Best Buds!

Juliet and her friend Abigail have known each other since they were ~8 months old. Abigail doesn't go to Juliet's preschool anymore so we try to meet up for play dates and birthday parties when we can. Here are the little cheese balls.

Juliet and her buddy Abigail

Claudia had a sleep over with her friends (and twins) Kennedy and Landry. They've known each other since they were 6 months old. The teachers at daycare/pre-school referred to them as the triplets.

Kennedy, Claudia and Landry

Bennie and Juliet

Ollie and Claudia have been buds since they were 2ish, and Ben and Juliet have been buddies since Ben was born. :-)

Claudia and Ollie

But we can't forget the best buds of all - each other!

Angry Bird-day to you!

Auntie Gina came out to celebrate (and help out with the birthday party preparations). The night before Gina arrived, Juliet decided to get the croup. So our last minute birthday prep was cramped even more by a sick little 3 year old. But Auntie Gina didn't mind hanging out with Juliet and napping after a long and early plane ride.

We set up to play a full size angry birds (sans a slingshot - that would have been too much work and probably dangerous!). The party favors were angry bird -themed. I found keychains and erasers, gummy bears and added a little wooden birdhouse and markers.

Safeway cake/Gina & Kelly decorations (supervised by a 7 and 3 year old).

Claudia in the last minute tshirt find

A few large purchases earlier in the year and we had the cardboard we needed for creating the game. Gina and I had fun making the pig balloons the night before. After each balloon touched the ground, it would slowly start to deflate!

Part of the birthday party crew

The deflated mustache piggy

I'd say someone is enjoying her cake!

Miss Bean and Auntie Gina

Since Juliet was croupy we had to keep her away from the other kids. She napped thru the entire birthday party. Even when the kids were playing in the house (since it was an odd 90 degrees in April!).

The croupy Juliet and Auntie Gina

Happy Birthday, Miss Bean!

Claudia turned 7 this year. Wow, where does the time go?! We threw her an Angry Bird's birthday party. For her birthday, Peter made a chiffon cake, and I decorated it, with some direction from Juliet. 

Happy Angry Bird-day!

Not too bad for freehand!

Camping in Big Sur

We went camping again this year at Big Sur. The last time we camped was for Claudia's 4th birthday; Juliet was 2 months old. We stayed at the same place as last time in a great campsite, close enough to the playground, but not too close. The girls loved it. Unfortunately we had a lot of rain (mostly over night) but that just meant the girls got to slosh around in the big puddles!

We need a bigger car, or less stuff! Luckily it's only a 2 hour drive.

Having s'mores at the campsites

Climbing monkeys!

This is our favorite overlook, we spent our lunches dining here. I especially love this picture of the two of them; Claudia's arm around Juliet, them holding hands and Juliet tickling Claudia's chin. :-)

Our campsite was in the middle of this fairy ring of Redwoods. This was the view looking straight up. 

In the tent, keeping warm with their big blankets.

We were about to head home. Juliet is ready for a nap. Claudia is still going strong!

Mom & Dad's visit

As is the custom, the Spains made it out to winter in California for 2 months. It's always so nice to have them out. The girls get so much quality Poh Poh and Gong Gong time. Peter and I tried to take as much advantage of it as we could by getting some bigger projects done around the house, getting to see movies, and getting away for a long weekend. We reward mom & dad with extra time with the girls. :-)

We celebrated Mom's birthday with dim sum. Yum!

We always try to make a trip to San Francisco, to Fisherman's Wharf for clam chowder, Pier 39, and seal-watching. We also walked on part of the Golden Gate bridge that day. That was not as fun as in the past. They were doing construction on the bike side so the east side of the bridge was packed with people and bicycles who were trying to pedal thru all of the pedestrians. It was stressful dodging fast bikes and keeping the girls out of the way.

At the wharf with Alcatraz in the background. While it looks like Juliet is picking her nose, it's just her weird little habit of putting a finger on her lips. :-)

Mom and Dad made it down to the Pebble Beach area and played golf at Poppy Hills. There weren't too many sunny days toward the end of their trip, and they made it down there the last sunny day of their stay.

For our weekend getaway (and thanks to Groupon) we headed up the coast to just a little south of Mendocino. We stayed in a great place with a great view of the ocean. It was pretty cold and rained on and off but we got out for some hikes and even got to watch some of the 2nd round games.

On our way north. You can take the girl out of Kansas...

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Claudia's school had a daddy/daughter dance. Claudia's wearing the $5 dress I found at Walmart when we were in Lawrence at Christmas time. Can't beat that!

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.