Napa Weekend Away

We did take one weekend during school to get away with some friends to Napa.  My friend Timmie has a family home in Napa and such a beautiful place to escape from the city.  Her husband was out of town and Young was dealing with some stress at work and had to work the weekend, so we all took off with the kids to get away.  They have a really nice pool that the kids lived in the whole weekend.

 A rare picture of me (I don't like pictures of myself), relaxing and Timo;s hands in the hot tub in the background.

They all had a gave going all weekend of getting on their "horses" turning on the hot tub and letting the bubbles swirl them around and around.

The outdoor shower was a favorite and where we say our little friend...

 After dinner we took long walks through the vineyards, tasting the yummy ripe grapes along the way...

Lucia really wanted to share the "willow tree swings" with Timo and Cameron and it was so much fun!  The ancients trees were still so sturdy and provided an evening of fun for the kids.

We finished the evenings off watching the sun set, eating fresh baked cookies and teaching Lucia one of our favorite games, Uno.

 Of course the kids were up and at um early in the mornings (what's up with having to drag them out of bed for school but weekends they wake up even earlier!?)  Luckily they entertained themselves till us mom's rolled out of bed and Timo was all over the pancake breakfasts.

A few more relaxing hours in the pool before heading back and boy did we need it...our drive back took 2 hours!!  A drive that normally takes 45min, took twice as long because it was a Sunday afternoon and various events in the Bay Area were wrapping up.  My memories of lounging by the pool helped get me through.  Thank you to Timmie for giving us such a relaxing weekend!!

Chores and Allowance

Something new we started with the kids this summer was chores. They both have been asking for new video games to play in their DS systems, something that I think they should be saving and buying for themselves. I've also wanted to start having them help out around the house, take on some responsibility and feel like they are contributing to our running household. Young and I talked about it and decided it was time to implement chores and allowance. The kids get money from relatives at birthday and Christmas but we wanted a more regular system of teaching them about money, saving and giving.  We decided to set aside a few easy chores we thought they could handle, create a chart for do them and giving an allowance once a month for work done.  They each get about three-four chores a week and $6 at the end of each month...one dollar for each year of their age.  As they get older the chores will get harder as does the amount of allowance they get.

We proposed this to Timo and Cameron and they were totally on board!!  They love the little close pin chart, moving their close pin from "do" to "done".  I generally give them two chores at a time and they can pick which one to do that day.

Anything from folding laundry, put away clothes, unload dishwasher to cleaning the bathroom.

So far only vacuuming has been a little hard for them so I replaced it with dusting.  Cleaning the toilet was a big hit and surprising the most requested chore!

The first month they received their $6 we went though how to set aside for church offering $1, saving $1 and $4 to "play" with.  With video games costing anywhere between $10-30, they quickly realized they would have to work several months to save up enough money.  Their desires turned from games to more simple things...funny how that happens.  For now, they just saved their spending money, hoping to add the following months to it for a bigger stash.  It's been two months now and it's proving to be a good lesson in working and reaping the rewards of your hard labor.

First Day of First Grade!!

Our school isn't technically a year round school but rather an extended year school, meaning they have 5 extra weeks added to the regular school year.  This translate into a shorter summer break which is great because the kids don't lose as much of what they learned the year before.  We are so lucky to have gotten into this school because it's one of the top elementary schools in SF for that very reason.  But, as a result of a shorter summer, the kids have a shorter summer...less time for lazy summer days.  I don't think my two mind at all, both were so excited for the first day of school!!

We have them in the same class this year to see how it works.  I can already tell you it's a lot less stressful for me, easier for me to volunteer and easier to communicate with one teacher.  Timo is adjusting to having Cameron tell me every little detail (good and bad) about his day and I already see a little healthy competition going on between them.  But we're working it out and I think it will be fine.  It was great to see familiar faces the first day and some of Timo and Cameron's best buddies are in their class again this year.  Our teacher is Ms. True and we LOVE her!

We quickly settled into our first week of school, which was basically catching up and assessing the kids on what they knew and remembered from kindergarten.  I didn't sign Timo and Cameron up for afterschool Chinese for the summer session, thinking we could enjoy long summer days a little more after school each day.

We spent lots of afternoons in parks with classmates, playing and catching up on each other's summer...mostly mom's catching up, kids were too busy playing.

A few Target, Costco and TJ runs, special treat runs, a little baking, an afternoon movie (Planes Fire and Rescue), library trips and before we knew it, our summer session was almost over!  Time does fly when school starts again!

July 4th

We spent our July 4th in Menlo Park with our good frinds the Hirzels.  They have a club membership so we were able to swim the day away!  The kids have been so great on their swimming, such a difference between now and the beginning of summer.

After swimming we headed back to their house for the afternoon to just play and relax.  The kids disappeared as did the watermelon.  The adults didn't hear a peep from any of the kids which made us all a realize we've hit that age of self-entertainment.  The Hirzels have a play structure, bouncy house, loads of toys...who could ask for more?

Cameron did come over and help with getting supper ready, she was hungry...she shucked corn and helped me build the berry trifle dessert.  I just got my new trifle bowl and was so excited to use it!!

 Again, the kids are totally self dependent...leaving us adults to have uninterrupted conversation...

We finished off our holiday with an all american treat, smores!  My two love just roasted marshmallows more than the whole smore package...but not Mommy!  We had plans to go watch fireworks but all the kids were so tired by 8pm, we decided to call it a day.  (I also forgot Cameron's noise reduction headphones anyway and she was already getting very nervous.)  It was a full patriotic holiday and great way to finish off our "summer vacation" before school started on Monday!