Baby's first camping trip - Big Sur

Last weekend we went camping at Big Sur with four other families. Two other girls (3.5 year olds), and two boys (15 months old), so Casey was thrilled with her big kid status. She was a great helper and she loved it all, well, everything but the sleeping part. But she doesn't always like sleeping at home. Eric's theory is that it was the chocolate in the s'mores that revved her up (see the last photo she has a s'more in one hand, chocolate in the other hand, and a marshmallow ready to toast), but I think she was worried about the first day of camp on Monday.

And... she likes camp! Yesterday (day 3) when I picked her up she said, "I like camp now that I'm used to it. (Tuesday she told me that she missed preschool!) I watched her from afar for a while when she was on the playground and I was waiting for someone to bring her over. Even from far away and with lots of kids she was easy to spot, with her bright pink pants and the new black and orange long-sleeved Halloween "little pumpkin" shirt she was wearing for pirate, dinosaur, robot day. I say it fits the theme. She just got it as a hand-me-down from our neighbor and has been wanting to wear it anyway -- Halloween is her fave. I asked ahead of time what theme day will be next Wednesday, and they said ninjas. Oy. I guess she can wear her kung fu uniform.

Baby's first day of camp

Today is Casey's first day of camp. She has been very worried about it and has even lost sleep over it. We got there super early because they said you can check in between 8:30 and 9, and I figured I would get to hang out with her for a while. We walked in through cheering counselors (I mean, team leaders) lined up like you would to cheer on the football team coming onto the field. (Not sure if there is a name for that.) But it was a little overwhelming! Casey looked so tiny. Then she met Claire, her team leader, and we chatted for a bit, they compared nail polish, and Claire took her back to wherever they go.

Then I got in the car and saw the schedule on the handout they gave me. Apparently today is crazy hat and hair day. Oops. Tomorrow she has to wear her team color - purple - that should be easy. Wednesday they have to dress up. "Wednesday is theme day. Dress up as a robot, pirate or dinosaur!" Um, does that mean they are going to tell me which one is the theme for the day, or does that mean she can choose one of the three, or are those just examples? Because if it's not bumblebee day, doctor day, or Minnie Mouse day, we're going to have a problem. Thursday is water play day. Check. Friday is crazy socks day, which would have been easy for us because at our house every day is crazy monkey socks day, but we will be on our way to Ohio!

Was Grandma Micki the only one to notice Casey flipping the bird in the last entry? She was just showing us her hangnail. Luckily I had my camera ready.

More previews of the future

Today was Casey's last day of daycare, assuming camp goes smoothly, knock on wood. She might go a few days in August. When I arrived at one minute until six, after wading through so much traffic, I heard a LOT of giggling. Casey and her buddies Sierra and Bridget were laughing so hard and having such a great time. The other moms arrived soon after I did and none of us could get the girls to go home. They were laughing, smiling, and playing (until I brought out the camera). Sierra said, "No paparazzi!"

In this play family, whoever is driving is the mom, whoever is in the passenger seat is the dad, and the baby rides in the back. When I was little, everyone wanted to be the baby. Casey and her friends always want to be the mom. There was lots of switching around. It took 45 minutes to get those kids out of there.

Happy Fathers' Day!

Whew, I'm all caught up now. Seven new episodes of The Life of Casey. Happy Fathers' Day!

Gilroy Gardens

On Sunday we continued our amusement park weekend at Gilroy Gardens. After driving the cars, the ferris wheel, and a few other rides we spent most of the day in the water play area. Casey and Cami are finally tall enough to go on the water slide. Unfortunately they are just a bit too short to go on some of the rides at the Boardwalk, and Brynn and Ava were both tall enough. Maybe next year, with some lifts in their shoes ... who knows.

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After the water park we went to check out the special dinosaur exhibit where they dug up some dino bones.

At the Boardwalk

This weekend Susan, Steve, and Ava decided to come down and have amusement park weekend. We started on Saturday at the Boardwalk, and Brynn, Cami, and Kyle came to join us. Boy did those kids have a good time. Casey was SO tired because she was up late Friday night playing with our neighbor and they were having such a good time that Eric and I didn't want to stop them. We never learn. Casey got so tired in the afternoon and had to take a sort-of nap in Cami's stroller. It was rough. I managed to get my second caramel apple in two days (one at the fair) and then Eric picked up some frozen chocolate bananas on the way out.

Then we want to Karen, Randy, and Ashley's house for another amazing BBQ. Karen is the hostess with the mostest. I managed to get a photo of all six kids (and Karen) and was very proud of myself because all of them are facing the camera. You should see the number of attempts it took to get this one photo where they aren't even all smiling and there are some closed eyes.

The county fair

On Friday Casey came to work with me in the morning. It's supposed to be my day off but I had some things that had to get done. I put her to work making nametags with faces on them. Then we went to the San Mateo County Fair to meet my friend Allison and her kids. Casey had a great time with Mary Courtney and Maggie. We started out by looking at the chickens and bunnies that were raised by kids in the 4H Club. I have never in my life seen softer, furrier, cleaner bunnies and chickens. I don't mean just the bunnies when I say furry -- even the chickens looked furry and soft. I would have pet them if they would have let us. And the most remarkable thing was that not only did it not stink in there, but it smelled like shampoo!

Then we found the tractor bikes, which can ride forward or backwards, and Casey was pretty much done with the animals. She eventually got ahold of the pink tractor bike and rode and rode. The other girls went to see the world's cleanest goats and sheep, but Casey just rode and rode some more. She said no thank you to the pony ride. Sorry Mom, no Casey on a pony photos.

Then we ate lots of things on sticks and went on some rides. There was a rocketship that must have been from before I was born because I'm pretty sure I would have thought it was old fashioned when I was a kid. There was a wrinkly sheet on the wall and there was a short movie on a small square of the sheet on the wall showing us flying over mountains and the ocean and into outerspace, and then eventually crashlanding into the ground, while the whole rocket shook from side to side. I couldn't stop laughing.

Then Casey shared a cotton candy treat with the girls. For her treat she wanted to buy a Curious George doll instead of junk food, and this was even before she got her hands on the cotton candy (and the cotton candy on her hands). Then it was time to head home. Fun day.

Wesley's birthday

Wesley's birthday was a big hit. We went to a waterpark on a cold cold day. Too cold for moms to go in, but just right for kids and dads. Moms stood on the side, ready with towels. I never thought I'd be such a stereotype, but I have a rule -- if it's too cold to go outside in shorts, it's too cold to go in the water. I tried not to put on ALL of my layers because Wesley's mom was feeling bad that it was such a cold day and I was trying to pretend it wasn't. But eventually I put on my extra fleece and my vest. The kids had a blast.

Bikin' and shootin'

I'm so far behind! This is from last weekend.

Future graduation invitation

Do you think I can hang on to this photo for more than a decade to use for her high school graduation invitation? Look how happy and confident she looks! Ready to take on the world. She didn't really have a preschool graduation ceremony, May just dressed the kids up for a photo shoot.

Hanging with her buddies

May sent me some pictures from their day out and it looks like the Children's Discovery Museum has do-it-yourself face painting. These pictures crack me up. Sometimes I get a glimpse of future Casey and in this first picture I can see her and Maddie putting on their makeup. I hope it's a little more subdued in the future.

Casey and her buddies

Maddie's mom took Casey, Maddie, and Wesley out for the whole day yesterday. They went to the Discovery Museum, Toys R Us, lunch, the park... . Casey had a great time. May tried to get Casey to pick out a birthday present at Toys R Us and Casey picked out a small panda bear.

Casey told me that when she is 16 she wants me to buy her a minivan. I think her favorite part of the day was riding around in the back of the minivan with her friends. May said they were all singing their preschool songs together. And they have a tv in the van, ooooh. Casey was impressed.

"Fun" day

Yesterday was the preschool carnival, also known as "fun" day. I have been needing to get an oil leak fixed in my car for months and had the genius idea to take it in and get it fixed while we were at the carnival. The place is only open on weekdays, which is why it's taken me so long to get it in. We dropped off my car and walked across the street to the carnival. It's supposed to last for 3 hours, but it's in a very crowded space, and the playgrounds aren't open, so we could barely squeak out 2 hours of ring toss, cake walk, balloon animals, and face painting. We had some lunch, went to a park with her friend Kelly and Kelly's mom, went to Starbucks twice, and even tried to get into Gymboree to kill some time.

During the carnival, Casey ate two candy bracelets. Before she ate the second one, I told her that if she ate it she would get no more treats at all that day, even if we went out for ice cream. But one of the few stores in the shopping center was an ice cream store, and they have a tv with kids' shows on and a big chalk board, so after specifically saying no ice cream, I took her in and bought her some ice cream. She was a little confused but I explained that sometimes when you have nowhere to go you have to get ice cream. She was still confused but she didn't argue.

PS. You will be happy to know Wesley is king again. She totally snubbed Nicholas at the carnival. He ran up to her and said, "Hi Casey" and she wouldn't even say hi. It was so horrible. Thank goodness we're not going to his birthday party this weekend. Don't ask me why she did it, I just don't know. She was definitely having an off day. And roaming around carless from 9 to 4 did not help. She was so tired and cranky that on the way home she called me a skunk when she got mad at me for not handing her something in the car when she grunted loudly instead of talking!!! I am still wondering where she got that one. Then we got home at 4 and she fell right to sleep. And then of course was up super late. Fun day. At least my car is fixed.

Look out Wesley

You are not going to believe this but Casey is in love with a new boy. His name is Nicholas. Yesterday when I dropped her off for the last day of school I was talking to some moms outside the classroom and I saw her running around without shoes on. I did the sign for shoes and mouthed to put her shoes on and the teacher told me that Nicholas had made her some new shoes (slip on shoes made out of the cardboard box from a pack of Capri Sun drinks). He also made her a blank book for her to color (white pages stapled together) with his name and phone number on the front! Smooth. He knows what girls like. Well, it worked, because by the end of class they came out and were jumping up and down saying they wanted a playdate. I was just planning to go do some errands so I said sure. We went out for bagels with Nicholas and his babysitter (maybe she was 16 years old???). At the bagel store we saw three of her teachers and about 5 of her other classmates and one cousin of a classmate. The girl knows everyone.

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We went back to Nicholas's house for about an hour and a half and the kids played really well. Later Eric asked if she had fun and she said, "He has a LOT of tools!" (Toy electric leaf blower, chainsaw, etc.) The babysitter watched the cooking channel and read a magazine and luckily I had my book with me. We watched the beginning of Willie Wonka (the old one, thank goodness). .
He invited Casey to his birthday party. The invitation was a chocolate bar with a golden ticket inside that had all the information on it. It's a Willie Wonka party. You should see the room filled with all of the party supplies. Candy everywhere. Fizzy lifting drink (Sprite). And they're also having a pinata! Two actually because it's his older brother's birthday too. Here's the bad news (or the good news if you're the one who has to hold Casey's hands while she gets her cavities filled): it's on the same day as Wesley's birthday party. Nicholas did the hard sell and told us that we see Wesley all the time.

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Now here's the shocking news. She wants to skip Wesley's party. She said Nicholas is her boyfriend now, and her best friend, and she likes him a little bit better than Wesley. Of course we're going to Wesley's (we told him months ago that we'd be there and they even purposely picked a date that we could make it). But sheesh!!! Here I was, worried that she'd always be hung up on Wesley, and it all changed with the blink of an eye. Or it could be like when she gets a new stuffed animal and carries it everywhere, for 24 hours, and then goes back to good ole DogDog.

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We'll see.

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And I have to add, why did Nicholas have to wait until the last day of school? Will wants a playdate with her too. This is the MWF class - the one she hasn't been enjoying. Sigh.

Memorial Day at Hidden Beach

Boy does our girl love the beach. It was a cold windy sunny day. Eric and I froze and fried our feet simultaneously. The kids ran around in bathing suits and put their feet in the water and didn't think twice about it. They built sand castles, pulled each other on the sled, and then played on the playground at the very end. Veronica cooked up some steaks and hot soup, Karen brought pasta salad, and we brought salad and fruit. It was a feast. Casey skipped, danced, hopped, galloped, and ran around in the shallow water. She was singing to herself and I overheard, "this is the best day of my life! I hope it doesn't end."