m milestones

Two big milestones for m this month:

Her very first time at the movie theater:

My company sponsored a family night at the movies again this year so we brought both girls. Other than not being heavy enough to hold down the folding seats, m did remarkably well!

Her very own big girl bed:

She's been showing more and more signs of climbing out of the bed in crib form, so we went head and swapped out the front panel. She loves it, but doesn't actually stay in it all that well (as I type this she's sleeping on the floor - oh well). And it also didn't stay her own all that long :o)

Soccer star

So c wrapped up soccer a couple of weeks ago. All and all, she loved it. It's amazing how much better she is at following group directions. Still not good mind you, but significantly better :o)

Just like with basketball m desperately wanted to play too

And also fun, at the end of the last session they had the kids take a pictures with the parents and families as a thank you to the parents for letting them play. It was pretty cute.

Also a fun note - I had run a 5K trail race the morning of this session

so by the time we got home c had the best of both worlds :o)

much belated anniversary post

yeah I've been bad about posting this month - sorry crew. But back in the beginning on the month Alex and I had our anniversary! Norm and Jean were kind enough to watch the kids so we could get out just the two of us. During the afternoon we decided to pack a bottle of bubbly and head off on a hike. At the crest of the trail there was a stone bench perfect for taking in the views...

...and popping open the wine.

 I'm not sure what my favorite part about it was, but watching the mountain bikers being SUPER jealous as the rode past was definitely a highlight. 7 years - crazy!

Deep breath reset

You ever have one of those Mondays? One of those Mondays where after spending WAY too much time over the weekend cleaning up both kid and dog puke you're subjected to a day full of useless meetings, including one where you learn your boss has made what you consider to be a boneheaded decision that's going to negatively impact your program?

Yeah I had one of those Mondays today. Luckily, Alex in a move worthy of a spouse of the year award kicked me and max out of the house before the girls bedtime and told me to take a hike. So max and I drove for about 2 miles and found this:

And it was a beautiful hike. Challenging enough to be interesting with out being obviously challenging. Every turn there were wildflowers peaking out from behind the sage brush, and aside from a couple of very friendly mountain bikers we had the place to ourselves. The perfect place to take a breath, reset, and realize things aren't so bad after all :o)

Saturday adventures

Saturday morning it was pretty clear pretty early on that it was too nice of a day to stay inside...

Luckily, the ski resorts opened this weekend for summer activities! We decided to try out deer valley first, since that's where we spent a lot of last summer. Alex laced up his trail shoes and took off on a run, and me and the girls tried out a hike:

M did amazingly well. She did fall a few times, but bounced up ever time and kept up with C pretty well. After the hike we had time for some goldfish and wrestling before Alex made it back from him run.  I love summer.

The beginning of it all

So a while I've been saying that c would make an awesome lacrosse player. Not exactly sure why it's stuck since having never really played lacrosse myself I don't really know what it takes to be an awesome lacrosse player, but none the less I bought a pair of kid sticks for us to mess around with.

We unwrapped them, walked outside, and Alex shot this video:

Very first time the kid's ever held a stick and she's throwing and coming awfully close to catching, and these sticks don't have much of a pocket!


Somehow I have a feeling there will be many more a lacrosse video on the blog in years to come...

m reads some more

Aunt Caroline sent a couple of just because cards this week. Both girls loved them, and m decided to read hers out loud for us :o)

M's big day - video format

I think it's going to be a "toss a couple of videos on the blog and call it a win" kind of week. Here's the first one, courtsey of Norm (thanks Norm!)

M's birthday cake:

Base 10

I'm sure other parent can relate to those moments when you are just SO proud of your kid. Tonight after dinner was one of those times.

C has started to get really into addition, as long as we're adding things that are small enough that she can count it out using fingers. However at dinner tonight she kept asking about 100 plus 1000, and we didn't have enough fingers to count that one out. So after dinner we broke out the pen and paper:

Nothing like a little introduction to base 10 for after dinner conversation... The whole multiple digit thing didn't totally stick, but she did really like the idea of writing down and adding up numbers.

I may not be able to teach her how to spell, but this number stuff I can do :o)