Meet the Teacher

On Friday we had "Meet the Teacher" at Audrey's preschool. Audrey was so excited to go. I told her numerous times she didn't need her backpack, but she didn't care, she wanted to bring it anyway. And so she did.
She is so excited to start school. I would do preschool with her at home very casually over the last year, and she wanted to call it high school, and so we did.
When people ask her if she is excited to start school, she always says, "It's REAL!!" I guess high school in our San Francisco apartment didn't seem very "real" to her. I can't image why not.

My little almost preschooler.
(The touch up paint on the walls looks terrible, I know. It doesn't look that bad in real life, only when the flash hits it)

Outside her classroom, with a little pained look on her face. Not because she isn't excited, but just because I caught an awkward look.

Picking out her name on the "Super Stars" chart.

Playing with the Ariel head. She was in heaven. I love the "Jesus Loves Me" sign in the background.

There are 12 kids in Audrey's class and two teachers, Ms. Kay and Ms. Peggy. When Dave got home and asked Audrey what her teachers name's were, Audrey said, "Ms. Kay and Ms. Pig." Joshua was close by and started snorting like a pig. It was classic. We have to work on the Ms. Peggy thing.
These two teachers will make such an impact on my Audrey, and they were both very nice and I am pleased with both of them. It will be such a fun year for her, and although I don't like it one bit, I am excited that she is excited. Let the school year begin, and bring on the tissue.

Lessons for school (and life)

Audrey starts preschool on Tuesday, and I am starting to freak out a bit. My baby, my firstborn, my little girl is leaving me. Granted it is only two days a week, but it is ALL DAY for two days a week (9:00-2:30) and she has never been away from me that long. I have already cried about it numerous times, and I have emailed friends asking how they have dealt with it. My friend Mindi said, "Wait until the first day of school when you send her and you start to cry just hoping she can open her juice box by herself." Of course I couldn't let one more thing make me cry, so we had lessons. These are school lessons, and life lessons. Learning how to open ones juice box is very important.
Lesson one: open juice box, solo.

Check.

Then because I am paranoid, we had lessons on how to open her apple sauce as well.

Check.

Two less things I have to cry about on Tuesday, only about 1, 983, 395 more.

Lucky me and good 'ol California

Just six short weeks after we left California, I was heading back. Lucky me, I was the lucky recipient of two free Southwest tickets. Lucky me again: my incredible sister-in-laws took Joshua home with them on the airplane when they left two days before, leaving me to only have to travel with one easy breasy four year old. Note: When we were taking Alli, Kristin and Joshua to the airport, Audrey cried for a good 20 minutes because she would miss her brother, she didn't want him to go to California without her, who would she play with, and just because she "loved him so much". It was very endearing/slightly annoying about how much she cried about it, but it makes my heart happy she loves her brother so much.

We were gone for 9 days, and it was so good to be home.
We went into San Francisco for a day to see some dear friends we left behind. It was amazing driving into the city and how the feelings of leaving were still so raw that it brought me to tears. In other ways, it feels like a million years ago that we lived here.

The foggy city.

Lucky me! All these ladies came to spend the day, and they brought my favorite treats! Addi's homemade Oreo cookies, Linden's scones, LaDonna's pumpkin cookies, Angela's gluten free cookies. I was a spoiled, sugar crazed girl. It was a hot day for San Francisco, and we all got a little sun burned!

Audrey and Joshua had such a fun time playing with their friends that they had missed. They played duck duck goose in a line for a long time, letting the mommies eat and chat - my favorite things!

After a long day at the park, some of us headed up north for dinner at Boudins. We also saw Miss Audrey in the window at the PBK there.

Happy Birthday Jason! We were lucky enough to be in town for my nephews second birthday party.

Andrea is a very talented cake maker.

These two cousins are so cute together. Love the football.

The construction themed house party.

We went to the lake one day and had so much fun dipping our toes in the water,

and being thrown off the tube. I haven't been tubing in years, and at first I was nervous but then I remembered how much fun it was!

We took Savy and Joshua out on the tube (Audrey refused) and they loved it. Savy kept saying, "Dis is so fun!" and Joshua would look back at me and say, "Wheeee!!"

It was a really fun day.

We went and spent some time with Memor and Fafa. We met at the mall so we could see Audrey in that PBK window. People would stop us and tell us how much Audrey looked like the girl in the window!

This is my favorite one.

Doing a little dance...

We spent a day at Six Flags and we were so lucky that Aunt Rachel came along! Three adults and three kids is so much easier! The weather was perfect and we didn't have to wait in line for one ride. Lucky us!

Pool party! We went to the pool quite a bit, which we loved. Doing anything with these lovely ladies is always fun. Thank you Mimi, Savy and Rachel for coming and spending so much time with us!

We would meet my dad up there for lunch somedays, and other days we would go wait for Aunt Jess to be done teaching her swim lessons, so she could teach Audrey! Thank you Jess for not only being the soccer coach, but the swim coach as well.

These two sweet girls love each other so much. And I love their cute little bums.

Since Jessica worked at the pool all summer, We were able to have a big bbq there one of our last nights in CA. It was so.much.fun. We swam, we ate, we swam some more, we let the little ones skinny dip. I remember thinking when I was a kid that there was something so magical about night swimming. I still do.

Grande, the swing pusher extraordinaire.

Uncle Ryan's parents have a boat so we were able to go boating again our last night in CA. Loved it. Joshua loved driving the boat!

Jess and I won for most improved tubers. We didn't get thrown off once!

We had to bribe Audrey with 20 gummy bears to get on the tube. She finally did it, but wouldn't let us go very fast. When we got off she said, "That was fun...Dad can buy a boat now". I wish.

My beautiful mom. She was an amazing water skier in her day. Now she is an amazing water skier, hostess, wife, Mom, GrandD, and friend that anyone could ask for. This woman walks on water in my eyes.

Jessica's first time ever skiing!

Me. My triceps were sore for days.

Rachel's skills on the wakeboard

Ryan was seriously impressive.

I love my family.

The day before I left, Rocia and her sister Kaisa were nice enough to meet me at the Jelly Belly factory. It was so nice to see them both again and all these sweet kids did so well during the tour. Aren't they cute?

3 mommies + 9 kiddos + LOTS of jelly beans = one good time

Me, Rocia and Kaisa. Rocia is my California native friend, we'll be seeing lots of each other in the future. Lucky, lucky me.

Sweet girls.

Thank you to everyone who made my trip to California so memorable. The flight home to Texas was long, but very worth it. I feel so lucky, no, blessed to have had the chance to go see family and friends. Thanks to all who made it possible, and thank you Mom and Dad, for letting us come stay and make a disaster of your house. Love you all!