California McMillans

 Kira at her showcase.  She was scared to go to practice once Heidi went back to work.  Now she goes in with no tears and that's nice. Scott likes holding the kitty.  He asks me each night, "Can you put the kitten down once I've fallen asleep?" Mister's doing pretty good. Crazy hair day at school. Scott takes a lot of pride in his hair. Here is what Mister does when he's unsupervised.  I had had a long day at work and was burned out, so I just sat down on the couch.  I heard the cereal dump out but I thought it was someone else pouring themselves a bowl.  Uh, no. Blake wanted to photobomb Parker but I took his own.  He likes doing mohawks. This is an old picture but there aren't many of me with the kids, so this is cool. Kira brought Clifford to gymnastics. Blake is into having his picture taken.  Here he is, falling off the rings at Krey.

We went on a last minute leprechaun hunt for St Patty's day with some friends.  It was a gorgeous day and the kids found some great candy that the sneaky leprechaun left behind at Round Valley. They loved playing in the river (even though it was running a little faster than ideal with all the little babies we had with us).  When we were there, 2 other friends randomly found us and a frog which was a fun surprise. The boys loved playing with him. We spent most of our time at the river and having a picnic. It was a lot of fun! 

The stars aligned and the kids had off on free day at the Exploratorium for Pi Day.  We headed out there last minute, got to the City in less than an hour and had a fun day!  We brought along 2 friends which was fun for Scott.  It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco and we had a great time with no major meltdowns.  The Exploratorium is such a cool museum.  They have so many hands on projects. Next time we will head to the other side of the museum which we didn't even get to this time.

Kira has a field trip to the Smith Family Farm a week ago that Danny was planning on going to but it got cancelled at the last minute, so I got to go this week!  It was so much fun for me to spend the morning with her.  The kids get to go on a tractor ride, feed the chickens, learn about pests and helpers, help plant a garden, have a ho down and pet the animals.  It was nice to have some special time with her.  I am so proud of her. She has matured so much.  She has gone in and out of moments that she didn't like male subs, subs or just leaving me when I went back to work but we have worked through them.  She is always so eager to learn and loves to learn which is such a great quality. She is in most of the pics with Peter (her proclaimed best friend in Kindergarten)...She just adores him.  He has 3 brothers and Kira just thinks he is the most fun, sweetest, kindest boy.  Kira has made some good friends in her class and had a GREAT kindergarten year.  She had a great time digging

Kira has begged to do gymnastics for a couple of months.  It was too hard with my dad being so sick so we started her in January in a rec class. She loved it so she tried out for a pre competition team in February.  They do little 'showcases' which are like mock meets with their friends.  It was so cute!  They walk out, practice soluting the judges and do a little routine.  Gymnastics is definitely her thing...or at least until I started working.  The past four weeks has been rough!   Kira has really been affected the most with me going to work and has the hardest time with me not being able to take her to gymnastics.  Danny has off Tuesdays and we have a babysitter take her on Friday but it isn't the same for her.  She has gotten a little better each week so we had no idea how the showcase would go.  She has been kind of hit or miss with how much she has done the past couple of weeks at gym while they were learning the routines so I had no idea if she would even do it o

When we moved out to Brentwood to be closer to Danny's work 5 years ago, I finished up my season with Aquabears and Valley Vista and decided to be a mom.  My heart wanted to be home with my kids at night, go to their sports and eat dinner at a normal time.  It was a really hard decision because I loved the families, coaches and team I was with.  It was the perfect part time job but I just wanted to be home and it turned out to be the best decision for my family.  I had no idea at the time that I would soon become a caretaker for both my parents.  How grateful I am that I was able to spend so much quality time with my parents the last couple of years of their lives.  I know that many people don't have that choice but my sister and I were blessed to have that time. Heather and I were always so grateful that our husbands worked so hard so that we could be with our parents and help take care of them.  That is a gift that Danny gave to me! Of course I couldn't stay totally o

 Mel had four kittens about two weeks ago.  I was suspicious that she was preggers because not only did she start getting fat, she spent a lot of time just laying around.  One night she started to bleed.  I said, "It's happening!" Heidi was in denial.  Then Mel's water broke on Tyler's bed.  Heidi didn't want the kittens born on Tyler's bed so she moved the cat into the bathroom.  After about an hour of howling, Heidi let Mel out.  Mel birthed the kittens on Tyler's bed.  The kids were stoked.  They were up a few times throughout the night to check on the kittens.  I didn't want kittens, but you gotta admit, it's special for the kids to witness the whole circle of life like that. Tyler's pretty proud that she chose his bed. Scott's been into making cookies and his have been pretty tasty.   Mister's growing right up.  He talks quite a bit even though it's unintelligible gibberish.  He's been walking