And They Are Off

 First Day of School

for the 2011-2012

school year!

Sydney is all set for 3rd grade.

She is looking forward to meeting

old and new friends, her new teacher Mrs. Simmons,

playing on the swings, having her classroom

on the "older" side of the school

and more GATE classes.

Sydney loves to wear blue and yellow,

so the fact that school uniforms include those

colors, she's cool with them.

Many times she'll call it a "blueberry day"

and wear all BLUE, including her socks.

She is still a little annoyed that I make 

her wear her hair UP ever day,

but after having 2 episodes of

lice run through our family last year,

I'm a stickler for my new rule!!

Emma is just as excited to start school

for 1st grade as she was for Kindergarten.

She loves her new teacher Mrs. Long and that

her friend Madison is in her class.

She still insists on wearing skirts and dresses

each day, to which I insist she wear little

shorts underneath.

Emma is excited to show off her improved reading

skills, taking a few laps across the monkey bars,

playing in PE class, to be able to borrow books

from the school library, and $1 snow cones on Fridays!

With bags full of school supplies,

the girls are ready for their

traditional Daddy drop off

for the first day of school.

Emma opted for a repeat of her

princess backpack from last year

and Sydney up-graded to an

old backpack of Larry's from

law school.

She wanted it because it had 

absolutely no pink and mainly

BLUE.

Have a great year girls!!

Stack It Up

Dan's new talent is stacking blocks!

At 1 yrs old, Dan loves to take these tiny

blocks and place them one at a time

on top of each other.

We were very surprised at his ability

to maneuver them enough to make them stay.

And crazy enough,

Dan can get them 4 high!!

Maybe he's an engineer in training?

Or a construction worker! 

3 Dancing Princesses

Another summer time favorite

in our house are movies

and dress-up.

This day the girls combined the two,

by watching the Barbie movie

12 Dancing Princesses

and putting on matching pink

leotards.

I'll ready to leap and spin!

Sometimes I wonder how I was so blessed!

And I wonder...

how did I get 3 girls who look so opposite?

Run and Jump!

Being silly.

Strike a pose.

Big Sister Big Help

I'm not afraid to admit that I needed

help this summer.

And I am so grateful for Sydney

and Emma.

They did their chores and helped with

their younger siblings

Even picking up Dan from his naps,

cleaning him off after eating and

removing random toys he stuffs in his mouth!

No Good Reason

Gorgeous flowers

for a gorgeous wife!

And a red vase, too!!

They smelled heavenly, too!

And around the vase was this

extremely large heart.

(kind reminds me of the one in Titanic)

Thanks for thinking of me, honey!!

Magical Fruit

 Wanna have some delicious homemade refried beans

that aren't really fried, and much healthier?

Thanks to a good friend

and her delicious recipe

we now make our own beans

and they are scrummshish!!

It was make your own tostada night

at our house.

Ben likes to finger paint his food on

to his tostada!

We mixed some rice, cheese and beans

together and laid it out for Dan.

Which he quickly gobbled up!!

Take 7 cups of water, a bag of dried pinto beans,

2 of each one of these herbs and a T of taco seasoning.

But it in the crockpot on low, all day long.
Low-8 hr, High-5 hr
Stir occasionally.

Spoon out the beans, use a hand blender or

and large blender and whip them up.

Add water, from the crockpot,
 until they are the consistency you like.

Wallah!

Crafts To Distract

To avoid

the sweltering heat

and thick moist summer air

we stayed indoors

besides venturing out to the pool.

Thankfully we have a wonderful library

near by with a huge selection of kids books.

Each week the kids would bring home

five books each and would include

books about CRAFTS.

But with amount of kids in the family

crafts can be extremely daunting

task for Mom.

So we started a plan where each day

1 kid would pick a craft from

the books and together with Mom

we would make it.

We made things like eggs carton caterpillars,

mailbox, puppet show house, puppets,

jean braided belt, fairy garden,

fairy house, basketball hoop,

flying bats, paper dolls and

princess crowns.

But sometimes we would do

a group project like

painting and bead necklaces!!

It was nice to have peace and quite

for an hour or so.

Bob the Builder

What do you do with a girl

that is past the age of barbie's,

polly pockets and

strawberry shortcake?

You give her a toy that only a kid

her age can play,

let her lock herself in a room

and watch her use her imagination!

Sydney used the instructions

and built the Eiffel Tower!

Sydney is proud of her skills!!

I wonder what she will think of next?

(and yes, the floor to my room is ALWAYS that clean)

Nanny McPhee?

Look who pulled out her

own tooth!!

She is so brave.

Emma had a fairly loose front tooth

and while she was brushing her

teeth one night,

it popped out!

Larry found this great tooth box for the kids

to use when they place their tooth 

under their pillow for the Tooth Fairy!

Time To Party

 We collected those friends

of Dan's who weren't

out of town with summer plans

and brought them over

for a dessert fest!!

I wanted to make desserts that remind

me of Dan and those things he loves.

Dan scarfs down a banana every morning

for breakfast.

So "Monkey Squares" is a banana bread

inspired cake with brown butter icing.

He loves chocolate too,

so brownie squares with a Reece's

peanut-butter cup in the middle.

Dan inhales PB-J sandwich every lunch,

so I made this peanut butter cake,

made a hole in the center and put strawberry

jelly in the middle.

Topped it off with peanut butter icing,

a mini Nutter-Butter and a drop

of strawberry jelly.

PBJ cupcakes!!

Enjoying the birthday song with friends!

We are so thankful to have such great friends

to celebrate this special times with!

Present time!

Dan got a very noisy ring stacker toy,

a great blow up penguin that he wrestles,

a Farm Animal book to read

and a wooden Farm that opens with

a farmer on a tractor, animals, etc!!

Happy Birthday Dan!!

Dan Turns 1

Our little man is the big

1yrs old!!

Daniel has proven to be our most

laid back explorer of all the kids.

He took his time learning just

about everything.

He didn't crawl until 10months,

didn't take a step until 11months

and still isn't walking.

Although who can blame him,

when there are so many

willing hands to carry him around!!

But on this special day,

Dan did take 2 steps to Larry,

just to prove he was capable.

Dan says "da-da", and "ma-ma",

can get up the stairs in 5 seconds flat,

is obsessed with Baby Einstein movies,

loves to splash in the pool and bath,

will eat just about anything,

never had any problems moving

from bottle to sippy cup and 

moving from formula to cow milk.

I told you he was easy going!

On his actually birthday,

the 21st of July

we celebrated with cake and ice cream

as a family!!

I made a layered chocolate chip cake

with m&m's on top.

This will officially be that last time we are

using this candle,

but we've decided to keep it

for when Sydney turns 10

in a few years!

Happy Birthday,

to the 25lb chubby baby!!

Dan tried to use a spoon for the

first couple bites of his dessert,

but it just wasn't moving fast enough for him.

Time to dig in with his hands!

Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Ice Cream

He's just like his daddy!

Seconds?

Time for a bath!

Good until the last drop.

Happy Birthday

Daniel Laker!