Anna's Ukulele Concert

Colin is 4

What a sweet and silly 4 year old we have on our hands!

Colin is a fun-loving kid who loves to tell tall tales. We think school is going well for him and he seems very happy to go. (He started preschool at Sacred Heart in September.) However, all the stories he tells seem to stretch reality. "Today, we went to the farm to see the goats (plausible). And then, the goats were fighting (maybe sort of true). And the one broke the other one's horn off! And then he died (probably not)." Here's he and Anna on their first day. They were so excited!!










Colin is a sporty kid who loves to play catch for hours on the playground. He has a persistence when working at a difficult task that we are so impressed with!  He is taking tennis lessons once a week which he seems to really enjoy. He also has spent the fall working really hard on his money bar skills - take a look:










Colin even chose to be a baseball player for Halloween - Madison Bumgarner from the Giants, to be specfic. His sister chose Alice in Wonderland. We had a fun time at both school and neighborhood events. Here are some videos from school:

We are really enjoying Colin being older and able to do lots more on his own. It seems like each day he wants to do another task he used to need help with "all by myself," whether it be buttoning or zipping clothing, pouring milk into his cereal, or cutting food. He has begun reading short sentences on his own, and his teachers report that he reads the Bob books they have at school. He's still very happy to have an adult do the reading while he snuggles in the reader's lap, much to his mom's delight! He really enjoys playing with his sister and the two of them can be very silly together. Check out these dance routines:












Anna is thriving in kindergarten. She still loves to read and is tearing through the Redwall series at the moment. She is also busy making new friends and taking ballet, ukulele and tennis lessons. Here she is getting used to her new rolling skates she got for her birthday:








Colin had a wonderful birthday weekend. His Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop came out for Thanksgiving so he got plenty of extra love and attention. He got to see his first movie in the theater: The Good Dinosaur and requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing with orange writing. Here are a few videos of the celebration, and then a link to pictures from the last three months:

Colin is 4

Anna turns 6!

What a sweet, silly, confident, and kind little girl Anna is! For this blog post, we thought we would give Anna the chance to put things in her own words, so I asked for her response to these questions:

Favorite book: The Wizard of Oz
Favorite color: Pink
Favorite food: Spaghetti carbanora
What Anna wants to be when she grows up: Artist
What she is most looking forward to in kindergarten: Her teacher playing guitar
What she most likes to play with her brother: Family
Favorite song to dance to: Uptown Funk
Favorite movie: Muppets' Christmas Carol
Favorite sport: Field hockey



Anna continues to be a voracious reader, who occasionally needs reminding put down her book to go run around outside. When she does venture outside she's a quick leader on the playground, coordinating pretend games such as "Family," "Ice Cream Stand," "Garbage Dump," and the latest, "Cat Lady." (Which contrary to my initial expectations is simply pretending to be ladies with cat powers, not a old women with many cats.) She seems drawn toward performance and music. You'll see pictures from her dance recital in this month's pictures, and we were lucky enough to have Grandpa and Grandma Barb in town for that performance. Anna is excited to continue dancing and start ukelele lessons in the fall.

Here are some casual performances at dance camp this summer:





Anna is so excited to begin kindergarten next week, and truth be told we could all use a return to a routine schedule! There's a gap this year between Karen's return to work and the kids' return to school, so we were lucky enough to get a visit from Pop-Pop on Anna's birthday today, who will watch the kids for a week. Anna's requested spaghetti carbonara, tomato salad, and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for her birthday dinner.

Anna's thrilled that Colin will be joining her at Sacred Heart this year, and revels in explaining all the routines and procedures of her old classroom. He seems very excited to join the community and got the chance to meet some classmates early. He's working on his reading to be more like his big sister, and he's gotten pretty good at sounding out 3 and 4 letter words. He is in love with all things baseball, and he roots proudly for the Giants. Here he is giving his sister her birthday present:

---

Anna is 6

Summer Travel 2015

What a great trip to the east coast we had this summer!

First stop, Philadelphia!  The kids had a ball with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop. Our big outing was a trip to Hershey Park. We had so much fun! The kids loved going on rides, especially Anna, our daredevil. She worked her way up the roller coaster thrill level and ended up going on an upside down coaster - twice! (Good thing Brian is a willing companion - because Karen was not!) The kids also loved the water park and had tons of fun going down water slides. The kids loved Chocolate World, especially the chocolate tasting and "4-D" movie. In addition to that trip, we went bowling, sailing, and swimming in the backyard.  Colin got to take Pop-Pop out for his Father's Day gift - a trip to the Phillies game! Colin even got to run the bases after the game. Anna took Mom-Mom to see the movie Inside Out, which she loved.

Next we boarded a train to make our way towards North Carolina! Grandma picked us up in Virginia and brought us to her house in Kitty Hawk. We immediately put the jet skis in the water and had a blast riding around in the sound. (Truth be told, Colin was a bit iffy in regards to the jet skis. He preferred kayaking with Grandma!) We went kite flying at Jockey's Ridge and sightseeing at the Wright Brother's Memorial. When I told Anna I'd been to the Wright Brother's Memorial as a child with my family, she asked, "Had the planes flown there yet?"Yeesh! We enjoyed several lovely mornings at the beach and Brian and Karen especially enjoyed the warm Atlantic Ocean. The kids seemed more impressed by the soft sand and its dribble castle possibilities. Probably the highlight of the trip for the kids was going to a nearby restaurant to shell and eat crabs - they loved it!



Our kids are lucky to have such great grandparents. We all had a blast! Click below to see the rest of our adventures!

Summer trip back east

Colin at 3 and a half

Colin's growing up into a spunky, friendly boy who loves to dance, smash, climb and question. He's so fun these days - very inquisitive and adventurous but still cuddly. He's lost most of his shyness, as you can see here:


Drumming may be in his future:


He's finishing up his last days at his daycare, Madera Grove. He's spent the last three years there and loves his teachers, especially his fellow Giants fan Ms. Shelby. I'm not sure it has really hit him that it's all over on June 4th, but he seems pleased at the prospect of staying home for the summer with his mom and sister. He has been accepted to Sacred Heart and has had several visits into classrooms last week, one for a formal introduction to the school as a new student and one for a classroom event of Anna's. He fit right in and immediately began participating in classroom activities. He even asked for a snack from the snack table! He'll be eager to start in late August.

Colin seems to have a bit of an athletic streak, and loves physical activity.


He's catching up to his sister in tennis without any lessons!


Anna and Colin are always inventing new ways to get the most adventure out of our humble neighborhood playground:


Colin's stories get ever more interesting. He is learning to speak more clearly bit by bit. He'll occasionally stop to take a deep breath and slow down his words as they tumble out of his mouth - he's so eager to take a turn in the family conversations!

Anna is doing well, having lost two teeth since we last posted. She got gold dollar coins from the Tooth Fairy. She's a sociable girl and has a much busier social calendar than her parents! She is enjoying school immensely and reading up a storm. Here's her reading one of Aunt Jenny's American Girl books:

					We've had lots of fun adventures in the last few months as you'll see in the pictures. We had a fun event at the Stanford Provost's house - an Easter Egg Hunt! The carnival came to our town and the kids got to ride ponies, among many other things. We enjoyed a Stanford baseball game. And just recently we headed to a cool zoo and museum called Curiodyssey for birds of prey day.... but clearly the river otters stole the show! Click below to see our recent pictures!

Anna is 5 and a half!

Our little girl is getting so big... and she has a loose tooth to prove it! Anna is a happy girl who loves reading, telling stories, being helpful, playing with babies, dancing, ice skating, climbing trees, and making up math problems for her mom to solve.

Anna continues to thrive at Sacred Heart and her teachers call her a "teacher in training." She has a great group of friends there. She continues to improve in her after-school tennis lessons and Saturday morning dance lessons.

She loves to dance! Here is a video of her at our neighborhood's annual Family Valentine's Day dance:


She learned to ski this past week! Here is a video of her taking a short run down a small hill. She's initially going up the "magic carpet" and then you can see her go down the hill in the background at about 20 seconds:


She's getting better and better at ice skating! She's had a few opportunities this winter and was very proud of herself for going around the rink by herself during our trip to Lake Tahoe. (Colin maintains she's walking on the ice, not ice skating. He's got a point, but she was very proud of herself! She glides more when holding someone's hand.)


Click below to see our latest pictures:

Anna at 5.5

Late post on Christmas

Woops! Despite making a Christmas album a few months ago, I forgot to post it! First, we celebrated an early mini Christmas at home. Colin's big gift was a big boy bike - he loves it. Anna's request for a knitting set was honored and she also got a Razor scooter.

Then, off on an airplane we took off....
We had a wonderful trip to the East Coast, starting with the Maryland contingent through Christmas Eve and heading up to Philadelphia for Christmas Day through New Years Eve. The kids were properly spoiled with good food and toys. The theme for this year was Legos, Legos, Legos! Colin's becoming a huge fan of the Lego Jr. series - he got the Batcave set as well as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set. He also really enjoys anything to do with the movie Planes (not that he's seen it....) and loved his Planes Duplo Set as well as his Dwight. D. Flysenhauer aircraft carrier. Anna got her share of legos as well, including a big treehouse as well as a Lego Friends beachouse that she picked out with the some of the birthday/Christmas money she had been saving. She also upgraded to a new bike helmet that she can change the design on using special white board pens. In addition to toys, we went on two special outings. We drove down to DC and went to two different Smithsonian museums: the National Air and Space Museum and the American Indian Museum. The kids loved both and got to have the experience with both Grandma Jean and Aunt Laura. In Philadelphia, Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop surprised the kids with tickets to Frozen on Ice. They were in heaven! We had a wonderful time seeing family and friends; our only disappointment being not being able to share any time with cousin Nicholas. But we are hopeful to see him soon!

Click to see some pictures of our holiday adventures!

Christmas 2014