And as of this post, I’m 38-years-old! I had a great birthday celebrating with my friends – thanks Kathy for setting it up! We kicked off the Friday celebration with wine and appetizers at Painted Cork, an art studio that provides easy directions to paint using acrylics on canvas. It was fun doing something artsy (read: non-technical) for a change .. . and we all did pretty well, although the verdict is still out on whether Sangria helped or not.

 

  

How wonderful to have friends prioritize spending time with me – I definitely felt very happy, surrounded by such awesome ladies.

After painting, we headed to a local bar for drinks (and in Bev’s case … a hot dog) and dancing. We met up with two of my teammates, Tom and Andy. Thank you all for celebrating with me!

 

Saturday, we went to a ‘Pirates in the Library’ fundraiser event with Alex and Nicole:

  

 

Sophie visited us, and we went to see the ‘Dolphin Tale’ movie on an outdoor screen at a local aquatic center. It was a cute movie based on a true story, and I was only mildly distracted by the whining toddler behind me. (Trust me, my kids are no angels, but I’m pretty sure that as a parent, I wouldn’t have ignored it for 30+ minutes. Seriously!) Sunday, we had Girasole pizza for lunch, followed by Nuyo frozen yogurt. I originally wanted to go out for Mikuni’s sushi, but the restaurant was closed …  and Zachary cheered “Hooray! Today is my lucky day!” My actual birthday was not Zach’s lucky day though. My team took me out for sushi at Blue Nami, AND we had a family dinner at Mikunis. I can really pack away the raw fish! James gave me a Garmin GPS for my car (complete with personal installation and setup) since I am infamous for getting lost. And with a 25% off birthday coupon, I picked up a new Lululemon racerback tank, running shorts, Yogitoes yoga towel, and headband. Happy Birthday to me!

   

 

 

Last Friday, Kathy, Melissa, Sam, and I stayed up late playing mahjong. Then on Saturday, we spent a majority of the day at Zach’s soccer seeding tournament, where they played 5 short games between 8am-1pm. Now that the boys are older, the field is much bigger (or at least it seemed that way to me, with my dinky camera lens) and it’s much harder to run up the score.

 

  

Alice came to visit, and we went to a yoga class together. It was a community yoga class for “everyone”, and after calling to confirm it was okay, I also brought Calie. Oops. There were no other kids, and it was a real 1 hour 15 min Vinyasa Flow class! She had taken a few kids’ yoga classes and hung in there pretty well with the adults until she flipped over during ‘gorilla pose.’ She started crying, and I immediately got up to escort her out of the room … but the teacher had her sit in the front of the class during the final stretches. Alice also played games with us when she visited … she brought Zach a pack of Pokemon cards from Nintendo World in New York. Two low key weekends in a row focused on quality family time. Whoo-hoo!

 

  

 

We are still getting used to our school year routine … homework (Zach only so far … struggling to complete on soccer practice days), soccer (Zach), dance (Calie), swim (Zach and Calie), and exercise (I’m trying to fit in 10k jogs and yoga ta least twice a week.) We also go on an occasional bike ride … which brings us to our latest milestone. Zach is now training wheel free! We figured that if we waited too much longer, we’d have to invest in an adult-sized bike with training wheels … which seems like it might be an expensive specialty item.

And my “baby” is 4-years-old this post! As Calista’s birthday was midweek, we kept it simple. The kids and I made cupcakes for her to bring to class. They looked absolutely terrible, but I guess they must have tasted okay, since all were eaten, and a teacher admitted to gobbling up 3! I had a passing thought to take the day off, but on the way to school, Calie exclaimed,”I’m going to wear a birthday crown today, and everyone is going to sing to me!” She was just beaming! The girl loves attention. So we picked her up normal time (~5pm) and went to IHOP for her birthday dinner. (I tried to convince her to pick sushi, but pancake face with yogurt prevailed.) As it was a kids-eat-free night, and they gave her a free birthday dessert, we had a pretty inexpensive celebration!

   

Zach spent a week at the Aquatic Center summer camp, where he canoed, kayaked, wind surfed, hydro biked, sailed, and stand-up paddled. The last day of camp was open house, so I took the afternoon off work and joined him on the lake. For someone who goes to yoga somewhat regularly, I had surprisingly poor balance. I fell numerous times on the SUP (Zach had to fish me out of the freezing water!) and wasn’t able to catch wind on the windsurfer. I was better than Zach at the hydro-bike though, as he wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the peddles.

 

  

We’ve also been enjoying the longer summer days by playing outside in our shady yard after work. Zach is addicted to our new $20 badminton set.

  

Saturday morning, I went on a 10k run with my coworkers. We’ve been running just ~2.7 miles the past 2 years, and decided we needed to increase our mileage since a few people in the group (not me) were training for a half marathon. Huh. Wake up at 7am and run 6.3 miles. It pretty much takes all my will power not to come up with excuses. After my run, Calista and I celebrated Eamon’s birthday at a local park, where the kids climbed play structures and rode on a train. 9am was perfect, as we had the park to ourselves, and it was still cool. Happy 4th Birthday Eamon!

 

Then it was off to try a new dance studio, at their annual open house. Calista tried 4 dance classes … 2 hours worth! She absolutely loved it, so we will be signing her up. The best part is that classes and shows are on weekends, and they have a drop in rate, which is only slightly more than paying for monthly classes.

  

In the evening, we tried a new pizza place followed by Baskin-Robbin ice cream.

  

Sunday, I got in another 10k jog before James’ parents came to visit. For Calie’s birthday, they gifted her a pastel train set with tracks.

  

One of Calista’s best friends couldn’t make her birthday party, but wanted to drop by with a gift … so we invited them over for an impromptu dinner playdate!

  

Saturday (after my 10k run – I’m on a roll!) was Calista’s birthday party at the Sacramento Children’s Museum. There was a 30 person limit in the party room, and we had 29 guests.  While we only had the party room for an hour, guests were able to play at the museum before and after the party.

 

  

The kids had a fun time, and ‘signed in’ on a shirt (provided by the museum as a gift) with farbic markers. Preschool handwriting is pretty darn cute! As it was a Saturday party (not a lot of time – or desire – to prep) and Calie requested no pizzas, we catered from a local Chinese restaurant. Vegetable chow mien and salt/pepper pork chops. Delicious! We kept the rest of lunch simple with just grapes and cupcakes from a box.

 

  

  

Happy 4th Birthday Calista - thank you to all her friends who came out and helped us celebrate!

The last day before school started was a light day. Aside from my 10k jog and the kids’ swim lessons, we stayed in from the heat (it’s been 100+ here!) Calie played with her new birthday gifts, which included putting together ’Friends’ Lego sets. We had Melissa and her family over for dinner out on the patio, followed by a game of badminton.

 

 

And as of this Monday, I have a pre-K and 3rd grader. Calista announced to her class, as she walked in,”I am in pre-K. I am SO excited!” And Zachary, back at his old school (a better fit for him and parents), was greeted with excited hellos and hugs. Soccer season has started for Zach (Calista missed the age cutoff by 1 day!), and their Tues/Thurs swim lessons are changed to Sunday mornings.

  

So there we have it, the end of summer 2012. It just flew by this year. I am loving this age, where they are old enough to play sports/games and run around with us, but still young enough that they want to spend time with their parents. Can I just freeze time right now? Because I know these will be the years I look back on and think ‘Those were the best years of my life!’

Our camping trip was awesome! We drove up to and hiked Bassi Falls again, this time with our friends … Marissa’s family and her friend, plus Melissa’s family. Given that it was so late in the summer, the impressive waterfall from a few weeks ago was now just a trickle. BUT, that meant lots of pools and creeks for the kids to play around in. We ate a picnic lunch in the shade, and let the kids explore for a couple of hours.

 

  

Then Melissa and my family headed further north ~30 minutes to Gerle Creek campgrounds. Our campsites were right up front, but since the entire campground was situated so far from the highway, there was no traffic. We had a big site with fire pit, grill, and big picnic table. Tents were pitched quickly, while the kids played with water guns. Then it was off to explore some more. The shallow reservoir was cold, but didn’t deter the kids one bit. Had I not cut my toe (I was worried about it getting infected), I would have jumped in with them and tried swimming to the big rock island!

  

As the area did not allow motor boats, it was very serene. We took a small shady hike (Harvest trail, 0.5 miles each way) through lots of big trees, and ended up in a small clearing where we skipped rocks. Then we all hiked back to our campsite by dusk for a simple dinner of salad, fruit, and hotdogs/sausages. Sam brought a big cooler of food, and I also had 2 bags. When we first arrived, we commented on how we way over packed. By the time dinner was done, we wondered if we had enough to make it to the next day.

 

 

Of course no camping trip would be complete without a campfire, S’mores, and ghost stories. The campsite next to us provided the guitar and singing, but we “got them back” with our hysterical gales of laughter. Every time I started a story, someone (yes, even Calie and Nicole) would guess that it was the ‘Caps for Sale’ book and start quoting lines from it. You had to be there. I still laugh when I think about how frustrated I was.

  

We slept okay – much better than last camping trip, but obviously not as good as on a bed. Breakfast by the morning campfire was instant coffee/tea, scrambled eggs, terrible pancakes (should’ve brought a non-stick pan), and leftovers from dinner. We were now down to a few snacks, mere hours of sustenance. The kids continued to play well on their own, jumping over and climbing big rocks, logs, and tree stumps. Just as we finished packing up, Nicole misstepped and  cut her leg. Since she couldn’t’ walk, Melissa’s family decided to just head back home. My family went on another nearby hike … Gerle Creek trail (0.8mi each way). It was a nice hike, and included a bridge over a bubbling brook, but unfortunately there wasn’t as much shade as I would have liked. It would have been a better hike for the evening rather than mid-day. We drove home ~2 hrs after the hike.

 

  

Overall, a great trip! The kids didn’t ask for anything electronic and played amongst themselves the whole time. They were entertained with climbing big rocks, playing in the lake, hiking, and just general exploring. I was impressed with how they came up with their own games and challenges - we really need to get out and into nature more often! I have to admit, I like climate control and flushable toilets,… but when your kids are that happy, it makes it worth it. Plus, I admit it was a nice change of scenery – the fresh air and clear night skies were pretty amazing. That said, there was a lot of overhead in packing, driving, and setting up for just 1 night. Calie was very disappointed that we only stayed one night and suggested next time we stay for 10. I’m thinking 2-3 at most.

Back to work on Monday, and the following Thursday, I took my team out for a celebration dinner – our Win8 OEM commit dates were very challenging (and at high risk for months), but we pulled through. Cheers to the best team EVER!

 

Friday evening, Kathy, Sam, and Karen’s family came over for dinner and the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.  I served buffalo chicken wraps, which Sam deemed a “$10.99 value”. The kids made red/white/blue necklaces to cheer on team USA, while we watched the show. (And Zach has also been making some fuse bead Pokemon – it’s been scorching here, over 90 degrees, so I’ve been steering our kids towards indoor activities)

 

On Saturday, James took the kids to a jet skiing event organized by one of his coworkers. Kathy and I went to Le Cordon Bleu for a Thai cooking class. We put together 7 dishes in 3 hours! It wasn’t as hard as I thought – the key is having the right ingredients on hand. I’ve often cooked with curry paste and coconut milk, but adding tamarind, Thai chili, fish sauce, palm sugar, lemongrass, lime juice/eaves, and cilantro really kicks it up to the next level. I’m, going to have to pick up some of these ingredients next time I hit the Asian supermarket. The best part of the class (besides hanging out with Kathy of course), was taking home enough food for a couple of meals!

  

 

 

After cooking class, I took Calie to Abigail’s birthday party at a gymnastics place. Happy 4th Birthday Abigail! And then we headed to Sam’s house for a barbecue dinner play date. The boys played Pokemon cards, while the girls tested each other on writing and reading (they are just learning this in school, and I love their enthusiasm!) Of course, we also watched some Olympics. Melissa wasn’t there, as she and Sandy were at a dance competition in San Francisco … Melissa was awarded 2nd in scholarship, and Sandy placed 2nd in multi. Congratulations!!!

 

   

 

Sunday, we spent the day at the state fair. I purchased a Fun Pack at work with 4 admission, 4 rides, and 1 parking ticket for $10. The kids also received 2 ride tickets each for as part of the state fair reading incentive. We started the hot day with rides.

  

We walked through a bird exhibit, and the kids spent a lot of time at the Wizard (science) exhibit. I won 3rd place in a magic themed crossword puzzle – disappointing given my impression of the average state fair attendee, but not to surprising given my lack of pop culture knowledge. I picked a disappearing ball kit as my prize.

  

(I didn’t even hang on for 20 seconds – need to work on that upper body strength … or alternatively, lose some weight!)

We had lunch at The Promenade, while watching a belly dancing troupe. My co-worker Alicia rocked the stage – hard to believe she’s a mom of a teenager, a 3-year-old and a full time program manager in a high tech company. Awesomeness! As it was the last day, food sample sizes were generous, and we took home 2 books, pencils, and handful of raisin boxes from the Sun-Maid exhibit. We intentionally skipped the farm animals, and ended the day in the toy exhibit. I could be biased, but toys from the 80s were the best! They don’t make My Little Ponies like they used to!