Phoenix jumps, runs and rides the bike

Here is Grandpa and Phoenix reading together last Sunday.

 Sunday night we went to a neighborhood Halloween Party. Our neighbors went over the top decorating their house, indoors and out.

 We enjoyed a quick visit with some of our neighbors and Grandpa stayed home to rest since he was tired from all of his travels.

 On Tuesday when I went to pick Phoenix up she was out with Angela on a walk. Here she is excited to see me.

 This morning Phoenix went down the slide on her but for the first time.

 She was extremely excited. She said "big girl". Last night when I was mopping the floors she was helping so I kept saying Thank you and calling her a big girl. She remembered!

Phoenix is running faster and faster these days. I wasn't able to capture her on film, but I did capture her jumping on the slide and .....

Riding her bike! Today Phoenix was riding around the garage by herself. She is still learning to steer, but can peddle with her own power on the flat surface and downhill. Uphill is still too hard, but I know she will get it soon!

We are looking forward to another action packed three days. Check back in the next few days for some Halloween Fun!

Pumpkin Walk and Surprise Visit from Grandpa Bruce!

Last Thursday I spent about 5 hours in the kitchen. A couple of those hours were baking delicious muffins and cookies for the pumpkin walk, which is one of Axel's school's biggest fund raisers. It was a labor of love, but I am glad to was able to contribute since I wasn't able to give my time elsewhere. 

Axel and Phoenix had a fun time being silly after we picked up Axel from school. So cute!

On Friday, Grandpa Bruce stopped by on his way to San Luis Obispo for Great Grandpa Burgess's 80th birthday celebration! We were sorry to miss the celebration, but glad we got to see Grandpa Bruce. Grandpa arrived in time to walk to Axel's school and pick him up from school. When we got home Axel wanted to start a Halloween project. While Axel and Grandpa were making the Halloween Monster project I spied this lizard on our screen door. I was amazed at how still and patient this little guy was before he finally scurried off after we tried to touch it.

Once our Halloween Monster was complete we headed to the park for some fun play time. Grandpa is showing his skills by multi- tasking with Axel and Phoenix. Hi Five for Axel and a push for Phoenix :)

Phoenix was enjoying the swings as usual.

Grandpa ran around the park and even jumped off rocks with Axel. Not to bad for a Grandpa!:)

Here is a great picture of the three of them!

On Saturday the four of us enjoyed four hours of fun at the Pumpkin walk!

The kids played games, jumped and slide in the bounce houses.

It was quite an exhausting day of fun.

It is hard to say which of the two enjoyed the bounce houses more :)

Daddy took Phoenix to get "face paintings" while I took Axel to play games.

One painting was I love daddy.

Another was a rainbow with Pheeny's name.

Axel loved Phoenix's face paintings so he got a super hero mask.

After the long day of fun Keith and I then had a long night of fun at his annual company party. This is typically our only night out all year. It never fails us to be a great night of fun with great food!

Grandpa surprised us with another day of fun. He hung out with us all day on Sunday and even managed to walk Axel to school on Monday morning. It was such a nice visit and we were so glad to see him. We did miss seeing Grandma Sonia, but understand she needed to heal her cold and back.

Party Weekend

On Saturday Axel went to Axel R's birthday party at the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City. This was his first birthday party without us there. We had already committed to racing Welch Creek. It was a hard decision for me, but I think it was a good growth experience for both Axel and I. 

Axel went with our neighbor Cohen and his mom, Abby. He had a great time and was really happy he went. The only bummer thing was he threw up on the way home. Abby felt bad, but I felt worse that I forgot to tell her that Axel often gets car sick. Oops! Apparently, everything made it into a plastic bag :)

Axel got home about the same time Daddy and I got home. Phoenix happened to wake from her nap about the same time and it was all about family time the rest of the day.

The kids and daddy couldn't wait to carve a pumpkin.

Axel helped by separating the seeds and Phoenix patiently watched. I actually forgot to take a picture of the end result which is a bummer because just 4 days later the pumpkin is totally rotten and I just threw it out. Good thing we have a couple more pumpkins that we can carve for Halloween night!

I forgot to mention when we were at Henry's birthday party last Sunday that Axel had fun playing on the drums. Here is a picture that Abby sent me. Maybe we have a musician in our future!

I also forgot to mention that On Friday, October 10th, I attended the first parent teacher conference where I received Axel's first report card. I was really impressed with how much Mrs. Tolbert likes having Axel in her class. He got a great first report card. They tested him reading at a level C. They rate it from A to Z and all kindergartners should be reading at a C/D level by the end of the year. Next week they start breaking the children up into groups based on reading ability for an hour each day. I am excited for this because I think his reading will improve even more. Axel received a perfect math score and got rated really high for comprehension. Keith and I are so proud of him!

Here is a selfie of Phoenix and I.

Phoenix wants to be just like Axel. She loves to do everything that he is doing. So cute!

On Sunday morning we headed to Lemos Farm for my friend, Gwen's twin's birthday party. Leila and Gabriel had quite the 3rd birthday bash. Phoenix and Axel had an amazing time. They were able to jump in the jump house.....

Ride the train an unlimited amount of times. ..

Ride the ponies. Yes, Axel was finally not afriad!!!!!

Phoenix loved the ponies so much she rode them a couple of times.

We also got to go on a hay ride....

and through a "not scary" haunted house. Essentially, it was a scary haunted house with the lights on.

Phoenix checked in with daddy several times to see if she should be worried about what she was looking at. Luckily, daddy was laughing up a storm.

Axel even ate pizza! The party was a huge success! We headed home just after 12 pm in order to allow Phoenix to nap during her usual time. She was out in a couple of minutes. Unfortunatey, she woke when we arrived home 35 minutes later.

So, the entire family headed to the park for Saif's second year birthday party. Axel was excited to go because all of the neighborhood kids were invited. Here is Cohen, Rishaan, Axel and Chloe.

Phoenix played well with the birthday boy!

And Elmo made an appearance!

After Elmo, everyone enjoyed some delicious cake!

"More please"......was what Phoenix kept saying.

Elmo vanished and the balloon maker appeared. Axel patiently waited in line to get his balloon sword and gun.

It was a long fun day and weekend. We had an early dinner and the kids were in bed over an hour early. Tonight we went out to eat with the neighbor's again for a school fundraiser. I wasn't able to capture any pictures because Chloe, Cohen and Henry are just as out of control in public as they are at home. Unfortunately, Axel is getting use to their behavior and is beginning to think it is okay. We had a little talk after dinner where I told him we can only do fun things like this if we keep our manners despite what other people are doing. We will see what the future holds! We are looking forward to a fun filled second half of the week!

Fall Fun

Last Saturday Keith and I raced up Sierra Road. We tried to capture the amazing few from the top with a selfie.

However, I think this picture without us captures the beauty much better :) Keith had an amazing ride/climb and set a PR, getting 8th out of 115. It was a tough day for me, but I still managed to win.

 After the hill climb we headed to Concord to meet Grandma Susan, Grandpa Brian, Auntie Shannon, Uncle Ryan and Braylin. We were picking up our lamb that Brian got for us and Shannon and Ryan had just finished their move to Walnut Creek. It was such a nice evening to all be together. We are hoping with Auntie being at the half way point will allow for more family gatherings with us all together.

Here is a shot of the three cousins!

On Sunday we enjoyed some family time at home and then a fun filled afternoon at our neighbor's birthday party. Here is daddy and Phoenix pretending to sleep. Phoenix woke up from her nap in a rather cranky mood and daddy fixed it by pretending to sleep with her. So cute!

 Axel was busy drawing these two pictures while daddy and Pheeny pretended to nap. I was quite impressed with the jack o lantern and superman symbol. The paint program is very difficult to draw free style.

 We had a fabulous time at our neighbor's bday party. We did not capture any pictures because we were too busy making sure everyone was safe! Axel's new friends, our new neighbors, Cohen and Cloe (5 year old twins) and their brother Henry who just turned 4 are very high energy and are risk takers. There is always a lot of fun had when we are together, but it is a little more work for Keith and I  :)

Here is a cute picture of Phoenix pushing Louis around the house in her wagon. I have a similar picture of Axel pushing Touis around when he was around 11 months old. Too bad Louis is looking at the camera.

 Today is picture day for Axel. Here is our handsome kindergartner. We took him shopping a couple of weeks ago to get some new clothes. It was a bit difficult because he wasn't use to trying clothes on. This outfit was one of two that we purchased. You can see the 4T's are still big, but we are all hopeful he will continue to grow and fill these in a bit more over the next 6 months!

We have a very busy couple of weeks approaching. Like I mentioned during the last post we have three birthday parties this weekend. We also have a play date next Thursday, the pumpkin walk, which is the biggest school fundraising day and the Keith's company party next Saturday, two Halloween parties and Halloween itself. My goal is to try to do little posts, but I may end up doing one mega post if we get too busy. With the weather finally cooling off the past couple of days, we are all getting into the spirit of fall! I leave you with the excitement of Halloween!