August 15, 2012

• 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!’

  • 2:15 am
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