Labor Day Weekend 2011

After one week of kindergarten, Jeremy spent most of Saturday in his PJ's.  Until 3 pm.  We all loved just hanging out, drinking coffee, watching cartoons and not rushing out the door.  I now understand why "school age" families like the weekend so much!  

Part of Saturday was spent with Annie, who likes to play dolls with the girls, and sometimes Mabel is the doll.  I think she likes it because she never complains about it :)

We hosted a bbq for our "south bay" friends on Saturday night and cooked up some yummy stuff.  Shrimp apps, BBQ'ed salad, artichokes, flank steak, green chili rice and lots of beer!!!!  The kids had a blast and so did we!

The kids with Jolie (Mike and Christy's daughter)

 All the kids are Mabel's age which is a nice change because none of our Westchester gang have a little one so it's HER friends!

 Jolie and Bella (Jess and Seth's 1st daughter)

Some of us partied way too hard...

Seth using the restroom with his 2nd daughter Marley (5 months)

 Amelia was a party animal!  Seth said he's never seen someone her age run so fast.  And who knows what she did when we all went to bed because she woke up looking like this.  It took me 15 minutes to comb it out.  My shoulder was aching and fingers went numb doing it.  In case you can't tell, it's completely nested!

Sunday morning was daddy's donut run with the kids!  He will drive around afterwards to give me some down time but they always come home looking like this :)

The babysitter came on Sunday afternoon so Ryan and I could join his boss and CEO for a nice BBQ at their AMAZING Manhattan Beach house.  The view was unreal!!!!! 

We spent today getting organized (grocery run, laundry) and enjoying one more relaxing day at home before the school week starts.  Mabel carried on with her new look...

She LOVES to put on big girl underwear and has been wanting her diaper off lately.  Not so fast kid, momma is not motivated for that AT ALL!

 Jbird and Mabel still enjoying the roller coaster!

Amelia starts school on Wednesday and gymnastics on Saturday.  Jbird starts soccer on Saturday and baseball on Sunday so life is about to get really hectic!!!  Bring it on.  I love it!  

His 1st German words

I thought Jbird would be the kid that learns to speak German with his teachers and peers but not to us.  He surprised me!  He has come home every day trying to speak new words he's learned.  He was playing in the back yard yesterday and started telling me about this song they sing and and he said after it's your turn to sing you say, "Wie heisst du?"  In case you don't speak German (I asked Auntie Nicole) this means "what is your name?"  So fun watching him soak up stuff.

Pick up on day 1!

Side story...Nicole and I have started a little carpooling and she told me that they had a conversation today about how many hands Nicole had to do things and he said, "my mom needs 16 hands!"  Oh, how true that is!!!!  Thanks Jbird but maybe you could use yours a little more to help me and then I would only need 14 :)

Sweet Jbird

 "Mommy, if you were younger, I'd marry you"! 

1st Day of Kindergarten at Goethe

We sent him off to school with a full belly of oatmeal and strawberries.  Don't forget the glass of OJ he drinks every morning.  He was excited to show everyone his uniform (he ran next door to show the Georges) and showed Amelia his back pack and lunch box when she woke up.  On the way to school, he asked, "what is recess for again" and wanted to hold both our hands on the way in.

I snuck into his German class to get a picture.

Can you imagine how yummy all these crayons smelled?!?! My favorite thing - school supplies!

We found his class line and we got into line on the black top and listened to our new principal.  It was time to head into the class and he was SO brave and not a tear was shed.  Mommy did. :(

The girls and I made Jeremy a schultuete, a German tradition that had been around since the early

1800′s!  It's a cone given to a child on their first day of 

school filled with sweets, trinkets and back to school supplies!

Finished product!

Pick up was chaotic and it took awhile but it was so good to see his little face!  You have to wait in line and then they call his name.  When he came down the stairs, Mabel started to cry because she didn't get a hug.  He gave me and both girls a HUGE hug and Amelia gave him his cone.  He then said she could have the cone he made at school.  It's like they haven't seen each other in days.  They're talking about the funniest things and he is telling us all about his day.  He said he learned one German word but I don't know what it means, his new friend is Jett, he forgot to eat his chips with his hummus, he got to play for "8 minutes", he only "gets to use pencils", he played with Simone at recess only and he likes both teachers.  When he's in the immersion week, he will swap to the English class for 30 minutes in the afternoon and he said that was the last thing he did before I came.  So funny!  

Congrats Simone and J!  According to Ryan/Daddy, you've made it through the "first day of the rest of your lives"!  

Last Days of Summer

They had their dentist appts and all looked great!  The dentist was VERY impressed with their teeth and no cavities for anyone!

Mabel's 1st dentist appt!  Waiting very patiently!

The powder trick from the beach literally spilled over to the home.  They were awfully quiet and when I found them they were GUILTY!  Thank you J for getting the powder off the changing table!

 Even though he's starting kindergarten tomorrow, he's still a baby and will get into the pack n play and fall asleep :(

We've been getting in school "spirit" and I made German pancakes and got cold cuts from the German deli!  They've never been quieter while they ate!

Jeremy and I went to his school on Friday and he met his teachers and got to see his classrooms.  He'll be starting in the German classroom so I'll let you know how that goes.  Yikes. I love his teachers!

We had the Goethe annual picnic on Saturday and met some new families.  There are some really cool people!

We spent today getting organized, hair cut, laundry, BBQ at our neighbors and baths for all.  I'm feeling sad, excited, anxious (just like J) and unmotivated.  Yup, you read that right, unmotivated.  I always feel like I need all 3 to go on adventures.  When I just have the girls, I feel like I should stay home and get stuff done around the house.  I have to remember that it's now Amelia and Mabel's time to bond, play together and get to do fun things with mom.  I will probably be a bit sad tomorrow (I almost cried meeting his teachers) but I couldn't be happier with where he is going to school.  Pics from tomorrow coming soon!

Fun weekend!

We played hide n seek!  Well, kind of. 

We had a play date at Jess and Dani's house Thursday and swim lessons Friday!  The kids LOVE their house and they love their dog Sam and are pretty obsessed with Dani! Jeremy is a fish!  He now dives to the bottom to get toys and jumps into the deep end.  Good job J!

Ryan and I decided it would be fun to start a little tradition so we took J out to lunch and to the mall to get his school supplies and new school shoes! We will hopefully keep the tradition going and get one on one time with each kid before school starts.  He had fun and was very grateful.  We went to Soup plantation and he had tofu, edamame, raisins, olives and oranges!  Not normal :)

Ryan's quote to J at lunch, "this is just the beginning of your road to Stanford"!  He starts kindergarten in one week :(

We went to a birthday party while daddy worked and Mabel was Miss Independent!  I took them to Paco's Tacos afterwards for dinner and they all behaved amazingly well.  Even the people around me commented on it.  Thanks guys!

We spent ALL day today at the beach with the George family and some friends we've met through them.  We got there at 9 am and didn't leave until 4:30!  No naps!  Actually, mommy left for an hour and a half to go to J's new school and help clean it up and get it ready for the new year.  What a beautiful day with great friends!  

Did I say no naps?  Well, daddy zoned out for a few minutes!

One more week of summer vacation and then we start a new adventure.  I am going to soak up every minute with my little man. Love you J monkey!