In September we...

Played with Baby Jack! In September I started babysitting Jack about 30 hours a week. It has been so fun to have a baby around again and the girls LOVE him. They look forward to him coming every day. It has also been a big adjustment-you forget how much work babies are! Luckily he is an adorable baby.

We celebrated Lamby's birthday! After eating my birthday cake Lucy decided she wanted another birthday, so she decided to give Lamby one. I like birthday cake too so I readily agreed. August 29th will forever more be remembered as Lamby's birthday. We played party games Lucy designed-pin the tail on Pinkie Pie.

and telephone.

Happy 8th birthday Lamb!

We don't see Aunt Katy as often now that she is a masters student AND full time teacher. One glorious Saturday we indulged in one of our favorite activities-buying Halloween decor at Marshalls. It was so fun we had to have frozen yogurt afterward!

Lucy and I were able to attend a Primary Pool Party! It was exclusive to those who memorized all 13 articles of faith (or 6 if you were under 8 years old). Lucy worked hard and was thrilled to be invited.

It was her first chocolate fountain-and as you can see she love it. She told everyone we know how awesome they are.

One Saturday we drove out to the city as a family to check out Danny's office and neighborhood.
Sitting at Danny's desk:)

There were very fun parks nearby. Danny works in the Hayes neighborhood-they had lots of cute residential houses, fun shops and restaurants.

We wanted to show the girls City Hall and the Opera House so we walked Danny route to Bart and saw the sights.

 

It was so fun to spend the day together doing something different:)

Back to school!

I can hardly believe that this year Lucy is in 2nd grade. She was really excited for school to start this year. We were especially thrilled to find out that her best friend Sarah is in her class for the third year in a row! Several of her kindergarten friends are back in her class as well, so it made the first day exciting, not scary.

 This year our Blodgett cousins moved into our neighborhood school boundaries! They live next door to their cousins who are also in our ward. Between the three families we have a child in every grade at our elementary school this year:)

End of Summer

The end of summer flew by this year. One week before school started Katy got a job teaching kindergarten at Monte Gardens! It is a great school and she was so excited to get kindergarten. We spent the last week of summer cleaning and organizing her room. She really had to start from scratch so we bought fabric and borders and put them up on the walls, gave her a mascot (the A-1 Owls), laminated a million owls and put them all over the room in the form of a birthday wall, name wall etc, and went to Lakeshore Learning a million times. My kids are small saints because they just played around, watched movies or helped for several long days.

Katy opening her door for the first time!!

On Monday we celebrated my 31st birthday. That morning was the last day of running club and I had promised to help so we went and ran one last time. I'm so proud of all my girls for running all summer!

The whole running club gang.

I don't have any pictures of the day because we spent it in Katy's classroom-there was no time to lose! I think we ate at Los Panchos (my fav BCR:) before a last minute Wal Mrt run... 

That evening we ate at Roccos and had my fav pizza and then did presents and ice cream at Grandma's. I was completely spoiled. Joyce Loved handing me gifts and had this excited face each time:

Posing with some of my gifts! Love my new nerdy workout tank, this cute jacket you cant really see and the three necklaces I'm wearing:)

Here's hoping 31 is a good one!

Thes rest of the week was spent at...you guessed it...school. Even while Katy was in new teacher training we were working. You think that's Katy's signature on your welcome letter little kids? Think again!

One finished wall and newly painted cubbies!

Me and this staple gun got really comfortable with each other.

After several days like this my girls started getting crabby. They were bribed with a pony prize and awarded for their good behavior.

That last week all the kids started getting on each others nerves. Lucy created a little hideout for herself in the laundry room. She liked to get away and read her book in there. When I actually went back and saw it I almost died of the cuteness.

Two of my girls the night before school started!

Monterrey Weekend

This last week Danny started a new job in San Francisco. The first week was exciting but exhausting too, so we were surprised and thrilled when my Uncle Scott and family invited us down to their vacation house in Monterrey for the weekend. It was the perfect place to relax and regroup after a crazy first week.  

We drove down Saturday morning, picked up Grandma and Katy at the house and hit the pier for lunch. The girls loved checking out all the sea lions.

 Sticklers for tradition we had to have cotton candy as we walked back along the pier.

That afternoon we spent at Asilomar beach.  I forget how cold it can be on the coast in the summer! It was freezing. That didn't stop all the little girls from wanting to play in the water though. Danny boogie boarded in his wet suit and I huddled with jackets and beach towels for warmth.

 Our favorite part of Monterrey is climbing on the rocks and looking for cool shells, sea creatures and sea glass. My little girls found star fish and crabs and we even saw some sea otters and seals close by.

 That evening Uncle Scott started a cook fire on the beach and roasted shrimp and kebabs.  Lucy decided she liked shrimp so thanks Scott!

 The next morning we stuffed ourselves with pastries at a perfect bakery and then went on a walk along the coast. We did some exploring and then decided to head for home. Just taking one day to get away made all the difference-we had a fabulous time:)

July part 2

In a stroke of incredibly good luck, I checked the library museum pass system one night and found Exploratorium tickets. They are usually sold out for months ahead of time so I was thrilled to find them. We had never been to the new Exploratorium on the embarcadero is it was exciting to explore a new museum.  We went with Katy and my mom and had a great day playing in the city. 

This room was probably our favorite-was danced in here for quite awhile.

The layout is better for older kids, but amidst the crowds we still found lots of interesting things to check out.

In this exhibit you give yourself a new name and then it is displayed along with your picture throughout the day. We had a Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash,  Ekaterin and Eleanor of Aquitaine (not pictured:).

Love my summer field trip crew!

After we had explored as much as we liked we walked down to the ferry building and I introduced them to my favorite hamburger spot over there.

Luke, Emily and family came out from Virginia for the whole month of July. We tried to entertain ourselves while they were out traveling other parts of the west, but when they were in town we tried to hang out as much as possible. We even got an adult date night in! After a fun dinner in Walnut Creek we went go-karting in Livermore.  I had a much better race this time than my previous experience. They even gave me a free race because it was August 1st-my birthday month!

These girls have so much fun together. So fun to have cousins to play ponies with:)

We've really enjoyed running club this year. We usually walk over because it is so close. Lucy hasn't run as far this year, but she has been a great help and run with her sisters. Joyce and Lydia have both run over five miles!

The other day at a local store, Katy and I noticed a ton of baby gear in the store's dumpster. Turns out they aren't allowed to sell or donate any of their display items. Katy and I liberated what we could easily grab without embarrassing ourselves.

Later that night while nearby Danny also craved the rush of stealing out of a dumpster and grabbed two strollers! Lucy was mortified.