Pushing Match

Sorry I'm a little behind on blogging.  We've been busy getting ready and leaving for vacation...ah, being back in the south feels good. 

Until I can catch my breath and get organized, here is a little video to tide you over...the kids playing boxing.

School's Out!

We finished up our first year at CAIS!  Timo and Cameron had their last days this week and now we are off to the East Coast for summer vacation.  I've been a little behind in the posting with lots of "end of the year" activities but I'll try to get caught up on vacation.

Here are Timo and Cameron with their teachers the last two days of school.  I'm so grateful to each of them for taking their time with my children this year.  They all really tirelessly worked with the kids to help motivate them, challenge them and teach them more than I could ever imagine at this age.  Thank you Mrs Rackham, Mrs. Tong, Ping Xue, and Mrs. Fu.

(We got "digital downloads" of their year that I'll post once I figure out how.)

Sound It Out

The kids have really been into sounding letters out and learning what letters make up a word based on it's sound.  I though this was a little beyond what they typically learn in preschool but after our "end of the year" parent/teacher conference last week, I now under stand where they are learning it from.  Apparently, in their class, there is a time during the day when the teacher takes the older kids separate and works with them on letter sounds, how to sound out words and simple spelling.  Most of the younger kids are playing on their age appropriate games/toy...except for Timo.  Mrs. Rackham started noticing Timo standing in the corner next to the older kids group, listening to everything they were learning.  Then he would go off on his own and practice some more.  Cameron doesn't want to be left out either so she has picked up on it at home while he walks around saying "M..mmmm, M is for monkey!"  He even told me there was a D, B and P in duckbill platypus!

Kids just being kids...gotta love it!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

We took the children to their first Giants baseball game over Memorial Day weekend...Timo was beyond excited.

The Kapics were able to join us for the game too, woo hoo.  I think this was Parker, Fletcher and Baily's firsts Giants game.  Our seats were high so all the kids had a great view of the field and surround bay.  Being Memorial Day weekend, there was an aircraft carrier docked in the bay that caught their attention.

Timo had his glove all ready to catch a fly ball (not likely as high as we were but it's fun to dream) and Cameron was busy concentrating on the timeless baseball pastime...the fine art of cracking open peanuts.

We LOVE baseball games!  I can tell the kids are getting older because the game holds their attention longer.  We typically only last 5 or 6 innings but stayed the whole game this time.  The Giants won!!

We did sneak out of our seats around the 8th inning to take the kids over to the play park in the stadium.  The huge Coke bottle is a big slide!

Stopped by the cable car to ring the bell...over and over and over again...

Our final stop was the Little Giants Field.  Timo waited patiently with all the other kids for his turn to bat and play outfield.  Guess he isn't the only little Giants fan...

Batter up!  They had a guy throwing pitches to the kids...Timo was so happy not to have to use the tee.  Rounding the bases and, for some reason, he thinks he has to slide into home plate...every time.

Cameron took her turn but wanted to use the tee.  She ran the bases too...just not in the right order...

Great game, great weather, great friends and awesome family time.  Can't wait to go to more games this season...go Giants!!

Sleepover for Five!

Our friends, the Kapics, came from Sacramento to SF over Memorial Day weekend for a little vacation.  Danny and Emily had an anniversary party to go to that Saturday evening so she email ahead of time asking about a babysitter to watch their their 4 year old triplets in their hotel room.  Young and I knew it was too fun of an opportunity to pass up so we volunteered to watch the triplets as well as have them spend the night...giving Danny and Emily and much needed restful evening together.   Being that all children are less than three weeks apart in age, we knew it would be a blast for Timo and Cameron, as well as for Fletch, Baily and Parker!

They showed up and the Fletcher and Timo immediately started bonding over their love of balls/sports/athletics.  A golf game quickly transpired and Young and I realized we needed to set up "rules" because 5 golf clubs and 5 balls were flying all around the house!

At dinner time I remembered why we have the rule "no toys at the table."  Fletcher had all the kids in hysterics with his Happy Feet dancing.  It was a whole lots of laughing.  Very little eating.

After supper Parker and Baily explored all of the twins' toys, including the rocket ship!  Timo and Flether continued games with balls...baseball, golf, golf baseball, basketball. 

Cameron wanted to color and Baily joined in...Baily coloring a princess and Cameron a race car!  Then Parker joined and eventually Timo and Fletcher gave up their games....soon all were coloring and comparing how well each was staying in the lines.  It was so fun hearing all the conversations going on between everyone. So funny hearing Baily relate to her brothers much the same way Cameron talks to Timo.

 

The triples fit right in and knew the whole bedtime drill.  Having one small sink was no problem for them...they all managed to fit around it at the same time.  You can tell being multiples, they learn how to adapt quickly!

We got all the sleeping bags laid out, everyone in jammies and settled for bedtime story.  Per our bedtime routine, Young reads stories,  does prayers, and always give Timo and Cameron a horse back ride to their beds....Fletcher and Baily had to have a back ride too!

All tucked in and sleeping tight...don't let these peaceful  pictures fool you...it took about 1 1/2 hours to get to this point!  But is was totally worth it...everyone had so much fun.  I'm really glad we were able to have Fletcher, Baily and Parker over.  Believe it or not, everyone got along, no disagreements, no tears...just lots of compromising, laughing and giggles coming for 5 four year olds.  Timo and Cameron and still talking about it and we're planning our next trip up to Sacramento to see them!!

Preparing for the Kapic Triplets

The kids were having some friends from Sacramento over for a sleep over last weekend.  They have met the Kapic triplets once before when they were all around 2 years old.  But since Timo and Cameron didn't really remember them, I wanted to reacquaint them through the Kapic's family blog.  One of the videos was of the triples playing a blanket game in their hallway...see it here.  Timo was totally enamored by the video and wanted to watch it over and over.  I finally closed the computer to get supper ready.  About 30 min later, Timo called me into the hallway for this...

He then proceeded to pull all his toys out, getting them all ready to share. Guess it's always good to be prepared...just not two weeks in advance!