Elise's First Day of First Grade

Another big milestone in the bag! Elise began her first day of first grade on August 19, 2015, and I am so proud of our girl. She is so open to change and new experiences and even though she's a bit shy, she always give me the look as if to say, "mom, I got this". I was a very shy kid and more than likely cried and was anxious on my first day of school up until 4th grade, so I'm happy that she has so much confidence and I hope it's something that she continues to embrace until she's grown. She had a great first day and was happy to be in class with one of her Kindergarten friends as well!

Excited for her first day of 1st grade!

Little Red Cheongsam and our Yin and Yang

Alina in her little red cheongsam dress

I bought this adorable little red cheongsam dress years ago with the intention of Elise wearing it at some point. Unfortunately for me, at three-years-old Elise had a strong aversion to the color red, anything covering her neck or mom telling her what to wear. She flat out refused to put it on. I tried again with Alina and finally had success! She not only wore it, but posed for me and grinned the entire time. I've always found it amusing how kids can have such strong opinions at young ages. Elise was fighting me on clothing choices since before she could talk. Alina will usually wear anything I pick out without much fuss. 

This brings me to the bigger picture and how I see my girls personalities as completely yin and yang. Honestly speaking, they are opposites in most ways, but through all their differences they bring a sense of harmony and balance to our lives in revealing such different personality dynamics and rewards. It's amazing how much perspective they've brought into our lives and while we can spend hours attesting to all their differences, ultimately I wouldn't imagine or want them to be any other way. This really gets me wondering what baby boy's personality will be like. I already have my yin and yang girls, so how will he fit in the mix? I wonder, will he be more like one or the other? As he grows, it will be very interesting to find out and watch his personality reveal itself. As for now I have my yin and yang to keep me on my toes.

Pretty floral embroidery and cute curls

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

LA Trip Part IV: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History

Last stop - The LA County Museum of Natural History

T-Rex and Triceratops fossil display

Silly Elise posing by the dinosaurs

The girls loved the extensive dinosaur displays

Elise enjoyed the mineral display

Minerals & gems at LA County Natural History Museum

Animal exhibits and the preserved mega mouth shark

Our very last destination during our LA trip was the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. We got the double entry pass for both La Brea Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum and while we thought it would be a quick trip, it turned out that the girls did not want to leave and made sure to explore every corner and exhibit. They really loved this place and I would highly recommend making it a top go-to spot while visiting LA. The highlights were the dinosaur exhibit the extensive mineral and gem exhibit. The girls were in awe over the colossal dinosaur bones and Elise especially loved the colorful mineral displays. She declared that she planned to start collecting "beautiful and colorful rocks" once she gets back home. We also paid a little extra to visit the butterfly pavilion and they loved getting to locate and identify the different butterfly species on their guides. 

What a great end to a very fun trip. We had plenty of relaxation, family and beach time early on, so it was nice to spend the last day doing a bit of sightseeing. Elise was thrilled to see the Hollywood sign on our drive back since she recognized it from the movie "Hop". The kids did surprisingly well on the drive back home. We only stopped a couple times and there were no are we there yet's uttered, so all-in-all success. We are looking forward to visiting LA again soon. We want to see our family more often and visit a few more Southern CA beaches. I really want to take the kids to Laguna Beach as I have some great memories there visiting the tide pools with my grandparents. We also still have the California Science Center (home of the Endeavor Space Shuttle) on our future to-do-list. 

Cute Alina posing with the polar bear

South American art exhibit

The Nature Lab was another highlight for the girls

Elise identifying butterfly species; she had it down!

Fun in the butterfly pavilion

Alina found this beautiful monarch butterfly

View of the Hollywood sign on our drive home

LA Trip Part I: Fun in the Sun, Water, and Sand at Redondo Beach, CA

Watching sailboats at Redondo Beach

Our little beach lover, Alina

Redondo Beach Landing & Pier

They loved dipping their feet in the waves

Little beach bums

Two very happy girls having fun in the sun, water and sand

Redondo Beach Pier - My grandparents took me here years ago

Last weekend we took our third family trip to Los Angeles, except that this time there was no Disneyland fun/madness; we went to visit my Aunt, Uncle and little cousins in Torrance and got in plenty of relaxing beach time too. It was so nice to have a more laid back family trip where we weren't on-the-go from sun up to sun down. It was also wonderful to see the little cousins spend time together as they are all close in ages and shared so much laughter in the time they spent playing.

We also had the chance to take the girls to nearby Redondo Beach & Pier, which was a great experience for all of us. When momma was little, I used to visit here with my grandparents and had so much fun! It brought back lots of great memories from my childhood, even though the pier has changed so much from what I remember back in my youth. The girls loved exploring the fun little shops on the pier and we even enjoyed seal watching right out our table window at breakfast, which was a great treat for the girls. Their favorite part of all was the beach! They loved running through the sand and waiting for the waves to crash and drench their little toes. Alina was so brave around the water this time. She last experienced the ocean waves in Maui, and was very cautious back then. This time around she waded out even further and didn't have a care when one larger wave soaked her waist level. The smiles and laughter that they shared on the beach that day is unforgettable.

Windy day fun on the pier

Exploring Redondo Beach pier

Bright future indeed!

Walking the pier and seafood spotting

Pink & white shrimp

Seal watching at breakfast, the girls loved it!

Elise spotted this stoic Black Crown Night Heron watching us

Sweet little cousin play time

Elise's 2014 Preschool Class Reunion

Elise's Montessori preschool classmates reunion

These little friends had the best time playing together again

The smiles and laughter lasted all afternoon long

They all played together like no time had passed
...some were camera shy (hah!)

Happy kiddos - looking forward to their next little reunion

First Trip to The Bay Area Discovery Museum - Sausalito

Making music at the Bay Area Discovery Museum

View of the San Francisco skyline from Sausalito

The Bay Area Discovery Museum's Bay Hall is fun, fun, fun!

The cute kids art at the museum

Outdoor play time at Lookout Cove

Climbing through the giant tree trunk

Elise and Grams enjoyed dressing up and green screen fun

Several weeks ago, we made our first trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito and this place was serious fun for the kids (as well as Mom, Dad and Grandma). There are plenty of fun/unique kids activities, but perhaps the best part of this place is the idyllic location with lovely views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline. I know I say this all the time, but thank goodness for Groupon deals because we got half off admission for the entire family. The girls favorite part of the museum was the Bay Hall, which is basically a play set version of San Francisco complete with a mini grotto and fishing boat that rocks back and forth. The girls enjoyed fishing for toy crabs off the boat.

Sausalito is one of our favorite places to visit. We spent our anniversary here a couple years ago in a scenic hilltop vacation rental overlooking Richardson Bay. It really is as quaint and charming of a city as one could imagine (especially being so close to the crowded and bustling San Francisco) and there are plenty of fantastic restaurants in the area. Being the girls first trip to Sausalito, we wanted to make sure it was special, and while I think that they were happy enough after a fun day exploring the Bay Area Discovery Museum, afterwards we treated them to a nice dinner at Scoma's Sausalito overlooking the San Francisco Bay. We plan to visit again soon.

Exploring the wave workshop and outdoor play areas

Mom joined in on the green screen fun

Gears, gadgets, and gizmos

Cuties posing by The Golden Gate

Enjoying dinner at Scoma's in Sausalito

Beautiful sunset view in Sausalito