France part I

In October Pete had another business trip to France, so we decided to make it into a vacation/anniversary trip.  Pete's parents were kind enough to come to stay with the girls.  We flew into Paris and spent a week together in this gorgeous country before he had to start work.

 We wandered the old streets of this romantic city and ate amazing food everywhere.  We used the Velib bike system in Paris and loved biking around town to all the sites.  It was a great way to see the city and work off all that good food too!  We got pretty good at dodging buses and Vespas on the busy city streets.

 The Eiffel tower was such an elegant structure, I took lots of pictures.

 We got there just a little before the sun went down so we got to see the sunset from the top.

 View of the city behind us-it was windy and freezing up there, but worth it for the view.

 After dark I loved how it looked lit up

 We spent time at Musee D'orsay-Here in front of the giant clock window.  It was so great to have the time to wander the halls with Pete and really look at the work of so many masters with out wrestling with the kids.  They wouldn't have lasted ten minutes in this place.

Loved Notre Dame and none of the pictures I took inside seemed to do it justice.

The lovers locks 

one of the many beautiful bridges over the Seine

It was pouring rain when we visited the Arc de Triomphe

At the Louvre with our friends/ Pete's business partner Rob and Sarah

Fall activities and traditions

 Sydney started a soccer class this fall with two little friends.  I loved watching her play and buying those tiny shin guards!

 GG loved watching and cheered her on from the sidelines

 We attended the annual Fireman's pancake breakfast fundraiser.  The kids got to spray the fire hoses at some faux fire.  I love how Syd sticks her tongue out to focus!

 GG looked so small!

 We made it out camping with our favorite camping buddies-the Bankheads!  I love that they have three kids and still rock the camping scene-they always inspire us.

 Pete snuggling the girls in their camping hammock

 We continued our tradition of apple picking and gobbled up the apples way too soon.

 The girls love this place, and especially the wheelbarrow rides

I love this time of year!

School

September came quickly this year and both my girls have "school" this time around.  GG was so brave the first day and was just so excited about being big enough to go to school.  She insisted on carrying her own backpack and loves that she gets to eat lunch at school.  Let's be honest, this child loves anything having to do with food! :-)

 She didn't even look back as Sydney and I left and I had to choke back a few tears leaving my baby!  Syd totally called me out and said "Mom, what's wrong with you? Are you crying?!" 

 

GG goes to her class one day a week at the school Syd used to attend.

Sydney will go to school three days/week at a real preschool this year with a bunch of her buddies from church.  She is growing up so fast!

Giants Game/Santa Cruz Boardwalk

We really wanted to take the girls to a game this summer and squeezed it in at the end of the season.  They loved it and we had a great time showing them all the fun things about baseball games like the kiss cam, chicken dance, booing the ump, hot dogs and popcorn etc.  Trever and Lindy we wish you could have been there!

Cheering on our team

 Doing the wave

 We taught GG to cheer and she got really into it-she was so loud and everyone around us kept cracking up when she did it.

 We also decided the kids were old enough to take on the SC boardwalk.  They went crazy there and loved everything.  Sydney just kept muttering "This place is the best" over and over.  We stayed until dark and drove home with two very happy and very tired little munchkins.

Pete had a great time too

Random tidbits

I just downloaded pictures from my phone and found all these great pics of things we did this summer.  So these are a little random, but fun.

 Planting our community garden plot with the Moss boys and neighbor friends Kaitlin and Chloe.

The kids have so much fun planting, digging and playing with the chickens here.

 Syd with good buddies Will&Weston at the park

 Pete and I went to a traditional Sikh wedding for a friend at the largest Sikh temple outside of India and it was an amazing experience.  I borrowed my good friend's traditional dress and we enjoyed the beautiful ceremony at the temple, the rockin' party that night and the incredible food throughout the day.

My kids love this car wash because it has free horse rides, popcorn and lemonade-why go anywhere else?

 Cute girls playing at our neighborhood park

 Our kids love playing in the car and "driving" each other places.  We have to laugh when we turn on the car after they play in there and the hazard lights, windshield wipers and AC all come on at the same time!

 More car wash rides

 We took the kids biking a lot this summer and Sydney learned how to ride without her training wheels! She was so excited about this and we were so proud of her-it made her seem so grown up to me.

 GG in the bike seat.  She can rock the trike, but still loves to ride fast with us.

 Lots of time in the pool this summer and always a treat to bring the surf board along.

The hollow tree at Rancho-love these sweet girls!

End of Summer wrap-up

 The pacifier fairy paid us a visit and whisked all GG's pacifiers off in exchange for a very cool "compooter"(as Grace calls it).  This happened just in time for GG to start a fun pre-school prep and made her an official "big girl".  

 Proud big sister, maybe just a little jealous of that compooter

 Sydney saw some kids with a lemonade stand and wanted to take her own spin on the idea.  Their cupcake stand was a huge hit and they had so much fun helping us make and frost them.  Pete and I enjoyed watching our girls just stare in wonder at all those tempting cupcakes between customers.

 We had a kid swap with our buddies the Nadauld's and I learned how crazy, but fun, it would be to have five kids!  Syd and GG were in heaven with their favorite people here all day long-they couldn't get enough and Sydney still cried when Millie's parents came to pick them all up.  Here are the girls all ready for bed.

Spence rocking' out on the Ukelele.