Preschool Golf Ball Drop and Life In Between

To end their first year of preschool, the girls participated in their first golf ball drop as part of a fundraiser for their school. Friends and family purchased golf balls in their names and were entered in a raffle to win cash. The night of the fundraiser, a helicopter dropped all the purchased golf balls onto the golf course, and whichever ones were closest to the designated hole, won the cash prizes. We didn’t win, but, as promised, all the kids were amazed with the helicopter and all those balls! Leading up to the golf ball drop, we were all very curious as to how it was all going to work. How did they label all those balls? How close would the helicopter get? What if there was a tie? We were intrigued!

As the suspense built up, Samantha and Amelia had a blast running around the green with Ella and some of their preschool friends (and, subsequently, annoying all the golfers who were so unfortunate to be there that night). They thought it was funny to see their friends in a context outside of school! After the golf ball drop, the school hosted dinner at the golf course and all the kids ran around the green with the dads watching (i.e. they were completely unsupervised). It was a unique and fun way to spend the evening, although trying to have a conversation while keeping Samantha, Amelia and Ella away from the fire pits after they finished their dinner in only two minutes, on top of keeping an overtired Meredith at bay, was not exactly relaxing.

SO excited.

Everyone cheered as the helicopter hovered, golf balls rained down from the sky and then bounced all over the place, like little ping pong balls.

Run, kids, run!

And the winner is… Gabriel’s mom from Amelia’s class!

I wish I could get the girls to clean up this fast at home. When asked to pick up all the golf balls, the kids didn’t hesitate!

Meredith thought she could run away with a little souvenir.

In between preschool days, we alternate between playing, biking and scootering at the local parks, going to to the library, hanging out at the local pools and splash pads, and feeding the geese at the lake. Meredith is in the dreaded stage between one and two naps, but the majority of the time, she still really needs that morning nap, so we only have about an hour and a half or so to get out in the morning after she wakes up and before returning home for lunch. It’s a tight schedule, but it’s nice for the twins and I to have some alone time while she’s napping and hang out at home without having to rush off anywhere. The twins are in a golden stage of being capable of spending hours coloring, doing crafts, playing tea party, picnic and school pretty much on their own, with the occasional intervention from me when things start to go south.

Meredith is up; time to hit the lake!

Meredith wanted to keep all the bird seed to herself.

The twins love to live on the edge by climbing on the SECOND closest rocks to the water, after I told them not to climb on the rocks right next to the edge.

On typical Saturdays, either Jake or I take the girls to their yoga/ballet class and then we either all meet up with Meredith, or the twins go with Dad on their own for a quick outing. With our move, they’ve been spending a good amount of time at Home Depot lately and on a supply trip, they stopped in for one of the workshops. The girls constructed a mini tic tac toe game and were proud to display their handiwork when they got home!

Nice hammering skills, Amelia.

 

 

We love Sendero park on Sunday afternoons. There are these wavy concrete structures that circle the park and the girls spend the entire time running up and down, pretty much ignoring the actual playground.  I think that’s Amelia in the background attempting to somersault on the concrete. Ouch.

Monkey Amelia.

On any given outing, I usually end up with a stroller full of leaves and bouquets of flowers the girls collect for me. Heaven forbid I don’t put them in a glass of water as soon as I get home… they always notice if I’ve forgotten one of their flowers!

The girls always receive compliments on their bike riding and are really getting the hang of it!

Lots of love,

 

 

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Summer Fun with Grandpa

Besides our trip down to San Diego for Ben’s graduation, Grandpa hung out with us at home and lent an extra hand babysitting, dog walking, running errands, washing my car, and taking out the trash! We’re sure he needed a vacation after his “vacation” with us!

In between being our extra household help for the week, we took Grandpa to Zoomars in San Juan Capistrano where the girls spent about an hour chasing guinea pigs. The poor little things were sleeping, eating, and hiding under the benches, but were no match for Meredith who squealed in delight chasing them around and dragging them out of their hiding places. Meredith’s second favorite animals were the goats, but we removed her, screaming, after she got a little too violent with them. I’m sure they didn’t appreciate her hitting them, although I think she thought she was treating them exactly the same as she does Bandit.

Lunch at Ellie’s table!

Now I know from where she gets her cheeks!

Grandpa accompanied the twins to one of their swim lessons and was tasked with keeping Meredith out of the pool.

Later, we had a barbecue and pool party with Grandpa.

Three on the crocodile did not end well. 

Epic chicken fight!

Who you looking at?

Painting with Grandpa.

It’s nice not having to worry about walking the dog while Grandpa is here, but Meredith was slightly jealous that he was taking over her normal duties. 

Little Miss Piggy.

After Grandpa returned to Utah, the twins were confused, asking, “Where’s Grandpa?” constantly. When I explained he had to go back to Utah, they sighed with understanding, knowing how far it is since they are old enough to remember trips there. As they always say, “That’s a long journey!”

Lots of love,

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Mission Bay Beach

After the girls’ gymnastics showcase, I loaded up the car with beach gear and three girls and we drove down to San Diego to meet Jake and the rest of the family for Ben’s law school graduation party. I’m always hopeful that a long drive during nap time will result in lulling the girls to sleep, but this time, I was not so fortunate. Meredith’s eyes were glazed over, but she couldn’t quite make it to dreamland with all the giggling, squealing, arguing and “SHE TOUCHED ME!” echoing from the back row. And that was WITH a movie playing.

Once we finally arrived, we were all excited to get out of the car and play with cousins Noah and Hailey at Mission Bay.

Cutest frisbee triangle!

Having missed her afternoon nap, Meredith alternated between cranky and delirious.

Samantha was ready to take over the driver’s seat on the jet ski.

After a long loop, Amelia decided she felt safer on dry land and let the speed demons take it for another spin.

Meredith was not pleased about being left behind, but got over it as soon as she discovered she could annoy Amelia in the tent.

 

Catch me if you can.

This was not the first time the girls had been paddle boarding, but whether it was their non-nap or the sun getting to them, for whatever reason, they were terrified. It didn’t help that they fell overboard!

Samantha was holding on for dear life and hyperventilating.       

Snack sharing in the tent.

Sandy pita chips… yum.

Worn out from the sun and sand, we filled up at Ben’s graduation party at the beach house the Kagel’s had rented. The girls were excited to congratulate Ben and see the Kagels, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, and Uncle Mike and Ali, who had flown in from Wyoming. Meredith was too dazed to enjoy the company, but I think she still secretly relished all the extra cuddles.

Samantha, Amelia and Noah entertained themselves by playing with ice from the cooler and pretending to be a train.

It’s nothing personal, Ali!

We ended our evening early after the dominoes started to fall, starting with Meredith and followed closely by an epic meltdown from the twins. It was fun while it lasted! Since Jake had taken a separate car down earlier that morning while I was at the twins’ recital, I was rewarded for the harrowing journey down by handing the keys to the minivan and overtired children over to Jake and returned home in the other car in blissful peace and quiet, no Goldie & Bear or Dora within earshot!

Lots of love,

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Who Let a Zoo Loose Cal Elite Recital

For their first gymnastics recital, Samantha, Amelia and the Tumblebee squad transformed into squeezable little polar bears for their part in the “Who Let a Zoo Loose?” show. Getting a hundred kids dressed in costume, in and out of their performance, complete with equipment and set changes was really impressive on the gym’s part– they’ve obviously got this down. My favorite part was not shelling out a fortune for a recital costume we’d never use again; instead, they have you show up, find a costume that fits and rent it for the performance. Easy and fun!

We sent Jake as our family representative to Cousin Ben’s law school graduation that morning, and I had a babysitter watch Meredith, who would not have lasted more than a few minutes at the show, so it was a Mommy Twin date!  I was really nervous sitting and waiting for the girls to come on, imagining that they would flat-out refuse to come out, be paralyzed with fear as soon as they saw the crowd, or have a meltdown with all the blinding lights, loud music and general sensory overload. They were one of the very last groups in the 45 minute show to perform, so I can’t imagine how their coaches were keeping all the kids busy backstage, but I didn’t hear a peep.

To my shock and relief, the girls seemed completely unfazed when they crawled out of their polar bear cage and took the stage. Since they didn’t really have a routine they practiced during their regular gymnastics class, the kids pretty much just followed what their teacher was doing, and some of the little bears lost their way. They were still adorable! In the video, Samantha is the second to come out of the cage and Amelia was one of the last ones. Love the near-polar-bear-cage-fail at the beginning.

Even for the older performers, the recital did not really showcase all the skills the kids practice in class, like the beam and bars, but with such a short performance and having to herd 15+ groups of kids in and out, I can see why they made it simple.

It was fun watching the other gymnasts perform to see what they do at the higher levels and I wish Samantha and Amelia could have watched. But the very best was the babies! Everyone let out a collective “AWWWWWW” when the toddler class came out in plush tiger, lion and bear costumes and “performed” (i.e. sat on their parents’ laps and did a few somersaults) and swayed to “Rainbow Connection.” Not a dry eye in the house. After the performance, the girls were proud of themselves and thought the whole thing was worth it just to get a cake pop from the treats table afterwards.

Meanwhile, in San Diego…. congrats, Ben! 

Lots of love,

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