Happy 8th Birthday, Serafina!

I can't believe my little baby girl is eight. She has been so excited about her birthday.  She woke up early this morning...too early.  I had to send her back to bed twice but then we let her open the present I left outside her door.  

We quickly followed it up with the real present.  

This is Josefina Montoya.  Her back story is that she is from Mexico in 1824.  My paternal family is full of Josefinas - my grandmother, aunt and cousins - so this doll was the obvious choice.  I even suggested that Serafina be named Josefina.  

 She's so thrilled to have two now.  She even let her brother play with her original doll today.

 We planned a pool party starting at noon today.  Of course, there was no way we could know there would be a record-breaking heat wave.  The only choices for today was being in the pool or being in the air-conditioned house.  Thankfully, all the kids chose pool.  

 Kid soup!

 Tom and Uncle Mike hung in the pool.

 Yesterday, it was 105 degrees out and I baked two cakes to make this double layer birthday cake. It wasn't the most fun, but it was worth it to make this cake for my girl.  She helped with assembling and decorating it today.

 All the kids gathered around so we could sing.

The cake was chocolate with a rich chocolate frosting in between the layers with vanilla frosting on top and cookie crumb "sand".  

After cake, there was more pool time and then the kids huddled together while Serafina opened presents.  Not all the kids were willing to get out of the pool for this part.  

 At some point, the dads took over the pool.

 Everyone seemed to have a good time and no one died of heat stroke, so I'd say it was a success.  Serafina went outside to bid farewell to some guests and I made her pose with Fred who was all dressed up for her party.

 So Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynz arrived last night to the most ridiculous weather we've ever had.  But they were here for the birthday fun.  Tonight we went out to dinner.  Here's Serafina and Mike relaxing while waiting for our table.

 Both kids had to sit next to Aunt Lynz at dinner.

10 year Blogiversary

Ten years ago today I started this blog as an easy way to share photos and cute stories about my kids.  In 2007, lots of people were blogging.  My cousins and friends had blogs.  The format allowed for bragging and confession and self-involvement that was kind of new to the social fabric. Ten years ago, smart phones were not wide spread, Facebook was just gaining traction outside of college campuses and Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter hadn't even launched yet.  Over the years, over-sharing has become the norm and it's all at your fingertips.  Blogging has gone the way of the dodo bird.  People connect and share in bite-sized tidbits.  I don't know anyone who still blogs, and I can only think of about three people that still read this blog.  Don't worry, my three readers, this isn't my swan song.  I plan to keep blogging.  Of course, the posts are getting fewer and further between, but I will still chronicle our adventures and milestones.  This blog has become an incredible record of my kids' lives.  If I can't recall what one dressed up for Halloween when he/she was three, I can "check the blog".  Which beach did we visit when Uncle Mike came to town? "Check the blog".  Need to relive some vacation fun during the dull days? "Check the blog".  This blog serves me probably more than anyone else.  Over the 10 years, I haven't been consistently writing fiction or keeping a journal, but I've been keeping up the blog.  I'm pretty proud of this 10 year writing project.  

We've had some ups and downs, and plenty of silliness in between.
In the spirit of silliness, here are the two most recent videos of my kids on my phone.

Solar eclipse

Woo-wee!  Today was super cool.  I was excited about the eclipse and looking forward to it, but I had no idea how awesome it would be.  

Yesterday afternoon, we made a bunch of pinhole projectors to bring to school.  They were pretty easy to make, though it was a bit unsettling to realize how much cereal we currently have in our pantry.  

I gave three projectors to Serafina's class and four to Leo's.  They didn't work as well as I hoped but the kids were good sports about trying them out. 

 Fortunately, there were lots of glasses floating around.  The fourth grade had a complete class set that was passed from room to room.  Leo's class had their turn during some of the best viewing time.  The teacher emphasized not looking up without the glasses on and Leo took her very seriously.

 And then it was time to check it out.

 It was quite a show.

 Leo was nice enough to let me look through his glasses and the eclipse was stunning.  Even better than I imagined.  The kids went back inside to watch the NASA live feed and pass the glasses onto the next class.

 I went to check on second grade.  They also had lots of glasses to pass around.

 Serafina and her classmates were very generous about sharing glasses with me.  It was a great experience.  There were more parents than usual at school - helping out and admiring the eclipse with the kids - but everyone should have been there.  It was such a cool sight and very special to experience with the kids.

Here's a project Serafina did today in class.

Sunny sleepover

Last night Serafina's friend Sunny came over for a sleepover.  They played in the pool and then we went to dinner.  

 Over the course of the evening there were lots of animated conversations.

 And lots of eating.

 Serafina has a trundle bed, but the girls decided to sleep in the living room.  They settled in for a movie marathon, but didn't stay in their sleeping bags for long.

 Of course we had to have a special dessert.  I set up an ice cream sundae bar.

 And this happened.

 I love Sunny's face in this shot.

 They went to sleep late, but still woke up early.  They played a game while they waited for Tom to finish making pancakes.

 Pancake time.

They had a great time and got along really well.  They've decided they need a lot more sleepovers.

First day of school

Look at this sassy second grader.  She was nervous this morning but I think having a good outfit helped her confidence.  

 He was also nervous but had a good attitude this morning.

 We always have to take a picture in front of this wall.

Great America with the Aldanas

We squeezed in our last bit of summer fun today by going to Great America amusement park with the Aldanas.  We've known them for a loooong time.  Jenn and I have been friends since our first kids were tiny.  They have season passes for Great America and today there was special pricing for guests of pass holders, so we took advantaged and headed there after lunch.  

Here's all the kids loaded into Jenn's new minivan which we have nicknamed "the hearse for her youth".  

 I warned the kids that I was going to make them pose for pictures.  Here's the first one right as we got to the park.

 Leo and Sophia wanted to ride the Patriot as soon as we got there.  It was Leo's first "upside down" ride.  He loved it.

 Here's proof that these two have known each other for a long time.

Another photo op, kids!

 Serafina has been going through a scaredy-cat phase recently.  She's petrified of bugs and she was afraid of the rides today.  She did much better last year at Disneyland.  We talked her into going on the log ride, but she wasn't aware how big a drop she was going to experience.

Here's Elisa, Jenn, Sophia and Leo in a log.  

 Jenn's selfie.

I was with Katie and Serafina. 

Here's our selfie. 

 When we got to the top of the ride, right before the big drop, Serafina started screaming at me "why did you make me do this mom?".  When she got off the ride, she said "that was fun."  See, that's why I made you do it, kid.

Leo got absolutely soaked.

 After some fun in the water and wave pool, it was time for dry clothes and another big roller coaster.  This time I joined them.  Here's Sophia and Leo at the Grizzly.

Serafina rode the swings and the carousel with the younger Aldana girls.  

 We met up for some Dippin Dots.  I think they are pretty gross but the kids loved them.

 Leo, Sophia and I rode a coaster called the Demon.  It was a double looper with big corkscrew.  I felt pretty wobbly after but they wanted one last ride on the Patriot again.  I made the mistake of trying to be the "cool mom" and went with them.  It put me over the edge and I was nauseous for hours after.  All the while, Serafina had a blast and won a prize at the carnival game.  

 We had fun and I'm glad we went with experienced visitors.  I learned an important lesson about how my equilibrium isn't what it used to be.  Even though I had a rough time at the end, it was a great way to end the summer.  Tomorrow is my first PTA meeting of the year and Wednesday is the first day of school.

Leo tries VR

Our friends, The Smiths, hosted us for dinner.  Jeremy works for Sony PlayStation and has a pretty sweet Virtual Reality system.  Leo got to try it out tonight.

He was pretty impressed.