Meg's birthday at the Sheltor Network

To celebrate my birthday this year we did a team event at the Shelter Network. A local organization that provides assistance to people who need transitional housing.


Here is our group photo.

We do a few of these kinds of volunteer events each year and I find them very rewarding and grounding. I thought it would be a nice thing to do for the birthday celebration. It felt especially appropriate to be giving back this year with so many families struggling in this economy.

This time our job was to paint the lobby, hallways and conference rooms. These are important to the organization as this is where they receive donations and have meetings so it's an area they want to look fresh and nice. I'd like to say we achieved that goal, to be honest it was a close call as I don't think many of us are well suited for this kind of work ;-).
This year Ashton joined us and got good support from her Auntie Suzie who is an experienced painter. She especially enjoyed the taping job as the low spots were easy for her to help with.After the event, the team went for drinks where Bob and Jacqueline joined us for a cake. I strongly suggest considering doing a volunteer event on a special day, it really helps make you realize just how lucky you are.



Of course, since it's me I also had a beautiful (seriously) Judy cake as well later with the family.

Gilroy Gardens

The Bear's and the Carnecchia's took a day trip to the Gilroy gardens as a spur of the moment idea. It was mostly based upon the fact that the weather was expected to be a bit cooler and I had heard great things about the park for kids.

Dante (7), Ashton (6) and Jacqueline (4) were all about the perfect ages for this park as I expect after age 10 things start to get a bit boring. As it was Jacqueline had to talk Dante up a bit when they decided to sit out a roller coaster with me instead of going with the adults.

Jacqueline was really having a blast with the rides as there were a lot for her age. As you know, she especially likes the car ones (or in this case the fire truck). She made us wait a few times for this one.

Dante and Ashton enjoy being the big kids and attempted to ditch Jacqueline a few times but overall were pretty patient letting her join them. All in all a great day.

Jacqeuline sparkles and dances

Jacqueline was on a roll today. She had a playdate with our neighbor friend Sophie and then when that ended she asked me to read her a story. The book was a free Taco Bell (yup only the finest dining in the Bear family) one that mentioned a free song download. I got curious about the song since it was not an obvious tune (and I was expected to "sing along" with the book). I went to the den to download the song, which was a bit of an ompa number about a dancing bear.

Of course, she had to go get her own bear and make it dance.
Then, she had to put on her sparkle outfit to match the bear. After about two rounds of the song I remembered to video it for your very own enjoyment.

You will notice that she is dancing around her pants that she left of the floor in her rush to dress appropriately for the music. You have no idea how serious this kind of stuff is at 3. It's VERY important to dress the part.


Later the afternoon we were doing a family jacuzzi (we put some cold water in for the girls) and for some reason I told Jacqueline that she "blew me away". Her immediate response was to start blowing on me which took me a minute to figure out what she was doing.

And one final story.

As I was attempting to clean up the mess from the day I put on Dora. Those of you familiar with Dora know that it's a bit interactive. They were doing a part that required naming shapes. She got the circle right, called the triangle a diamond, got the square right, called the rectangle a line (which was actually fair) and then got the pentagon right (one I had to take a second to be sure about). I found that a perfect example of Jacqueline's intellect. Not to be underestimated at any level. Just when she makes you think she doesn't know any of her shapes, she comes out with pentagon.

Kinder Open House

Today was the first Open House I have attended as a parent. What a great time. The kids each published their own poems and read them into a microphone for all to hear. It was outstanding.





Jacqueline was on her best behavior too (this could not be said of all the siblings). She was quiet and clapped for each of the presenters on cue. I was very proud.


After the reading we went around the classroom and saw all the excellent projects, games and artwork that they have been doing. It was quite impressive. Then we saw the library and visited a few of the first grade classes to get a glimpse of next year.


I was also able to get a video of Ashton achieving one of her big goals this year -- getting across the monkey bars. I was so proud of her.




Great job Ashton! Your mom is very very proud of you.

Easter 09

We started our Easter the night before with appropriate bribes for the bunny. Of course, we had to borrow these from the neighbors. Ashton was sure to include a note of gratitude to help the cause.


Easter this year was at the Curtis household. We had baskets, we had new outfits (thanks Judy) we had egg hunts. It was all good. We were picking up Julianne from her visit with the cousins and noticed how she had taken to the new house Grandpa Bob had built for Raider.

The Egg hunt was a busy affair but Jacqueline got a little help from Auntie Suzie to even out the odds. After the hunt we spent some time learning to play Wii, J helped Jaq work on her guitar skills which made for a nice photo.

Spring Skiing

The spring trip was one of the most successful ski trips yet. Both girls were very comfortable with the skiing process.
Jacqueline had made huge strides and Bob was able to take her skiing with him using her straps to help her on the steep slopes.
We took one day and skiied with the girls ourselves. Here is Ashton taking a break from the long ski run we did.
As you can see Ashton is a pro now. She is in the "regular" ski school that has her on the slopes a full day. Often when we pick her up she is tired but still wants to take a run with Daddy on Payday lift.
The other great discovery this year was a new place for lunch that has ski-in/out and lounge chairs. As you can see Bob has no trouble making excellent use of this amenity.

Jaq's second ear tube operation

We got a chance to put in a second round of ear tubes for Jaq. I was pretty sure that one side was no longer working after a few infections and some general challenges with health. Of course, the challenge was that we were about to go on a ski trip and I didn't want her getting sick while we were away from home.

We were lucky to get a cancellation and decided to make it happen. We had to get up early and she had to fast, while not easy this time, compared to a year before this was a breeze. She woke up in an excellent mood and was charming the entire waiting room with her singing and pledge reciting.

She was happy through all the pre-op checks and left with no issues to go get the procedure.

It was a little heartbreaking to see her so sad and weepy when the procedure was over. We spent a little extra time in the post-op area getting organized before going home.


On the drive home she was more dazed than weepy which was better.


She spent most of the rest of the day on the couch taking it easy. By the time I got home from work in the evening she was doing pretty well and the next morning it was like it never happened. I was so glad we did this as we had a great trip and have been trouble free (ear wise) ever since.