Happy 6th Birthday Elise!

Celebrating with our big 6-year-old birthday girl, Elise!

Six years ago our oldest child, Elise, was born and she’s turned our world into something new ever since. We’ve experienced all the first big milestones with her and have watched her grow from a tiny newborn into a very intelligent, driven and fun-loving young girl. Although she’s only 6 years old, I feel like she’s matured so much that she’s 6 going on pre-teen. She loves school, reading, swimming (just about every day she can), riding her bike, golf, gymnastics, legos and play dates with her little friends; and I feel like the friends part will start taking over pretty soon, so we certainly plan to cherish these last few years that we still have with her as mommy and daddy’s best friend. 

Elise is such a little character with a very independent spirit when it comes to what she likes and wants. We are rarely able to influence her or change her mind/opinion; the girl is steadfast as far as her determination goes. I used to think it was more of a challenging quality, but over these past years I've learned to embrace the fact that she is so decisive and driven. She is naturally a bit shy, but she never refuses to participate or embrace a new experience, which makes me very proud. It's her high level of determination that drives her to be brave and speak up rather than retreating when faced with uncomfortable situations. She is one tough girl. She celebrated her birthday party earlier this month and truly adored sharing the day with all her wonderful friends and family! Our girl is growing up so fast. We love you Elise, Happy 6th Birthday!

Enjoying her Wacky Tacky party with great little friends

Happy Father's Day 2015

Father's Day miniature golf fun

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful husband and dad of three now (eek!). Elise recently took a golf summer camp and begged to go to Golfland for Father's Day. It was as hot as can be out and the girls did really well in the beginning before melting down toward the end. Poor dad, he always keeps his positive spirit and optimistic outlook even when the rest of us girls are losing it around him. Thank goodness he will have a little boy soon to offset some of the girl craziness in the house. In the end, we all made it through and we've since decided if we ever go during summertime again, it will be in the evening. Happy Father's Day to a very special dad. We love you!

The girls found some shade by the castle

Memorial Day Trip 2015 - San Jose & Santa Cruz

Morning trip to Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz

Momma and the girls enjoying a relaxing beach day

Exploring a bit of Santa Cruz and climbing the whale

Checking out the view of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Visiting our cousins and littlest nephew in Campbell, CA

Alina loved cuddling Baby Gabe

Adorable Baby Gabriel snuggled up and asleep

Alina did not let him out of her sight all day

Elise's Kindergarten Graduation - June 2015

Elise is going to miss her wonderful K teacher and class!

Special gifts for her teacher

What a whirlwind Kindergarten year it has been! I recall the first day of school like it was last week. Elise had such an incredible Kindergarten teacher, class and overall experience that I feel like any future year will be quite difficult to live up to. She has learned so much and grown by leaps and bounds both academically and socially. Her reading is far beyond anything I had expected at this age. She was already reading short books by the start of Kindergarten, but her learning really took off and she breezed through all her sight words, and moved on to spelling them all by year end. She rarely even needs help with big words anymore. We are so impressed with her determination and drive and thankful that she had such a supportive teacher who challenged her to continue her growth and learning. It was an emotional day, but she is looking forward to summer camp and seeing many of her friends at summer parties and play dates. Here's looking forward to first grade 2015.

Little classmates/friends at Kindergarten graduation

Visiting with her schoolmate and old neighborhood pal

Her amazing art and school work portfolio; proud mama here