Celebration

I'm a blogging slacker! In my defense I still need a new laptop, I can't resize photos on this one. Since I last posted we went to Tahoe, celebrated my birthday, celebrated Easter, celebrated Patrick's birthday, and had a party for both kids. Next up is Molly's second birthday on Friday, then our wedding anniversary. Add in a few birthday parties for small friends and we have been busy! So click over to Flickr and you can see some pictures of what we've been up to, here are some previews! The first one is from today at the zoo. Molly is a tad obsessed with rhinoceroses right now, so we thought she would enjoy the chance to view one in person. Who knew they stunk so much? Molly was happy, but kept asking if the rhinoceros would bite. Hee!



And can you feel the birthday love here?











And in school news....Patrick got into both the public school and private schools we applied to. Last week we made the decision to send him to private. But I don't seem to be sitting well with it :( which makes me think we need to rethink it. I wish the future of public education in California didn't seem so bleak. Sigh.

Happy Holidays To You

Once again I have been a neglectful blogger. We've been so busy over the last few weeks, hopefully next week will give us a chance to decompress.

In the past few weeks we...

Visited Santa



Made gingerbread houses at cousin Danielle's



Went to Patrick's preschool holiday sing (in the rain, ugh!)



Celebrated Christmas Eve at Grandma Mildred's



Set out cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)



Opened presents Christmas morning



Spent the afternoon with cousins and grandparents





And had dinner with Nana and Papa, where Uncle Nick gave Patrick this awesome Batman Big Wheels



And my Buche de Noel turned out fantastically



So there you have it. The last 2 weeks in pictures. Hopefully we'll have some adventures to report on next week :)

Missing Persons

I've been a neglectful blogger. I can't even blame it on being super busy because school was out, summer camps were over, and we spend most of our time at home. But oh, how those weeks kicked my behind. I decided to use the break from our regular schedule to work on getting Molly down to one nap. Mission mostly accomplished. It didn't help that Molly was teething yet again, this time getting tooth #13 and 14, her eye teeth. Despite being a calm newborn Molly has proven to be just as willful as her brother, maybe even more so. Patrick was beyond bored being home all day and made sure to tell me as much. At least 10 times a day. That boy has boundless energy, it's really rather amazing. Anyone who spends a few hours with him is sure to comment on how worn out they are. Trust me, I know. In the last few weeks they've started to play together, which warms my heart to watch. Molly no longer seems hell bent on destroying anything Patrick is working on. Yesterday she sat patiently with him while he did a puzzle of the 50 states, she just watched and handed him pieces. Patrick continues to adore Molly and loves teaching her new things. Today he taught her how to jump on the bed. I am thinking he may need to run future lessons by me before hand.

Some quick picks of what we've been up to over the last few weeks...

Molly was cute.



Patrick went to his first Giants game. That's cousin Danielle in the background.





It got really hot and the kids played in the "pool".



We went to Chico for the wedding reception of cousin Gina (they got married on a mountain top in Colorado!).





Patrick played a LOT with Legos. New obsession!



And today, preschool started up again! Patrick's in new room this year and will go 3 mornings a week. Notice the ever present Batman cape.



Coming soon, another big adventure! Wish us luck on the airplane :)

Swiss Cheese

2 years ago cousin Olivia came out to visit from Switzerland. This year she is back with her mom and dad and 2 brothers for a few weeks. So many cousins! I think last time we figured out that Patrick and Olivia are fifth cousins. Pretty cool, huh? They've been busy traipsing all over California and the West and going to all sorts of cool places we've never been (can you believe we've never been to Alcatraz?).

Yesterday my mom and Michael had a BBQ for everyone in the family to come and meet the Swiss cousins. Cousin Catherine (Olivia's mom) is a professional face painter and spent some time painting the kids faces after dinner. Patrick of course wanted nothing to do with it, but check out the cool faces!











See Patrick's Batman cape in the picture above? He's been wearing that every day for over a week. The role playing has moved beyond firefighters, we now play super heroes. I suspect this is going to be a long phase.

Wedding Bells

We had a very exciting weekend. My cousin Andrea got married in Carmel Valley on Saturday. Her new husband, Matt, is a fantastic guy and we couldn't be happier for them. Patrick was honored to serve as one of their ring bearers (or "ring bear" if you ask him). Andrea was an amazingly beautiful bride. The wedding was perfect and lovely, and Patrick was too, too cute in his tiny tuxedo. I took about a million bazillion pictures, here are some of my favorites.















Congratulations and best wishes to Matt and Andrea! We wish you a lifetime of love and happiness!

Miss Independence

Happy 4th of July! We went to Grandma Mildred's annual BBQ, Patrick had fun playing with his cousins. And Nana and Papa were nice enough to take Patrick to see fireworks since it was too late for Molly. A good day for everyone!

Party Girl

Molly's birthday party was on Saturday, and I didn't even cry! It was a gorgeous day, and Molly seemed pretty excited to have all eyes on her for the day. The theme of the party was cupcakes, chosen from a moment of inspiration I had when my mom gave me a giant cupcake cake pan for Christmas. It looked easy enough to make. Boy was I wrong. I called my cousin Danielle in a complete panic last week because my cake was bad. Oh so very, very bad. Danielle helped me trouble shoot some of the problems I was having, and them being the total sweetie that she is, she offered to make the cake even though she was headed out of town. The cake turned out completely gorgeous, much better than anything I would have been able to do. Molly was very tentative with it, and mostly just mushed around the frosting. It was a great day!

Check out my party dress!



Uncle Nick taught us all cool party tricks to do with orange peels.



Molly with her Godparents



Getting ready for cake in her special birthday tee



Cake time!







And today was our 12th wedding anniversary :) It ends a 30 day period in which we celebrate my birthday, Patrick's birthday, Molly's birthday, and the birthdays of several small friends. Most years Easter in thrown in there too, we lucked out this year! This year it has been really bad because Tom had a huge project that he's been working on for 2 years go live this weekend. He went to work at 4 am the day of the party, came home for the party, then went back to work. He worked today as well, and will probably be getting into the hospital by 6 am every day this week. We are VERY much looking forward to vacation in 3 weeks!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

I was lame today and left the house with a nearly dead camera battery. As a result I barely got any pictures. And not only that, I never got a picture of the two kids together. Ugh. I seem to go in hot and cold spells with the camera, I need to try and be more consistent with it. More so than being consistent, I need to actually do something with all those digital images. I have thousands of the,. Tens of thousands actually. And I've only printed out about 50 pictures in the last 2 years. Oops! But I digress...

Patrick and Molly had a very nice Easter. We spent the entire day with family, which included trips to 3 different houses, and no less than 4 Easter egg hunts for Patrick. He now has enough chocolate to carry him into 2009.

Here's 2 snapshots from today. Patrick is playing with his cousin Brandie, and Tom's mom is holding Molly.





Yesterday we went to a graduation party for my cousin Aerin. She graduated from UCSB in less that 4 years, with a double major! My aunt and uncle live in a farm, complete with llamas, sheep, an emu, and many, many hawks. Patrick was in total heaven. He had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back.

Patrick wore his "farm hat" to the party...



And Molly just enjoyed playing with sunglasses. She is her mother's daughter ;)



And here is my Molly Catherine, with my second cousin Molly Katherine. So the two Mollys are second cousins, once removed. When you come from a large family you actually know exactly what that means.



Last but not least, my birthday isn't for another week but my mom couldn't wait to give me my gift. I love it a million times over, it's a framed picture of Molly done over Andy Warhol style. Isn't this just the best?