Last swim lesson of the year

Jacqueline had her last swim lesson on Sat.  Ashton had finished her class the week before but Jacqueline had a "make up" session as a result of her instructor being off when we went camping.  Of course we just convinced her that a cap was a good idea.  What a relief to not have her hair in her eyes.
She had been getting a lot better at listening and following instructions as the lessons progressed, but we were glad she was in a private lesson as she has a lot more confidence then ability at this time.
 A bit of a funny photo, she was picking up toys off the steps on her own.  She can also jump in from the side and is very comfortable throwing herself in the general direction of someone (or the steps or the edge) and hoping for the best.  She will come up with a huge grin on her face and ask to go again.  We decided that we have too much going on the next few months to continue lessons but will take them up again in the spring.  

Ashton was doing outstanding with her lessons this year and is reasonably proficient in the pool.  She can roll herself over to breathe so she can swim as far as she needs to.   In general she is a lot more cautious, so she prefers to swim to someone or the side vs. attempting to go the full width of the pool.   Of course when there are two in lessons I never seem to get a chance to take photos as they don't tend to have lessons at the same time.  Hopefully next year I'll do a better job getting photos of both Ashton and Jacqueline but at least I remembered to snap a few on the last class to share.

A very successful swim season all around.  

First day of School

Today was Ashton's first day of Kindergarten. We were all very excited about this around the house. She picked out her "apple" dress as the right outfit for the first day and Jani did her hair in the morning. She got a "good luck" call from Heather to help start her out as well.
Then she came home for some photos with the family. Jacqueline also wore her apple dress and was gearing up to go herself. I'm pretty sure Jaq knew she couldn't go today but we didn't stress that too hard in the morning since we were pretty sure that would not yield good results for any of us.
Here are the girls with daddy, notice how nicely coordinated he is with the new paint color in the living room. He really is a stylish guy! You probably already guessed that Ashton is a "latebird" since we all look pretty awake in the photo. Her "normal" schedule will be from 10:15 - 2pm but that schedule will not start for two weeks. Until then we are on a shortened schedule of 10:20 - 12:00 so that's pretty short.
This is Ashton's teacher (Miss Chan) waving at her in the first day chaos. She remembered Ashton's name which made a bigger impression on mom then it did on Ashton. After class I asked how Miss Chan rated offering up a "pretty good" suggestion and I got back a response of "GREAT" so I think the day was a hit.
In fact, I think the only disappointed person today is Jacqueline who was hoping until the last minute that she could go too. In absence of that she wanted to go to her school today (of course hers starts next week). Was a bit of a challenge on the walk home to explain that it wasn't that her parents were stupid and not following her conversation but that today wasn't a school day for her. A+ on her part for attempting to say so many different ways that she REALLY wanted to go to school today.

"I want to stay at Ashton's school"
"I don't want to go to Jani's I want to go to Teacher Nancy's"
" I want you to take me to Teacher Nancy's"
"I want to go to my school first"
and so on... And so it begins, we are parents of children in school.

Camping Bears

Did our first overnight camp trip that included Jacqueline.  Cousins came along too which made it a great time for everyone and a bit more relaxing for us.

The girls set right to work making a camp sign for us.  Art projects are a big hit these days and having them working on that gave us a chance to unload the car with them occupied.  

Of course now that Jacqueline is on her way to three we have our occasional [frequent] meltdown times.  I've decided to get a few of these on film as proof of just what the drama can involve.  This particular meltdown was memorable for the quote "I don't have ANY crayons". Clearly whatever is in her hands are something other then "any" but attempting to reason with a near-3-year-old is something I haven't seemed to figure out.   Instead I decided to take a photo, since there was not going to be any way to accomplish the real intent (get all the crayons from Ashton).

Our new tent was a big hit for the whole family.  Dad liked it for coolness factor, mom liked the fact it was tall on the inside and the girls liked their little "rooms".   Our only issue setting up the tent was that we thought we had done it wrong initially but in the end we had it perfect.   It was great to get a chance to use the rest of our camp gear. 

Both girls slept great.  Mom had a few issues, in that there was someones baby who was crying in the middle of the night.  Even though I knew very well it wasn't either of my babies (they were w/in arms reach), somehow I had to stay awake until that baby was settled as well.  Boy how things have changed!

A Day in San Francisco

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Took a visit down to the city to see our friends Terry and Alison (and Isabel and Alex).  While the most of the day was walking around we did have an excellent time catching up and seeing how much the kids have grown.  These cute hearts are the new art in Union square.  Ashton wanted to take a photo in front of one.

Alex and Isabel were amazing.  While I'm sure we bored them to tears, we were impressed with how much they have grown since we saw them last.
Good photo of Terry at brunch but Alison had something important she was doing with her hands.
Thanks to Isabel for saving the day and getting a better photo of Alison for the blog.  As you can see they both look great, I guess this is why it seems like no time at all has passed since we saw them last.  
 Of course some time *must* have passed since Jacqueline wasn't even born yet when we saw them last.  In fact I was pregnant with her that time.  Now she is no longer even a baby (she tells me this every day, I'm a big girl mom!).  She doesn't even nap these days, unless she is bored to tears on a long walk in the stroller.  Then she might be known to sleep occasionally, but only if she doesn't know it's happening.

We also managed to take a cable car back to the hotel.  I'm pretty sure this is the second time I've ever done it so that was nice, above and beyond the walking relief it gave Ashton who was clearly done with walking.

Hopefully it doesn't take quite so many years before we see Terry and Alison again.  It was nice.