When the Cat's Away...

...The mice will paint!  Dave was gone for much of this week, so I kept busy by painting the bathroom.  I've been wanting to change our half bath from boring white to this sage green.  It's just a tiny space, so it was hard to get a good picture, but if you've been to our house this will at least give you an idea of the color.  Dave was so impressed when he came home, he installed a new floor-- something that's been on the to-do list for years!

So where was he? Dave used a pastor discount to stay alone at a Christian Camp in the mountains this week. He had a great little cabin, which helped him eliminate distractions and immerse himself in plans and prayer for each of his upcoming youth groups. He was able to read entire books and get tons done. When he needed a break, he would hike mountain trails or go kayaking. (He said the stick in the picture was in case he ran into any of the rattlesnakes someone warned him about!) He's feeling recharged, prepared and excited about this upcoming year.

And I have a fun green bathroom with a new floor.  Win-win! :)

It's the Little Things

As Ella got her first visit from Zero the Hero this week, we had the realization that we've been doing daily life without her for 10 whole days now.  Soon I'll write about what Delia and I do to keep busy from 7:30 to 4:00.  One thing our family has quickly learned is how valuable those hours Ella has at home are.  We're streamlining what we're all involved in to maximize play, homework, chore and sleeping times.  And we now live for Saturdays-- a whole day to just relax and be together! 

 

Today we planned just a tiny outing to hang out as a family.  We gathered up a bunch of old hot dog and hamburger buns and headed to a local lake.  We were welcomed by, what Ella estimated to be, 300 geese and ducks.

Silly Delia just couldn't get the hang of  breaking the bread apart.  The lucky geese she fed enjoyed entire buns!

Soon, it seemed, every goose in the park headed over the lake we were at.  It was fun to hear them honking and watch them fly in for a water landing.

Childhood memories of feeding the scary geese at the cemetery had me warning Dave, "Be ready to grab a girl and start running when the geese hiss and attack!"  These geese were pretty shy, though.  See all that bread just floating there?  I think they were more scared of an unpredictable Delia yelling and chucking whole hot dog buns at them!

When the timid geese got bored with us, the giant catfish came and cleaned up.  Some time to play in the sprinkler playgrounds followed this feeding frenzy.  This was just a simple trip out, but it gave us such joy because we got to enjoy it all together!

"Are They Twins?"

Every time we are out and about, I get the question, "Are they twins?"  Friends at church have been increasingly commenting on how Delia is changing and looking more and more like Ella, also.

Though I don't see it, I do understand it.  Their hair is very similar and the slight height difference is not noticeable when they're both sitting in a shopping cart.  They wear the same size shoe and are only one clothing size apart.  I bet the girls will grow up enjoying being so alike and raiding one another's closets!

Straight from the Tree to the Cobbler

What is it about this time of year?  Anyone else "nest" when it comes time to go back to school?  The change in schedule this week had me cleaning everything, reorganizing closets and making mile-long to-do lists.  Our first school year Saturday was spent working outside and taking care of some neglected yard work.  On that outdoor to-do list was whipping our fruit-laden peach tree into shape.  

Our peach tree ripened much later this year, but yielded about twice as much!  This means bags of peaches to our friends, peach smoothies for breakfast, peach slices in the lunches and, my favorite, peach cobbler for dessert!  If you are also looking for a way to use up your big baskets of peaches, this recipe is simple and gets compliments every time I make it! :)

Peach Cobbler

About 15 peeled and sliced peaches (If you freeze your peaches and make this in the winter, just thaw and drain them first)

3 Tbs. flour

3 Tbs. cinnamon

3 Tbs. sugar

For crust:

2 sticks of butter

1 cup flour

1 cup oats

1 1/2 cups sugar

Coat your peach slices with all the tablespoons of flour, sugar and cinnamon.  Spread in a greased 9x13 pan.  Mix the other ingredients to form crust.  Crumble evenly over peaches.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt. (If it's just for our family, I'll half the recipe and make it in an 8 inch square dish.)

The Last First Day

I'll start this post with a promise: I will not moan about how my babies are growing up or how much we'll miss being in this particular stage of life.  For four years in a row now we've walked our daughters to their first day of preschool.  While it feels a bit like the end of an era, today is a happy day!  Delia couldn't wait to put on her new backpack and new shoes and start her last year of preschool being a Star.

Evidence of her excitement is in the pictures.  For a gal who scowls at or hides from the camera most of the time, here she was modeling and making up first-day-of-school poses!

I have a 4 piece collection of these pictures of Dave holding hands and walking the girls to preschool on that first day.  What a sweet tradition! (Click to look back: Ella at 3, Ella at 4, Delia at 3)

No separation anxiety here!  Delia quickly found her best friend Brittany and skipped into the Star room to do some painting.  We're expecting another great school year.  Even if it is the LAST and my BABY is growing so FAST...sorry couldn't help it. :) 

First Grader in the House!

The all-important First Day of School outfit was laid out, the very first lunch made, the supplies bought and packed, the alarm clock set, the prayers for blessings on this school year said.  After a summer that seemed to pass in a heartbeat, here we are back to school already! 

Delia, unfortunately, matched Ella's happiness with grumpiness this morning.  No one is going to miss Ella more.  These two sisters had a great summer playing together and the house is going to seem very quiet without Ella leading the play, setting things up and telling Delia what to do! 

Ella's first day of first grade was, indeed, full of firsts:  First time meeting her new teacher, Mrs. D.J., first time getting to know about 14 of her classmates, first time staying the whole day, first time bringing a lunch, first time having 3 recesses, first time riding the bus home.  All these firsts added up to an "AWESOME!" day for Ella, though.  She came home with happy reports.  Now, onto the second day...let's hope Delia survives it! :)

Counting Down and the Art of Compromise

The back-to-school countdown clock now reads 3 days.  For Ella, the start of school cannot come quick enough.  Though this week was packed with fun things like play dates with friends, trips into San Francisco and lake days, Ella made a face each morning when she'd wake up and learn it was still not the first day of school.  I think it's important to record this now because I totally expect this to change in a few years!

To ready ourselves, we gathered up a pile of coupons and did lots of back-to-school shopping today.  The minivan came home full of new backpacks, shoes and school supplies.   We thought the girls would enjoy being a part of this process and having a say in what the stuff they used all year long was going to look like.  In actuality, involving them in the process just made us all better negotiators!  I'm not sure anyone got exactly what they wanted.  And we learned that hell hath no fury like a strong-willed 4 year old denied the expensive, pink, glitter-shedding backpack! 

In the end, we all survived getting the supplies.  A stop by school on the way home gave us the last thing we needed before Monday-- information about who Ella's teacher is and which friends are in her class.  We know she got a very nice and experienced teacher and will be classmates with 3 of her friends again.  Best friend Chloe is not one of them, though.  We've been praying that Ella would be put into the right class, the one where she can be the biggest blessing and the one where she will grow the most.  We surrender to God's will in this and are thankful that even the teacher and kids that make up 1A are subject to His control!

Fans for a Day

Long before we were given the free Cubs tickets, we bought some tickets to a San Francisco Giants game for this last week of summer.  We've been wanting to take the girls to AT&T Park and I got our seats for just $5 each.  Yes, they were right where you'd guess $5 seats would be-- just a few rows from the very very top, but these cheap seats still had a great view.  You know our loyalty lies with Chicago, so we don't really follow the Giants.  It was cool when they won the World Series last year and all, but mostly we were going for the experience today.  What an experience it was! 

The Giants ball park is so fun and so perfect for kids!  We spent half the game just walking around enjoying all the distractions.  This giant Coke bottle is actually a two story tunnel slide!  Ella and Dave raced down and, as you can see from Ella's backward glance, she won! 

There's a real cable car you can sit on to watch the game.  There are fountains that shoot water high into the sky after a home run (we did get to see this!).  In between each inning there are crazy activities like Beard Cam or paddle surfers jousting in the bay.  Of course, we had to check out all the boats and kayaks in the bay waiting to catch their own Splash Hit (we didn't get to see any of those).

The day was beautiful and the stadium really fun to explore.  Good thing because the Giants were pretty lousy today.  In the last few innings they were down by 7 runs!  Delia came to life at the bottom of the ninth when we all screamed our rally cheers.  Though it felt somewhat sarcastic and totally delusional at this point, it sure was fun to belt out "Don't Stop Believin'" with a crowd of passionate fans!

 

We left the game glad for the experience and planning on returning.  Yet, we reminded ourselves of this very important truth, spoken eloquently by Ella: "I like the Cubs better...because they actually won."

Super Tubers!

As we are on a short countdown to the first day of school (5 days!), it seems perfect that so many of our last days of summer have been spent at the lake.  Today we joined Dave's youth group for their annual Ski Day.  Though there was still plenty of snacking on shore, swimming and boat riding, today was all about the tubing for our girls, so those are the pictures I'll share.

 

Ella took her first ride on the tube two years ago during Ski Day.  She didn't hesitate to hop back on with Dave and enjoyed a wild ride. 

We weren't sure about Delia, but after watching Ella, she decided it looked more fun than scary, so she gave the tube a try too!  She smiled for her entire ride and told me afterwards that it was like "a water roller coaster!" 

The boat we were on actually had dueling tubes, so the girls took their initial rides with some crazy high school boys.   They splashed, bumped and watched the boys play leap frog on the tube.

Then we got our whole family out for a ride.  This was so fun (and picture-worthy)!  Delia kept trying to give a thumbs up while Ella made up songs about us riding on the tube and sang them at the top of her lungs.  Will the concept of a very fast and powerful boat dragging you behind it seem normal and allow the girls to get comfortable with sports like wake and knee boarding before they turn 33 (like me)?  I hope so! 

Water Sports

We are just coming off the exhausting, but rewarding, week that is VBS.  The girls both attend the program while Dave and I lead the rotations of kids through Wild Bible Adventures.  When Sara and Arend invited us to enjoy a day at the lake, we knew it would be the perfect way to relax after a week of hard work.

Right away the girls jumped in the water, testing out their new tubes.  Collecting rocks, digging holes in the sand and having a picnic lunch were also fun...

But, really, the best part of the day was all the time we got to spend on the boat!  For the girls, the faster and bumpier the ride, the better!

Those who have waterskiing skills (meaning pretty much everyone, except me) showed off their stuff.  Dave tried wake boarding for the first time and easily got up on the first try.

Arend even dazzled us with a few tricks!

 With some coaxing from my husband, and because he did make it look so easy, I gave wake boarding a try too.  After several attempts which resulted in several face plants and several gallons of water swallowed, it became clear that the wake board and I are not meant to be friends.  The knee board, however, didn't seem to have any problems with me!  I was happy to pull myself up on the first try and keep my balance long enough to enjoy a nice ride.  Please be impressed, this is totally not my thing and I've never tried anything like it before! :)

Ella was just dying to get in on the action, so she even tried the knee board!  Her 40 pounds were just not enough to keep the thing down, though, so Dave had to hop on the back and help a lightweight out.  I'm so proud of Ella.  She was insistent she try, totally didn't freak out when she was thrown from it and ended up loving her ride!