The littlest peanut turns 3!

Juliet turned 3 today! She was ready for her birthday. This morning when I asked who's birthday is today? She raised her hand really high.

At school she got to make and share cupcakes (I'm guessing they were actually muffins) with her friends.

The 2 cheeze balls right before singing

The Olivia Pig inspired birthday cake. 

Mom made the traditional chiffon cake and I did the decorating. You can't see that the opposite side is pretty much caved in. Mom's blaming the cake pan. :-)

After singing; Juliet got a little freaked out when Claudia turned the lights out so we could sing to her with the candles glowing. Juliet didn't want to blow out the candles, so she let Claudia. I just hope she wished for something really good!

Opening her Dora mermaid bathtub friend. This should be fun!

We FaceTimed with Auntie Gina, Uncle John and Chandler (she thought it was Uncle Darren!). They sang to her and then she started showing them some of her presents. 

A little Olivia playset

Opening up her My Little Pony from our neighbors the Kravitzes , I mean the Malandrinos.  :-)

A big cheezy smile because she's having cake at 8 o'clock at night. Surprisingly she went to bed fairly early (for her). 

Showing off her ladybug jammies from Auntie Kel. I was with Kel when she picked these out.  Juliet was so excited to put everything on. 

We're off to celebrate this weekend at a place called Fairyland, a storybook theme park perfect for monkeys this age. Should be fun!

Lava Girls - Tournament Champions!

Claudia played soccer again this fall. It was an entirely new team, and she made friends and had a good time. She's a great hustler and loves to get out there. Last year her favorite positions were defender and goalie; this year the coach recognized her hustle and had her playing forward most of the season. She still played defense and goalie a few times and enjoyed those, but as a parent it is much more fun to watch her attacking the ball. While it will be nice to have our Saturdays back, it will be a little sad not to get to watch her playing. There's always next fall. Now she wants to try gymnastics.  One sport at a time is our motto!

Claudia's MVP award. She got it for her hustle.

Receiving her trophy. It's huge!

Grandpa took us out to celebrate right after at In-n-Out! Yum!

Peter's folks were here and were able to enjoy a few of Claudia's soccer games, including the tournament. It was a little chilly for some of the games. Juliet does pretty well if she's got her crackers, but towards the end of the season, I had to break out the iTouch to keep her entertained throughout the game.

On the sidelines with crackers and a movie

Big Day for the Math Whiz!

Claudia received a Math Whiz award for her progress in addition, subtraction and word problems (in Spanish)! What a big day with the award and Halloween! So proud of her!

The Math Whiz!

Happy Halloween!

 I broke the tradition and let the girls go as what they wanted for halloween even if it wasn't in a theme. Claudia chose Jessie from Toy Story and Juliet being a girly girl and always talking about being a princess went as a little Princess.

Jessie and the Princess

The fam with the jack o' lantern that Claudia designed and Peter  carved.

After we came back from trick-or-treating the girls started sorting thru their candy so I thought I would get some more pictures. So here are some of their tricks:

The princess posing

I got Claudia to do a little dancing. She had a piece of candy in her mouth, so she wasn't singing, which is just as funny as her dancing. 

And then not to be outdone, Juliet grabbed Claudia's hat and did her own version:

A trip to Mono and Mammoth Lakes

We enjoyed the labor day weekend in the eastern Sierras, just east of Yosemite National Park. A longer drive than expected rewarded us with great weather, wonderful views, and good ol' family time.

We stayed in the town of Mammoth Lakes. It's a mountain town and suitable for snow skiing and mountain biking. Or just for bummin' around on the weekend.

We visited Devils Postpile not far from Mammoth Lakes. It's the same kind of rock columns as Devils Rower but instead of sticking straight out of the ground, it's on a cliff. We started on an interpretive tour which Peter and Claudia enjoyed. My guide was Juliet and she was more interested in walking on the rocks and logs.

Claudia filled out her booklet to become a junior ranger. This is her swearing in. The guide wasn't as creepy in person as he looks in the picture. Claudia's interpretation of "raise your right hand" is a little interesting. :-) Claudia received a junior ranger patch.

We visited Mono Lake which is an inland sea (like the Great Salt Lake, but not quite as salty). It's 2.5x saltier than the ocean. There's no fish in the lake. There are lots of brine shrimp and tons of flies! The seagulls hang out eating all of them. Here the girls are, ready for another interpretive walk. 

The girls went fishing for brine shrimp and caught a few with their cup and stick. They were teeny tiny.

Check out this money shot, with the green grass, the lake the tufa (limestone columns) and the mountains with a little bit of snow on them. 

At Mammoth mountain they had a kid's zip line. Claudia wanted to do it so we bought a ticket and got her harnessed up. As soon as Juliet saw her with a harness she told me she wanted to do it too. After asking her many questions to make sure that it wasn't just about wearing the harness; that she would be zooming in the air, I bought her a ticket and we got her harnessed too. The attendants said as long as she could climb up the ladder she could ride.

Here they are in their gear.

Here they are standing in line. Juliet thought I was taking a picture so she was saying "cheeez".

Here they are on the platform. Before getting on the platform Juliet had hesitated when they tried to hook her up to the line. Claudia tried to let her go first but with that little hesitation, Claudia climbed up the ladder. The attendant asked Juliet if she wanted to go up and if he could carry her. I asked if that was ok, and he said sure, before she changes her mind! I was fully expecting for her to want down once she got to the top; especially being held by strangers and I'm not sure she was aware of where Peter and I were. 

And here they are zooming down the line. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! If I had flipped my phone the right way, it would have turned out better. You have to maximize to see anything, and then it gets fuzzy unfortunately. The girls had a blast and were ready to go again, but it was time to head back.

Happy Birthday Uncle Darren!

Happy Birthday Uncle Darren!! We hope it was a good one!! xoxo

"Yo soy una estudiante del primer grado."

That means I'm a first grade student. Claudia started school last week and was very excited to be back. She said she really enjoyed the camps that she went to this summer, but they were mostly "arts and crafts and not much learning". So she was ready for school to start so she could start learning again. Maybe we'll need to find a math/science camp next summer. !

Soccer season has begun!!

Claudia's a member of the Lava Girls team, in the 6 & 7 y.o. group. She's really excited to be on the team. Oftentimes you hear her squealing even before the ball is in play. In their first game, she was playing offense and was jumping up and down and squealing before the referee blew the whistle. Her assistant coach said "Hey Claudia. Save that energy for scoring a goal!" She had an assist for that game. :-)

Posing after the game. 

A DQ treat afterward. The soccer field is conveniently located about 3 blocks from a DQ. 

And after the DQ treat, she took a snooze on the way home!

Summer camp fun!

Our childhoods were definitely different! I remember having to hang the laundry on the clothesline, snapping peas and shucking corn. And of course hopping on our bikes to ride the 3 or so miles to the pool.

We sent Claudia to a bunch of weeklong day camps. She had at least one friend in each. Some by design and some by happy coincidence. She went to a few Y camps, a couple Spanish camps and an art camp. Here's some of the fun from captured from her summer.

This was crazy hat day at the Y. I had forgotten so this was pretty last minute. 

This was super hero day at the Y. She already had the shirt and the scarf/cape, so this one was easy!

Juliet had to get in on the fun, so I grabbed a picnic napkin. She had to have cuffs too. 

And another day, still in jammies, Juliet wanted to be a superhero again. 

At the San Jose Museum of Art. The campers had an exhibit on Saturday to display their work. 

Here's Claudia's turtle.

And another design. They learned a lot about color theory, composition, etc. Pretty cool. 

This is the collective sculpture. Claudia's piece is the blue one right above her head. 

Say CHEEEZ!

Claudia did art camp last week at the San Jose Museum of Art and on Saturday they had a exhibition of all the student artwork. I'll post some pix of that soon.  Afterward I did my best to get a picture of these two squirrels. It's way too hard and frustrating to get them both smiling and looking at the camera AT THE SAME TIME!

A quick trip to KS

On our trip to the widwest for Josh and Jo's wedding, we stayed in Lawrence for about 36 hours then, came back and stayed in Louisburg for a few days. We all went to Deanna Rose and here the girls are on the banks for the fishing pond.

"Say Cheez", Auntie Gina!

 Chandler giving Juliet a shoulder ride.

Giddyup!

Claudia with Uncle Darren

Three cousins and an uncle

Three cousins and a grandma

Look at that cheezeball smile on Juliet! The girls are taking the last minute photo with Mom & Dad on Gina's staircase. 

Qipaos from China

Peter and I brought back qipaos for the girls from our trip to China. Here they are modeling them. Mom & Dad stayed with them while we were over there and they did great (i.e. everyone survived!)

Graduación de Kinder

Claudia is now a first grader! We went to her graduation ceremony which was mostly outside the classroom. Then we headed back in the classroom for snacks. Claudia's teacher started saying something in Spanish, but I didn't catch any of it. I looked at Claudia and she explained that we were going to go back outside to take a picture with all of the kids and then come back inside to have the snacks. So fun to see how she was able to translate that for me!

Happy Easter!

After the big birthday party day on Saturday, there was just enough time and energy for the Easter Bunny to hide some eggs. Of course, Claudia was awake earlier than during the week and was ready to go. The girls stayed in their jammies, slipped on shoes and coats and headed out to hunt for eggs. Later in the day Claudia wanted me to hide them so they could find them again. Then Juliet wanted to hide them. She hid them all in one place, right next to her sandbox.

Happy Birthday Miss Bean!

Today was Claudia's 6th birthday! With the Toy Story theme for the birthday party, we decided to make Alien cupcakes to take into her classroom. I frosted the cupcakes, Claudia added the marshmallow eyes and the sour apple licorice antenna and then I added the dots for the eyes and their mouths. It was lots of fun!

Here's Claudia in her classroom. She helped me pass out the cupcakes so she was one of the last ones finished. I'm surprised they don't have a rule against chocolate cupcakes in the classroom. I would be ok with a no treats rule too. :-)

Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, siete...

Claudia received a "Math Whiz" award today for mastering counting to 100 by 1s, 2s, 5s, & 10s in Spanish. She's now saying that she wants to be a mathematician when she grows up. That should make her Uncle David and cousin Jillian happy!

And not to be outdone in the cuteness department, this was Juliet saying "Cheeeez" while Peter was taking a picture of Claudia and her award. Juliet should get the 2 year old math whiz award as I've heard her count to 7 in Spanish.