Over the weekend, Avery had a pre-kindergarten playdate with two of her future classmates. As expected, she was pretty quiet and shy during introductions – but after a bit of time, she warmed up and began to play. And she must have enjoyed herself, because she told me on the way home, “I love those girls.”

Oh, and something kinda fun: Her playdate was at the same spot as Zoe’s two years ago. (And of course I had to take a photo, like I did with Zoe, to mark the occasion.)

-M

The girls also did a little water sliding on Saturday – and I love how Q’s proud thumbs up made it in this post-slide pic.

-M

Last weekend we explored Great America’s water park; this weekend we hit Gilroy Gardens’. Given how hot it was there (mid-90s!), lounging in a splash pad was the perfect activity for the girls.

-M

Avery’s day didn’t start out the best. She had two shots, along with a blood draw, at her five-year check-up – something I had forgotten to warn her about and something she did not like at all. But things got better when she went to camp and later hung out, and got very silly, with a good friend.

-M

Over a spaghetti dinner the other night, I put the camera on Avery and got more of her thoughts on kindergarten, as well as her thoughts on this week’s camp activities.  The first video is longer but worth watching for the dialogue between her and Zoe – the all-knowing big sister – at the end.

-M

The other night I commented to Avery that she only had two more weeks of camp. “Right – then we take a little break and I’m officially a kindergartener,” she exclaimed, doing a little John Travolta disco move with her hands. I told her I was glad she was excited, and her face quickly became serious. “Yes, but I know Mommy’s sad I’m leaving preschool.” “Well, aren’t you sad?” I asked her, noting that she’s been there for three years. Her smile came back and she replied, “Nope!”

(Clearly she didn’t inherit the sentimentality gene.)

-M

At Zoe’s camp, there’s a different theme (e.g. purple day, dress-as-your-favorite-animal day) each day of the week.  Guess what today’s theme was?

-M

And here was the scene at the library last evening. They’re become real reading buddies, which I love.

-M

I’m usually on the go. My lifestyle is somewhat due to circumstances: With a (almost) full-time job and two kids, there’s going to be a good amount of driving around, going places, and doing stuff. Part of it, though, is by choice: I do lots of weekend activities with the kids, run a lot of errands (i.e. shop), and do volunteer work because keeping busy usually keeps me happy. And the kids are used to our running around; Avery made me laugh when I picked her up from camp on Friday and she asked me, “What’s our plan for this weekend?” (She knows there’s almost always a plan.)

With all that said, there’s something pretty nice about the (occasional) quiet day at home. We didn’t plan for Sunday to be a day like that, but it just sort of happened. I worked out in the morning, came home, watched happily as Q organized our bedroom closet, Zoe’s closet, and the downstairs closet, and then I joined in to help. Before I knew it, it was the middle of the day, the girls were playing together happily, and any plans we had of “doing something” sort of floated away. Late, the girls and I spent a good chunk of time making Fairy Petal People and I took a nap; the only time I left the house was to grab some bagels and milk and go to the library with the girls in the evening.

Not such a bad day!

-M

We took advantage of the sun and warmth by heading to Great America’s water park today. The girls had a lot of fun splashing around in the tidal wave pool – great practice for when we actually swim in the ocean someday. (We may live right by an ocean, but it’s way too cold to do that here!)

-M

Speaking of milestone birthdays, Q and the girls made mine pretty special! Among the (many) treats: A huge banner of pictures of me from when I was little, which Q put up at a party he threw for me Thursday night, and a photo collage of me and the girls over the last 7+ years. Q said he and the girls have been planning the latter for weeks; during those times I was working out or out of the house, the three of them sifted through our tons of photos, selected their favorites, and then played around with their placement. I loved it!

-M

When we were in Madison last month my mom brought out some old photo albums for me to look through. Being a sentimental mama and facing a milestone birthday, the photos - especially this one of me and my mom – meant more to me than they used to. I know exactly how my mom (who’s the same age here as I was when I had Zoe) was feeling as she held me, and for that I feel blessed.

-M

After dinner tonight, I asked Zoe if she would help me by bringing the laundry upstairs; not only did she bring it up but (much to my delight), she wound up folding it all. “I’ll do this every day if you want, Mommy,” she told me. “This is really fun.”

Uh, okay.

-M

Speaking of camp, the girls are back where they were last summer. Though Avery’s still at school (her camp is part of the all-year JCC program), she does different enough things that she doesn’t seem to mind being at the same place. And what I love is the summer focus on science; last week alone she learned:

• how long it takes for butterflies to emerge from the cocoons
• how a bean grows without soil
• what happens when you put liquid watercolors in shaving cream
• whether chocolate chips float or sink when put into cupcake batter (the results were delicious!)

Oh, and as we learned from a batch of photos sent to us on Friday, she’s become pretty good friends with camp-mate Bot the Robot.

-M

With all our travel over (at least for a few weeks), the girls have settled into their summer routine: camp and then (except on the days I’m at Stanford) afternoon activities at home. Below was the scene at our house one day last week; it was “dress as an animal” day at Zoe’s camp, which is why she’s wearing wings.

-M