Ellie's 1st Day of School

We cannot believe Ellie is 2 years old already and starting preschool!! She is going to the same co-op Willem went to, Creative Bridges, 3 mornings a week. We had our meet the teacher time the week before and she beelined for the dolls and seemed to be ready to play with friends.

Jason is on nights right now so he was able to drop Ellie off with me and help with photos. Ellie is still in constant motion so getting a picture of her that isn't blurry can be a challenge. She has been ready for school all Summer and regularly practiced carrying her backpack around so when the big day came, we had no concerns.

Ellie was ready to go in but we took one last picture of our big girl!

Her teachers noticed at the observation day Ellie's love for organizing and putting things where they belong. That has continued to prove true 2 weeks later. She takes great care in putting things where they belong and doesn't like when toys are out of place. The doll/cooking area seems to be a favorite.

When I picked her up, she was all smiles and would not let me carry her. She said "self", she wanted to carry her backpack and lunch box herself. 100 feet from the classroom, her exhaustion sunk in and she took a break on a step.

 

Finally, a still Ellie picture:) After a short rest, she let me carry her to the car. Before we got out of the parking lot, she was asleep. She has NEVER transferred from the carseat to her bed but the first two weeks have been an exception. She was totally exhausted, must have been a fun day!

Summer Vacation at Opa and Litas

It had been a few months since we'd been to LA, so before school started we decided to head to LA for a long weekend. Willem had been begging to go to California and I knew we wouldn't be traveling for the next few months with the baby due. The day we drove in we stopped at the Weiss' for a potty break and headed straight to Seal Beach.

Willem was in heaven! He loves the water, the sand, everything about the beach.

Ellie was okay with it. She was far more into the snack than the beach experience at first.

 

Willem was quite the dare devil and wanted to jump the waves and chase the tide. A little bit tricky to do while pregnant! On this day the waves and current were strong and each time the waves receded there was a strong undertow. At one point Willem let go to try and jump a wave by himself and got knocked down. I couldn't move fast enough and a 2nd wave hit and pulled him under. We all stayed calm luckily but it was scary as there was about 30 seconds where I could not see where he was. I wasn't sure if he'd been pulled away or if he was going to come up elsewhere. Luckily a Dad on the beach saw all this happening and ran over and scooped Willem up (he was probably 20 feet down the beach from where he started. He was shaken up but before we left the beach we made sure he got back in the water for a few minutes so he wasn't traumatized the next time we went to the ocean. We were very lucky!!

Ellie mostly played in the sand with Opa and Lita. She loves moving the sand around and sitting on the towel watching everyone.

 

 

 

The next day we went to Disneyland thanks to Tante Linda and Uncle Jim for getting us in! We knew the Cars area had opened the month before so we had a movie night a couple weeks before our trip to show the kids the movie. Willem really liked it and had watched it a few more times before we got to LA. I thought the Cars area at CA Adventure was phenomenal. It was so realistic it felt like we were on the movie set of Cars. Willem loved how Mater and Lightning McQueen drove through the area while we were there. 

 

Willem was excited about the tractor ride and it was nice because Ellie and I could both go on it as well. This ended up being Ellie and I's only ride for the day.

After meeting a couple of the cars, Willem and Opa went on the race car ride. There was an hour and 20 minute wait but Willem could not be deterred. He loved that ride and asked to go on it straight away. The rest of us were melting and ready to move on, so we're hoping the line is shorter next time as I think he would have ridden it all day long. While he and Opa were on the ride, Lita, Grandma, Ellie and I did get to enjoy a nice lunch at Flo's Diner in the A/C so no complaints there.

Ellie was ready for a nap after lunch and I had forgotten her lala at the Weiss'. She was a trooper but insisted on Mom carrying her and had very little interest in Disneyland from that point on.

We ended up buying a towel for her to use as a blankie and that did the trick. She eventually crashed and we took the towel away as it was 90+ degrees outside and we wanted to keep her cool.

At Disneyland we rode the Monorail and walked around a bit but both kids were ready to leave so we didn't ride any rides. We did catch a parade though which was really neat. Willem was okay with it, some of the characters scared him but others he enjoyed. It made me realize how many Disney movies he hasn't seen like Mary Poppins, most of the princess movies, Aladdin. I think I enjoyed the parade far more than him. Ellie slept through the parade, so we'll see how she enjoys it next time.

As we were leaving we ran into Mickey and Minny. Neither Willem or Ellie was really into the characters. They definitely have observer personalities and were fine with them from afar but didn't want to get close.

Pluto is Opi's favorite character, so we tried getting a picture for him. Did not go over so well!

A tuckered out family.

On the way home from Disneyland we stopped to visit Opi. Willem was excited to show him the Disneyland map and all the places we'd gone. Willem loves maps and will collect them at the Zoo or anywhere else we go.

Ellie was still pretty tuckered out but she loved playing in the fountain at Opi's.

Opi has been wanting Willem to drive his scooter for awhile and this time Willem got comfortable enough to take it out for a spin. It's always great to visit Opi.

Willem's 1st Day of School (PreK)

Willem started his 2nd year in the Primary classroom today. Last week he was unsure about going back to school and was voting to just stay home and play trains but over the weekend the anticipation continued to build and he became excited about school again. He is quite proud to be able to stay all day like the kindergartners and is looking forward to painting in the outdoor environment. Going over the school lunch menu helped as well and he has decided to once again to opt for school lunches over Mom packed lunches. I wonder why (corn dogs, nachos, chicken fingers. not sure if he's going to a carnival or school, but if it gets him to love school we'll roll with it)

Last night as I was tucking him into bed he said, "Mom, I'm just so excited about school tomorrow". He got dressed quickly this morning and came to my room at 5:40am ready for school:) Hoping this excitement continues.

Jason's on nights right now which worked out beautifully as he was able to get home just in time to take pictures and take Willem to school with Ellie and I.

Ellie insisting on wearing Willem's shoes.

Willem was excited to see his friends.

Back into the swing of things, Ellie nabbed Maddy's leftovers. Ellie is part of the gang at school breakfast.

Jason, Ellie and I went to pick Willem up at the end of the day and he was still jazzed about school. He said he'd played with his friend Madison, had a new lesson and ate the yummy oranges that he loves. All in a good days work!

Random Summer Happenings

The Mailman

Willem has claimed Ellie's lunchbox and backpack as his mailbag. A few times a week he draws pictures or writes something to each person in our family and then puts the notes in envelopes and addresses them. Then he goes around the house delivering his mail. Ellie usually follows behind as his helper.

The kids have been cleaning and helping out a lot more around the house this Summer. Vacuuming is a favorite as is anything that involves a spray bottle.

Willem and Ellie are such good friends now. They have their moments (which can feel like hours at times) of fighting, but they are a strong team. They are much happier together than apart and come up with all sorts of games. The favorite right now is that they are kitty cats. They will spend an entire morning building their cat home and talking in Meows.

 

The kids started back in swim lessons and are having a lot of fun swimming with their friends, Ben and Belle. Their teacher is amazing and it's been fun to see both of them get even more comfortable in the water over the last month. Willem is mostly learning the backstroke and side breathing and Ellie is learning to use her arms. That girl will swim across the width of the pool only using her feet, I don't know what she'll do once she figures out how to use her arms.

 

Jason's been on nights all month so we've enjoyed our pockets of time with him in the morning or early afternoon. It's been nice having him home during the day more and he's gotten to see parts of our day that he isn't usually around for.

Ellie's Birthday Party (2 years old)

The kids were excited to have Opa, Lita, Opi and Tia Julie come in for Ellie's birthday party. There was a countdown involved and the anticipation was so high that the kids went straight to waking them up on Saturday morning (circa 6am).

Willem helped design the cakes with the insistence of bright, neon colors and there being a tinkerbell doll on Ellie's cake since she loves Tinkerbell.

 

We had a swim party at Paw Paw's house with the entire family and 5 of our closest family friends. With 10 kids in the pool, a slip in slide and delicious food, we all had a wonderful time. The kids would get worn out, refuel and go back in for more. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tinkerbell the toy and fork, how convenient!

Ellie had a wonderful day with her family and friends. She was surrounded by love and spent the entire day swimming which is one of her favorite things to do right now. Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!

 

The next day with great insistence from Willem, Ellie opened her presents. It was sweet seeing how uninterested she was at the age of 2, imagine what the world would be like if we could all stay at that level of innocense. Willem helped her get into the spirit though and unwrapped the gifts with her. The stroller from the Bertolinos was one of the first opened and everything came to a halt until it was assembled and her doll had been walked for what seemed like hours. The stroller was such a hit in our house, that I broke down and helped Willem buy one a week later.