it all day long.



This evening after Jeff and I got home from work, we gave her the "big gift", a brand new big girl bike. Here she is giving it a whirl around the driveway. Excited hardly describes it.

Here is the birthday girl with her cake. She put the candles in herself, with a little help from Andrew who added a 5th candle (one to grow on?!) The cake, per her request, was chocolate with pink icing and strawberries on top.

Andrew really enjoyed the cake too.

Today was just the beginning of a series of birthday related events. Tomorrow Benne and Grandpa come over to celebrate and, and then on Saturday we are meeting a bunch of Julia's friends at the beach for a Cinderalla Birthday Beach Bash. Turning four is the best!

New pictures of the kids

I've been posting everything but pictures of the kids these days, an unusual run for me. So, back to the roots of this blog. Here are some cute pictures Jeff took of the kids recently.

 

 

 

Pictures from Julia's last day of school party

I'm late in blogging about this, but a couple of weeks ago was Julia's last day of her first year of preschool. They hosted a party, complete with magician! Here are a few pictures of the party. (Andrew had a great time too!)

P.S. I'm also testing out a new way to display photos on the blog. You should be able to click on any of the thumbnails to change the larger image. Clearly I've got some learning to do, as it's hanging off the edge of the space.

Julia's new outfit and Andrew with his snuggles

This gray Sunday morning we are preparing for Jeff's return from his backpacking trip (He's climbing Half Dome with his uncle!) so that we can celebrate Father's day. We're about to head out to the grocery store, but Julia wanted me to take this picture of her in this outfit she got from her Nana. And she specifically wanted to send the picture to Nana (and I know you're out there, Nana, looking at this!) Andrew wanted in on the picture too, so here he is holding his "snuggle dog" and "cozy".

The kids at Pescadero State Beach

Carmel and the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last weekend we took the kids to Carmel for a couple of nights, so that we could go to the Montery Bay Aquarium. We stayed in the Carmel Valley Ranch, which had the all important swimming pool. Julia was looking forward to the pool more than the aquarium, and we spent as much time there as we could. The aquarium is amazing, and we only wished we had leashes on the kids so that we could have enjoyed it with a little less stress. Turns out it's hard to keep track of a 2 and 3 year old in a crowded, confined setting with lots of little rooms, hallways, pockets, and dark spaces. We had quite a time of it, keeping track of the two of them, and trying not to lose each other. Well worth the effort, though, for the spectacluar displays and georgous setting. Julia's favorite thing was touching the starfish, and Andrew liked chasing the pigeons out on the deck. Here are a few pictures of our visit: Lunching outdoors by the pool; A jellyfish; Julia and Andrew looking at a shark; Jeff and the kids in the pool.

Nana visiIts

I am a bit behind in my blogging! Last Friday and Saturday, Nana came for a visit, and we had a ball hanging out with her for the weekend. These pictures are from our trip to the park where we had a picnic by the duck pond. The kids ended up taking a wade in the stream. It was so much fun and we just loved having Nana here. The kids were so excited, and absolutely exhausted by the end of her visit.

Daddy's Birthday

Jeff celebrated a birthday last Friday, on April 18th. We had a quiet little celebration with the kids, complete with cupcakes. See Jeff, below, blowing out the candle with Julia's help, and Andrew looking on.

Then we left the kids with Adela, our wonderful housekeeper/backup-nanny (shown in the pic below), and I took Jeff out for dinner at a place that has live jazz on Friday nights. (Jazz is a new passion of Jeff's.)

Julia LOVES cupcakes!

Nothing better than a big box to play in!

More than the sun is warm

When I tell Julia I love her, sometimes she asks "how much?" I typically answer "all the way to the moon and back." Recently, to mix it up, I've started saying "I love you more than the sun is warm." (that's a lot!) Tonight she told me that she loved me "as dark as it is outside in the middle of the night." (that's a lot!) : )

Happy Easter

Easter is tomorrow, and we have fun, though simple, plans. The easter basket excitement in the morning should be great fun, followed by an easter egg hunt with the eggs we dyed today. In the afternoon we head to Andrea and Craig's for Easter Dinner. Mom and Dad are off on vacation this week, so unfortunately they won't be joining us.

Here is a picture of Julia from a few weeks ago, when she was trying on her Easter dress, given to her by Benne. Lets hope we can get her into it tomorrow! (She is so picky about what she wears!)


Today we had a lovely day outside, enjoying the warm sunshine. We took a morning trip to the nursery to get some flowers. I went with the kids while Jeff stayed home to get some work done. I was so pleased with how well the kids cooperated. As you can imagine, two little ones at the nursery could have been a major challenge, but they did really well. They were great helpers, and helped me get some of the plants into the ground once we got home as well. There is more to do tomorrow. We are planting a cutting garden (I hope... I'm new at this, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing....) I'll post pictures of our progress soon. It's going to be very kid-friendly, with snap peas, sunflowers, sweet peas, and assorted other easy growing bloomers (again, I hope!)

Happy Easter, everybody!

Hooked on Hardball

I'm hooked on Hardball with Chris Mattews. Thanks to the writer's strike perhaps, or perhaps the sheer amazingness of the political drama unfolding this season, I've been religiously tuning into the nightly political news on MSNBC. It's way better than a soap opera, or even Survivor. Reality TV of a new flavor, for me at least. I love watching the pundits sort through every little detail looking for significance and meaning. The discussions on TV and in the newspaper editorials about Obama's speech yesterday have been particularly fascinating. I haven't had the opportunity to see the whole speech yet, but wow do I intend to based on what I've heard. Obama never ceases to impress.

And because no blog post would be complete without pictures of my kids, here they are at the beach, from a weekend outing we made on an unseasonably warm day in February.