he said

tonight we celebrated carter's birthday with dinner at chili's (her choice, obviously). josh started talking about what we were doing 6 years ago at that moment.
miller: where was i if i wasn't in your belly?
josh: you were a distant thought.
me: we didn't know about you yet.
miller: i was in the sky with God.
josh: yes, and he sent you to us a little later.
miller: did he send me in the mail??

i love . . .

to hear her read to her sister. it makes my heart so happy!

last day of summer

determined to have a very full and fun last day of summer, we headed to the sprinkler park after naps.

it was someone's very first time  . . .

 and, of course, she had to have the perfect shoes for the occasion.

 she was a bit hesitant at first, but then she jumped right in!

and, so did her sister!

goodbye summer, we will miss you! but, i think we will appreciate you a lot more next year ;)

it's hot!

heat will make you do funny things. 

 since we moved, it has been hot. so hot. and humid. with no rain. in fact, it is really miserable.

but our days as a family of preschoolers is limited. carter had her first day of kindergarten on tuesday. next week, it's five days a week.

 so, in an attempt to max out our time and show josh all the things we did when he worked in an office, we decided to go to my big backyard.

 today day it was 100 degrees outside. 100 degrees. it was hot. and the heat . . .

 can make you forget about the ones you love the most.

 can make you bite off more than you can chew.

 can make you so tired you want to fall asleep sitting up.

 can make you sit in a pool of hot water and forget who or what may have before.

 can make you befriend even the most unlikely of friends.

while we will miss the carefree days of summer, we will not miss the heat. 

it's official!

i always knew this day would come. i always knew i would be emotional. and, i always knew she would be excited!

 the week before her first day, i cried every time i thought about it. it is such a change. such an adjustment.

 she has to go 5 days a week. FIVE days. she has to be there at 8 o'clock. in the MORNING. this is a shock to most of our family. carter gets up at 6:30 a.m. the rest of us get up . . . after her.

 it is this frequency and promptness that caused the tears. not because i will miss my sleep (that would be josh most of the time!), but because this means my child will be with someone else more of her day than she is with me.

 this same little girl who has been by my side and under my care from the moment she was born will be at school for 7 hours a day.

and this will make our day look a little bit different.

we will miss her during our day, but we know she is having so much fun!

a night at the park

one of the benefits of our new home is that it is walking distance to the parks that also act as the playground to carter's new school. so, in an attempt to help carter feel comfortable on her first day of school, help miller feel like he is a part of her new experience and spend lots of family time together before the big day, we headed to the park the night before the first day of school.

one of the things we miss about our old house are the swings we had in the back yard. everyone (including me!) loves to swing.  

 we spent a lot of time in the preschool area of the park. i think we may exceed the weight limit of this little guy!

i'm pretty sure that is true again here! but leave it to their daddy to show them how not to play at the park.

someone decided they needed a drink to cool off from the ridiculous august heat . . .

or a bath. oops! nothing says its time to go like a bottle of crystal crack in your diaper. you could hear her shoes squoosh all the way home!

registration day

today we attended our first school registration day. my mom came over to watch the younger two while josh and i took carter. we had all the necessary paperwork proving birth date and residence, but when we arrived, we were handed a stack of papers to fill out. 

 

i felt like i was buying another house i signed my name so many times.

 even carter had to sign her name . . . on the internet student user agreement. who knew?

once we were finished with the paperwork, we headed to the cafeteria to pickup her supplies. 

 it was super convenient to just walk up and purchase the kindergarten box that was filled with the exact supplies the teachers has requested including a chair bag (i think it needs a little something-what do you think?) and her choice of nap mat. her choice was barbie. of course, it was. 

the first day is approaching fast. let the emotional roller coaster begin.

a change is gonna come

and, just like the song says, it has been a long time comin'.

when we found out we were expecting carter and the doctor gave us the baby's due date, we knew then that we had a little less than six years before we would have a child in kindergarten. 

when we bought our first house within the city limits, we knew when we had children, we would have to make a choice or two: public or private, city or county. and with those decisions would possibly come another move to a different neighborhood to attend that school.

when josh started a new hobby that soon became a passion and later a business, we knew we would have to make some choices-a day job or one job, a home office or a store front.

so, unlike most people, we made all these decisions and changes together. why? honestly, because we are two of the worst procrastinators ever. seriously. and, so, in one single week-we closed on our houses, carter had her last day of preschool, i taught my last day in the classroom (for now), we moved out of our house, and josh quit his day job. that means we have all been home together this summer. no routine. no normalcy. just lots and lots of change.

but, change is good. so good because josh is home now. because we are in a much bigger space we were desperately in need of. because carter started kindergarten today at a school that we feel is the best fit for us. because i will still be at the preschool, but as the director of my age group. and, because routine is on its way and our new normal is about to begin. 

a summertime favorite

i have vivid memories of childhood . . . most of which involve food. one of my favorite summer traditions was going to sno cream castle. it was a tiny little stand with two serving windows and a row of four picnic tables to the side. it had a hand painted list of all their treats from corn dogs to hand dipped ice cream cones. my favorite treat was the rainbow sno cone. we visited the sno cream castle every summer no matter how much the surroundings changed. during college, i stopped there after summer school one day and told josh i wanted them to cater our wedding . . . nothing says forever like footlong corn dogs and sno cones, right?

eventually, the sno cream castle closed its windows forever. occasionally, i drive by its faded sign and remember childhood summers standing in long lines waiting for my yummy sno cone to help quelch the heat of the south.

then, a few years ago, someone introduced us to another local sno cone shop. nestled in a neighborhood that has seen better days, people come from all over the city to stand in long lines to order their favorite flavors from pickle juice to shrek.

so, now, on hot summer nights (and some days), we pile into the car, head down to jerry's, select our favorite flavor and pile into the back of the car to enjoy our tasty treat.

sometimes, we even get to share with friends. 

i love that i now get to share this tradition with my own children. while the location may be different, the affection is still the same. there is nothing better than a yummy sno cone on a hot summer day.

if you are local and want to know our favorites, miller loves blueberry, carter loves to try new things, josh loves blackberry supreme and i love wedding cake, but every once and a while i have to go with rainbow.

a detour

why ikea? well, because it is moderately priced, had several pieces that fit our style, and is located in the same city as josh's family! so, not only did we buy some great pieces, we got to visit his parents and brother. 

as some of you know, josh's little hobby that became a business was also a hobby for his father and grandfather. because josh has also been shooting some film, his father gave him an older camera that belonged to his grandfather. they found a couple of rolls of film laying around and, suddenly, josh had some entertainment for the week.

josh's brother was able to come stay with us one night. the next morning, he dug through the basement and came up with a huge plastic bin of legos.

he and miller created for hours. and, miller even got to bring home a few pieces.

meanwhile, carter was busy doing some needle point with grammie. she sewed her name onto the canvas all by herself. grammie helped thread the needle with each color and gave some helpful instruction.

later that night on our way to eat yummy mexican, i convinced josh to drag our sweaty kids into a field covered in white wild flowers. never mind the fact that he had to strategically avoid the grave yard located in the background.

while our brave little boy trudged out into the field without hesitation, the girls were a hard sell. after a few minutes, we decided they had done their time in the tall grass and headed to dinner.

i know they will one day be annoyed by the clark griswold-like abandon we use when selecting our next destination. i am sure it will embarrass them when we make a quick stop, drag everyone out of the car and dash across busy streets to have a few pictures taken. but, i hope one day, they remember these crazy ventures fondly inspiring them to create their own detours. look kids. big ben. parliament.

back to reality

we returned from la to boxes and painting and cleaning and reality. josh had to work out the last four days of his day job including one out of town and shoot a wedding. carter was in the midst of kindergarten camp and the rest of us just waited. on the first day we could, we finally moved into the new house. or at least we put beds in all the rooms so everyone could sleep there. josh set up his office. and we took the big kids to vbs. then, we started to unload the boxes. so many boxes.

and, then we realized we were missing some furniture. miller didn't have a dresser . . . because it was built into the closet at the old house. i didn't have a craft cabinet . . . . because it was the built-in from the playroom at the old house. we were in need of some things. so, we decided to take a little road trip  . . . .

to ikea! because we planned on buying several things and the beast (our expedition) is pretty maxed out just from shear numbers, we decided to rent a u-haul once we arrived. 

we had heard about ikea's play place. because we had so much shopping to do, we thought we would try 

it. so, we dropped the big kids off and were given a pager and 45 minutes of shopping time sans 2 walking kids. (in case you don't know, 45 minutes of shopping time with only one kid who will sit in a cart is equivalent to 3 days of shopping with 2 additional children who walk alongside the cart wandering off because they saw something shiny or begging for every little trinket they absolutely neeeed.) so with our trusty ikea pencil and list in hand we raced off to make the best of our time.

we managed to walk through the vignettes and the showroom documenting all our furniture needs before our 45 minutes were up. we also met up with josh's parents and grabbed another cart for the little stuff because their carts are tiny.

we spent hours (literally) wandering around ikea buying picture frames and cheese graters and cinnamon rolls. and, when looking though bin after bin lost its excitement, carter and miller found their own way to entertain themselves . . . and others passing by. while it wasn't as fun as the rock wall, ball pit, movie theater or art center in the play place, they seemed to be just as happy.

eventually our time at ikea came to a close, but not before we had taken advantage of their amazing prices and their incredibly kid friendly environment. in fact, if i hadn't carried her out kicking and screaming, my little ocd handwashing baby would still be right here . . .

we miss you, ikea! and your swedish meatballs, cinnamon rolls, tiny sinks, free diapers, paper measuring strips, free play place and all your other family friendliness. other stores should stop and take notice. we would tell them, but we are too busy putting together all this . . .

but, we will see you next time . . .  the kids can't wait to come back and play!

. . . that's where i wanna be

since josh and i began having babies, we have only been away from them a few times and it was usually to bring home a sibling. but, two years ago, josh surprised me with a trip to los angeles. due to his strict vacation schedule with his previous job, we left after work on friday and returned sunday evening. since then, we have always wanted to go back and stay a little longer. when some friends were leaving for a cruise from los angeles, we decided to fly over and see a little more of the city.

i think there are two types of travelers-people who like to vacation like a sight seer and people who like to vacation like a local. josh and i are typically the latter. and, we LOVE to eat. so, lots of our vacation revolves around food. by the time our friends landed, we had already planned the day.

we started here.

then, we headed here because we couldn't wait . . .

for this . . . rows and rows of beautiful fabrics. it was total eye candy. we (um, the girls) just wandered in awe trying to selectively choose what we could pack and carry home.

it was a hard decision.

at first, at least one boy, was entertained by taking pictures, but then we were told that was not allowed. huh. so, they waited patiently. patiently, knowing that once we were done, we would finish our day at the farmers market. and, enjoy this . . .

oh.my.goodness.
so yummy.
followed by mango yogurt with fresh fruit from pinkberry.
more goodness.

and, that was day one.

now, you are probably expecting day two, but we apparently didn't take very many more pictures so that might be a little difficult. so, it went a little like this:

yummy brunch at john o'groats
a little ferris wheel at the santa monica pier
some random wandering at the promenade
a little visit with a friend of our friends
followed by a swanky dinner at firefly
until 1 am
uh, that was 3 am our time
we were so tired
because we have 5 children between the two couples
and we are usually only up at 3 am
when someone is sad or sick

but, that is okay because we could sleep in and it was still only 9 am
that is why i love la

so, on day 3
we hit wahoo's fish taco
dropped our friends at the boat
shopped ikea
shot an engagement shoot
dropped the film
and ended the day where we began on day one.

because on day 4
we returned to reality.
and, this is reality . . .