This One's for Aunt Mimi

Thanks for the reminder to update, and for virtually checking in on the kiddos! =)

Nothing much going on here, just the usual dress up for dinner.

Hello and Goodbye November!

Life. Crazy. Hectic.

and mustaches for November...

Hello, October...

Hello October... you arrived faster than expected. No matter, we've been looking forward to you!

#AllThingsPumpkin #SoonToBeHalloween

Rocking It

One of the last summer camps of the season... none other than rock climbing camp, of course! E rocked it! Her comfort level increased tremendously even from day 1 of camp. By the end of the week, she was top roping 5.8 and bouldering up and down V0s and trying V1s. The social butterfly also knew more folks at the gym than I did. On the last day of camp, it seemed as if everyone in the gym, adults and kids, were saying "Hi" and "Bye" to her!



A few of the older girls in the camp also took to Emilia like big sisters. It was cute to see the encouragement E got from them as they cheered her on with her climbing.

Here's E climbing a tricky 5.8. She had been working this route for a few days and completed it earlier in the day. She wanted to show me her climb, but after a week's worth of climbing.. and near the end of the day, her arms were giving out at the 90 degree portion which require dialing in the technique and having some strength left!



I'm still impressed. You can tell how she's working different feet and/or hand positions when she gets to a stuck position. That's what climbing is about.. trying to figure out how to make moves.

The Scientist

And summer is coming to an end... I don't think we even made it to the beach, not even once, this summer. To kick off back to school, here's a backtrack to last school year --> I looked through all the papers, projects, etc that the parents received at the end of the school year and came across this gem of a notebook. Emilia's first science research notebook!

And I thought Kindergarten was all play. This kid knows more than I do about every day animals that live in our sandy shores.

Sleeping In = Furniture Rearrangement

Backtracking to earlier, during the start of summer...
The kids wake up before we do nowadays, and on days when they have a couple of wake hours before us, this is what happens.

But how can I be mad at them when they are reading on their own??!

Oh yeh, that's right. It's a mess! I believe this creation is a two person car... or a train. Definitely some automotive vehicle that's for SuperHeroes.

On another weekend, I beat them to it and used a toy Build and Play Fort Construction set the kids received last Xmas as a gift. Fort success!! Minimal furniture rearrangement!

Kids loved it and played it in for a few hours.

Liam enjoying the fort - laying down while eating strawberries and contemplating the meaning of the fort...

It was fun for a few hours, and then it was more fun tearing it apart and building something else!

And the most recent weekend morning wake up findings. It's their home, compartmentalized for functionality.

The kids win. Maybe I'll give them back some of their toys!

Pre-Hueco Tanks : El Paso Zoo

Backtracking back to March - Spring Break time frame, when we went on a climbing trip to Hueco Tanks in El Paso, TX. The first day we arrived, it was early enough that we had extra time to check out the El Paso Zoo.

BFFs at this moment...

Ryan liked this zoo much more than the SD Zoo. Less crowded, less commercialized... and less crowded. =D We had the freedom to roam around, play tourists, act silly, climb on tiger statues without the worry of other tourists.

Liam walking on the bridge of a kids treehouse playground.

Oh look, monkeys!

These kiddos have a blast sharing adventures together.

Elephants!

Wonder if the zoos are now going to upgrade their "fencing" to keep curious kids from breaking into an animal enclosure?

Climbing on tigers.

Meerkats.

White Barn Owl.

Liam's Song & Dance Debut

Liam's musical theater debut! The teachers were worried that he wasn't going to sing and perform on stage.. but my little introvert did a pretty good job considering he wouldn't perform on stage the whole week during practice.

Song highlights from Liam's performance:







Liam's solo:



Somehow I don't think show business is his calling...

Liam's Belt Promotion

Backtracking... Liam had his belt promotion couple of months ago. Despite Emilia's bad competition experience, the kids are continuing with judo classes. We have adjusted our focus for the kids to prioritize being proficient in judo first.

Emilia has learned quite a bit and her understanding grows with each good and bad experience. Liam, being younger, is still grasping at the concept. He has slowly, but surely been improving, and has improved so much in attitude and skill since his first weeks where laying on the mat was a frequent occurrence.

In order to have a belt promotion, the student needs to gain both sets of 5 character stripes and 5 skill stripes. Then the sensei will recommend for promotion. In order to be promoted, the student also needs to have approvals from both the student's teacher indicating he is doing well in school, as well as the parents, indicating he is behaving at home.

Liam has been looking forward to getting promoted since the day he finally received all his stripes! He has seen 3 promotions now with kids he knows, including Emilia, all get promoted.



Happy kid to be joining the ranks of the yellow/white belts.

A Leopard

Liam came home from camp one day, chattering up a storm. He was telling me about his day and what he did. I listened, nodded, and would provide him feed back every so often with "That sounds fun"... or an "Oh really?". One of the things he said today was "Mommy, I got to pet a leopard today. A real leopard." I smiled and nodded at him and said "Oh, okay." Did I believe him? Of course not. Petting a leopard?? Yeh, right!

What do you know? Camp sends out photos and here Liam is, petting an Asian leopard Cat cross-breed with a domestic cat, also known as a Bengal.

Okay kid. You ARE RIGHT! You did pet a *leopard* cat!

"Honey! Honey! Honey!"

It's Summer! Summer! Summer! And camps galore time. One of the camps Emilia participated in was an Intensive Musical Theater program where the kids learned to sing & dance (and whatever else goes on behind the scenes) and put on a kids version of "Winnie the Pooh".

She was casted as a cute little bee.

E's first musical debut starts at 0:40.



Ryan took video from a closer, side angle.



She had 4 short bee scenes. They were quick though, but I managed to film one of them just in time.



It was about 30+ minutes production. Costumes were cute, kids were cute, and the songs were catchy. Here's the grand finale.



Not sure if she has a future in show business. Emilia was not very diligent in practicing at home after camp even though we would nudge her to. Of course, now that the camp and production is over, Emilia and Liam! have been singing the opening Winnie the Pooh song together all the time!! So much, that in fact, Liam knows most of the words.

Happy Together

I think the kids are realizing that two of them together equates to double the fun, or for me, double the trouble. Lately when they have been getting along, they have been getting along too too well! ;P Here's the dynamic duo playing "twinsies".

And yes, we did take the kiddos out like that... twinsies, hair clips, and such.. except for Liam's low rider shorts (which are actually Emilia's). Sorry kid. I do not approve of the hip hopping, baggy pants, underwear showing style!

Emilia's new real life doll.

This will one day be blackmail photos and videos.