Time has flown!

My tiny little Rebecca had her first day of preschool today! How is she old enough for this already?! It felt so weird taking her to school this morning and helping her get her backpack on and everything - part of that was due to the fact that Becca's going to the same preschool that Emma went to 2 years back, so it feels strange to already be doing this over again with my Becca. But it's exciting! And Becca couldn't be more ready - I remember thinking Emma loved homework at this age... but not as much as Becca! She was so excited to have a little drawing project to do when she got home and was thrilled to have her very own preschool folder to keep in her backpack. She's so cute. And do you notice what a funny little thing she is when I take pictures of her? She loves the head tilt thing...



And in case you didn't already realize - I still have the cutieemma.blogspot.com address active for your google readers. Keep that address in your readers and it will keep you updated when there is a new post here on my private blog... it's like having an all access pass to an elite club! :)

Practically a teenager

Emma had her first day of Kindergarten today! It went so well and I'm so proud of my cute Emma. The evening before she requested cinnamon pancakes and orange juice as her first day of school breakfast - so I woke up early this morning, got ready and then made our pancake breakfast. Emma was too busy getting seconds on syrup to smile for the pic...



Once Emma was ready for the day, we took the traditional first day of school pic. Isn't she such a cute girl? In case you can't tell, her favorite color is purple.



Then we headed to the bus stop! The bus came early, so good thing we were there early, 'cause the bus driver definitely didn't wait! I helped her onto the bus and gave her a big kiss... then as any possibly over-concerned mom would do on the first day of her oldest going to Kindergarten, I hopped in the van and followed her bus to the school...



I HAD to make sure that their system of collecting kindergarten kids off the bus and getting them to their classrooms was sufficient to my standards - you know?! 'Cause if it wasn't I would be more than willing to drive her to school each day. But thankfully, they were really good and a teacher came right onto the bus when they arrived at the drop off curb and gathered all the kindergartner's. They do this the whole year for the kinder students, and Emma is really excited about riding the bus each day, so I'm excited too! After Emma got off the bus at the school, I hopped out of the car and gave her one more kiss and then headed home. :)

Emma is so happy to have two of her Primary friends in her class this year. Donna was at the school this morning and took pics of her daughter Sarah along with Emma and Ty. Aren't they such a cute bunch? She sent me some great pics...











Emma is doing half-day AM kindergarten, so at lunch time, the kids and I waited at the bus stop for Emma to arrive. I was so relieved and happy when her bus pulled up and Emma excitedly hopped down the steps to give me a hug! I can't believe my sweet Emma is so grown up and riding a bus to and from school. She was so excited to tell me about her day and tell me that she thinks her teacher is "really nice". I'm pretty happy. Hopefully this trend will continue throughout the school year. :) When we got home we had lunch and a little after-school treat. Now this is going to seem weird... but I asked Emma earlier what she'd like for an after-school treat and she tells me, "chocolate pudding with sprinkles and a candle!". What?!! I was like, "do you mean a chocolate cupcake with sprinkles?" ... and she was quick to correct me and tell me that she really wants chocolate pudding with sprinkles. I asked why a candle and she said, "just 'cause I like 'em!". So, there you go and that is exactly what we had. What can I say, but on the first day of school, I aim to please. :)



Who likes pudding? "I do!!"



And speaking of Jake... he's making some exciting growing up milestones too! Over the weekend we put away the crib and moved him to a toddler bed! We did the switch a few weeks earlier than I thought we would, because when we were back to school shopping at Target, we happened upon the perfect retro space themed toddler bedding set. That's been the one thing we've really needed to get before the bed would be ready - seeing as Jake is the first boy, all we had previously was pink and flower bedding. We are SLOWLY trying to decorate Jake's room in a retro space theme, so this hit the mark!



That night we made up his bed, took down the crib, and wallah! Jake in a bed! So cute.



The reality is that he was MAD the first night - he was obviously so very confused as to why we would just leave him in something that he could just hop right out of! He cried for 30 minutes or so at the door and then fell asleep on the floor. It made me feel sad, but we moved him to his bed and then checked on him later - he's so tiny and handsome on his big boy pillow....



Apparently the one night of letting him cry was all he needed to adjust... the past two nights have gone GREAT! No crying at all... and the bigger surprise is that naps have gone great too! I thought that this might end naps (which I definitely don't want), but yesterday and today he took good naps without a fuss. Ben's been trying to convince me for weeks that Jake's more than ready to be in a bed, because he really loves to sleep (which is unique I think). In the end he seems to genuinely enjoy his bed and the independence it gives him... he even hops in it during playtime and looks at books and snuggles his blankets - it's probably the cutest thing ever. :)

The time has come...

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen - After almost 5 years of blogging, I've decided to say NO to strangers looking at my blog. I tend to be rather detailed about our personal life on here, so I'll feel better when I finally make the switch. If you would like to continue viewing and reading, please leave your email in my comments - or email me at susandangerfield@gmail.com. I have MANY of your email addresses already, so you may end up getting a blog invite, whether you want one or not. :) I'm going to try to follow in a couple of my friends footsteps and use this site as a 'pre-blog' that you can continue to keep in your google readers so that you can still know when new posts are up on the private blog.

Can you believe that when I first started blogging, Emma looked like this...


And tomorrow she heads off to Kindergarten. Sigh.

well, summer... see ya' later!

The kids are officially driving me batty.... thank goodness school starts on Monday. Yippee!! So I guess the following is the last of the summer entertainment...

I'm still always on the lookout for fun, easy indoor fun to stay out of the heat and keep kids happy. I found this awesome website- Made by Joel. I really LOVE it! It's a little different because instead of it being a "mommy" made crafty blog, it's done by a daddy instead! 3 cheers for daddies! :) Dad's always have a different way of looking at the world, and that includes their take on entertaining kids. This guy has some really fun kid projects to create as well as lots of free printables - I like the printables on his site because they are all black and white... and since I'm a cheapskate, I avoid color printing whenever possible. I recommend checking out this, this, this, and this. :) Here's the kids enjoying one of the coloring pages...

Although the kids are in Sunday dresses, it was not a Sunday... they have the crazy habit of ALWAYS changing their clothes during quiet time... so they are usually wearing something different the 2nd half of the day... and sometimes they look crazy... I assume (and hope) other mom's have this issue in their home too?

So who's tired of seeing pics of my kids at splash parks?! :) Sorry, but that's pretty much all we do lately. We met up with friends earlier this week and played... they kept themselves busy out there for almost 2 hours! So fun. Thank goodness for sunblock!



We went to Desert Ridge today to do a bit of back to school shopping... Thanks to Target and Old Navy, Emma and Becca each got a new outfit for the first day of school, and Becca got her very first backback... and it's huge on her! and oh so cute! :) After shopping we had some lunch at Panda and then the kids played in the fountains there - we liked this one quite a bit because it was well shaded with plenty of seating for the mommies and daddies who aren't getting wet. :)



This pic captures some the kids personalities quite well... Emma is acting like a goof, and Jake is trying to eat the water

I like this one 'cause you can see Jake's big belly :)



My cute goobers

Good bye Summer 2010! It's been a good one!

Bring on Fall already!

Wow - it's August! Anyone getting in the mood for Fall like me? I'm anxious for Halloween! I remember last year I wasn't really in the Halloween mood until it was practically upon me, but this year, I'm antsy for pumpkins and costumes... I've got a long time to wait. But in the meantime, my mom-in-law and sis-in-law's (Emily and Lacy) are already busy working on Halloween banners... much like our fabric paneled Thanksgiving banners, but with orange, black, and ghosts and bats - ya, we're on top of things, but really we've been talking about making them for years, so maybe we're 3 years behind, instead of 3 years ahead. :) We got together a couple times this week to pool our supplies, cut fabric, do a lot of pinning, and sew, sew, sew... and when I say sew, I mean watch Carol sew. ;) After working on our project on Saturday, Grandma watched all the kids while Ben and I went to see Inception with the Lee's and Ben's dad. OH, I LOVED it! Definitely the most interesting and entertaining movie I've seen in a long long time. And I heart Leonardo... yes, yes I do. When we got back from the movie, Ben's mom had all the kids fast asleep in her bed. It was cute...



Earlier this week, I took the kids to Bellair playgroup (our home away from home)... we met up at the Westgate splash pad... it was HOT. I was all sweaty... but the kids stayed cool - us mom's were starting to think we should have worn swimsuits too!



Uh, ya... Jake likes his snacks...









Jake chillin' with the ladies

Tonight we had Peter and Lacy over for dinner, dessert, and a little Beatles Rock Band...



Don't you just love how into the singing Peter is - he's a Beatles music expert, so this game struck his fancy :)

I have to put in a plug for the dessert that Ben made tonight... he's been way into making ice cream lately... in the past few weeks, he's successfully mastered the following delectable ice cream flavors: vanilla, lime, chocolate jalapeno (no joke... and it's awesome!), salted caramel, and pineapple. Oh YUM! I think Ben's culinary creativity is astounding! :) So, tonight, we had pineapple ice cream (very much reminded me of Disneyland and the amazing pineapple ice cream you can get outside the Tiki Room there)... he served the ice cream over salted grilled bananas... c'mon! Heaven in a bowl... it doesn't get any better than that.

A reprieve from the heat

Yippee!! The high today was only 87!! Seriously awesome. All the lovely rain cooled us down. Not without a touch of humidity however... as we were out and about today I could literally feel my hair frizzing up. :/ This morning we decided to go to our favorite Anthem Outlets, as I had a beloved Ann Taylor gift card to use from my lovely in-law's for my birthday. After shopping, we headed over to the "big park" as we call it and let the kids run free. This was seriously such a novelty to get to play at a park in the middle of the day in the summer - it's usually much much too hot to even consider. We had fun...




One of Jake's "things" is to sit down and hang out for a bit. He loves couches and chairs that he can just sit on and be cute for a fleeting moment. This was one of those times apparently... he decided this platform was perfect for a quick little sit.


Jake didn't like the slides today... that's an angry/sad face, if you can't tell



The kids LOVE to sit, jump, and wrestle on daddy... and ANY time he's in the lying down position, it's apparently fair game in their eyes - Becca is mid-sit in this pic ;)

This picture is courtesy of Becca's smooth photog skills

Swimming, Friends, and Some Weather

Just this week I've started to feel that summer is quickly coming to a close. It went by incredibly too fast! Drat. But I am excited about the coming school year... Emma is starting Kindergarten and Becca will be starting her first year of preschool! And I look forward to more one on one time with my Jake. :) Our end of summer activities have included one more round of swim lessons and more playdates with friends. Earlier in the week we had 3 cute friends over to play... for a busy house of 6 little ones... and honestly it didn't feel much crazier than when I just have my 3, except for when it came time for lunch and I had to completely empty my cupboard of IKEA dishes. :)



I love to see the kinds of games and activities the girls play when they have friends over... the tend to get extra creative. They decided to go on a exploration in the backyard...with binoculars...



Later in the week, we had Emma's preschool friend, TJ, and his little sister over to play. Emma loves to play with TJ... when she was in preschool this past year, she would love to come home and tell me all about her favorite friends in her class, TJ included. It makes me excited to see the new friends she'll make this next school year too. :)



We tried out another nearby splash pad this week... I can't say enough how much I love these places. There's nothing better than free activities, and I love that the kids can have a blast playing in the water and get a break from the heat... and that I don't have to worry about drowning children or even getting in the water myself at all - perfect.









Jake carried around his bag of grapes the ENTIRE time we were there... Becca kept complaining that Jake wasn't sharing. This is him telling me "These are MY grapes mom"... in Jake language of course.

Taking a little break to run through the grass



Jake makes eating grapes look super cool :)

The best part about squirt parks is when a fountain splashes up unexpectedly on a little child victim... mwahahaha... you know it must have really taken him by surprise by the fact that he actually dropped his bag of grapes



The little princess sunbathing on her princess towel

The girls finished up swim lessons this week... they both did even better than last time around... especially Becca - she was much less timid about getting her face in the water and very cooperative and playful during class. I was so pleased.





A crazy monsoon rain came through the valley on the last day of swim class (more on that in a bit), so sadly their last day was cancelled. The girls were mostly bummed because I had promised that we would go get ice cream after swim lessons on the last day. So, to keep my promise, we went out to Sonic the next day after swinging by the pool to pick up their report cards - the kids were very happy :)



Jake got ice cream too, just because he's cute... and he would have screamed relentlessly if I didn't share with him.



Between the hot summer temps intermixed with rainy days, we're starting to run out of indoor activity ideas... but surprisingly the girls keep coming up with funny things to do - for example, one day I came in their bedroom to check on them (because they had been suspiciously quiet for quite some time) and I found them like this...
they said they were pretending to be lifeguards. :)

Later they said they really wanted to paint. My usual motto is 'just say NO to kids painting'. BUT I decided to be nice this time around and let them. We had just been looking at some project ideas online for making pet rocks and such... so the girl went in the backyard and collected a bunch of rocks - we don't have any big rocks though... just the little decorative ground cover rocks for the most part... but the kids still loved to get to paint. Too bad I only had 3 colors of paint for them to use. :)









We let the rocks dry overnight and the next day the girls were in awe of their pretty rocks...

We ended up using them for treasure hunts! We took turns lining up the rocks in paths throughout the house and had them lead to "treasures" that the girls would hide at the end.

So, there has been a lot of cloud cover the past few weeks and occasional rain sprinkles, but FINALLY a good monsoon rain storm came through on Thursday. The kids enjoyed playing in it - Jake was especially fond of getting wet... I like how in the second video he gets completely soaked but decides it's still a good time to drink from his sippy cup.