Dear Kloey,

Last week was your first day of Kindergarten in Ms Balco’s class. You counted down the days of summer until you could go to school. You asked me nearly every day how many days were left of summer and squealed with delight when the number was one less than the day before. Your sister would tell you about how amazing your teacher is going to be, how many great friends you will meet, and how much you would love Kinder. No, literally, this conversation happened every… single… day of summer!! But it made my heart explode with joy. You want to know why the dramatics of exploding hearts? Because, sweet Kloey, you dropped out of pre-k because it didn’t meet your standards. You didn’t like the way things were done, so you just, well, stopped going. Preschool drop out for the win!! I have to say, however, that they mandatory nap for 1.5 hours in silence, would have made me want to quit too. Well maybe not, a nap sounds nice in the middle of the afternoon to sort of break things up. We’ll revisit that later. Anyway, back to school, you handled your first week like a champ. You woke up early every morning with your eyes half shut and your hair stretched out in every direction (I say it looks like the sun, which is a pretty accurate description of what is going on with her hair every morning!) and you ask me if it’s a school day. When I say yes, you jump for joy while Kayden pulls the covers over her head with a pound groan. Ahhh sisters! You are well on your way sweet girl to do big things in this world. Having only met you for this week of school, it is clear you have paved your way right into Ms Balco’s heart. I hear she thinks you’re pretty awesome. And when she tells me this, instead of saying ‘thank you’ like a normal person, I simply say, I KNOW, RIGHT?!’ Because you are VERY awesome! Here are some of your favorite things that will look back and read and after my eyes clear and I can see the screen, I will look at and smile remembering just how awesome you were… and probably still are!!

Favorites:

color- pink

acvtivies- ballet, soccer, basketball, ‘exercising’, trampoline, playing piano, singing in your karaoke machine

book- Pinkalicious

hairstyle- pig tails

food- pizza (at Mimi’s house), pulled chicken with garlic salt

outfit to wear- dress

music- anything by Kids Bop Kids

Learning- everything.. you LOVE to learn!

I’m sure there are so many more favorites I could include, but I’ll save those for me! Have a great FIRST year in school sweet girl!

Dear Sweet Kayden,

This past week you started 2nd grade!! I couldn’t be more proud of the little girl that I am raising. You are literally the nicest, most helpful, compassionate child I know. And no, I do not “have to say that”. It’s truly how I feel. Here are some things that I will want to remember when I look back at this post through misty eyes and a full heart:

1. You love Unicorns.

2. Your favorite color is purple.

3. You (still) want to be a vet when you grow up.

4. Your favorite activity is playing with your family.

5. You love to write notes/cards for any and everyone you love.

6. You are an amazing big sister (flaws and all!)!!

7. You try your best at school, even when it gets hard.

8. Your auntie Jenny is your teacher, and you could not be more lucky.

9. You are shy.

10. You don’t love sports, but you LOVE to cheer on others as they play.

11. You can make me laugh out loud with your silly faces and funny voice (like a teenager, which you think is hilarious because it gets a rise out of your father!)

12. You are the best thing I have ever done. My biggest accomplishment. My life’s work.

I could go on and on and on and on and on about what a truly special person you are, but I will keep that close to my heart. Good luck this year and learn lots, my sweet sweet angel!

20-Jun-2017 12:59
 

Our summer is off to a GREAT start! We are really so lucky to live where we do. We have the beach, aquariums, zoos, parks, theme parks, good weather, and so much more! We are totally taking full advantage of where we live this summer! So far we have done Birch Aquarium, The Wild Animal Park, Seaworld, the train, the pool, and a TON of beach days!! So lucky to live where we live!!

20-Jun-2017 12:59
20-Jun-2017 12:59
 
20-Jun-2017 12:56
20-Jun-2017 12:56
 
20-Jun-2017 12:55
14-Jun-2017 18:10
 
14-Jun-2017 18:09
14-Jun-2017 18:08
 
13-Jun-2017 16:07
13-Jun-2017 13:12
 
11-Jun-2017 14:53
11-Jun-2017 14:52
 
10-Jun-2017 17:07
08-Jun-2017 12:21
 
08-Jun-2017 12:20
08-Jun-2017 12:19
 

16-Jun-2017 12:19
 

It has happened AGAIN! Ms Kayden lost yet another tooth. This is number 4, for the record. About a year ago, yes a WHOLE YEAR ago, Kayden lost her upper front tooth (which still has not grown in BTW!). We can thank her father for there being a year between losing a baby tooth and the gap remaining unfilled. I’m sure there is a blog devoted to this traumatic (for me!) occurrence, but in the event that I was out of the blogging game, I’ll quickly explain. While on the trampoline one afternoon Scotty decided it would be a good idea to play ‘break the egg’ with Kayden. Basically, she sits with her legs crossed ‘criss cross apple sauce’ and then he jumps as high as he can trying to get her to let go of her feet and therefore the egg is ‘broken’. Well it wasn’t but two or three jumps before she released her feet and her knee goes straight into her tooth knocking it so that it was pointed backwards. *GROSS* Her adorable smile has never been the same… it changed, but luckily she’s pretty cute and her smile quickly rebounded. So with all that, the tooth was a little weak and consequently fell out earlier that it should/would have! So a year later she lost her second, upper tooth and now she looks different yet again, but still pretty darn cute!

 

Yet another birthday has come and gone *sad face. Kloey turned 5 on May 31 and Kayden turned 7 on June 6. I’d ask where the time went, but no one alive has come to find the answer that age old question. Each year that the girls have a birthday I find myself wanting another baby. When I was in the thick of a baby and a toddler, I told myself ‘NEVER AGAIN, TIFFANY!’ It’s surprisingly hard to truly remember those feelings. Anyway, my babies are growing up and I can do NOTHING to change that. I would climb the highest moutain, fight the biggest lion, run faster than the fastest car (see, I know nothing about cars!), just to freeze time now. My only peace in their defiance of growing up is knowing that the best is yet to come for both of them. They have so many cool things on the horizon; so while they are by definition ‘getting older’ they will always be my babies (a concept they find hilarious because, “we aren’t babies MOOOOOM!!”).

So let’s talk birthdays. Kloey’s birthday is 6 days before Kayden, so we literally have a week of celebrating! For Kloey’s birthday we booked a night at the Del Mar Beach on Camp Pendleton. The weather was pretty crumby, but we made the best of it! We explored, we bon-fired, we ate s’mores, we made new friends, and we went to bed sandy!! We had so much fun that we found ourselves back there a few days later. We also hit up Sea World on our way home… well, we went home and showered off the sand and borfire smell first, of course!!

Here are some highlights from Kloey’s big #5 bash:

31-May-2017 18:44
31-May-2017 18:45
 
31-May-2017 18:45
31-May-2017 18:45
 
31-May-2017 18:50
01-Jun-2017 09:21
 
01-Jun-2017 09:30
01-Jun-2017 13:25
 
01-Jun-2017 16:02
01-Jun-2017 16:03
 
01-Jun-2017 16:08
 

Because we had so much fun celebrating Kloey at Del Mar beach, we decided to bring some friends back with us and do it all over again for Kayden! We planned a night away with the Sargent Family and repeated all of the same fun beach activities. All of the kids had an absolutely amazing time!!

07-Jun-2017 14:16
07-Jun-2017 13:32
 
07-Jun-2017 13:32
07-Jun-2017 11:32
 
07-Jun-2017 09:22
07-Jun-2017 08:20
 
06-Jun-2017 16:34
06-Jun-2017 07:43
 
06-Jun-2017 07:09
06-Jun-2017 07:07
 

Each year the weekend falls between both birthdays, obviously because they are six days apart! I try to do their party the week before it all begins, but that’s always Memorial Day weekend and most likely people are out of town. So, per usual, we celebrated their birthday with friends the Sunday between both birthDAYs. The theme was ice cream social and everything went perfectly! We had a water slide bounce house, spa (to warm up, because the coast does NOT get the memo that it’s Spring/Summer until WAY late!), and some other fun things for the kids to do. We had fun!

04-Jun-2017 11:59
04-Jun-2017 11:59
 
04-Jun-2017 11:59
04-Jun-2017 11:59
 
04-Jun-2017 11:58
03-Jun-2017 19:51
 
03-Jun-2017 19:33
03-Jun-2017 15:19
 

Now that all is said and done, I am THRILLED to be done celebrating anyone for any reason! Here’s to a fun summer just relaxing and enjoying our time with family and friends!!

…. please forgive this SUPER late post due to technical issues uploading pictures. #LoveTechnology