Tahoe-Summer 2009

We had alot of fun in Tahoe at the Newman's family cabin in Homewood.

My sis Kathleen came up with us and Cara's dad and sister Lauren were there as well.

The girls played at Chambers Beach and the pool, we took a boat ride on the beautiful lake, drank Chambers punch on the pier, had snacks at Sunnyside, cooked delicious meals, played Scrabble, and had lots of fun with facepaints!

The girls on the boat

Eating pushups on Chambers Beach

The girls with Addi's auntie La La






Kathleen-a beautiful butterfly

Little Fairies Collage

Addison and Cecily frolicking in the Garden in Tahoe.

Addison-The Flower Fairy

Cecily-The Fairy Queen

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Making strawberry shortcakes for Daddy's 37th (yikes!) birthday.

Fourth of July '09

Another fun fourth of July in Sonoma and Petaluma. The girls loved the parade, got Fairy (Ceci) and Care Bear (Addi) tatoos and then a BBQ with lots of little blondies running around-Ceci, Addi, Luna Dator and Sophia Anderson.

A parade, hot dogs, ice cream, fireworks and friends.

Watching the parade

Getting Tatoos-All Serious

All the little girls

Enjoying an icecream

Naked Aborigine Fingerpainting

First Day of Summer School

Tuesday (6/30) was Cecily's first day of preschool.

It is the summer program and she is only going Tues-Thurs for the month of July. She then starts the regular 5 day a week program when school starts back up in September. She was very excited, and nervous. I stayed all day so that she would feel comfortable. She wanted me to engage with her at first, but later was satisfied to have me sitting on a bench chatting with other moms (or reading work email on my Bberry).

She made some new friends "sort of". She collected "nuts"(some type of acorn thing) with one little boy and on the second day she became a little obsessed with one of the "older" (read: 4 years old) girls who helped her put on a bandaid on an invisible boo-boo on her knee. She really liked the whole routine factor of the program, snack time, circle time, etc. On the second day of school (which I stayed all day that day too) she participated in circle time by sharing a story abt 4th of July. I was a little suprised she wanted to share, and a bit concerned she was going to spin some crazy tale bc the group had gotten a little off track (it started out about fireworks, which led to discussion of "loud noises" and then one little boy started rambling about some man standing outside his bedroom window) but Cecily "kept it real' and talked about seeing fireworks at Addi's house.

She painted pictures, made a noodle necklace and played dress up. All in all a successful introduction to the world of school!

Walking to school

Opening the Gate to Preschool

Meeting the Director

Painting a first picture

Bear Valley

We had our Biagini/Hagel family trip in Blue Lake Springs in Bear Vally this year. It was a great place and had a clubhouse and pool and a few swim lakes. The girls had lots of fun with their Disney Princess fishing poles (who knew?). Hot days and warm evenings, roasting marshmallows, playing cards, the girls searched for "pearls" little plastic b.bs from a pellet gun that were scattered all around the grounds. It was great fun and hopefully we will get to spend more time there in the future!

Luca loves the mountains-but not the heat!

Nono and Luca

Sunday in the Park

San Francisco Summer Days

We luckily did not experience too much of the "June Gloom" that San Francisco can be so famous for. We spent some fun weekends just hanging around our town and having fun with little girl Cecily and little girl Luca.

Day At the Beach At Crissy Field

Running on the deck at the Crissy Field Cafe

Sunday Morning at Fisherman's Wharf

Arts and Crafts at the Bay Area Discovery Museum

Potty Training Success

I have been scared to post anything about Cecily being potty trained because I dont want to jinx it, but I think we just might be there. No accident for over a week now. It almost seems like a long journey bc she started being ABLE to use the potty a year ago, but we didnt want to go "cold turkey" so were very relaxed about the whole thing and didnt start with the panties until a month or so ago. We did the pull ups for awhile (and usually still use those at nap time) and then finally took the plunge of letting her wear the panties and have accidents, which there really werent that many of. She fights us alot, does not want to interupt what she is doing to sit down and do her business, but she is getting much better! We've now had experience using public bathrooms in a variety of places (the zoo, IHOP, the beach). Luckily she has gotten over her fear of public restrooms The fear was caused by a situation last month when we were driving down to LA and stopped at Harris Ranch to use the potty. They have a cute "little girls" stall with a short little potty perfect for kids. She peed, she wiped, she flushed, she flushed again, she flushed again...water starting rising up and I started screaming "Oh No! Oh No!" I grabbed her, and my purse, and tore out of there. Yes, of course I stopped to wash our hands, and aplogized to the other patrons who were staring at the overflowing mess. Anyways, she (and I) have gotten over it and have braved the public restroom experience again, to much better outcomes.

Anyways I feel very happy to have her "trained" in time for preschool which starts two days a week at the end of this month. It wasnt a requirement of the program, but it dosent hurt! Now if I could only train her to do anything else....