feeding geese

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!