Change is coming...

Well, summer is quickly drawing to a close. School is starting. Bria and I joined girl scouts. CJ will start a little art class (his "school" week will consist of one art class, a tumbling class, and trips to the library.) Emelie will start preparing to return home... and we'll all start preparing to bring another au pair into the family this Fall!

Chris and I both will be searching for and starting new job assignments. Ugh! Mine might include more hours (which I'm not thrilled about)

And as if that's not enough for one mommy... I've.. err um.. WE'VE recently acquired quite a few critters to add to the fold... don't ask me why.. I don't know. And I was one of the worst offenders! But I was egged on by Bria and CJ! I can't have just one critter in a cage or tank afterall!

Soooo, we now have 2 angel fish and 1 aquatic snail in Bria's room... a red betta and aquatic snail in Chris's office... a purple betta and aquatic snail for my office (it matches the decor beautifully though I have to admit)... and two hermit crabs (also in my office 'cause we can't trust them in CJ's room just yet)! I've been worrying and fussing over how to best care for each of these new critters for a week now. But it's fun and I'm enjoying it as long as I can keep them all healthy! note: Hermit crabs and snails are much more active than I ever imagined!

August was a bad month for our family regarding summer colds. Poor CJ got hit with a triple whammy! A bad cough for a week. Then he caught Bria's cold (which we all ended up getting); then he got a high fever that lasted 5 days! If you know me.. you can guess how often I was in the doctors' offices trying to get answers and make my babies feel better. Unfortunately, in each case.. it was just a virus, or a new virus and nothing related to the previous virus... and we just had to let it all run its course! THAT was fun!

But everybody seems healthy now.
I'd better go find some wood to knock on!
cheers

Gymnastics w/video

Once a week the kids take a tumbling class at the local gymnastics center. It's good for them and they have a good time.

Above are some pics of Bria and her friend.

Below are some video clips that Chris took when he visited their class. (I usually get my exercise following CJ in his class... haha)

4th of July and other stuff!! :-)

Hi Again, I know this is going backwards but since I have a bit of time, I thought I'd post some pictures from the rest of our summer thus far.

Here's a collage of Bria's preschool graduation ceremony. She starts kindergarten in September! Will ride a bus and everything. Luckily it's only half days. I can't believe it!

And now it's time to get ready for the next school year! We spent the day yesterday shopping for supplies and back-to-school clothes for her. We had soo much fun and Bria looks adorable in everything so the hardest part was limiting the various outfits I wanted to buy for her! Luckily, we're still agreeing on clothes! haha

BTW... She's now a huge Hannah Montana fan (that was news to me) So we also got a Hannah Montana messenger bag and matching umbrella for school.

Here's some pics of Chris enjoying breakfast in bed on Father's Day! He did eventually open his eyes!;-) hehe Me and the kids also gave him 4 sessions with a lawn service company so he can take a break from mowing & edging. He's been enjoying that. :-)

CJ visited the barbershop for the first time back in June! Chris took him to his barber. CJ did well and sat really still. His favorite part was getting a lollypop! Notice Chris w/the camera in the mirror?

Here's some pictures of the 4th of July parade we attended. Always fun! Eve, does the unicycle bring back memories?

Emelie's lovely famiy was visiting from Sweden over the 4th and joined us to watch the parade. (that guy in the orange shirt and the girl w/him are just in the background... they were not part of our group haha)

Myrtle Beach '08 (w/video)

Hi all,

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Of course we took tons of pictures! These are just a few we took with our "expensive" camera... it fogged up a lot. Go figure! We filled two disposable cameras with even more pics but haven't gotten them developed yet!

We spent the week with our friends who had 3 kids the same ages as Bria and CJ.

We set up "camp" with two tents on the beach every morning from 10am until about 2pm. Then we all went back to our condos, got lunch and put the youngest kids down for naps. Here's our tents with our condos in the background. I put a yellow star on our unit :-)


We had an adults' tent which housed the chairs, snacks, towels etc...


And a kids' tent which was the activity center for the week... haha that is unless it was snack time! Digging holes was the most popular thing to do with the kids. Bria even got a tunnel going one day. I'm still trying to get the sand out of her hair!

Chris and I really enjoyed the warm surf! I even got to ride some waves! Haha And CJ was very interested in the boogie board!

Tuesday we all took a pontoon boat tour of the salt water marsh, the kids got to fish and collect sea shells on a small island.

Here we all are on the small island where we went shelling.
We took a picture of my mom with all of the kids -- later we teased her that she looked like Mother Goose! haha

We went looking for ghost crabs one night on the beach... didn't find any but the beach and pool were pretty just the same.

Early evenings we'd do different things like go for homemade ice cream, swim in the condo pool, take a walk on the beach just me and Chris :-), and go out to dinner. Emelie joined us and our friends brought a baby sitter with them so we enjoyed two nights out... adults only!:-)

Thursday went to Ripley's Aquarium and toured Broadway on the Bay which was a lot of fun too! By Friday night the rain clouds were rolling in and we said goodbye to the beach on a rainy Saturday morning.

We took our time driving back, stopped at South of the Border and got dinner later at Cracker Barrel restaurant. It made for a long trip but with the portable DVD player and those stops it felt like an adventure in and of itself. CJ kept saying "We no go home! No go home!"

Here's a video of the kids fishing.

Here's a video of CJ w/the boogie board, you also get a good view of the beach in this one too.

Here's Bria at Broadway on the bay. They had a bunch of kiddie rides that the kids enjoyed.

Here's Chris flying kites with the kids on Friday. It was overcast and just windy enough to make it a good kite day.

Friday the 13th

"CJ, let's pretend that I'm the baby alien and you're the Daddy. OK?"
"No! I'm SUPERMAN!"
"But CJ, CJ... You can be SUPER-DADDY-ALIEN!"
"SUPUR-DADDY-ALEEN? OK!"
"Now pretend this is the hot lava and you have to come save me... meep meep meeeeeep"
"Wha? Wha? Don worry. I save you! Aaaaaah"
"meep meep meep"
"It's OK."
"meep meep meeeeeep"


Thus was the conversation in tiny, high-pitched voices drifiing in on my foggy, coffee-deprived brain as I was trying to get ready for work in the morning. It seemed a bit too cute and a bit sureal. However, I was very glad the kids were getting along so well and amusing themselves in my bedroom while I pulled myself together. *sigh* They're getting sooo big!

Happy Friday the 13th!

The Rehearsal Video Clip is Here! :-)

OK,

Bria finally had her dance recital this past weekend! It was a first for both of us and I think Bria faired much better than I did! haha

Her class of 4 little girls was combined with the another class of 4 little girls to make a performance group of 8 all together. They were ADORABLE! Their costumes were BEAUTIFUL! And I think each little girl in every group must have truly felt like a princess! :-)

Bria was very serious and concentrated very hard. She said it was a little scary seeing all of those people out in the audience. However, she didn't mess up once and stayed on target with all of her steps! She did very, very well!

And Sitty remembered flowers! Which made Bria feel all the more special! She's keeping them in a vase in her bedroom. :-) In this last photo, she had rubbed her eye and smudged her makeup. There weren't any tears.

Here's a video clip of the rehearsal since no pictures nor video was allowed the day of the recital. Notice the stellar concentration on Bria's face!

For my part... I learned how to store and transport a costume upside down so as to preserve the tutu; how to apply "stage" makeup to a 5 yr old; how to get Bria half dressed and buckled into the booster seat for the ride to the show and then into her costume in a crowded backstage dressing area ready to go ON TIME!; and last but not least, I learned how to get baby fine hair slicked up into a single bun on top of the most sensitive scalp in the world! and w/out any "whispies" escaping!

(the parents were yelled at errr "lectured" during the rehearsal about there being too many "whispies" visible on the kids. Luckily I wasn't one of the "offending" parents that time. )

Ballet Pictures

It's too late at night to write much... I'll provide more text later this weekend. But I thought you'd enjoy seeing some pics we took on picture day for Bria's ballet class. All the kids were so pretty with their hair and makeup and costumes. CJ was sooo amazed at his ballerina sister! He just wanted to hug and kiss her constantly! I love this last picture!