First Stop of the Summer

Our first summer vacation (yes we were spoiled with two!), took us to LA to meet up for a Chaput reunion. I always love to post pictures of the girls' cousins, especially the Fischer's, as they seem to grow faster than weeds, since we do not get to see them so much.  Here they are, in no particular order. Oh and yes, we had a blast...We spent the fourth of July with LUKE PERRY, wahoo-and that was not even on purpose.  A fourth of July celebration had by all, plenty of trips to the park, a big beach day in Malibu and much much more. Thank you so much again, Martha, John and Mimi Chaput for the great vacation.

 Avalon and Siri

 Avalon just hanging out.

 Magnus, pretending to be camera shy.

 The boys busy at work.

 Best Of Buds, Jake and Fosty.

 Gigi and Elle taking a swim.

 Elle...before the water.

 Shorty after, in the water.

 Carolynn and Martha.

 Uncle John leading the kite flying.

 Good ole Luca, taking it all in.

 Harper hard at work.

 Bottom Row: Jake, Luke and Elle, Paiage, Mimi, Magnus and Foster.
Back Row:  Siri, Avalon, Luca (Lauren) and last but not least Harper.

Happy Birthday, Harps.

On June 10th Harper turned two years old.  Because her birthday was on a Sunday and the weather was beautiful the whole weekend, we celebrated a little on both Saturday and Sunday.  Luca chose the location for Saturday, The San Mateo County Fair.  On Sunday we went to the sprinkler park and followed up with a nice dinner and then we met the Bensings in the park for cold stone cake.  We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our favorite toddler.
Since Harper is two she has already moved out of the baby room and into the preschool 1 room at Action Plus.  We are convinced she will potty train herself (or at least I am hoping), so we have yet to push this. We are often surprised when once in awhile out of nowhere she tells us she has to go pee.  As as I will be starting a new job with reduced hours, I will be able to spend more time on this, or so I think.
In the meantime Harper as recently learned to hold up two finger for her age and count with Luca to five.
We have so much fun with her. Oh yes and Luca has recently taught her to say "awkward."

Brave!

Luca had an anxiety attack at the Spring Concert this year.  As a parent, this is hard to watch.  At that concernt, she had to be removed from the stage.  She has stage freight, to the max!  As her graduation approached and the kids spent more time practicing, Luca became more and more anxious and stated that she would not be able to get up there with her class.  Luca was told that if she could not get up there, she still had to take place in her graduation and get dressed and put on her cap and gown, which was a struggle.  The day of graduation approached and although there were tears at 6:05 pm, by 6:30pm Luca put on a brave face and did it.  She happen to be the first graduate called and when her name was read and she was to talk down the steps to accept her gift from the teachers, she froze.  I got nervous watching, but a few seconds later, she did it and we are so proud of her. We finished the evening with a little celebration with the Bensings. Luca is enrolled in Benjamin Bubb for Kindergarten next year, she is mostly looking forward to not having to wear uniforms.

ROAD TRIP!

One of the main reasons that I wanted to move to California was to be able to see my family more.  This past holiday weekend, I was so lucky to be able to text Martha at 9:00am on Saturday and ask her if it was okay to be at her house in 7+ hours.  And so the Bonds embarked on yet another road trip. 
We have successfully put five thousand miles on our new car, and we have had it for less than three months, yikes. At this rate, it might not make it until Luca is ready to drive. Nonetheless Martha and John did a spectacular job of hosting and we were blessed with wonderful weather that allowed us to get outside and enjoy nature and one another.
I also attended my first yoga class, by master instructor Martha. I was not only impressed, but also amazed at how much I was sweating and out of breath.  When it was time to leave Luca cried and asked to stay.  I let her know that we could do this often in the summer now because they are so close.  Enjoy the pics.  Oh and for those of you who might wonder...yes, the children wore Johne out!

Wildflower 2012-Bradley, CA

Martha, Justin, John, Maureen and Rob braved the heat and hit the water and pavement for some real fun, well...I guess I would not go that far, but we did have fun.  I was able to join the triathletes for their journey this year.  With the exception of Rob, this was a first time event for our group. I can honestly say, they inspired me. Don't get any bright ideas, I'm not out swimming in a freezing cold reservoir, but I do want to try and join these crazy kids for another adventure. We had a great time.

Ode to the moments...............

After I saw this on "Pinterest" I realized that even after the baby stage, losing sleep while holding or rocking or soothing one of my children is quite possibly one of my favorite things.  The stillness of the night marked by the comfort of my child, is priceless.

We're Having a HEAT WAVE

We were blessed with summer temperatures in the Bay Area this weekend. I did not take the kids to the beach on Saturday and regretted that, so Sunday morning, I packed them up early and we went to Santa Cruz.  Because of my lack of expertise in the Bay Area weather patterns, I met 55 degree weather and fog.  I'm happy to say, the girls barely noticed, until Harpers feet turned blue.

As we packed up, however, the fog lifted and it turned into a beautiful day. I had a good time, spent all of it with the kids are had a blast.  Luca and Harps also got out and rode their bikes and "rides" this weekend. Luca would sleep with her new bike, if she could.