Let's Go Fly A Kite...

Whenever we walk past our park somebody is flying a kite of some sort and Riley has been asking for one so I found a princess one on Amazon.  Saturday it was nice and windy and Marc had a conference call at 4:00 so I wanted to get the kids out of the house so they wouldn't disrupt him.  I took them down to the park to fly the kite.  Our first location was not ideal.  I parked us in front of the tennis courts, turns out they block the wind so I didn't have much luck getting the kite to fly, but picture me running across the expansive field with a princess kite and both of my kids cracking up at me trying to figure out why the kite wouldn't fly.  We then moved over a bit to the end of the tennis courts where there was an amazing cross breeze, low and behold, a flying kite and 2 very ecstatic kids!!!  We ended with some catch/throw as Riley calls it with the balls we brought down and then a snack watching the ducks.  A pretty awesome Saturday afternoon in Northern California!!!

Notice how big this field is?  And this is only a portion of it, imagine me running across it with a kite trying to get it to fly, the things you do for your kids!

Summer Sliding Fun

Yesterday we were supposed to go out and see the Goines' but with the kids both having fevers this we didn't want to risk infecting the twins even though by Friday both were healthy (I really at this point think that Jacob's fever was from cutting his second tooth because it is now completely visible but he does have a cough so better safe than sorry).  While we were on the peninsula we were invited to Marc's co-worker's son's 6th birthday (did you follow all of that?), he texted her and she said we could still come if the kids were up to it.  Riley went to day care Friday and had a great day (phew) and Jacob was fever free without Motrin all day Friday so we packed up the kids and headed down to San Jose for the afternoon.  What a perfect day for some water fun, it was HOT!  We told Riley they were having a huge water slide, I personally was a bit apprehensive (the girl really needs swim lessons which start in August) but when we got there I was at ease because there was no pool of water at the bottom.  But the slide was huge, Marc and I both thought that Riley was going to be a big talker and want to go on it and then chicken out.  Her transition into the water slide went something like this - Up the stairs with Marc, down the slide with Marc; up the stairs on her own, down the slide with Marc; Marc carry Riley up the slide (I think she was getting tired and lazy), down the slide by herself; peace out Dad, I want to do it myself!  I can't even tell you how many times Riley went up and down the slide it was a huge hit!  So mad both my kids have winter birthdays, we can never do anything like this!

Biggest water slide EVER!

Coming off of the slide!

Having so much fun!

Marc's co-worker has a 9 month old daughter named Hannah

Going in for a kiss, Jacob loves the ladies (apparently she made him cry a few moments later!)

After that we hit up Valley Fair Mall and the Nordstrom sale and I scored a pair of jeans on sale that I have had my eye on since I was pregnant with Jacob and I finally fit into a size lower than my pre-pregnancy size.  I guess all of the 4:45AM wake ups to pump and work out before work are paying off!

Hidden Gem

Saturday we headed to Tristan's 5th birthday party, his brother Nate is in Riley's day care class.  Surely you all remember Nate, Riley has been obsessed with Nate since the Toddler Room at day care.   Anyway, she's become friends with his older brother as well and he turned 5, it's hard to believe that Riley is old enough to have 5 year old friends but it's true.  They had a pirate party (I feel like I'm going to have a lot of pirate stuff in my life pretty soon) at this place called Shadow Cliff Park in Pleasanton.  It's a "lake," I put lake in quotes because I'm not sure if it's natural or man-made, I suspect man-made since it used to be a quarry and the view isn't great because you look at a quarry but I'm in love and it's only like 10-15 minutes away.  We've seriously driven by it a dozen times and never thought to go there on a hot summer day.  It's got a great little beach, the shallow end is roped off so it's safe for the kiddos to play in the water and there are lifeguards there.  Marc's excited because in addition to the swimming and picnic areas they have fishing.  Needless to say the party was a hit, water, sand, beautiful weather, pirates and yummy picnic lunch.  I so wish my kids had summer birthdays so we could utilize the fun.  But we will definitely be going back!

The beach and "lake"

Jacob hanging with Nate and Tristan's mom

Testing the waters

How can I get the water and sand in my mouth???

Riley and Nate swimming

The two amigos!

 

Beautiful Weekend = Picnic Time!

I'm a little behind on blogging, I got hit with a stomach flu this week that pretty much wiped me out for the week.  Let's just say that the stomach flu plus pregnancy pretty much equals misery.  I think there was one point in the middle of the night one night where I literally said out loud, "Someone please put me out of my misery!"  But I am pretty much on the mend, I still don't have much of an appetite, which is unfortunate because I was really enjoying housing everything in sight but hopefully I'll get there.

Last weekend was BEAUTIFUL!  (I can't say the same for this weekend which has brought fog and very cool, think low 60s, temperatures, yes in July, it's crazy talk).  But last weekend was low 80s, sunny and gorgeous so we headed to our fav winery in Livermore, Mitchell Katz for a picnic with Riley's friend Bella and her parents who are also club members at MK.  Riley's been going to MK since she was about 3 weeks old, no joke, the first time she went there she was in a sling and they weren't sure if there was a puppy in there or a baby, so she's no stranger to MK.  MK has an awesome front lawn, away from the road, with a ton of room to run around.  So we brought some balls and lunch and had some fun in the sun with Bella and her parents!   It was a super fun time, even for the sober girl, and will definitely be a repeat activity!

Holiday Fun!

We celebrated the 4th of July with 2 of my favorite national pastimes, shopping and Chinese food (followed by Sprinkle cupcakes).  We BBQ on Saturday and Sunday so we were all a little BBQ out so instead we headed down to Palo Alto for the day for some shopping.  We headed back late in the afternoon so that Ri could have some water time. Marc was hosing off her house when she of course decided that she wanted to slide, she learned real quick how fun a water slide was! 

Riley also did her horsey impression for us!

First Pool of the Season

Tuesday is my work from home day and it happened to be in the 90s!  Our first real heat of the season!  So I grabbed Riley from day care a bit early and bribed her to leave with me with the prospect of going swimming.  So I dusted off her little pool and got to work blowing it up.  Riley was pretty funny, every time she saw it inflate, she would say: "Good job Mommy!  Way to go!  You did it Mommy!  Woohoo!"  It was pretty cute, my little cheerleader.  So we finally got the pool semi-inflated, unfortunately, I don't have any "big dolphins" for Riley to swim with but she managed to have a good time!

Getting toes wet for the first time

Water!

Wetting her face, she looked like she was in a hair care or facial care commercial, it was so refreshing! :)

So refreshed!  When did my baby girl get to be so big!?!

This girl knows how to have fun!

"I wetted my hair!"

Green Thumb

We were out and about and saw a good price on an Heirloom Tomato plant this weekend so we bought it to plant in our teeny tiny garden that is quickly being taken over by our grape vine.  We decided to put it next to the strawberry plant and of course Riley had to help!

What you doing Daddy?

Helping Daddy

Our crazy grape vine!

"Riley help?  Riley do it!"

First time watering with the hose

Watch out, Riley has the hose!

Having some fun after working hard

My beautiful, beautiful girl

First Soccer Practice

It's hard to be believe that almost exactly 2 years ago we were embarking on Riley's brace wear.  We we suffered through the stares of strangers passing by as people noticed her brace, we dealt with a cranky infant trying to figure out why she could no longer move her legs independently but Saturday she had her very first soccer practice.  As I watched her running on the field and kicking the soccer ball, just like all of the other kids on the field, I got a little choked up, what a proud moment to see a happy, healthy, and perfect little girl running around having the time of her life on that field.  I was pretty impressed with how well she did, aside from having to work on her listening skills (which tonight I cracked down on), Riley did so well.  She picked up on kicking the ball and running and kicked the ball several times consecutively.  It was a great afternoon for us!

Excited for her first soccer practice

Her field - They just built a gorgeous sport park facility up the street from us

Checking out the older kids's game

Running "drills" with Daddy

Her soccer class - her buddy Ryan is in her class

We're #1!

Learning how to dribble

Getting the coordination down

My cool chick

I LOVE this picture, how cute are these two!?!

Park Day

Yeah, so I am way behind on my blogging, it's been a super crazy week at work and all I can say is TGIF!  Since I was off last Friday, Riley and I walked down to Peet's for some breakfast and some quality time since I had been gone most of the week.  After I had my coffee and she had her croissant (her favorite) I decided to take her to the park since it was a beautiful day.  It's been several months since we last went to the park and seeing the developmental difference in Riley on the equipment was amazing!  The baby swings were taken so she tried the big girl swings and held on pretty well!  I didn't get a picture because I was too afraid to venture too far and have her fall off, I mean we only need one black eye at a time! (Which by the way she got another one on the other eye last night playing after school!  Oy!)  Riley also was not afraid to run across the bridge and even jump on it and she took on the big, twisty slide all by herself.  She even made a little friend there and showed him how to do it.

Rainbow Connection

A couple of weeks ago we had a ton of storms that left us with some pretty cool rainbows.  Two mornings in a row I had views of a double rainbow from my office window.  Pretty cool, and being the ex-sorority girl/Mamarazzi that I am, I was able to catch the beauty on "film!"

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

I should've gone to search for my pot of gold at the end!

Riley's New Ride

Riley has a new ride to roll around Dub-town in, we actually got it a few weeks ago but I didn't have time to blog while Marc was in Japan this past week.  Last weekend the weather was gorgeous so we took her new wagon out, it's a gigantic hit.  Last Saturday we went for our weekly walk with our neighbors Shari and Ryan and Riley and Ryan rode in the wagon for the first time, it was a huge hit with both kids.  Riley and Ryan were giggling and talking to each other the entire time, it was absolutely adorable!  And they even stayed strapped into the wagon the whole time we were at Peet's so Shari and I could enjoy our coffee without chasing them around!

Testing out her new ride

Riley do it!



Her innaugural ride, Puppy came too!



Friends!