"Ballerina Class"

Kasey has been asking for months to take ballet classes - or as she says it "Ballerina class." I finally found one that worked with our schedule and a couple of weeks ago she took her very first class.

She is in love.

In love with her little pink rehearsal dress. In love with her minuscule pink ballet slippers. In love with her teacher Miss Sara. In love with the studio, and the ballet bar and the mirrors. In love with the whole thing.

And we are in love with how absolutely, heartbreakingly adorable it is to watch her...

The Fisherman & The Mermaid/Surfer Girl

We took the kids camping in Kings Canyon last week. The Kings River gave both kids the opportunity for some fun and great memories.

Owen is turning out to be quite the little fisherman....

Kasey just loves water in any form...

Teenage Drama....

Kasey is 2 going on 12.



Last week was Vacation Bible School at church. Owen was finally old enough this year to officially participate, but Kasey is still too young so she comes to the opening and closing times and spends the time in between with a couple of her favorite teenage babysitters in the church nursery. Kasey loves Amber and Briana. Kasey wants to be Amber and Briana. Kasey thinks Amber and Briana are her bffs.



On the last day of VBS, many of the teenagers involved were planning to hit the beach after we wrapped up the program for the day. At some point during the day, Kasey became aware of this plan and decided that she was going to the beach as well. When I found her at the end of the morning, she ran up to me and the conversation went something like this...



K: I'm going to the beach with Amber and Briana!
D: Not today, sweetie. We need to go home to bake cookies for the party tonight and then it is going to be nap time

Approximately 5 seconds of silence passed, during which the smile on Kasey's face was replaced with a look of disbelief, followed quickly by a pouting lip which melted into full blown drama-queen hysteria.

K: I AM GOING TO THE BEACH!!!!
D: Not today. Maybe next week.
K: YES TODAY!!!

And at this point she ran off crying, straight to Amber and wanted nothing to do with me for about 10 minutes.

When she did come looking for me again, it was only because she was hungry. Amber did not have her lunch. Briana did not have her lunch. Mommy had her lunch.

Even a pint-sized drama queen needs her mommy sometimes!

And it will go really fast too...

Owen wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. But Owen being Owen - just being a regular firefighter won't be good enough. He is going to invent and build the first ever, fire-motorcycle!

The obvious benefit being that he will be able to travel faster than the firetrucks, thereby getting to the scene of a fire to "put the wet stuff on the hot stuff" quicker than ever before possible. The hoses will attach to the bottom of the bike (because clearly there is not room anyplace else!) and there will be 2 sets of flashing lights and sirens....one set on top for people to see and hear and another set on the bottom for ants and snails to see and hear.

Ants and snails? Yes, you read that correctly. He apparently does not want to run over and squash any ants or snails when he is zooming off to fight fires on his fire-motorcycle...

I am Belle...

...or so says Kasey, otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty. Do not be alarmed if you hear us addressing each other by our Princess names....it goes on for hours at a time some days!

And just so we are not the only ones involved in the game, Kasey has christened other family members as well - Brian is Cinderella, Owen is the Prince, and Poppa is the King. There are two Queens - Grammy and Chloe the Cat.

Don't forget you are amongst royalty the next time you are at 17206 Patronella Avenue!

Sail Away...

Brian had to attend a couple days worth of training in San Diego last week, so the kids and I decided to tag along, take advantage of the company paying our hotel bill, get another use out of the Sea World passes, etc. A mini vacation.

On the last morning of the trip we decided we would like to rent a sailboat and take the kids out for their first experience sailing. Where better than beautiful Mission Bay on a sunny Saturday morning?

I wish I had a cute picture of the the kids in the boat to insert right here - but since we did not really know what to expect, I thought it was safer to leave the camera in the dry truck! Turns out, I would have been able to get tons of great pictures because they both did great. Oh well - next time.

For me, the really amazing part of the story is this - the boat ride brought out the most diametrically opposed qualities of the kids' personalities.

Kasey - little miss uninhibited - sang songs, hung as far over the edge as we would allow, pretended to be a pirate and attempted to hold conversations with people on other boats. Our extrovert in her full glory!

Owen - whose middle name should be Control-freak - sat very still in a corner unless we asked him to move, laughed nervously as he proclaimed "this is fun!", and over the course of the first 20 minutes or so became increasingly (and noticeably!) more nervous. When Brian asked if Owen wanted to help him run the tiller, Owen relaxed a tiny bit - after all he finally had some sense of control over something in the little boat! - but I swear I heard him breathe a sigh of relief when we told him we were going to be heading back to the dock!

When we were back on shore, I asked both kids if they had enjoyed themselves. The answer from both was a resounding YES! I promise pictures next time :-)

To the Mountaintop

We spent this past weekend at the Lazy W Ranch outside of San Juan Capistrano for church camp...a weekend planned to be unplugged, spending time as a family with our extended church family. This was the first year we were able to make the trip, and other than a few minor bumps (mostly involving lack of sleep for both the kids and myself!) we had an amazing weekend and are already looking forward to next year!

We did all the typical camp type things - involving lots of dirt, playing in the creek, some more dirt, admiring nature, more dirt, a fantastic campfire and lots more dirt. The highlight for me, however, was watching in absolute awe as Owen conquered a 2-mile round trip hike up (and then back down) the hill behind the camp. This is by no means an easy hike. A couple of adults turned back half way - but Owen powered through and made it all the way to the top on his own 2 legs.

This is him RUNNING as we started out - the idea of the hike was somehow very exciting to him!

He is about half way up the hill in these next 2 pictures and still going strong - hadn't really even stopped to rest at this point.

This is the view at the top, of the crosses on the side of the hill...

...the view looking back down into the camp...

...and this is a now tired Owen realizing we also have to go all the way back down and that nobody is willing to carry him.

He did manage to get a piggy back part way down from Brian and part way down from one of the teenagers who was with us...but who could blame him, my legs were tired so I can only imagine how his felt!

When I asked him at the conclusion of the weekend what his favorite part had been, he said without hesitation "hiking up the mountain!!" - so clearly as proud of himself as we are of him.

As a PS to the story - Kasey made it all the way up and back down as well. Most of the way up she was on Brian's shoulders and then in his arms as she fell asleep for the final 1/4 mile or so...

...and on the way back down she was carried by an assortment of people including Miss Pat, Brian and a couple of the teenage girls!