First Week of School and Family Fun

Cal started kindergarten this week! Look how excited he is.

Our good friend Emily visited from Salt Lake for the week. We got all of the kids together for a little reunion.

Elliot had another check up. He was really happy before he got his three shots :( Poor baby.

I went with some friends to a local farmer's market. We got a lot of delicious food, including some cheese blintzes for Reed.

We finished off the week at the San Jose Giants game. Cal had a lot of fun in the kids area outside of the stadium. They had inflatable slides, and lots of baseballs to throw and hit.

After the game, they had a great fireworks show. Elliot was terrified/intrigued by the whole thing. Every time another firework went off, he would squeeze Reed's thumb tighter and tighter.

Dinner with Anthony & Tevi

One of Reed's best friends from college hails from a hometown only 45 minutes away from us, which is lucky, because it means we get to see him when he visits his parents. We had a wonderful visit with him and his wife Tevi, along with their adorable daughter. It's wonderful to reconnect and stay in touch with this awesome family.

Last (Official) Week of Summer

This week was spent getting ready for kindergarten! (And squeezing in some final summer break fun before school starts on Monday.) 

 Swimming with Sammy, Cal's wonderful friend from our ward:

Kinder orientation was so fun! We got to meet Cal's teacher, as well as many of the other kindergarten parents. There was a buzz of excitement and fun in the room.

 After the main orientation, we got to check out Cal's new classroom. He was interested in everything, and made himself right at home.

 We spent our final Saturday of summer break taking care of some last minute prep, like braving Ikea for a new game cabinet...

 ...and getting a haircut (which Cal himself requested) for the first day of school.

 Looks like we're ready for Monday!

Lego Camp!

Two weeks before school started, Cal and I were at the park when he stumbled upon a community center classroom group right in the midst of enjoying lego camp. It was all I could do to drag him away from the windows. He begged and begged to go in and join them, which was not possible. However, we did get a flyer from a camp counselor, and looked it up online once we got home. 

It was pretty difficult to find an opening, and I ended up signing up for a time in November by mistake! Cal was heartbroken as we drove home. I got back online (and on the phone, and went into the community center downtown), and we were able to snag the last lego camp spot in a neighboring town. I was so relieved. It was definitely worth the extra drive to get this kid to his beloved Lego camp! :)

 Cal loved the "free build" portions of the day, but I was impressed with how structured the activities were. The whole goal of the camp is to teach engineering concepts and vocabulary to the kids.  They had a specific project to work on when they arrived each day, with the instructor guiding them through the various stages of development.

 Some times the project was a plane, or a truck, or a conveyor belt, or a crane. Each time, they would go through the specific parts of the project so the kids were learning engineering vocabulary. I thought it was awesome!

Even daily cleanup was cool. The kids had to sort the pieces into various groups depending on type, and deliver them to the correctly labelled bin. It was actually quite amazing to watch.

 The last 15 minutes, the instructor would go over the different parts they had learned about, with the kids answering with terms like, "chassis," "42-tooth gear," "axle," "holding rod," and "fuselage."

We will definitely be back next year!

Reed's Birthday Week

We started the week off with Sunday dinner at Heather's house, in honor of Reed's birthday. We always love visiting her in Palo Alto. Look who was hoping for a piece of London broil:

Reed and I have been trying to go on walks in the evenings.  He has even been waking up and going into work earlier so that he can be home for dinner at a good hour, with plenty of time for a family walk afterwards. I really appreciate how seriously he takes his role as a husband and father. He is always willing to do whatever it takes to be there for all three of us, and it makes a huge difference to our family.

On this particular night, we wore the boys completely out!

Tuesday, I took the kids to our weekly park day. I send an email out weekly to all the young moms in our congregation, and we meet up and let the kids play while we talk with other adults. Cal has been practicing his pedal bike, and is getting really confident. The one thing he has yet to master is starting on his own; I ended up chasing him all over the park so I could launch him on his way every time he stopped. His friend E.J. (3-years-old) was really excited that Cal had a Lightning McQueen bike, and in his excitement, kept accidentally riding straight into Cal's trajectory. He'd yell, "Lightning McQueeeeeeeeen" and zoom right into Cal, who was, by then, also screaming. Nonstop comedy.

Even with the dive bombs, Cal was very good to his little friend, who followed him around the entire morning on his own red bike.

Tuesday night, Reed and I continued our semiannual "fancy feast" tradition at the Plumed Horse. We'd been once before, a few years ago, on Valentine's Day, and didn't have the best experience. We decided to give it another try, and we're so glad we did. This time, the food (and our experience) was fantastic. I tried abalone and antelope, and we both enjoyed copious offerings of amuse bouche from the chef (he was apparently in a very good mood that night). They even brought Reed his own supernova dessert with a candle for his birthday.

It was a great evening. I'm so glad this wonderful man was born.

We continue to enjoy our stay-at-home summer. Wednesday, we had an ice-cream social at our friend's house in the afternoon. The look on Cal's face can probably tell you how he felt about it:

Cal and his buddies enjoying their ice cream:

Cal picked out Reed's birthday present this year, and when it arrived, he begged to play it all day. Reed, good dad that he is, got Robot Rally all set up, and played through it with Cal.

Friday was miniature golfing with friends. This little golf course has been very good to us this year!

We partied nonstop this weekend. It was the first time we've left Elliot with a babysitter, and it went really well. We went out on a date (to see Guardians of the Galaxy--loved it!) Friday night, and then went to a Clue-themed housewarming party on Saturday night. I went as the maid, and Reed was Mr. Green. It was a hoot and a half. We laughed ourselves silly!

The baby did great with sitters both nights. Looks like a lot of date nights are in our near future!