Bubble Time

"Bubble Time, Mommia" is how Elise starts out most afternoons. It also usually starts with a power struggle because she wants to do it on her own. "I do it" she screams at me. I don't usually let her because it ends with all the bubble juice being poured out on the patio and the bubble wand in her mouth. But today, I let her try and she did it! She blew some really good bubbles so of course I had to grab the camera!



Notice the three tiny bubbles in this next picture. Look closely.

Then she gets the big bubbles!

This is just a goofy picture of Sam and Elise from last night I wanted to share.

And here is one of her Tickle Me Elmo doll that Aunt Lene sent to her for her birthday. I meant to include it in the birthday photos. She loves this thing! "Elmo Funny!"

Happy Birthday Elise!

On Sunday we had a little birthday party for Elise. Somehow it ended up with mostly boys at the gathering and the Dora bouncy house we rented turned into a setting for WWF for 4 year olds. We saw an aggressive side to Sam we have never seen before. The boys had a blast tackling each other and we were lucky it all stayed fun and no one got hurt. They were wild! Elise loved the bouncy house when she had it to herself. I think she thought the bouncy house was a birthday present because she has been asking to go back in every day. I keep telling her it went Bye Bye but she is still looking for it.









This next picture of Ella was so funny. She was so mad that she had to watch all the kids eat cake and she could not join in. She was flappin her arms and trying to get to the cake table. So cute.

An evening at the zoo

During the summer months, the San Diego Zoo stays open late. This is our favorite time to go because one, it is not as crowded and two, the animals are more active and interesting. These are some pictures from our zoo adventure with Doug, Steph and Baby Ella. This first picture is of Elise showing off her new snake that Sam gave her for her second birthday.

Baby Ella

Here are a few pictures of Baby Ella. This is her first time playing with the musical flowers and she loved them.

mommy, there's a big spider outside

this is what i heard the other morning when sam and elise ran outside, excited to get to ride their bikes in the front yard. sometimes we get ugly spiders in the trees august through oct. so that is what i was expecting to see. look in the picture of elise on her push toy.


see that black thing to the left of her. the next picture shows a closer view.



yuck!! apparently he was already dead and keith buried him. i didn't even know we had tarantulas around here. i wish i knew where this guy was living.

photo practice

a couple of days ago, my friend dianna and i took the kids to a beautiful park in rancho santa fe to practice taking pictures. she brought a little picnic and i brought some balloons. the kids had fun and i think we took some really cute pictures!

in the picture below, it looks like sam and lexie are having a cute little picnic date. here is the conversation we heard.

sam: lexi, did you know i went to the doctor this morning? they took pictures of my insides.

lexi: you did? (not sounding very interested)

sam: yes, because i have bacterias.

nana cake

last week i read a book to sam titled, " i love you stinky face," and in it, there is a reference to a banana cake that the mom would make if the kid happened to be a big, scary, gorilla. so sam woke up the next morning really wanting to make a "nana" cake. i had some overly ripe bananas i needed to do something with so i thought it would be fun. sam loves to be a "good cook and helper" in the kitchen. he was so excited for this cake. i am not sure if it was as good as he was hoping because he never asked for a second piece. the cake looked exactly as it does in the picture 3 days later when I threw it out. oh well, the best part was making it!

Getting Started

welcome to our blog! i will continue to post the bulk of our photos on flickr or shutterfly (i am still deciding what i like better, we'll see after this week's upgrade to shutterfly), but i am starting a blog to keep track of our day to day activities in case any grammas, grampas, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends want to check in on us. i like looking at my friend's blogs so i thought i would give it a try too. hopefully i will keep up and this will be worth checking in on from time to time. oh, a little sidenote, elise starting calling me mommia a month ago and sam has followed suit, so for the time being that is my new name and i like it - that is why I chose it for my screen name here.