Signs of October

Looking around our home, you can definitely tell Halloween is coming...


The girls enjoying cupcakes they decorated themselves.

While I was away...

Even with as much fun as I had this past weekend in L.A., I was definatly ready to come back and be Mommy again to my wonderful girls. Here are some pictures Uncle Cameron took while I was gone.

Grace with her cousin Julia

Eve enjoying herself on the trampoline

Charlotte's Wedding

My life-long friend Charlotte got married this past weekend. Our mom's were friends before we were born, we played together as children, endured jr. high together, had a blast in high school, and were even college roommates! It was wonderful to see her get married, and to such a great guy. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

I got to go down to L.A. for the weekend to enjoy this special day and also to have a lot of fun thanks to friends and family (especially my dear husband) that cared for my children while I was gone. I was gone for less than three days, but I really packed it in and did a lot during my short visit.

I drove down Friday and arrived in Glendale (the city I grew up in) around 3:00 p.m. where I was meeting Julyssa (who drove out from Arizona.) We stayed with her mom who still lives in Glendale (I just love her!) Since Julyssa came without her husband and children also, we had some serious "girl-time" (i.e. manicures, pedicures, staying out as late as we wanted...) It was the weirdest feeling being back in Glendale without our families. It felt like we were still in high school, and I was sleeping over at Julyssa's house for two days! Here is some of what I did:

Me, Julyssa, Charlotte, Chelsea (another life-long friend), Becky (one of Charlotte's friends that I got to meet this weekend) on Friday night at a get together at Charlotte's parents' home.

After the dinner at Char's parents' house Julyssa and I went to visit her brother in studio city, and then she and I went to near-by "city walk", ate crepes, and people-watched!

Chelsea, Charlotte, and I in front of the L.A. temple right before we went in for the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and the highlight of the day. This is the last picture of Charlotte single!

Becky, Chelsea, Nikki (our friend from high school), me in our bridesmaid dresses outside the temple after the wedding.

Brady (Charlottes groom), Charlotte, Julyssa, Me at the reception

It was so much fun to see people I haven't seen in years! The picture on the left is of me with Laurel and Jessica LeChemenant, friends of mine since I was a little girl. To the right is me with my college roommates: Chelsea, Charlotte, and Melanie (who came all the way from Oklahoma for the wedding...what a sweetheart!)

High School friends: Chelsea, Char, Judy, Stephanie, Me, Julyssa, Nikki

Julyssa and I went to the beach after the reception. We ran out to the water and then ran back...the sand was cold in the dark!

Pumpkin Patch

The girls and I went to the pumpkin patch this morning with a group of friends. It was the same one we went to last year and we really liked it. The kids got to feed coy fish, plant strawberries, go through a spooky maze, pet farm animals, and pick their very own pumpkin.

It was cute to see which pumpkin each of the girls picked. Eve picked the very first one she saw and then insisted on carrying it around with her. She got upset when I even suggested putting it down so she could more easily play with the other children! Grace wanted "the littlest pumpkin" like the one in a Halloween book we have about a small pumpkin in a pumpkin patch that gets overlooked. I think she wanted to make sure it didn't get picked last! Its funny how you can tell a lot about their personalities on something as simple as which pumpkin they picked!

Video Clip

I really wanted to try out this video feature. This clip shows some fun the girls were having yesterday. Click on the play button to see them in action!

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

We had a fun, rainy afternoon. We watched it through the window for a while and then Grace insisted that she needed to get out in it. So the girls put their rain boots on and did some serious splashing! It was extra fun because of the mud. Eve had a hard time keeping her boots on because they were too big. As she waddled around the yard (trying to keep her boots on) Grace would follow her around with the umbrella to keep her sister dry...it was really cute!

A Math Moment

Grace made a cool math discovery tonight as she was getting ready for bed. I heard her exclaim, "three and three is six!" Then she showed me her fingers (she had three up on each hand) and counted, "one, two, three, four, five, six!" I love to see when a concept just hits her like that. My baby is adding!

Blog Neglect

I have been guilty of serious "blog neglect" lately! It's almost been a month since my last post...and I don't even have a good excuse! Just busy with life I guess. Things with us are going well. The weather has been beautiful...not hot or cold, but just right. Blue skies with just a hint of breeze...I love it!

The girls and I have definitely spent more time outside lately (at the park, in the yard, or just walking around the neighborhood.) Today Grace took a bike ride on her trike while I pushed Eve in the stroller beside her. She is getting really good at maneuvering her bike. It was a pretty long ride and I was proud of her for her persistence. I could tell she was getting really tired toward the end, but she kept on peddling! Eve enjoyed pushing the stroller on the way home instead of riding in it!

I'll try to be better about recording our happenings as the holidays are approaching.

Soccer Girl

If you were to ask Grace how she liked soccer before she started her class today or even shortly after she would have said, "soccer is fun!" But if you asked her during class...she would probably frown at you and say, "I'm not having a good time."

Grace attended her first soccer class this morning. It is a ten week program through the city that teaches young children the basics of soccer without being on a formal team. I think they do scrimmages after they learn the basic idea of the game. Everyone in her class is between 4 and 5, but I have a feeling she is the youngest one there.

Both Aaron and I went with her to watch and cheer her on, but Aaron ended up having to do more than just watch. Grace practically wouldn't let go of him. So, much of the time he was running along with her. Toward the end she was able to run around without holding his hand. Although by the time we were leaving she was in tears again. I think it was all very overwhelming for her. There were almost twenty kids running around in a herd and occasionally stampeding one another. Not to mention at least fifty adults and other family members watching the whole time. She probably would have loved it if there were maybe five kids instead of twenty. We talked afterwards and she said she will be "brave and strong" next Saturday. I'm sure it will get better. After all, she didn't want to participate in ballet class at first either.

Summer Summary

Summer is coming to an end and I feel like so much has happened in the last few months. So much, in fact, that I haven't written about all of it yet. This is the reason for this post: To quickly share some of the things we did this summer that I just never had the chance to blog about.

Playgroup Graduation (June)

Grandma and Grandpa Parkin came for a visit (June)

The girls had to say good-bye to their good friends
Morgan and Sydney who moved out of state (June)

Eve enjoying homemade ice cream on the 4th of July
My brother Jason's kids came and stayed with us for a weekend in July.
Grace and Davis playing together

We took a day trip to the Bay a couple weeks ago. This is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from where we stopped and had our picnic lunch . Aaron's sister Sarah came with us. We spent most of our time at a fun Children's discovery museum in Sausalito.
Grace, Sarah, and Eve dressing up at one of the exhibits at the Discovery Museum

Big Girl Bed

Our little Eve isn't a baby anymore! For the past week she's been sleeping in her big girl bed. We knew that the time was coming, but when the girls broke the crib last week while playing in it...we knew that it was definitely time! We actually got a bunk-bed for when the girls eventually share a room, but for now we just set up half of it for Eve. She is doing great sleeping in a bed. At first her naps were cut shorter and she was getting up earlier, because of the excitement of being able to get herself out. But I think that is pretty much wearing off and now she is sleeping normal. She definitely feels like a big girl and gets so excited when its time to climb into bed.

Teased Out

I have to hide all hair brushes from Eve. She thinks it's fun to brush her own hair, but this is what happens when she tries:

Happy Birthday Grace

Yesterday was our little Grace's 4th birthday. Let me tell you, it never took so long for a birthday to come! It seems like everyday for the last month or so Grace has asked, "Am I four yet?" Or made statements like, "When I'm four I can______." Well, she's four now and boy does she feel big!

We celebrated by having Aaron's family over for cake and ice cream and "the opening of presents." Grace, of course, loved having the birthday song sung to her and blowing out the candles. But I think it's safe to say her favorite part was opening presents from Dad& Mom, Grandma& Grandpa, Aunts& Uncles, and Julyssa (sent in the mail.) Aaron video taped the whole thing, but I completely forgot to take pictures of her blowing out her candles and opening presents. We did get some pictures afterwards though.

Today Grace and Eve were making little birthday cakes out of play-doh. They were even putting candles on them and singing Happy Birthday to each other. I guess I should say Grace was singing and Eve was chanting "Ha-ppy, Ha-ppy!" Who wants all that birthday fun to end?!!

Lorraine and I dishing up cake


Grace and Grandma trying out her new doctor kit

Sarah, Grace, Eve, and Callen having a tea party

Busy at Play

This afternoon the girls were playing really well together, so I decided to take advantage of it and get some pictures! They were so into what they we doing that they hardly noticed me snapping away. Just wanted to share some of the cute shots I got (nothing professional, but I just love the looks on their faces.)

Eeewww

I never thought I would say this, but Eve is really cute when she has a poopy diaper! As soon as she is done taking care of business, she points to her diaper and says "tinky" and/or "pupo." Then as I start changing her she gets this funny look on her face and says "eeewww"...sometimes over and over! Okay, so I've stooped to a new low...writing about stinky diapers...but this is all part of my life!

Lewis Reunion

Well we've been back from our family reunion since Thursday night, but that's when I started reading Harry Potter...Which of course means I was unable to do anything else but read in my spare time! I finished the book yesterday morning so now I'm free again! So yesterday I finally cleaned my house and finished unpacking from the trip...and now I can blog about it!

We spent four days in Newport beach with Aaron's family for a reunion. It was so much fun! We spent a lot of time at the beach. The girls were braver than they ever have been before at the beach. They played in the waves and did a lot of digging in the sand. They had a great time playing with their cousins. We all had a wonderful time with Aaron's family. It was fun to visit with everybody, play games, and Aaron had a lot of fun bogey-boarding with his brothers. We also enjoyed the extra time the four of us got to spend with one another. Aaron and I got to swim in the ocean together, play in the waves with the girls, and take beach walks. The two of us even got to stay a night in a cottage right on the beach while his mom watched the girls for us at the time-share up the hill (thanks Mom!)

We brought our camera to the beach with us only one of the days, but we still got a few cute pictures. Most of the great pictures were taken by other people in Aaron's family. I'll post some of those in the future when I get copies of them.

Eve, Grace, and Julia examining sand crabs that they caught


Aaron on a bogey-board


My sister-in-law Callen took this cute one of Eve