Who Is That Kid in the Picture?

So in a strange twist of fate, we found a new family member that Drew resembles.

A couple of weeks ago my parents were sifting through some old photos trying to "name that family" member who looks like my niece.  She found a picture of my Mom with her brother and some cousins and determined my niece Kady has some attributes of my Mom's cousin.

Then they looked at the other kids in the picture......

Does anyone in that picture look familiar?



When Drew was shown that picture and asked who it was, he matter-of-factly said "It's me".  I suppose it was more in the tone, "Duh.... it's me".


The kid in the center is my Uncle Mike - or more commonly referred to in our family as "Otto" (but said like "OOOOTTTTOOO").  The little girl to his right would be my Mom. 


See the resemblance?

This picture was from a few months ago when Drew was going to Grammy's for the weekend/night.

When Drew was a baby - maybe from around 9 months until just before his 2nd birthday he looked a lot like my brother did as a baby - although everyone agrees that Drew has his Tata's eyes and always has.

But no one put two and two together until this photo that he resembled Uncle Mike/Otto.  Not even GG - Uncle Mike's Mom.

So the question is what Drew will look like this when he grows up?

That picture was from our Trip to Minnesota just after Drew's 2nd Birthday - or 2 years ago for those bad with math.

Day at the Beach

Have you ever had one of those days, when it's over and you look back at everything, and you think to yourself "now that was a perfect day"?  Well we had one of those nearly a month ago when we enjoyed a day at the beach to celebrate Dave's birthday.  Despite the fact it wasn't a typically sunny summer day, we had the perfect day at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

One of the bonanzas was despite the crazy traffic on the way down, we scored with some offsite discounted parking.  For those familiar with the Boardwalk it's rather congested when to get close where there's limited parking... and forget about trying to figure out the traffic when the lots are full.  We loved getting shuttled in rather than battling the lots.

Once we arrived we enjoyed a picnic lunch.

That was followed by some Beach Volleyball (the Olympics were going on the weekend we went and beach volleyball was one of Drew's favorite sports).

Not sure if you can see it but our "beach volleyball" was a small (and I mean small) inflatable ball.  It's sort of camouflage with the  building in the background.  Dave and Drew played this for a good 30 minutes.  I joined in after a bit - I was a bit sore from running 10 miles that morning preparing for a race.

After a bit we convinced Drew to check out the water...

 ... it was rather chilly.  We had a great time playing "chase" with the waves.

I love that look on Drew's face as he's running from the wave.

Then it's Mommy and Drew's turn to play "chase the wave".

And then Mommy thought it would be a great idea to take some pictures with a wave in the background...

...that is until the wave nailed me in the ass!  Mommy had to go back up to the blanket and try and dry off.

Once Dave and Drew had enough of the water we headed up to the Boardwalk and hit the rides.

 

While Drew had a blast on the kiddie rides Dave snuck in some of the "big kid" rides.  The Boardwalk was PACKED despite the overcast weather.    After hitting a few rides Drew and I made our way back to our blankets on the beach to wait for Daddy. 

Then the three of us played Frisbee for a good hour.  I have to hand it to our 4 year old - he is good at Frisbee!  I'm not sure if it was the kind of Frisbee we had or just his natural athletic ability - either way he was a lot of fun to play with.  After about an hour the skies unleashed and the rain that was holding off all day, came down.  So we packed it up and headed into the arcade - to use the tokens that came with our wristbands.

At 8pm we decided to call it a day and caught the shuttle back to the car and decided to find a local pizza joint where we could grab a bite to eat.  Drew stuffed his face then started falling asleep mid-bite.  We then laid him down where he snoozed until it was time to go.

As Dave and I drove home - we both reflected on our day saying it was the absolute best day.  One of those memorable quality family days you will look back on for years to come.  What made it extra great was we spent a whopping $26 dollars at the Boardwalk - $6 for parking and $20 for my ride tickets (Dave and Drew had wristbands). We didn't spend a nickle on food while we were there!

We're currently planning our next trip back to the Boardwalk before the "season" ends.

Beginnings - Kindergarten Here I Come!

While we just ended a chapter last week, we also started an exciting new chapter this morning - KINDERGARTEN!  Well Transitional Kindergarten (TK) to be exact.  For those that don't know or didn't recall we decided to put Drew into TK - a two year Kindergarten program because of his late birthday and to help give him that confidence boost later in his education career.  Our school district offers the TK program - one of the first in the state.  This is the second year for the TK program in town.

Since it's such an important day - starting school we have a plethora of pictures!  Before school I tried to get the obligatory before you go to school shots, but my subject was being rather silly.

This was about the only decent picture and he had to do it with his blue "kickball".

Then we headed off to school for some more pictures and we tried not to melt away.

While I normally cringe at sharing the name of Drew's school online, I had to get the shot.  Poor kid had to look right into the sun to appease his mama.

Then we walked across the front of the school to head toward his classroom and wait with all the other kids who also were trying to avoid melting away (temperature around 9am was hovering close to mid to high 80s).

Drew was a good sport and smiled for a few more pictures before we were let in.

Following directions like a good boy and standing on the yellow line waiting to be called into class.

Drew's the line leader as he follows his teacher - Mrs. Ferren - into his class.  I have to admit, I was happy I was wearing sunglasses as I watched my little boy enter the classroom as such a big boy.

They started off in a circle singing a song - Drew was a bit bashful and wouldn't do the movements and since his back is to me (he's in the cream shirt closest to the camera) I couldn't tell if he was at least singing.

They let the parents linger for about five minutes to hear that song and listen to all the kids talk about their backpacks.  Then we were given the boot.

 I thought Drew was going to get a little sad as he was waving goodbye and was getting ready to hang up his backpack.

 But he held up like a trooper!

So while he was in school for his 90 minutes I made a costco run (I took yesterday and today off for his first days of school) and then came back to meet him at the gate.

Here he comes....

They kept the parents outside the Kindergarten gate until we announced whose child was ours.  I asked Drew what he thought of his first day... here's what I got:

He said he was good to come back to school again tomorrow!

Endings - Last Day of Preschool

We can't start our new chapter until we finish our last chapter in Drew's education.  Last Wednesday we had to say goodbye to our teachers and friends with the last day of Preschool.

Drew was excited to be heading to Happy Days Preschool for the last time where he learned, grew and made some great friends.  Drew didn't have a lot to say about what he did that final day other than they had a pinata (its not unusual to hear "I don't know" when you ask what he did that day).

After school Dave and I picked him up together so we could say our goodbyes as well and get a few candids with Drew and his friends.

Drew and his best bud Troy.  These two have been together every day since Drew was just shy of 4 months and he started going to day care at Ms. Stephanie's (Troy is her son).

 Lucas, Grayden, and Drew.  These three were always together in the mornings and afternoons... they were Bears together as well (the name of Drew's preschool class).

And this next shot is special for Ms. Stephanie....

 These are all her former day care kids all grown up and in Preschool!
L-R: Owen, Celeste, Drew (aka Baby Drew back in the day), Troy, Drew (aka Big Drew back in the day).
Of the five, only Drew and Troy are going on to Kindergarten and TK.

And saying goodbye to one of his two teachers - Ms. Kirsten.

Drew was excited to come home and gear up for his new adventure starting on Tuesday when TK starts (TK - is short for Transitional Kindergarten).  However that night after his bath, he got teary saying he was sad he wasn't going to see all of his teachers again.  We told him we were going to try and stop by after school one day or maybe do a PNO/Parents Night Out.  That made him feel better.

But not a day has gone by since last Wednesday that he hasn't asked about a teacher or one of his friends.  I think after a little more than two years, he's going to miss Happy Days!  We were truly blessed to have everyone in our lives these past couple of years.

Visitors

I meant to write and post this last week to celebrate her birthday, but I couldn't get my act together.  So this is a happy belated birthday post.  What am I talking about?

Well, at the end of July we had a visitor - Aunt Brianna hung out with us for about a week visiting from New York.  Her birthday was last Friday.

While here, she and Dave were out most of the time enjoying their time together and catching as much baseball as humanly possible (they went to Dave's softball game, a Giants/Dodger game and an A's game).  When she was home with us we weren't thinking and didn't take very many pictures.  She did take off for the weekend to hang out with some friends in San Francisco.  I mean when you're in your early 20s that is totally the thing to do!

So better late than never - I get this post written and we managed to take a few pictures.

The picture above is from the night before she left.
The picture below is the night she left and gave Drew several presents.

 

 The hat is a reversible Spider-man/Batman mix and the other toy totally mesmerized him.

The night she left she treated us to dinner and we had to walk off all the food we ate.  It's been a while since we had a visitor from Dave's family and he was soaking up every minute of it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Earlier this month we celebrated Dave's birthday - I can't believe I'm married to an almost 40 year old! (Technically we have a few more years, but he's really pushing it). 

Dave had a better offer earlier in the day so we went out for a late family dinner to Outback and came home for some dessert - these killer cake/cookies. 

What's a birthday without a little song and candle to blow out - we couldn't put all the candles out for fear we'd burn the house down.

And of course we had to have a "toast" to another year!

Patriotic Picnic

At the end of July we hung out with our church congregation at a Patriotic Picnic at one member's ranch in the local hills.  They started doing this a year or two ago, and we finally cleared our schedules so we could go - and boy are we glad we did!  It was fantastic.

After parking we saw the barns with the horses, the sand volleyball courts, the bocce ball court.  We decided to see what sort of fun we could get into up at the top of the hill where the house was along with all the other activities.

First ride up the hill we hitchhiked a ride in a golf cart... second time it was a hay ride!

 

That's Drew's Sunday School/Church girlfriend.  They're two peas in a pod.  Ironically they both have dads with the same name and they're sports nuts (one likes that orange and black team, the other bleeds Dodger Blue) but we won't name names.

After the hayride the boys wanted to go back down the hill and try to see what fun things they could find.  Drew fed the horses.  We tried earlier to ride a horse in the barn but while waiting our turn one of the girls (around 7 or 8) was thrown from a spooked horse.  We decided to skip horseback riding that day.  The girl was fine just a little freaked out.

 The horses were really friendly.  This one asked if there was anything on his nose.

While the boys were hanging with the animals, I was doing some line dancing.  I never do it anymore since no one else is into country music and Dave thinks that line dancing is too "white".

Even Uncle Sam came to the party!

Dave added a few items to his attire.  Drew's Sunday School teacher had the vest, someone let Dave borrow the hat and beard - the pants, socks and medal are his. 

Olympics - My Little Patriot

I have to admit, normally Sports 24-7 in the house would drive me bonkers, but with the Olympics this year it's different.  First it's pretty cool - minus the fact Dave is sucking up all the memory in the DVR with round the clock recording.  Second, now that Drew can read he enthusiastically cheers for Team USA - or if they're not in the sport we're watching whatever flag/letters he likes.

Now that he reads so well, he knows what the teams are if their uniform says the full country - and he's starting to get used to the 3-letter abbreviations like ESP for Spain.  And if they have a race bib - he reads their last name and really belts out his cheers.

We seriously have a patriot!

I think I might actually miss the Olympics when it concludes this weekend.  It really is awesome to see just how into it Drew is.  He likes to "practice" in the living room as well.

His favorite sports: Synchronized Diving (because they do flips), Gymnastics (because they do flips), Wrestling, White Water Canoeing...

I leave you with a "funny" from yesterday.  On our way to school here was the conversation we had:

Drew: Mommy, if armpit farting were an Olympic event, Lucas and I would win gold.
Me: (knowing something or someone was behind this convo) Who told you that?
Drew: Mrs. Jonelle (one of the preschool teachers)

Another Year Older, and Definitely Wiser

A little more than a week ago I celebrated my birthday and I decided I wanted to go to my parent's house for a "party".  Mind you it was my guilt-free way to mooch a day at their pool.

It was the best birthday "party" I've had in a long time!  We were joined by some family and their friends for an afternoon of swimming, drinking, dinner and dessert!  I was too busy having fun that we didn't appear to take any pictures throughout the day...

While things after eating cake get a little fuzzy thanks to some lemoncello Matt and I shared, I do remember this cake was delicious... with strawberries in the middle. YUM!

Some of the oldest and youngest of the group couldn't hang with the party animals (mainly Matt and I)

GrampC and Adrina needed a "Nap"

Matt was quite brave after a bottle of lemoncello which followed an afternoon of beer, champagne cocktails and wine.  I spared you all the picture of Matt mooning us.... (I didn't remember anything about that picture until downloading them!  YIKES).

Seriously, though it was a great birthday.  Drama free.  And I got some great gifts - including Dave resetting a ring given to me by my Grandma for my 25th birthday (a stone fell out).  Thanks for the memories!    No thanks for the two day hangover that followed...