Lady Bugs!

Mia loves lady bugs. She is the only one who will hold them. She loves to find them too. There have been numerous times we'll be out shopping or something and she spies one and is off to capture it. She always brings them home to put on our rose bushes. Our roses have lots of aphids so we have been talking a lot about buying a bunch of lady bugs and trying to deal with them the natural way. We found some while at OSH today and she was thrilled!! You have to let them out at night time when they are dormant or they will just fly away.

Tonight, after a long Super Family Fun Day, we almost forgot about the lady bugs! This was at about 9:30pm...good thing it's Summertime for the girls! hehe

Spring Time

So I've taken a hiatus from blogging....just haven't been in the writing mood again.  Also, have way too much to do each night instead of sit here and deal with pics and such.  I have a ton of updating to do, I know, and I'll get to it.  Only 14 more school days left for me and I'll have so much more time to do the things I want! (as opposed to the things I need to do!)  For now, here are some pics of Cal's actual birthday...

Diabetic Youth Foundation

My good friend Carole has two boys and a girl.  Her oldest child, Tyler, is 10 and her youngest child, Ryan, is 3.  They both have Type 1 Diabetes.  They are in the midst of preparing for the 2nd Annual Families in the Forest Walk to raise money for children with Diabetes go to a special kids summer camp.  It is a great organization and I whole heartedly support it.  Please check out the page and consider donating.  Even $5 may not seem  huge for one person, but within the pot of donations, it's huge.  Every penny counts!

http://www.firstgiving.com/honsal

How the Table Turns

One of my all time favorite books that I have read to ALL my children as they have grown:

 

Kiss Good Night

This is such a sweet book and fortunately each of my kids have loved it too.

Tonight, Mia picked this book to read to me.  We haven't read it in a long while and it was so heartwarming to hear her read it so smoothly to me.  She has taken reading by storm and I'm so proud of the huge accomplishment she has made this year.  She has done so very well and her confidence has quadrupled as a 1st grader.  So awesome to have her reading to me now.  

Let's take a little trip

 

Alcatraz

We took the kids to San Francisco for the night and were tourists for a couple of days.  It was so much fun.  We wandered around Pier 39, Ghiradelli Square, rode the trolley cars to Union Square and back, and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  The next day we played at the Discovery Kids Museum, walked half way across the Golden Gate Bridge, drove the crooked-est street in the world, and went up to Coit Tower.  The kids loved every minute of it!  We are definitely doing this more often!  At least each time Mike get's more than one day off of work at a time!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

At the Discovery Museum, Mia went to town on the hula hoops.  She was like a circus act.  She started with one hoop and people were clapping.  I put another one on over her head and it didn't phase her to keep two going.  Then Cal threw another one over her head and she amazed the crowd with three hoops going!  It was awesome!

 

  

Careful, you'll get 'yer melon stuck!

 

  

The GG Bridge taken from Telegraph Hill.

 

Cal, getting a talking to after a time out.  This has become one of my favorite pics lately.  I think I captured quite the emotion here. ;)

The wisdom of a toddler

"Mommy, did you know that Bongolia is the biggest mountain in the entire world? It's in Mt. Everest. We can't drive to Bongolia Mom."

"I am the most powerful guy in the world Mom!"

"Mommy, I talk a lot, huh?!"

"Juliet, I want earrings."  "Boys don't have earrings, Buddy."  "But Daddy does." "Well yea, Bud, but that's Daddy."

"Daddy do I have two friends?"  "I don't know Bud.  Do you have one?" "Um...yea Dad, I have two.  Juliet and Mia are my best friends, Dad!"

"Mommy I like standing up to go potty in the toilet.  Do you like to stand up when you go potty in the toilet?"  Um...no Buddy, I don't!

That's just in the last few weeks.  There is plenty more to share....

Rain Showers!

We had to take a walk in the rain today.  It wasn't that cold, so why not?

 

 

The Girls' Room

We finally finished the Girls' room! 

We painted it red years ago and never really finished things because I never found bedding that I liked nor anything else to match it.  I couldn't repaint it until I figured out what I wanted to do with the whole room.  Well, I got inspired by something in a book, convinced Mike, and we went for it!  We painted, the girls got new bedding for Christmas, a couple pieces from our wonderful IKEA and whala...DONE! 

 

I LOVE it!  Fortunately, so do the girls!

A day out

 

 

Contagious laughs!

My nephew, Roman, is the best!  He is so stinkin' happy ALL the time.  My sister-in-law just shared this video of him.  My brother is such a good Daddy too!  I think I could laugh at this ALL day! Check this out....