This blog...

...is on a:

thanks for understanding.

coronado

On the un-official last day of summer, before school started, the girls and I went down to Coronado and rented a bike to ride around town in.

It seated two, with two sets of pedals, and had a basket in the front where I could stick these two:

Arissa was my pedaling partner and she and I got quite a workout.

Streets that are seeming flat when you're driving in a car can be pretty dang hilly when you're pedaling a rickety bike with two huge kids in a basket in the front.

And you ride in the streets, and obviously the cars yield to you but it was still kind of scary at some points and Arissa and I had to pedal for our lives!

At the end of it, her butt hurt and my legs were sore---- M&M wanted to keep going for the rest of the day. But it was a lot of fun, the weather was PERfect, and the sights and surroundings couldn't be beat.

We had fun pointing out each house we'd like to live in....which was pretty much all of them.

:o)

A not-so-typical event we look forward to each year:

Weinie-dog races. :)

We discovered them a couple of years ago, and it's just the cutest silliest thing so we keep going back.

Being anywhere where dogs are is a fun place for the girls:

This guy was my favorite...dressed as a hot dog:

It was also pretty funny to see the owners at the finish line, trying to get their dogs to run to them and win. It's like watching a parent acting ridiculous to get a baby to laugh. :)

And then the race was on:

Some of the dogs were pros.

Some took their time getting to the finish line.

Some sniffed the people at the sidelines instead.

Some ran the opposite direction.

Some didn't move at all.

No matter what, it was still cute.

Some people (owners) get totally into it:

A highlight of the day was to see all the cute novelty shirts, like these:

So funny.

Last but not least, we couldn't resist a photo with the other celebrity in attendance (besides the dogs themselves):

He is the most wanted hot-dog in America, so they say. :)

More Sunshine

My sun/rain baby mobile was all finished just in the nick of time (in other words: the night before).

I got it all sewed together:

Packaged up:

And wrapped for the sweet mommy & baby-to-be:

I just wish I could have been at the baby shower to see if my friend liked it!

(I left work early to get things ready for "date night 2010".

I call it that cause it doesn't happen very often!

I think the last one was "date night 2004" or something like that.)

my little babysitters

Sometimes I wish I would have waited until 2010 to have my 2nd and 3rd kids (or that I could have 6 more)...

...because Arissa, at 10 years old, would be an awesome babysitter.

All 3 girls are really good with babies.

They are so soft & sweet & loving to them. I tell the girls if they could speak to & treat eachother like they do to those babies, I would really appreciate it. :)

Our cousins came into town for a day last weekend, so we spent some time at Nana's and the girls played mama to baby Kassadi and Big Girl cousin Audrey.

Cute-ness. :)

movie in the park

The only thing better than seeing "The Princess & The Frog" in the theatre......

......is seeing it on a huge blow-up screen

...in the park

...with your BFFs.

The city of Lemon Grove was having a movie-night in the park, and as soon as we saw what movie it was, we hopped right on it!

Nana graciously let us borrow her car so each of the girls could pick a buddy to bring along:

And after running around like crazy people for a few minutes, they settled down, snuggled up, snacked away and waited for the main attraction:

I wanted a pic of all those cute (albeit dirty) little feet cuddled together:

We thouroughly enjoyed the movie, singing & clapping during all our favorite songs.

We also enjoyed the weather.....which was beautiful and such a relief, although none of us planned on it being so COLD.

It had been 90 degrees the rest of the week, and then the day of the movie it was 10-15 degrees cooler, and quite chilly once the sun set.

But our few blankets and the company of good friends kept us plenty warm. :)

first day

I love back-to-school ("la rentrée", en français)!

I love fresh new starts, pristine backpacks, a new cloest of clothes waiting to be worn, clean & orgnazied desks waiting to be sat in and learned from, and BOOKS books books of any kind.

I also love sales on school supplies @ Target.

I've picked up bits & pieces every time I went in.

I literally have about 35 boxes of crayons at this point. :o)

So what grades are my girls in this year?

I had to have them show me cause I couldn't believe it:

Just can NOT believe Arissa is in FIFTH grade. I'm aware that kids, in general, grow up so fast, but it seems like once they're in school it just speeds things up a lot.

The first day of school is pretty much the only day I can get the girls to literally hop out of bed and be in great moods, be eager to get their hair done, and tolerate endless pictures being taken of them.

Speaking of taking pictures, Mariah is so funny....and so used to me and my crazy paprazzi-ness.

I noticed yesterday, as I followed the girls around all day with my camera, that Mariah can be talking to me and in the middle of a story and as soon as she sees me lift the camera to my eye, she stops...... "strikes a pose"....... waits for the click....... then goes right back to her story.

All without me directing her at all. It's pretty funny.

Arissa is on a "blue" kick.

After all the beautiful blue clothes she got for her birthday, she decided to keep it going and make it her theme for the year I guess.

She insisted on a blue backpack, a blue binder, blue nailpolish, blue shoes, blue clothes, and (though you can't see it in the picture above) a blue clip-on hair piece. :)

And this girl, she was prepared for disaster after last year (click for the story). Poor thing. She even asked me as I walked her to her class: "I don't have to get any shots?". I explained that no, shots are not a normal part of the first-day-of-school experience. Only when your mama messes things up and ruins a day you've been waiting 2 years for. Yeah I still feel horrible about that.

But this year everything went smoothly.

Well except for the day before when we went to check the board to see what classes the girls would be in, and Mallory's name was missing from the list.

My mind was a jumble of "not again" and "how did I mess it up this time?" and "how did my girls end up with such a bad mother?" and "son of a !#$&*!"..... and things of that nature. But then we saw it, there was Mallory's name, just out of alphabetical order (which is why we didn't see it at first). Sigh of relief.

So the girls are happy, can't wait for homework, and can't wait to wear the rest of the new clothes hanging in their closet. :)