the great sock mystery

it never fails... sammy goes to bed all cozy with 2 socks on her feet... when she wakes up - she has mysteriously lost one and only has one on her foot! sometimes I do sherlock proud and find the missing one (in her crib), and other times, I chaulk it up to the sock monster- who's responsible for a drawer full of unmatched socks!
it's pretty cute, but also weird, I have to say - I wish I could watch her all night and know what goes down - does she have a dream where she's wrestling an alligator and yank it off in her sleep? or does she wake up, get pissed cuz she's stuck in the "jail" of a crib and pull it off to spite us? perhaps we'll never know.

pics above illustrate the evidence of the crime... and then what seems to be her CRACKING HERSELF UP since the great mystery strikes again after mommy asks, "sammy! what happened to your sock!?!"

circle time & celebrations

this morning before our usual saturday morning pancake breakfast, miss stella informed charlie and I that we needed to sit against the wall and have circle time with her. this is something they do at her preschool and she practices it quite often at home! today we had stella, daddy, mommy, sammy, taylor, lucy, and 2 babies all sitting in a circle in the dining room so that we could sing songs (think twinkle, twinkle little star, and buenos dias/good morning, color & jumping song, 2 elephants (my personal favorite), and mary had a little lamb). she even humored sammy with a rendition of "row row row your boat", since that's the only one sammy sings along too! with a cute little "row, row, row" and then she rocks her body back and forth. good times.

then she sang happy birthday to each of us in the circle, and got up to give each of us a "special story" that she had already lined up on the floor, just so. meanwhile, sammy had limited focus and attention, as she was preoccupied with her snack. too damn cute.

bonding...

Sammy and Daddy have some fun together! Here they are cracking up after checking out a jelly fish at the beach!

"Sneaking Booty" & Cinderella

today miss stella informed us that her FAVORITE princesses are "sneaking booty" and cinderella. that was during dinner, and we both almost choked on our food cuz we were laughing so hard! I wonder if Disney wants to try to use sleeping beauty's alias, per stella, and start marketing the fresh appeal of good old "sneaking booty" and the 7 dwarfs!

i scream, u scream, we all scream for ice cream!!!

we had some raspberry ice cream for dessert tonight and stella and sammy decided to dig in on daddy's lap - BOTH of them! which was QUITE a treat for mommy, because typically every night I end up with both girls sitting on my lap while I try to finish up my remaining dinner. This time daddy got some of the love, and i liked how sammy mastered the spoon and shared (aka "force fed") daddy! he didn't seem to mind...

apparently, all the sugar turned the girls into affectionate sisters and they shared another of their adorable kisses! sticky lips and all, no doubt!

i love aidan landers

stella and aidan sittin' in a tree....

these 2 cuties have been boyfriend/girlfriend since they were 5 months old - they just adore each other and are the best of friends- like an old married couple, so close, helping each other feel better when necessary, goofing around, arguing, offering affection (hugs and kisses, holding hands). they were born 5 days apart and have been in school together for years now. They have joint bday parties and fortunately, their parents have a blast together, so we do team landers and team wellborn joint vacations! like our annual sea ranch trip for new years. earlier this year, baby ty (aidan's little bro) was born, so even though he's almost a year younger, he and sammy can hopefully share a cute bond too, though probably not QUITE like that of their older siblings!

stella is transitioning up to preschool this week, and leaving her old room at school (where aidan and her other friends are staying for a few more months), and she "desperately" misses him. but alas, they can see each other in the play yard, and in the bathroom that separates their classrooms, every day!

above they are having fun together at our day trip to angel island.

angel island adventure

today we drove over to marin and met team landers (aidan, christine, patrick, and baby ty) at the ferry landing in tiburon. then we caught a ride across the bay, over to angel island. we hung out on the beach, went for a nice long walk (1.5 miles each way, not bad with 2 kids each!) and had a delicious picnic (complete with wine and sippy cups full of water!) on a nice hill at historic "camp reynolds" where we had gorgeous views of the bay, city, bridges, etc. we saw tons of jelly fish right at the beach (fortunately, no one had to drop their pants and urinate on a sting!) and aidan and stella had a blast exploring the terrain. sammy loved the beach, though she seemed to think the best idea would be to just walk right into the ocean water... notsomuch. baby ty ate a lot and slept a lot, per the usual. and as for the mommies and daddies, we enjoyed catching up and being entertained by our little monkies!

check out some pics - view from the ferry - i was coveting those sail boats! sam hanging with mom and dad on the ferry ride... one of the views from our picnic spot - a nice reward after the uphill hike. and the kiddies (minus sleeping baby ty) checking out the ferry accomodations. then we have aught a pic of a jelly fish that was so fascinating, and scary!

sam ponders life

i went to the girls' school this afternoon for the ice cream social... when i came to pick up sammy i caught her in the act- pondering the meaning of life, no doubt.

p.s. pay no attention to the purplish mark on her cheek - it's just self-inflicted-i-am-a-toddler-so-i-fall-a-lot by product. as opposed to any form of child abuse. no, really.

Hard Knocks - go COWBOYS!

it's our favorite time of year - FOOTBALL SEASON!!! and other than the pre-season games, charlie and I are addicted to an HBO show called "Hard Knocks" - on wednesday nights. I highly recommend y'all watch it!

It follows the Dallas Cowboys to training camp (in oxnard, ca)... it's got action (running plays, patrick creighton trying to catch 6 punts (simultaneously!) at practices!), adventure (watching T.O.'s antics is always an adventure! especially when roy williams is pulling pranks on him), comedy (like when the rookies had to sing a song into a phalic microphone) drama (will ray lewis' little brother make the cut?), emotion (i'm really rooting for martellus bennett, the lone aggie draft pick to pull his head out and show his skillz), the underdog (I so want that skinny basketball player to step up and show that he's got what it takes to make the transition to the NFL), celebrities galore (magic johnson, jaime foxx, etc.. all want to show up and watch "america's team", and ladies (romo loves him some jessica simpson, so she's bound to make an appearance).

what more could you ask for? wednesday nights on HBO...

kite shenanigans

stella got to fly her first kite this weekend - we drove around for quite a while trying to find a good spot with enough wind, and she and daddy made a go of it.

little drummer girl

sammy loves music - whenever she hears a commercial, or stella singing, or a song on the radio, she grooves along to the tunes. outside on the porch, she decided to have grandpa help her turn her sandbox upside down and make it into a musical instrument.... go on with your bad self little drummer girl!

Ladybugs!

auntie juli strikes again -she sent gorgeous little dresses that she made for the girls.. first time it was bumblebees, then there were a few other ones that were too cute, and now she's sent them matching ladybug dresses! stella particularly loves the pockets, and sammy really loves the ladybug buttons --- too freakin cute. as I write this, Stella is singing "THANK YOU auntie juli!".

Hola Amigos!

fuemos por mexico - charlie y yo.. fue muy divertido... jugadamos much tenis, golf, ping pong, nadar en la piscina y en el mar, y sentando en nuestras koolas, para descansar en la playa! nuestra ninas fueron con mi mama y papa, y tenieron un buen tiempo.

translation --> charlie and janel went to mexico (zihuatanejo actually) for a belated anniversary trip, to an amazing resort called The Tides at Zihuatanejo... we were there for 7 days/nights and played a lot of golf, tennis, ping pong competitions, lying around reading and resting on the beach and at the pool, crashing waves in the ocean, and just relaxing. the food was amazing and we ate well - though we were bummed to miss a lot of the olympics (couldn't even find it in spanish!)... it was a lovelyvacation - but we definitely missed the girls.

they were in good hands, though. kathleen & andrew were sooo sweet and woke up really early on the friday we left, so the girls could come over (in their cool pj's!) before school - and andrew made them blueberry pancakes! what a treat.. then kathleen took them to school (and picked up later).

then grandma and grandpa were at our house with the girls for the whole week. they had a great time and took them to school many days and I think the girls really enjoyed the week of bonding with grandma and grandpa! plus they managed to do a bunch of "honey do's" while we were gone - to help around the house with many outstanding chore - we are QUITE lucky!

The Dentist is in the House...

stella went to the dentist for the first time - a pediatric dentist who was great with kids! she did a good job, and let the dr. count her teeth, etc. and it was a successful first visit overall and stella loved getting all the nifty tools - her very own probe with mirror, globes, tooth buffer, and face mask... she was kind enough to pose for me, before instructing me to lay down on the couch and let her "dentist you"!

littlest gymnasts

julia's birthday party was at a local gymnastics spot, so stella got to practice her mad skills on the trampoline, beam, bars, summersaults, etc. that she learned in her previous gymnastics class.

and sammy thought the climbing on top of all the wedges and beams and mats was a blast! she was really cute because every few minutes she seemed to need a rest and would lay her little head down on the mats she was climbing.. look around... then catch me laughing at her, and start climbing again! she had fun watching all the big girls, and tried to emulate their moves.

stella only hurt herself once, so that was pretty impressive, since she seems to be like her mom - athletic, but clumsy.. yes, that's possible, no, it's not an oxymoron.

julia's bday party!!!

stella was invited to julia's birthday party this weekend and she had SUCH a blast! we had a great time picking the perfect pink purse for a present -we found it at this cute little boutique in sea ranch called "red stella", so it was fitting that we found the gift there! stella was shy at first, so julia was a perfect hostess and held her hand and helped her feel comfortable while getting to know all of her friends and cousins... then stella got into the groove and enjoyed the party... especially during the amazing 4 minutes when all 20+ kids were completely silent as they ate the heck out of their cupcakes!

sisterly love

these girls are sooo damn cute! they decided to have a cheese and crackers snack (apparently sammy wanted this snack, so stella told me about it, on her behalf, of course.. no projecting here!).

anyway - they shared and tried to put it in each others mouths and then were so pleased with their own sharing, that they decided to kiss about it! too freakin cute.