Is there Anthing more fun than CrAzY Hat Day?

What kind of mother AM I ?

Today when I picked up Ellie from preschool, her teacher handed me a thick packet of papers. It was Ellie's "kindergarten readiness" evaluation. Everything was checked in the "Yes" column and the teacher commented at the bottom, " Ellie is completely ready for kindergarten. She will do wonderfully next year."
I have to admit, I actually felt proud. She "passed" with flying colors! All the things I have been teaching her...being kind, sharing with others, taking turns, being respectful of her friends and adults, talking sweetly to people...are actually sinking into her. I might actually be getting good at this "mothering" thing. Well, I continued on through the stack of evaluations... I shouldn't have. My bubble got burst.
One of the pages was a written conversation between the teacher and Ellie to see how perceptive she is of her world. The conversation goes like this....

Teacher: When is your birthday?
Ellie: I don't know.
Teacher: What did you do on your last birthday?
Ellie: I had a clown.
Teacher: What does your dad do?
Ellie: He puts braces on teeth.
Teacher: What does your mommy do?
Ellie: She goes shopping!

What??? After everything I do and am, that's how she sees me?! I was heartbroken!

I actually had to ask her myself to see if this atrocity was true!
So I turned to her and said,"Ellie, what do you think I do all day?"
She looks at me like I'm totally boring, rolls her eyes, and says, "You go shopping."
Oh my gosh, it is true! So I probe further, "What do I buy?"
"Vegetables."
And least she didn't say "Shoes!"

Look who's crawling!

Last time I took Jake for a check up, the doctor asked if he was sitting up on his own or crawling. My answer.... Are you kidding me!? If the poor kid is not strapped in the car seat driving his siblings to some form of entertainment, he is being held by his siblings getting entertained himself. The last couple months we've made a family goal to give Jake some tummy time, and it worked! At eight months old, he is officially sitting up and has started army scooting himself around the house. Yea for Jake!

Two Wheeler

Marc tried a new tecnique to teach Ellie to ride a two wheeler. A couple months ago, he took the pedals off her bike, so she has been scooting around Fred Flinstone style for a while now. Last week he put the pedals back on, gave her a little shove, and off she went! So easy! Too bad we didn't know this trick a few kids ago!

Ellie loves Miss Rachel

Our girls have been doing a dance class with our amazing friend and dance teacher extraordinaire, Miss Rachel, at their preschool for many years now. They do recitals twice a year, and the dances they do are always so adorable, but I think this recital was my favorite ever.

Ellie and Miss Rachel

Ellie doing the Lion King Dance

" You are so beautiful to me...."

Marc has been wanting a new motorcycle for a LONG time now. Any of you who know Marc well, know that he take a VERY long time to make decisions. He has been thinking, studying, trying out, contemplating, thinking some more, studying some more about which motorcycle he wanted for at least two years now. He finally decided and purchase one a couple weeks ago. Being the extremely frugal and practical guy that he is, instead of buying the motorcycle all put together, he bought a kit for $2,ooo cheaper and put it together himself. He is in love with it. A couple days ago, I caught him in the garage serenading his bike with "You are so beautiful to me...." Yikes! I have some real competition!

Dream Car

Our cute little neighbor friend, Jacob, owns his very own battery-operated red Mustang. Whenever, my kids are out riding their bikes and scooters, Jacob drives over in his set of wheels to join the fun. After about 2 minutes, Malia and Ellie have completely commandeered the car and Jacob is left standing in the dust. We decided for the sake of the neighborhood children that we had better get the girls their own car.

Ellie's signature move is peeling out in the driveway.


Every little girls dream! A Hot Pink Mustang!

Sledding in the mud...oh, I mean snow!

We thought it would be fun to go sledding for a couple hours on MLK day. It's been so hot lately in California that mostly we sledded in mud.

With Tate, life is always a scream.

Yes, this is my SON dressed in pink snow clothes. Marc was mortified.

I found a blue one on clearance today.

Tate is such a fun-loving kid. Half the stuff he does scares the be-ge-bees out of me though. I'm glad he is part of my life.

Gymnastics

Malia and Ellie love doing gymnastics. They had a "Fun Meet" a couple weeks ago. They are so cute. I love them! You can't tell from this video because she was super nervous, but Malia is a natural little gymnast. After only having done gymnastics for a few months, she has moved up three levels and last week she was invited to be on the competitive little girls team called the Dynamites.

The Discovery Science Center

We had a LONG, wonderful, three week Christmas break. We had so much fun, and I ran my kids ragged. The Wednesday night before we went back to school, Tate begged Marc, "Please, Dad, can I go to work with you tomorrow. If I have to go to Disneyland one more day, I might die!" Crazy kid! We spent one day at the science center in Santa Ana. So fun! They have a Dinosaur Treasure Hunt game there. They gave the kids this laser wand thing which they had to use to find different dinosaur parts and bones hidden throughout the play area. There were six treasure hunts they could do, and after they conquered each hunt the got a wooden token. We paid $5 for the WHOLE day, and they literally hunted until the museum closed. We were the last ones out of there!