Standing!!

Naomi has been testing her balance for a few weeks now. She keeps getting steadier and more brave with each attempt. She's doing great at scooting along holding on to furniture, toys, the wall, anything really. Then she lets go to see if she can balance. It's awesome to watch. And with this being my third I'm not as anxious about her falling - which she has. Thank goodness for diaper butts! Here are a couple pics I snagged while at Noah's baseball practice today.

Tropicana Gardens Reunion

My bestie Elena was in town for a wedding in Santa Cruz last weekend.  Since she flew out all the way from DC she thought it was a good idea to have me and Jackie crash the wedding to hang with her.  Well, she was right.  It was a GREAT idea!  


The 3 of us were put in an off-campus apartment together in our first year at UCSB.  The reason we were matched up was because we all played water polo and were going to try out for the women's team once school started.  We hit it off right away - not so much with our other two roommates who were strictly sorority and way to girly for the likes of us.  The 3 of us remained close the entire 4 years of college.  Elena and I even lived together for 3 out of the 4 years.  It would have been 4 out of 4 but we kind of got screwed at the last minute when it was time to look for housing.  Boo.  Regardless, the 3 of us were always together anyways.  And we've remained close friends 11 years after leaving.  I'm totally aging myself by saying that!  11 YEARS since I graduated UCSB - ugh, old lady over here). 


We each have 3 kids now, every combination of 1 girl and 2 boys.  We all brought our youngest along for the wedding fun.  Oh how times have changed.  Chasing kids, changing diapers, nursing, barely an adult beverage to be had.  But it's almost like no time has passed at all, we fall into conversation like we just hung out yesterday.   Now only if we had Jenny Day with us our little circle of friends would have been 100% complete.  Jenny - we miss you!


Here's a rundown of the kids…
Elena: Oliver - 6, Simone - 3, Rocco - 10 mo.
Jac: Natalie - 5, Owen - 3, Emmett - 14 mo.
Jen: Noah - 6, Julian - 3, Naomi - 8 mo.
  

Naomi & Rocco

They really like each other

So happy together!

Playing in the fountain

moms & babies

Emmett joins the scene

Ruffle Butt in the air

Rocco & Emmett playing with hula hoops

Kids & hoops

Rocco walks!!

Moms

Moms & kids

I love that Rocco is talking to Emmett in this one

New Food

Last weekend we went to Boogie on the Bayou in downtown Campbell.  We usually eat lunch there since it's all yummy cajun/creole/spicy food - our favorite!  Noah and Julian get the teriyaki chicken kabob.  But this time they both were up for trying something new.  It actually makes me really happy that my kids are not a strictly chicken nugget, pasta, and cheeseburger eaters.  They are pretty adventurous and eat lots of different cuisine.   So here are a few pictures of them giving the mystery food a try (they knew what they were eating and asked to try it).   Can you guess what it was that they ate?

Noah's first taste

not so sure

decided he liked it enough to eat a couple pieces

Julian's first taste

does NOT like it

gave it a second try and still didn't like it

The boys on a ride together…they recovered from the Fear Factor food challenge.

SO DID YOU GUESS WHAT THE FOOD WAS THAT THE BOYS TRIED?  IF YOU GUESSED ALLIGATOR YOU WERE RIGHT!!  WINNER WINNER ALLIGATOR DINNER!  LOL.

Jog-A-Thon

Today there was a jog-a-thon at the boys' school.  It was quite a to-do…lots of tents set up, a dj with speakers, a stage, water booths, a bbq, and a race with the principal.  There was a raffle to select the kids that got to race with the principal and Noah's name was pulled.  He was super excited to hear his name announced over the speakers!  I didn't realize the preschool was participating so I didn't have Julian with me.  But I quickly amended my mistake and had Leo bring him over to jog.  


Leo stayed with them for a little while and reported back to me that Noah ran at top speed the whole time.  Julian was a little shy at first, then ran laps around all his friends.  Both got a t-shirt with a "counter" on the back to keep track of how many laps they made.  Noah ran 15 laps and Julian ran 5.   Noah was a little disappointed that he didn't run as many laps as he said he wanted to.  When I asked him yesterday how many he thought he could run he said 30.  The pledge sheet said "most kids run between 12-25 laps."  That's my boy…overachiever just like his mama!  


Leo was able to get a few pictures of both boys, Noah ran laps the whole time.  Julian's "track" was more like an obstacle course.  What a fun day they both had!

Noah is behind the girl in white shorts

Look at that stride!  

I can't tell, but I think he's holing up his index finger…he's #1!

High steps!

He's gonna pass her!!

Through the tunnel….

and he's spent.

Sibling Fun

I know the time is coming.  My kids are going to be hiding in a room, whispering plans, in cahoots against me.  But I'm happy about it.  The kids are always so happy to play together.  Noah and Julian will be playing with blocks on the floor and Naomi will crawl over to play with them.  They get irritated when she takes their toys, but you can hear in their voices that they really aren't that annoyed.  And they never try to take the toys away from her.  When Noah and Julian are wrestling Naomi get equally excited and starts bouncing on her knees laughing.  She will throw herself at them in an attempt to wrestle - they let her.  It turns into a bouncing, giggling mass of kids.  I love my kids.