Daddy's first day

Tom started his new job at Symantac today.  Here he is embracing the company's logo.  

 Leo started reading Harry Potter today.  It's going to be challenging for him and he didn't get very far today but he definitely understood what he was reading and is proud of himself for reading it.  When he first got his glasses, a number of people commented that he looked like Harry Potter.

 He had a crossword puzzle for homework today.  He exclaimed "my Nana does these kind of puzzles!"

Nana weekend and baseball

Nana was in town this weekend which means you prep for baseball with frozen yogurt.  We had a great weekend with her and helped with daddy being gone.  

 Today's game went much better than the last game.  The team was more evenly matched with their opponents and it wasn't 100 degrees out.  Leo had a good game.  He didn't execute any outs or have a lot of success batting, but he did what he was supposed to do and kept his head in the game.  He also stayed in good spirits even when he struck out.  I was proud of him.

More Otter Pops and Tom's trip

Two weeks ago we handed out Otter Pops to the kids as a "thank you" for all the PTA donations.  Today we passed out the Pops to the kindergartners who hadn't received them on the first round.  

Serafina forgot her lunch box at school yesterday so she got hot lunch today.  She wanted hot lunch today anyway because it was pizza day.  

Here she is with Sonja.  The little boy behind her is named Oren.  He's an interesting one.  

 Happy with their Pops.

 Heading back to the kinder yard after lunch.

 Tom headed off for his annual backpacking trip.

 He has to lug that huge, heavy bag into the wilderness but he loves it.  I'm glad he has guys to do this with so I never have to join him.

 These clouds looked pretty cool at swim class today.

 I realized I took pictures of Serafina and Tom and clouds, but no Leo, so I took this one while he read at swim class.

Man, I love this kid but he's having a rough time.  He's been so emotional recently with lots of outbursts over nothing.  And today he got so down on himself because he was struggling with homework.  He said he isn't good at anything and all the kids in his class are better than him.  It absolutely broke my heart.  I gave him a pep talk and he seemed to cheer up, but I still worry so much about him.  

In house news, the beam that will hold up our roof now that the load-bearing wall has been removed was delivered.  It's a huge glulam beam and I'm not sure when it will be hoisted into place, but it will be the centerpiece to our new living space.  

House progress and crazy Tuesdays

We had a meeting with the designer and builder today.  Things are coming along, like the forth room.  It's starting to look like a room.  

 Tom has this week off between his old job and his first day of his new job, which will be Monday.  His annual backpacking trip is scheduled for Thursday.  In the meantime, he's being productive and spending time with the kids.  Here he is joining us at Serafina's swim lesson.  He was on the phone and he let Serafina listen to the hold music.  She thought it was hilarious.

 Tuesdays are tough.  (Have I mentioned this before?)  After swim, Serafina has to quickly shower at home and throw on some dance clothes.  Dance class starts exactly one hour after the end of swim and it is a bit of a mad dash.  Leo spends his time at the dance studio reading and doing homework.  He's a good sport during it all.  Hopefully there will be some changes to the schedule soon and we can have easier afternoons.

Saturday night fun and sweaty baseball

Another Saturday and another dinner with friends.  The kids started out the evening playing a game of tasting strange flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans.  

 Apparently it was gross but fun.

 Then the girls moved on to putting on makeup.

 This was also very fun.

 Then they put on several fashion shows.

 Today Leo had a baseball game in 100 degree weather.  It was brutal.  The warm ups were very brief.

 Tom helped him hydrate on the field.

 It was a long, hot game against a team that was much stronger than our kids with a coach that was very obnoxious.  But all our players kept their spirits up and gave it their best effort.  We were very proud of them.

 We came home and all of us had popsicles to try to cool down from that miserable experience.

More Serafina

The year of hats is kicking off.  Mrs. Robinson loves sticking hats on these kids.  Here's the one commemorating the first full week of kinder.  Leo sported this look two years ago.  

 Here she is with Sonja.  Don't tell Sonja but she didn't make Serafina's "BFF" list today.

 This afternoon she had her six-year check up.  She passed her hearing and vision tests.

 She looked fabulous in her exam gown.

She's in the 97th percentile for height and weight but that's no surprise.  The doctor did express concern about her giant tonsils.  They are big and ugly and don't ever get better.

Full-day kinder for Serafina (plus Uncle Sal)

Serafina has been attending full-day kindergarten this week and has been doing great.  She wants to try hot lunch next week.  Leo isn't a fan so we'll see what she thinks.  

It's color week at kinder and today was "green day".  I spent some time working in the classroom this morning and it is very interesting to see how different my kids are in class.  Leo is reserved and quiet in class.  Serafina is more boisterous, sometimes when she shouldn't be.  

Tom has been attending a conference in San Francisco most of the week.  He's been coming home after the kids are in bed which make my days feel extra long, but tonight is the last night.  It was a happy coincidence that his Uncle Sal was in the city for business.  They met up for dinner tonight and sent me this picture.  

Dance audition and first Fall Ball game

Serafina went on her first dance audition today.  The Santa Clara Ballet School had an open audition for their annual performance of "The Nutcracker".  She was excited about the opportunity to dance on stage.  We had to wait a while for the auction to start and she was very patience.  I wasn't able to watch the audition though I did peek in the window a few times.  I could tell she was doing a good job and paying attention.  

When she got done she was excited to tell me that she was cast in the Chinese tea dance.  I'm very proud of her and it will make this Christmas season extra special since she'll be performing in several shows in December.   

 Leo had his first game of the Fall Ball season today.  There are only a few teams in his division in our local league this season so they are playing against other little leagues in the area.  I was late because of the audition so the game was already in full swing.
Here's Kyle, Leo, Max and Owen.  I'm not sure what their team name will be but the "Tigers" was mentioned today.

Tom pitched the first few innings.  I didn't get a video of Leo getting a good hit, but here's one of Tom pitching and Leo hitting a foul ball.  

He also made an out at first base and he was proud of himself.  We were proud of him too.  It was a long, hot afternoon of baseball but the team played well and since it's a short season, there are only seven games left.

Tom's farewell lunch

After almost 10 years at his job, Tom is moving on to a new company.  I'm so excited for him and incredibly proud that he's leaving the familiar for a new opportunity.   Of course, he's going to miss Netapp and everyone is really going to miss him.  Next week is his final week but most of it will be spent at a conference so they had a farewell lunch for him today.  

Tom in the middle of all the guys.  

And with the ladies.  

Tom raved about this tiramisu cake but didn't bring any home for me.    

Leo's long day

I pulled Leo out of school this morning so he could get a filling at the dentist.  I feel bad for this kid since he takes good care of his teeth but he still gets cavities.  I'm like that too and so was my dad, so I guess it's just a hereditary bummer.  

Since he was missing snack time at school, I took him for a smoothie.  Here he is with his partially numb, crooked smile.  He was such a trooper.  

 He went back to school and finished out the day.  Then he went to swim practice.  After swim, he had to hurry up and change to go to baseball practice.  It's his second practice and his first game is on Saturday.  The fall season is shorter than a normal season, but he's moved up a division.  The kids can pitch in this division so he tried it out today with Tom's guidance.

The practice was long and a bit boring toward the end.  Leo fell apart a few minutes before practice was supposed to wrap up.  I just let him get in the car and didn't try to get him to compose himself.  He had such a long, trying day.  I felt like crying along with him.  He cheered up once we got home and I'm going to try hard to not have both swim and baseball on the same day.  It's just too much.

After school swim (and mommy complaints)

It has been 100 degrees here every day this week.  Unpleasant, to say the least.  The school isn't air conditioned and neither is most of our apartment.  The cat was doing better but is now in the habit of crying loudly every morning at 5am.  The kids don't wake up because of it but Tom and I do.  

This morning I had to represent the PTA president at a tough PTA meeting.  The annual walk-a-thon needed to be canceled (and I'll be honest here on the blog but I tried to be tactful in the meeting) because of inexperienced/inadequate leadership with terrible communication skills.  Needless to say, the chairperson was not happy and nothing could be said to make her feel better.  She seemed to be operating in a different reality than the rest of us, so we'll see if she wants to try again for next year.  The nice thing is that our extremely successful donation campaign takes the pressure off any other fundraising efforts.  

I followed that up with helping the kindergarten classroom which was full of boogers and a complaining teacher.  

And if that wasn't enough, the PTA decided to hand out Otter Pop popsicles to all the 1st - 5th graders as a token of appreciation for the fundraising support and to beat the heat.  And as if the logistics of handing out almost 600 popsicles were tricky enough, a large number of them didn't freeze in time.  Since Serafina is still on the half-day schedule, she had to just hang out while a team of us worked on the popsicle project.  She was a good sport and I left covered in Otter Pop juice - pineapple flavor in my hair and an assortment of flavors and colors on the rest of me.  

So when my friend Kristi invited the kids over to swim and the moms to have a cocktail, I said absolutely.  We went after Serafina's swim lesson so she was already in a suit.  

The kids had fun and the moms got to unwind and complain about our day.  

Direct donation campaign

In August I started work on a Direct Donation campaign for the PTA.  I mostly involved writing letters and emails and data entry once donations were received.  The plan was to just ask families to give the PTA money (there was a suggested amount) and that would take the pressure off some of the other large scale fundraisers like the Walk-a-thon.  The kids love the Walk-a-thon but it is a daunting amount of work for parent volunteers.  

It was the first year we were doing this type of fundraiser and we weren't sure if people would open their wallets for the PTA.  Well, the checks came rolling in.  The campaign wrapped up last Friday and at tonight's PTA meeting the treasurer slipped me this note for my report.  

We will still be receiving corporate matching donations from employers but at this point, we pretty much doubled our goal of 20K.  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

Labor Day outing

It was hot and boring at the apartment today so we took a little trip to a large park in Los Gatos.  Lots of families were at the park settling in for a day of BBQ-ing and hanging out.   The playground and trails were all too hot to really enjoy but then we found a spot on the creek that was accessable.   Serafina was the only one brave enough to get in.  

 She had lots of fun in that mucky water.

 Leo wasn't interested.

 Los Gatos has lots of nice places to eat.  We went to a hipster pizza place with album covers on the walls and the only light in the bathroom provided by a neon pizza sign.  The food was excellent though.

Saturday night fun

Yesterday we went to my friend Lina's house for a party.  I brought dessert and my laundry.  Since I knew we would be hanging out for several hours, I asked if I could do a couple of loads.  The night before I used the machines at the apartment's laundry room and it was fine, but I wanted to do my delicates in a more sophisticated machine.  It worked out great and I really appreciated it.  

I also left my phone on the table when I went to the garage to move the laundry along and came back to this as my screen saver.  

This shot was posted to my Instagram account with the caption "Love them."  A very true statement.  

 The kids got super crazy at the house.  Leo found this mask and ran around screaming "I'm a man!"

 This morning Serafina confessed she had five juice boxes at the party.  FIVE!  I scolded her and then she wrote this.