Ballet Camp Performance

Serafina has been attending "Little Ballerina Camp" at her dance studio this week.  They made crafts, had snack time and, of course, danced.  Today was the last day and they had a performance.  Nana was there to watch it too, which was very exciting for Serafina.  

 Here's the performance.  My camera work isn't great and Serafina gets distracted at one point by another girl's broken crown.

Nana brought Clue for us to play.  Today we got a chance to play and Leo won.  He was very happy.

Yum

Well, it took a few days but I finally gave in to the lure of the convenience meal.  It's a lot of work dealing with these kids by myself so I decided to take the night off of preparing dinner.  

 I try not to hit the drive-in too often, but my kids love In-n-Out, and those of us on the West Coast where In-n-Out is found consider it a cut above regular fast food.

The kids cleaned their plates.  Paper plates, 'cause I really wanted to make it easy on myself.

Dance camp

Today was the first day of Dance Camp for Serafina.  

 Specifically, it is "Little Ballerina Camp" at the same dance studio she attends during the school year.  It's three hours a day each day this week.

 When we picked her up she said it was fun but that the dance they were learning to perform was boring because it was too short.

I think I've mentioned that Leo has been dealing with a lot of night time fears.  He has trouble falling asleep and wakes up most nights with bad dreams.  It's exhausting for everyone.  Last night, he took a long time to fall asleep and kept getting up.  Then he was awake again at 4:30 this morning with a bad dream.  He likes to get in bed with Serafina.  He claims he feels safe.  His top bunk is "too scary, too lonely and too hot".  I believe him that it's probably kind of hot up there.  I'd like him to sleep in his own bed, but last night I was too tired to enforce anything.  For tonight, I came up with a solution.  He wants to be cooler and closer to his sister, so I set him up on a mat on the floor next to her bed.  They both seemed happy with the solution and I haven't heard a peep since I kissed them goodnight and turned out the light.

Edgewood Hike

We took Tom to the airport today.  It was tough to see him go, but I'm not going to whine about being apart too much since I know military wives and single moms handle life without a dad around.  I'll be fine.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself.  

On the way back from the airport, we stopped at Edgewood Park & Nature Preserve for a little hike.  It went better than I expected and ate up some time this afternoon.  Plus, it was pretty.  

Daddy's last day before his big trip

Tom and I were feeling a little down today knowing we are going to be apart for almost three weeks starting tomorrow.  We've never been seperated that long.  Tom will miss the kids a lot, but I think the time will pass quickly for him because he will be busy with work.  He even has a weekend trip planned to see the Taj Mahal.  I don't predict it will go very quickly for me though.  

The kids played in the pool with daddy this afternoon. 

 Tom wanted a burger for dinner since he won't be having one for a while, so we went out to eat and we all had a nice meal.

Train and Carousel in Vasona Park

Wow.  Summer days can be long and boring.  I'm trying to get creative and plan outings for us, but it isn't always easy.  Today we headed to a park in Los Gatos that has a train and carousel.  It's been a long while since we've been there.  

The kids on the train.  

On the carousel.  If you look behind Leo, you can see Serafina sitting on the bench.  I'm not sure why she didn't want to ride on a horse.  

The two rides took about 20 minutes total, which is about how long it took us to get there.  They played on the playground for a while too.
 This play fire truck is in the playground.

We were home by lunchtime and had the whole afternoon to drive each other crazy.  Tom came home pretty early, but he leaves on Sunday to India for almost three weeks.  I'm hoping we all survive without him and there aren't any dead things I have to deal with while he's away.  I can take on many of his chores (pool, garbage, garden), but I don't do well with dead animals.  Luckily, our hunter cat doesn't do much killing anymore since she is now more interested in being Serafina's baby.

Kitty baby

Something must be profoundly wrong with our cat Billie.  I'm guessing it's an Invasion of the Body Snatchers type situation because there is no other explanation of why she would let herself be held like this.  And outside!  She is always too cool for human contact when outside.  

 Of course, it could be that as Billie gets into her golden years she's more tolerant of such indignities.

Serafina found that big flower headband in her dress up clothes and insists on wearing it all the time.  She looks a little like a 1920s flapper.