Playdates....

It seems that our play dates have evolved...

The days of changing our princess dress-up costumes 5 times in an hour seem to have passed.

Although we still have our days where playing princess is a viable alternative, for the most part this is what we do now.....
Have a great day!

Back to School....

SO, We are officially into week two and I am just now sitting down to blog.....

It seems that the PTA is a full-time job!

The good news is that M loves her teacher and is thrilled to be back at school. The great news is, at first glance, it appears that our homework will actually be less and easier than Kindergarten. This is a big deal for all of us, as the amount of homework last year had me a little alarmed that "my" second attempt at Elementary school might not be a smashing success....

I am also loving the PTA. It is a bit overwhelming. I have to keep reminding our Ways and Means VP (Chief Tech Geek...) that my last computer class was in 1992. Thankfully, I had fabulous tech support teams for the 10 years I worked. It's amazing how much they could clean up my well-intentioned messes.... Apparently, there is no tech support in the volunteer world... I keep fearing that I am going to shut down the whole school system with one wayward keystroke. Other than my technical difficulties, and my inability to be multiple places at once (with toddler in tow, of course) it is a great unpaid job!

So, because I have dinner to cook, a playdate to supervise, and 30some volunteer interest forms to enter, I will close with a couple of shots of Princess M's triumphant return to the halls of education.


All dressed in the new Back to School clothes from Grandma and Papa....
Thrilled to share a desk with one of her best buddies from last year. Who doesn't love new school supplies?

Summer Fun....

I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by.

Princess M starts 1st grade in a week and a half, and I already have $40 worth of school supplies to prove it. We don't even have the individual teacher request list yet, I can hardly wait.

We have covered so much ground and fun in the last month, I hardly know where to start.... I think I'll just show you a few of the highlights and save the in depth anecdotes for future posts.

We spent a very busy week with my folks doing Disneyland, a 4 day Mexican Riviera cruise, and Knott's Berry Farm all while carrying and spreading pinkeye....(right Papa?) We had a blast and definitely were unanimous in our wish that time would stop somewhere around Catalina Island.

The only good thing about vacation coming to an end was the impending arrival one day later of our dear friends the Sides. We had two whole weeks of fun, fellowship, Wii Mario Kart battles, and tons of food (not to mention a fairly obscene amount of drinks and desserts....) It's amazing how you can fit 8 people into a 1250sf townhouse when it's the right people!!!!! Before they even left, it was back to work for C, but we squeezed every possible second of fun out of our two weeks and wouldn't trade a second of it for the world. Boy, it was hard to drop them off at the airport....

We also had a very important birthday celebration for a certain Princess L....

In the last 4 days, C and I have devoted a total of 17 hours to the PTA and I have another meeting this evening, so I guess we know how our "spare" time will be spent from here on out...

We Need a Vacation....

Hellooooo, anyone still out there?

Yes, we are still here. A little tired, and a lot ready for our upcoming cruise, but here none the less.

In the last two weeks we have....

starred as a Golden Hen in Jack and the Beanstalk....You must here 4 of the shyest girls ever sing "We lay, we lay, golden eggs...." to the tune of We Will Rock You. Definitely one not to be missed. Freddie Mercury would be so proud!

We have graduated from Kindergarten.

We have had a wonderful but all too short visit from Granny and Gramps.


Played Buckethead???


Showed Granny and Gramps beautiful Pfeiffer Beach during a sandstorm.....
Yes, that's my awesome Mother-in-Law wrapped up like a burrito in that towel trying to avoid the pelting sand....


We hosted a gourmet meal on the lawn for their visit. Happy Meals for everyone.

Never let it be said that we don't show our guests a good time!


We had our 3rd annual Ballet and Tap recital...


And note the left eye, our first annual recital with pinkeye.... Good Times!

Welcome to the PTA.....

NO, I haven't been devoured by some rare West Coast disease...

I have taken a position with the PTA.

My new title for the upcoming year is Volunteer Coordinator. Translation: Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. It's my job to get already overextended parents to VOLUNTEER their precious time for the good of our school. And when they don't show up, I get..... to do the work.

All jokes aside, it's a perfect job for me. In spite of the fact I am already exhausted, and my term hasn't yet officially started, I am loving every minute of getting to use my brain and big mouth for something so very worthwhile. Funny side story, I actually volunteered to be the treasurer, because I thought it would be painless. Oddly enough, when an accountant stepped up for that job, they didn't want to let me off the hook. For some strange reason, they thought I would be better suited to a job that involves repeatedly approaching complete strangers and politely talking (browbeating) them into donating their precious time for the good of the school. I cannot imagine what possessed them to think I would be well-suited to this position. It's funny, those of you who have known me since before children know my last professional job was in PR for a non-profit blood center. I am fearful it was easier to talk people out of their blood than it will be to get their time....

Anyway, I am already loving every minute of it! C may not be quite so thrilled as he is suddenly getting LOTS of "quality" time with a certain toddler angel.

Yesterday's 7 hour shift included prepping, serving, and cleaning up after we served 450 grilled hot dogs, and 400 grilled hamburgers to the entire student body and their families. In theory, I should have been walking around greeting parents and schmoozing them into positions for next year. In reality, I never want to handle another hamburger or hot dog, and my hair still smells suspiciously of charcoal. Also, never wear Target rubber flip flops to stand for many hours on blacktop...... And still, I loved it all! Maybe I have a future as a professional volunteer, sounds incredibly lucrative.

Here are a couple of recent shots of the girls who have especially bonded recently. They really are two peas in a pod. Of course, there is no shortage of shrieking and squalling but neither can stay out of the other's business for 5 seconds, so all is GOOD!

Party Time!

Last week was a GREAT week!

Thursday, C and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, sans kids, WOOOOHOOOO.

We got to eat Japanese food and finish entire sentences without interruption. Does it get any better than that?

Friday, Princess M and I got to spend the whole day together, without our favorite tagalong. She's stinking cute...but sometimes it's hard for my big girl and I to get any togetherness time with "little jealousy" along.

I chaperoned M's class field trip to see my favorite things.....NOT!!!!!

Later in the day, M's favorite boy, you remember the one, had his Bday party at the pool. Fun was had by all. They got to swim, I got to take pictures, and not wear a swimsuit....

What a Day.....

So, here's how we spent last Saturday. It was a much appreciated family day of fun in an absolutely gorgeous place.

Check out Pfeiffer Beach, just down Big Sur Highway from us.

There's a freshwater stream that runs down the beach to the Pacific and the girls had a blast playing in the water and catching tadpoles by hand. My, how things have changed for Princess M.....


Things have also changed for this one, who, when we first arrived did not care for sand....

Trying to get the sand out of her bum after this day made Mom not so crazy about it either....

It's a Good Thing.....

Yes, I am giving a shout out to "Martha" today in honor of my Great friend K over at One Crazy Adventure

Thanks to her creative abilities, Princess M is now a very happy camper with this...

This shot is just to show Princess L and her "coaching" M with her modeling... That's all I need, another perfectionist with bossy tendencies....

Thank heavens I have friends with such skills and talents so my girls can enjoy such lovely things, otherwise they would forever be deprived as my artistic abilities are completely nonexistent. The other great thing about this beautiful gift is that M's buddy Princess E has one just like it and of course having a best buddy twin all the way across the country makes it all the more awesome!

I do have one other quick thing to share.

I want to introduce the new "loves" of my life...

What more can I say. Life is sweet. I have almost forgotten how much I hate technology (or how much it hates me rather) with these new beauties. Who knew laundry could actually be fun?

Ahhh, Success....

Yes, This picture represents a smashing success in our household.

As most of you know, oddly enough, C and I have incredibly food-averse offspring. How does this happen to two people who truly have a love affair with food? Don't get me wrong, as the mother to two girls in today's world I am extremely grateful that likely my girls will never have weight and body issues. However, I cannot understand how they can have absolutely no interest in food. They simply eat when we insist, which we do, three times each day, just to keep the screaming meanies to a minimum. The "screaming meanies" for those of you not in the know, are the beings that replace our otherwise lovely girls when they are so hungry they can't function, but would never consider simply asking for a snack...

So anyway in this picture you see Princess L indulging in 4, count em four, separate foods. Now, as adults, you and I know that Chicken fingers, Mac and Cheese (yes, the devil in the blue box kind)corn on the cob, and an apple does not necessarily a well-balanced meal make. However, for us this is HUGE! The first of you to point out to me that corn, pasta, and a complex carb are no substitutes for something green and leafy are officially off the Xmas list and the Blog roll, so if you ever wanted to run us off, now's your chance!

And IT Begins.....

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my friend G at Princess M's school. We were discussing our surprise that her third grader was going to be allowed to participate in an after school dance....

In third grade????

We were both surprised and somewhat shocked as a boy had already invited her Gorgeous (yes, with a capital G) girl to said dance. G had explained to her daughter that although she would be allowed to go to the dance, she could expect to see her Mom there as a chaperon, and her date would be strictly her girlfriends, not any boy!

Since this conversation it has come to our attention that it is an all school dance... I am still not sure if that is better... Kindergartners through 5th graders at a dance? Should be entertaining at least.

Skip to this morning when G stops me as I am dropping off M. She mentioned she overheard a very interesting conversation between two of her children. It seems that Princess M's buddy B had said to his sister "It's too bad you can't go to the dance with a boy, because I am going with...(you guessed it) M!"

Here is the object of our affection, who coincidentally just yesterday M told me was the cutest boy in her class, and asked if I agreed. (I do...)


So it appears on Friday, I am going to a dance!

Lest We Forget....

As a proud military family, it's very easy to consider our assignment here to be akin to one big vacation. It's not that C's workload isn't taxing and difficult to say the least, it's just that we are together everyday and....Safe. Having no possibility of deployment sometimes gives you a false sense of security, like what's happening over there doesn't really exist for this moment.

Then along comes a real life reminder of why we are here in the first place. We are here for C to get more tools and resources to help protect all of us. We have met some fabulous people here and many of them have already graduated and moved on. One such family we were lucky enough to meet on a few occasions has now moved on and are in the midst of a tough deployment. He is doing some wonderful things to help the people of Afghanistan and would love help.

I am including a link to his new blog.
If you can help, please do so. We are all lucky to have such a caring (and very funny) man out there protecting us and helping them!

www.navygoesarmy.blogspot.com/

Thanks Craig! We'll be praying for you!

CHIPS off the "relatively" old Blocks.....

So, I am happy to report that Princess M has requested and received her first "REAL" guitar. It took some real smooth talking on Mom's part to convince her to go for the traditional wood grain (like Daddy's) and not the Pepto Bismol Pink one with the silver plastic flame on it..... I can only take princess pink so far...... Thus far we are not attempting any real lessons, just a lot of raucous strumming and posing.... SHE has the makings of a real rocker... Style first, substance later....

So here she is in all her Bohemian glory.



Obviously, any real talent for guitar will come from her Dad. I did take several years of lessons and can still slowly pick out the basics, but as all who know me well know, I hate being second best.... Seeing as I was never even remotely in the same league, my guitar days are mostly a happy (and sometimes painful) memory.


There is one thing that both of my girls have received from both sides of the family tree... They are carrying on the tradition of being die hard UofL Cardinals fan! Tonight we face off with the Tarheels and we will be supporting the Cards in style. Chris and I are both in CARDS shirts (mine of original vintage as I am a bit superstitious) The girls are decked out in new finery delivered for Easter from Granny and Gramps. Traditionally of course all CARDS gear should be RED and BLACK, however those marketing geniuses know that little girls LOVE pink.

So be it....

Spring Break!

Who knew that a two week Spring Break could be so much work and so little.... break?
No doubt anyone who has ever had school-aged children.. Since this is my first year fitting that demographic, I must admit to being a little surprised at the amount of energy it takes to entertain a child who is used to having 22 other children, a teacher, and three (yes, 3) recesses a day to do the job. So, we have been go, go, going and I have been so tired at the end of the day that stringing together witty sentences to tell you about it seems like a LOT of effort. That being said, we'll just forget about attempting wit and show you some two week old pictures of my folks' visit. Maybe once Spring Break is nothing but a happy and hazy memory I will actually be able to blog about it....


This was a trip to the Coast Guard Pier to see...


....a wall full of seagull droppings.... No, really, look where her binoculars are aimed....
We did see this guy as well, so as always the trip was a success.




We also made our first successful trip to Pfeiffer Beach down the Big Sur Highway. We attempted this once before, but had to retreat that particular day as the circuitous route along the Pacific caused my Big Princess a small bout of car sickness....

It was worth the second effort as this is what we found.



This last shot is not an attempt to show off the beautiful scenery. This shot is to highlight our only souvenir for the day. You see that rock in the foreground? We brought that home... Because Princess L said so.... ENOUGH said....

Long Time No See....

Sorry we have been so conspicuously absent for the last two weeks. It seems that between my folks' visit and Princess M's Birthday extravaganza, I have had no extra time to collect my thoughts. Much less write them down, edit them, add pictures, edit them again, and then just say "what the heck" and press Publish Post.... Now everything seems so past tense, it feels odd to still be sharing it with you. However, since some of our favorite people in Kentucky, England, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland couldn't be here to party with us, I will share with you a couple of the 286 (no lie) pictures I took at an all afternoon Birthday soiree. This rapid shutter photography is going to run us out of computer memory and external hard drive space quickly at this rate.... Of course, it has nothing to do with my lack of discrimination as a photographer. Doesn't everyone take 10-15 shots of the same scene hoping to get one worthy shot to post or share?

We started the shindig with the delivery of the Pink and Purple Bounce Castle at 10am. The last child unwillingly climbed out at 6pm when Mr. Bouncy insisted he must return the Castle to Salinas. The kids were sorry to see it go, C, not so much. His love for all things safe and orderly was definitely tested with an afternoon full of roughly thirty kids ranging from age 1 to age 13 and a couple of us in our late 30ish years testing the rules on bounce house capacity. We had brought along our own small version, allegedly for the "small" kids. You can imagine how that worked out. The small tykes were most often right in the middle of the big bouncy with a mere dozen other kids doing pikes and pile drivers all around them. The small bouncy was full of ambitious boys trying to dive over the sides.
This is only 6 kids, right?

Let me out, please?


As I said, FUN was had by all. C had his fun when we made an adult run to the Mini Mart after the crowd dwindled down to the most hearty of friends and cleanup crew.

We did learn one other invaluable lesson. When you invite an entire class of 23 Kindergartners and their families, including siblings, to an all afternoon birthday luncheon, DO NOT, for any reason have a real (aluminum bat required) pinata. The bat was actually not the problem, no small thanks to my friend Beth, who repeatedly risked life and limb to jump in the fray and wrestle an aluminum bat from a blindfolded, swinging, sugar-hyped kid.
The problem was eventually (after we finally let the 13 year old take a swing) the pinata will break. At this point, I cannot describe the chaos that ensued... Suffice to say, if I had not had an extra jumbo bag of goodies on the side, they're might have been a mutiny. For all future parties, pinatas are for ten or less small, hogtied children.
That's my girl!


Ultimately, the birthday girl decreed the party a TOTAL smash success. That was more than enough repayment for the ten+ hours my Dad and I spent chopping and mixing to feed the masses. Incidentally, 66 cupcakes was exactly 1 cupcake too many... Party ON!