Stratford Family

Last week went spent a fun day at the Pirate Park (not its official name) in Stanton. These little splash parks are soooo great! I wish the budget was such that we could even hope for one in the LBC, maybe someday. The kiddos had great fun splashing and climbing on the pirate ship structure. It was one of the first of our HOT days so it was nice to get wet, although I could have used a bit of splashing myself as the heat was really getting to me by the early afternoon.
Here ares some photos of the adventure:

Look at the cute curl in PLou’s hair – I hope it stays and doesn’t get frizzy like her mama!

The girls both completed a 2 week swim program at Long Beach State where they had a lesson everyday for 2 weeks. I was hoping for great break throughs in their skills, but no major improvements to report. They both love the water and can’t get enough of jumping in or being tossed around in the pool, the girls did great and had loads of fun. That’s the point ..right? I sometimes get anxious as the competitive swimmer in me wants them to be doing their strokes and making forward progress, but I kept my toosh in my chair and let them have their fun without me interrupting (well maybe I did just once, but I was very tactful!). I don’t even want my girls to be serious swimmers unless it is what they REALLY want to, swimming is such a demanding sport – on the kid and the parents! Any other swimmers out there have that feeling?

Splish Splash!

I used a fast shutter speed to try to capture all the detail and splash of the water, I think they came out pretty fun.

We’ve had a busy week already and I am tired. I do blame this tiredness on the haze, it is 3 and the sun is finally coming out – I don’t like to complain, but come on it is July! Us Moms need the energy from the sun to keep us going through these busy summer days.

This week we are doing swimming lessons…currently the girls are enrolled in a program that meets everyday for 2 weeks. Hoping for some breakthroughs!

This morning we toured a local fire station with some friends which was fun for all! After my adventures being rescued from the side of the freeway by some nice fire fighters last week it seemed fitting to take the kiddos.

We took a quick trip to the beach:

And for some reason Greg decided that it was a good idea to buy the girls a real microphone…I guess this house wasn’t noisy enough for him! So now we are all set up for kid karaoke – I fear we are becoming “those” neighbors who are always loud! At least we are quite between 8pm-7am….

” I like to Move it Move it”

P’s favorites are “All the single ladies” & “Puff the Magic Dragon”

SO COOL!
We spend the day at the Skirball Cultural Center today for the Noah’s Ark exhibit. I’ve been wanting to take the kids for awhile now and I’m so glad we made the trip. Everything was hands on and interactive, the staff was quite great and they had some many little nooks to discover and explore. Truly a unique and amazing exhibit. I would say it is best for 3 and up and they do have some climbing that says its for 4 year olds and older, but P had a good time for the most part, even though her mood left something to be desired (as did her night of sleep the night before!) As you would expect – lots of photos from the day….
We brought a picnic lunch to enjoy before we went in.

We enjoyed cookies for Jake’s birthday.

The crew minus P who was in a mommy mommy mood and B who was probably running away from her Mom.

Getting warmed up to see the animals; jumping like a kangaroo








Lots of animals to snuggle!

Take a picture of me laying with the Walrus.

Climbing and exploring

Yes I know this is a ton of photos for one post – the slideshow below shows the above plus more of dancing like animals, working on a craft project – a fun-filled day!

Today was the big day and Charlotte did great! She even had to learn to twirl with 2 other girls instead of 1 like she had been practicing and pulled off the last minute changes like a pro. It was a big show at the Carpenter Center  with lots of dancers.  One of the older girls did a modern dance solo that literally brought me to tears, her name was Sienna, I don’t know anything more about her, but wow! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring the camera inside, but we had a nice picnic with all the family that came out to support Charlotte and these are a few photos from after. C loved getting her flowers and didn’t want to put them down.

We decided not to do summer school this year and instead opt for lots of fun activities – week 1 of summer was a success. We had swimming lessons, park playdates with friends, ballet class and a beach day. Now keeping up with the kids has mom wanting an extra cup of coffee in the afternoon, but I think it will be worth it.

Both of our girls are cute – you know and we know it! But right now P Lou is killing me with her cuteness!

This was her boat that she wanted to go in the water in and sail, but she sank…..

one of my favorite parts of summer – little girls in sundresses! gotta love it.

C had her dress rehearsal yesterday. Mom was instructed to put deep red lipstick, eye shadow, blush and eyeliner – so that their faces stand out on the big stage. This was a challenge for me as I barely put make-up on myself, but I think I managed ok. She looked like a sweet ballerina! The big recital is next week, but I wanted to post some pictures since in the madness of the big day we may not get to take any.

Ready for her close up

And a dramatic shot.

This was Charlotte on her first day of pre-school at 2. Its hard to believe this is her last! She’ll be moving on to a developmental kindergarten class at the elementary school. We are hoping this will be a perfect transition for her as her birthday is just before the cut-off day and at such a young age we don’t feel the need to push her yet. She’ll have another year to develop her writing, reading and having fun skills before making the jump to Kindergarten. “Holding” kids back can be a heated topic among parents, and we honestly aren’t making this choice for competitive reasons, so she will out perform other kids at some point. Neither is this a choice made because we are scared of what’s to come, this is simply a choice for her. To give her time to be a kid and not feel pressured. To enjoy school and hopefully keep this enthusiasm for learning for a good many years. C is very communicative and has been able to carry on adult conversations from an early age, so others often think there would be no problem for her in an older class, but I have to remind people that this is her strength. She is a talker, a communicator, very verbal (sometimes to her mom’s dismay- ha!). She can tell you a story, make up a song on the spot and in my opinion is pretty analytical for a 4 year old. Now her other skills are not as far along, which is fine, she’ll have time to work on them. Having 2 kids with birthdays just before the CA cutoff made this decision an important one for us as we want them to stay 2 years apart in school as they are in age. We plan on taking P on the same path. And the state of CA is considering changing the cutoff date to September, which honestly seems to make the most sense. So for now we say goodbye to pre-school for C and hello to the next step – Summer adventures! I’m glad we have another little one starting pre-school next Fall so we don’t have to say goodbye to the J.

Last night I got to spend an evening with some fellow local bloggers at Blog Sugar. It was so great to meet some new people and visit with friends. For those of you whom I met last night, thank you for visiting, laughing, and sharing your blogs! And a HUGE thank you to Rachel for putting on the lovely evening and to Andrea for all of your efforts as well. My photography blog was not on the roster sheet, m.shanti photo is where I am sharing and building my photography business.

Beautiful ladies including Rachel (center in Green), Andrea to her right, Kimmie to her right, and Shelly (far left) who put together the lovely florals for the night.

I enjoyed the company of Stacey who is a lovely person and a wonderful photographer. And I chatted with another lovely lady Kat who won my free photo session, so I’ll be seeing her soon. I also enjoyed catching up with Christi who is pretty much extended family since our husbands are business partners, but we don’t get to see each other enough. In addition I re-connected with Lise another local busy mom.

The evening was full of fun and learning too. Looking forward to some further meet-ups!

I’ll leave you with a one of Rachel’s incredible vintage finds which I just adore.