When you wish.....

.....Upon a Star....you just might see how cute they are. :-)

Argh!!!!! (With a smile!)

Ellie says, "Look at my wings."

Lots of smiles!!!

I just love to dress up!!!

Seriously....

Ellie makes me smile even if I've caught her without one.

The Aquarium

This weekend we went to Monterey. I love this place and with the aquarium there it's just fantastic. The weather was perfect so the kids didn't notice anything but the wildlife and how fun it was all weekend.

Here Ellie wanted to catch the fish. She was so excited and kept squealing with delight. She loved the fast moving marine-life. The slow ones weren't as exciting unless they were bigger than she was and even then she wanted to move on quickly.


Everyone loved pointing to the fish!

On the beach the first day we saw two beached jelly fish and so when we were at the jelly fish exhibits Daniel loved looking at all the different types and what they look like when they're in the water.

Outside you can view some beautiful scenery, but I have to say this view was my favorite!

Forget the scenery, we like the equipment! :-)

Big Smiles

Today Daniel brought home a large tracing of himself from school. He drew the face and colored the shirt and pants and I thought this was too cute! I had to show you! He's very proud of the "one-six" on his shirt and the paper (drawn by his teacher)! Can you see the resemblance? He even drew his "bluish-green" eyes. The eyes are blue on the edge and green circles in the middle. :-) Even his smile looks like him.

First Day of Preschool

"First day of school. First day of school." (From "Finding Nemo") That's always what I hear in my head when this time of year comes around. This is my favorite picture! This was the last one before we HAD to go! They were playfully hugging each other and I loved getting to share the excitement with them. I hope school can be this exciting every year!

Luke:

Look how happy he looks! Once Luke woke up he was very excited to join Daniel this year in going to school! I'm so happy they can both go at the same time.

This is sooooo Luke. My ever excited little boy! Can't you hear him say "cheeeeeese!"?!!!!

This is at school just before walking into class. You may wonder why my child has a bucket. (No it's not because we didn't have a backpack!) The school thought buckets would be easier to transport their treasures. So far it does seem easier to fit papers without getting bent and they love to carry these. Luke is wearing a frog name-tag just like Daniel did last year. It was fun for Luke to see his name on his own frog name-tag this year.

I really thought Luke might be nervous to go to school since I've had mixed signals all summer, but the first day he walked right in, set his bucket down and saw the cars! It was all over when he saw those and I new that would be my ticket to a good day. I truly prayed for cars, trucks, anything with wheels to be out in the open so he could see them and I new he would be fine. Not only was he fine, but he barely said bye to me and when I said I was leaving he just responded, "OK."

Since I'm the class photographer I went around and took a few pictures, although most everyone had their camera too so I think we'll just combine everyone's pictures and I thought Luke might not do well seeing me again. Oh no!!!! He just waved and smiled and held up a car ramp and yelled, "CARS!" Yes, son, I'm excited too! It really turned out to be a great day and so far I know he played cars and dumped sand into the sandbox. Thankfully I get to volunteer in his class so I can find out more, but he was super happy to be at school!

Daniel:

Daniel really obliged me taking pictures. He tries so hard to do just as I ask even when his sister is wanting to sit on the same rock or even sit on him.

He was up super early as always. He had already eaten, dressed and brushed his teeth almost before Luke even woke up. He's a little Eric and really motivates me.

Daniel wanted to have "something" on his shirt. I had picked out a nice blue shirt, but it didn't have any pattern on it. Ever so sweetly Daniel asked, "Can I have something on my shirt?" He loves the character shirts or just some writing or obviously even a stripe on his shirt. When I showed him this option he was thrilled, "Yah! That's what I talking about!" (Yes, said just like that.) It's in such a sweet way that he asks that I couldn't help being excited because he was so excited about stripes!

With the end of last school year and moving I wasn't sure how a new school would affect him, but he is so excited to meet new friends and already told me, "Mom, you can drop me and Luke off and then come pick us up later, ok?"

So, I guess I wasn't suprised he didn't have a problem leaving. He observes everything and seemed so serious, but I know he's just taking it all in. I did get a sneak peak into his classroom a few minutes later and saw he was playing cars with another little boy. (Those cars are a hit!) It made my heart happy to see him laughing and interacting with the others. I realized that Daniel's not my shy one, Luke is actually. Daniel may be silent at first, but he has no problem telling another little boy, "I like your shirt" or "What's your name?" That was so opposite of me. I needed to know someone first so I'm very proud of him for being so brave!

Both the boys had a wonderful day and I can't believe it's already here. I think I'm going to be saying this a lot for the rest of my life!