Mani/Pedi for Grandma Betty

About once a month, the girls and I go and visit a sweet 90+ year old woman from our church family named Betty.  The girls bring our tub of nail polishes and they paint her toes and fingers for her-- a job she told me her late husband used to do when her hands started shaking.  This has become a sweet time for all of us.  Grandma Betty tells the girls fascinating stories about what life was like when she was a young girl.  Then before we leave, she insists that Ella and Delia pick out necklaces and glass figurines from her collection.  She also gives them a few bucks.  The girls truly love participating in this act of service, and I'm so proud of them when they try to refuse her money.  But Grandma Betty says, "When you get old, you just accumulate stuff, including money.  It gives me greater joy to give it away than keep it."  What a neat lesson for all of us. :)

Back To School

So, here is my annual Three-Weeks-After-School-Has-Started "Back to School" post!  I guess I just need about 3 weeks to feel like I kinda got life under control again before I spend time blogging. 

This year is off to a great start!  I am teaching preschool all 5 days again, in the same classroom, with the same team of teachers consistently and I am so happy.  I have 2 neat classes of kids who have already captured my heart and added adorable sayings and stories to my collection.  There are just enough challenges in each class to keep every day interesting too. :)

 Here we are on the first day of school, sporting gleaming new shoes and some new school gear.

Delia is super excited about this year!  She got a teacher we've never had, but know is one of the best on staff.  Miss S. is actually a friend.  I bring the girls to help in my classroom the week before school starts, but then I often have to hunt them down because they have ditched me to hang out with Miss S. as she sets up too.  She is funny and cool and full of interesting teaching ideas.  Besides getting the teacher she has been wanting for years, Delia also got her sweet best friend Kate in her class.  The picture below was actually taken on the day that teacher emails went out telling us who was in what class.  We knew they'd be coming between 1:00 and 3:00.  This is where Delia parked herself while waiting to find out if she'd have Miss S. or not!

This year marks a huge transition for Ella as she moves to Middle School.  For some reason this honestly feels more monumental to me than when she started preschool or kindergarten.  She has a locker.  She has a schedule and switches teachers and classes.  She has study hall options (which she gave up so should could be a part of both the band and choir).  She can play sports on teams (which she plans on doing).  She can run for Student Council (which she also plans on doing).  She now totes a school-issued laptop around with her.  And she absolutely loves every bit of it.  It is pretty neat to watch our girl thrive in this adolescent stage!

Going Out with a Bang 3: Cubs Game

Our one big splurge this week was tickets for a Cubs vs. A's game.  If this does happen to be our year, (which it is kinda sorta maybe looking like?) we wanted to be sure we could say, "We SAW the World Champion Chicago Cubs team play this summer!"  This was a 3 game series and we're so happy that we could not only see the Cubs win on the day we went, but see them sweep Oakland this weekend!

We had the coolest seats in row 1 of center field.  Rizzo walked right under us!  Fowler actually waved back at us!  Every time an almost home run was caught it happened right by us!  It was a view of a stadium we have never had and we really enjoyed it!

What was SO fun about this game was watching it as the away team, but totally not feeling like the away team!  There was just as much Cubbie Blue in the Coliseum as green and yellow and the people sitting on all sides of us were Cubs fans too!  When the Cubs won, a sea of W flags broke out, as did the "Hey Chicago Wha'd'ya Say?" song!  Dave said the Cubs travel well, but we've seen them play in California lots of times and have never been in such good company!  Maybe everyone else is thinking the same thing we are: THIS is the year!  Better see them while we can! 

Going Out with a Bang 2: Bay Area Exploring

Another thing on that Fun Stuff to Do List was to find a great path and go for a family rollerblading outing.  We did find an awesome new path in the Bay Area, but quickly had to abandon the roller blades and just hike it when we realized how bumpy and full of cracks it was.

But, that does not mean we wouldn't totally recommend that our local friends check this path out!  Just bring your walking shoes or bikes instead. :)

The path we found was a 6 mile, flat, shoreline-hugging trail that wound around an actual island.  It had great views of San Francisco, the USS Hornet, and the Bay Bridge.  One part of the path took us right past the Oakland Airport runways, so we could see planes taking off right over our heads.  Another part of the path wound through gorgeous neighborhoods.  And the whole time we walked, we kept that beautiful view of  the bay in sight, as well as all the neat wildlife that lives in it.

  

One unexpected bonus to spending a day in the Bay Area was a reprieve from the triple digit heat we've been enjoying.  We kept our sweatshirts on all day in the 60 degree weather.  This was a perfect, nearby, free!, outing for us for this week!

Going Out with a Bang 1: Water Park Fun

While we don't officially start school for a week yet, the next one is going to be full of classroom set up and in-service days, meaning the week we just completed was kind of our LAST OFFICIAL WEEK of summer.  We packed it with fun activities and made the most of it!  Realizing he was not going to get anywhere near to taking his 4 weeks of vacation this year, Dave also took a week off.  This was one of the greatest weeks of summer for us!  We made two lists: one of neglected things to get done and one of fun stuff to do together.  Fun items were little things like "Go out for breakfast" or "Spend a day at the pool, all 4 of us" or "Have some friends over" or "Worship at a new-to-us church".  We feel both rested and accomplished in crossing nearly everything off both lists!

  

We kicked off this Last Official Week of Summer with a trip to the water park with Dorina, Shawn and their girls.  For this outing, Dave hung back to get work done before he took his week off.  We had the best time racing each other down water slides, bobbing in the wave pool, floating in the lazy river, playing tag in the fountain park, and catching up while waiting in lines.

  

After almost 8 hours in the water park, we had an awesome dinner at Pieology-- a new pizza place for us.  The girls amused us with their stellar selfie-taking skills.  Kinda scary just HOW good they are at this!

Spending a day in a water park is unintentionally becoming a summer tradition for us!  (Summer 2015, Summer 2014, Summer 2010)  Something about flying down a water slide brings out the kid in you!  I think it's such fun, we'll have to keep this tradition alive!