First Day of School

 Waiting in line. It was a long wait that first day, she got kind of impatient! 

We got the bus pass a few days later. Riding the bus was the thing she was most excited about with the onset of kindergarten. When I picked her up from school on the first day, I got an earful and then some from her sweet little mouth. She thought for sure she belonged in the "bus line" when it was time to go home, not the "pick-up" line, and when her teacher told her to get in the "pick-up" line, she was hopping mad. It will be a funny story for me to remember when she's older. 

"I'm meellltiiiinnng..."

Between my last post and this one, it has been very nice and comfortable weather-wise, luring me to think that fall was on it's way. Ha. Mother Nature is cruel. 108 degrees today, and no A/C. The hottest weather of  our entire time in California, which is just over a year. Yesterday was hot too. What do you do on a super-duper hot Sunday afternoon?

Close all the windows at 10am.
Go to church in a air-conditioned building for 3 hours.
Run every fan you own. (We have 5).

 Eat cold fruit while sitting on Dad.

Dad will shave off his beard and later trim his hair really short to keep his cool. And apparently Evelyn will continue to master the art of making funny faces in pictures.

Eat ice cream cones. Gordon is still trying to figure out what to do with his. He's actually crushing the bottom of the cone in this picture. I had to rescue the poor cone and eat it. What a shame.

Go snuggle with Dad. In the 85 degree upstairs.

We spent 3 hours at a pool today. It's a good plan for tomorrow too. I just need to find a pool to crash.

Hot August....Days

Where I grew up there was a car show titled, "Hot August Nights." But nothing in this post happens at night. So there's my little pun. 

Here's my attempt at recording our last few weeks of summer break. I can't say it was the end of summer, because it's summer for at least 10 months out of the year here. We just can't be as spontaneous about doing stuff now.

Our favorite beach, on a busy day. 

Sand is starting to taste gross to this kid (finally). I think most normal people find the texture a little hard to swallow. 

Going to the surf with my two water babies. 

The 'not a beach' girl. Happily collecting shells within the two foot perimeter around the beach blanket. 

I love, love, love hydrangeas. I bought this one in Trader Joe's because it screamed at me to take it home. I had never seen a hydrangea of this type before. I love the color, and hopefully the love I have for it means it will live for a few months on my front porch. 

Harry Potter.....actually just the doctor kit glasses that Gordon wears to imitate Mom and Dad's sunglasses. 

Our good friends Jared and Emily have parents that live not too far from our homes, and have this awesome pool set-up in the backyard. We also had grilled burgers and garden-fresh tomatoes. Loved the tomatoes so much. Thanks for the invite guys!

On the way back home from the pool excursion. I don't think Harry Potter would approve of this. Maybe he would. 

Ben's birthday was toward the end of August, and for the first time in Ben and I's existence together, we had a planned birthday party. (We've always been driving while vacationing on his birthday for the last 7 years). We had éclair torte and apple pie, and the kids tore apart all the common room sofas in grand fashion. A very appropriate Sunday activity. 

Not pictured: Ben giving surfing a try (fun but he hurt his shoulder), joining a softball league, kids playing in a sprinkler on the lawn (I'm not entirely sure this is legal in our apartment complex, but they didn't say 'no' in the lease, so...), Evelyn starting kindergarten (this will be pictured, eventually), Gordon taking spectacular falls (two chipped teeth, super bruised gums, bitten tongue, etc.), going to swim at more swimming pools (so grateful for nice friends in our no A/C situation), etc. Life is just not slowing down!  

A post in under 30 minutes. Amazing!

"eeeeeeeEEEYAAAAAA!"

We went for a visit to the Orange County Zoo. We liked it, it's a perfect little kid zoo. 

Jillian is obsessed with applying sunscreen. Not a terrible habit to have I guess. We were walking around and she's just casually applying sunscreen.

The ocelot sauntered in front of us, checking us out I guess. 

"I want to eat your stroller...."

A kestral. This was Evelyn's favorite part of the zoo. 

One of the things I love about our area are the AWESOME city parks. This is Evelyn's favorite one, we pass it on the way to Costco and she always wants to stop and play at it.

We all got some fun in on this toy. 

Watch for Jilly's high-pitched, "eeeeeeeEEEYAAAAAA!" in the middle of the video. We think it's hilarious. 

Summer summary

Our summer isn't quite done yet, but I wanted to record a few things for memory's sake:

Girl's favorite movie: The Court Jester

Gordon's favorite: Any movie, so long as he can climb up and stand 3 inches from the TV screen to watch it. He will watch "Elmo's World" from the floor. 

Ben's new hobby, which I completely approve of, is road cycling. He loves it.

We don't have a yard, but I bought a hose and sprinkler for the kids to play in anyway. No one from the apartment complex has shut me down yet. We only get to use the pool across the street on Saturdays. The beaches have been a lot more crowded since school got out in June, and the water has remained cold. So we haven't been out to the ocean as much as I would have liked this summer. 

Looking for missing vital items like wallets cell phones, and keys. Gordon is a master Houdini. I was in the 90 degree laundry room, and on my way out noticed my keys were missing out of my bag. I spent 5 minutes looking for them, and began to assume Gordon had thrown them in the washing machine. On my way out of the room, he opens one of the dryers and there they were. 

Ben didn't work this summer, and that was a welcome break. He needed it after the graduate school marathon he'd been running since fall of 2008. He got to hang out with the kids, play with them, and I got some much-needed time to myself. I feel ready for him to go back to school and work, something I have not been able to say for the past few years. 

Splash Pad

I'm so glad someone invented these. I don't have to worry about my kids drowning. It's a freeing feeling. 

They were kind of hesitant at first, but quickly got into it. 

And they got very wet in the end, which translates to cold. It's been so cool here all summer, which I'm in no hurry to see heat up. This California weather spoils me rotten. 

The kids have all been measured in the last week. Jilly came in at 31 lbs, outweighing Gordon by only 6. She's 39" tall, Gordon's 32". Those two will be nearly the same size in a year. Jilly only has 1.5 shoe sizes on him. Evelyn is nearly square in her sizing, 45" tall and 44 lbs. The doctor said she is going to be quite the tall kindergartener. Only a little less than a month before school! 

Beach

This kid likes sand.

Too much sand for my taste.

At least he has a well-exfoliated digestive system. 

Jillian after her panic attack. (No joke). This was a high surf day, and the waves came within 8 feet of our blanket. She LOST it. After dragging the blanket behind the lifeguard tower, and putting the umbrella between her and the ocean, she regained composure and collected miniature sea shells the rest of the time. I think this is a sunflower seed she is holding in the picture though...