Are you ready for some college football?

Jack and Lauren are ready!

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Jack's first day of kindergarten.  He loved it.  His teacher, Mrs. Kubota, is wonderful.  He already told us that he will miss her when he has to go to a new class one day.  In his class this year, he has one friend from tae kwon do and another friend from preschool.  He is also thrilled that the school's mascot is a lion, just like Harry Potter's school, Gryffindor.  We all walked to school together as a family this morning to drop him off.  Rob and I both held it together, but some parents had a pretty rough time at drop off--one especially burly fellow was furiously wiping away the tears as they flowed like a river.  We returned at pick up and Jack was all smiles.  We surprised him with a Happy Meal lunch (his favorite, NOT ours) and a trip to Target for a new backpack. It was the best day ever.

Guitar Hero

Lauren loves music. Today she was playing guitar in her room and she told me she was a rock star. Then she gave me her Barbies and told me to make them dance...she wanted groupies!!

Summer Time with Lauren

Lauren showing off her new summer dress that Shannon made.

Italian Weekend

Friday night we traveled to San Pedro to join Andria and Roberto at his family's home for pizza night. Roberto's dad does masonry for a living and has an incredible pizza oven right in their backyard!  The food was incredible and everything was homemade and handmade, from growing the tomatoes, making the dough and baking the pies. Perfect summer evening with great family and friends. Although I must say the highlight was watching my dad flip pizza dough in the air!  40 years later and he hasn't lost his touch! 

We brought home a huge bag of garden tomatoes from Roberto's mom. I turned them into a delicious marinara sauce tonight. In order to show the sauce its well deserved respect I even made homemade pasta with Jack's help. It was  fantastic!  I have a feeling I'll be getting pasta tools for Christmas this year because we all want more handmade pasta!

Aliens

Jack and Lauren WANTED to sit together at breakfast today. On one hand they might just be really sensitive to the fact that I have a cold and they are trying to be sweet so I'll feel better. On the other hand they might be robotic children placed here by aliens who abducted my real kids. Probably aliens. 

Jack watching over Lauren

I snapped this photo Jack and Lauren as we were walking through the crowds at the balloon festival this weekend.  Good to know that big brother is watching over Lauren.