Saturday and Sunday Michael, the fence stainer

Michael spent most of his weekend staining our fence. It is beautiful and he did such a nice job. As people drove by, they would yell at Michael "Looks nice or Good job". He is pretty sore tonight and it was a hard job, but he does such good work! Last weekend, he borrowed a pressure washer from Brian and cleaned the fence. It was amazing to see it go from the grey color to clean wood. We used a Superdeck natural stain, which added just a little bit of red color. Every night, the girls spend the last 1/2 hour before baths playing tag in the front yard. I will get photos posted in the next couple of days.

Saturday Movie under the stars

Friends..............

On Saturday, we went to Movie under the Stars at Heather Farms Park. We saw the movie, Racing Stripes. It was a good film and Kaley, Melody and Jordan stayed awake for the entire movie. Before the movie started, there was Blue Grass band from Las Vegas playing and all the girls went in front of the stage to dance. What a crack up! For a while, Melody stood and watched as crazy Ainsley and Sydney did their interrpretation of square dancing, then all of a sudden, Melody cut loose. The only one I couldn't get any pictures of was Jordie, she wouldn't stand still for anything :)

The movie was cute and had a good mix of child humor and inside jokes the adults understood. They did use the word stupid....which I was not thrilled with. It was pretty cold that evening, but it was fun cuddling up under the blankets. I had Kaley on my lap, so I stayed nice and warm. Stayed tune for photos to be added.

Friday, Sept 9th Kaley went to LeapFrog

Today Kaley went to LeapFrog Labs in Emeryville to test a product for them. She was thrilled. It has been a long while since Kaley has tested. It seems like they are usually looking for Ainsley's age bracket. Regardless, she was beaming from ear to ear and walked off so proudly with Monica. When she was done, she was given a Thomas the Train book and cartridge for her Leap pad. I am really pleased to see how much she has been playing with it since Friday. The girls really enjoy giong over to Emeryville and testing for LeapFrog.

Back to school night

Michael and I attended Sequoia's Back to School night tonight. Michael came home early and the Wakefields babysat the girls for us. We met the principal, Mrs. Matteoni. Her pantsuit matched the neon green of her VW bug. She seems like a very caring lady who is driven to continue to make Sequoia a top school in the school district. She gave lots of credit and thanks to the students' parents for their involvement. Following our meeting in the MUR (multi use room), we went to Mrs. Haneberrys class. Ainlsey had some of her artwork up on bulletin boards. We then had a chance to listen to Mrs. Haneberry and ask questions. I questioned the use of videos in the classroom and found that it won't happen very often. The one they used was used to introduce phonics. It is a Leap Frog video, which I am okay with...but want to make sure that any video watched is educational. We left the meeting feeling like the school year is going to be great and feel very lucky Ainsley is attending Sequoia. Thank you again to Minor and Mary Beth for babysitting.

The Pony Fortress

Ainsley came home determined to build her ponies a castle. I told her I'd give her some time to work on her creation. I checked back a couple of times to see how the progress was coming along.

The fortress...
Aerial shot
Very pleased with her creation.

My Teeney Waheeny and her Hippie Chick friend

Ainsley and her friend, Kiera were very silly Thursday. Kiera, her mom Rachel, and brothers Luke and Cole came over to play. We decorated cookies and then the girls thought it would be fun to swap shoes. There was a lot of unbridled energy flowing through their veins. The Worthley girls had fun playing with Kiera and Luke. Cole is only five months old, but gets around just enough to keep Rachel busy. Kiera's shoes are the blue, Ainsleys- the pink. What a couple of silly girls.

Kaley the Tower builder

Kaley spent her time while Ainsley was at school on Thursday demonstrating her tower building skills. She would then stand back, size it up and make any necessary changes. Finally, when she thought it was just right, she collapsed out of exhaustion. Ahhh, the life of a three year old.

Homework...already

Ainlsey had homework...already. Tuesday (second day of school), Mrs. Haneberry sent her kinders home with their stoplight lined paper...it is very expensive, according to Ainsley. Wonder where she heard that? Anyway- she worked very hard writing her name just right.

CIA photos...hopefully

Here are the grape eaters and the amazing kitchen
one of the award winning pastries. Meat and raisin mixture
another shot of the kitchen and a couple of the members of the Japanese delegation
The girls and Grandpa

ahh...driving with the top down

and I fogot to rotate again....


soooo, today while the Kaley was away (in school), the mommy and big sister went to play.....at the car dealership!!! Can you say EOS? This is one very beautiful car made by VW. It is a hard top convertible....Yes, I know...very practical for a mom w/two little ones. But actually (Ainsley says this, a lot), there was pretty good leg room and many safety features. I Likey! What until you see it. The lines are really nice. How do we look driving it? So, how's this for quirky....the car man just handed us the keys and said to "have fun". So we took it out for about 40 minutes or so. Boy did we get some looks! Turns out our neighbor Jim saw us, too. oops! We're going to really have the neighbors talking!

Kaley's first day of school

Kaley met up with her good friend "Lexie". They haven't seen each other all summer, but were sure glad to see each other today. Kaley is in the 3 year old class at Fine Arts and is really happy to have Miss Kathy, Miss Lola and Miss Rana. Seems like they have 16 kids or so in the class w/three teachers. It is going to be a fun year.

Oops, I did it again...sidewaysOut with the old and in with the new. Kaley is really happy to be in the "big" kids class. She is really comfortable in this class as this room is the only room Ainsley had for the past 3 years. It is really a big deal for Kaley to be in Ainsley's old classroom. Stay tuned for photos of the adventure Ainsley had today while Kaley was in school.

Our aspiring chef

Presenting my "flour" child

The girls were inspired to cook after visiting Grandpa. Sunday before school started, we decided to make some pizza. Ainsley was in charge of making the crust...she thinks that we need a flour bin, just like at the CIA. If we had one, this would not have happened. Her expression reminds me of "girl w/broken water pitcher", my dad's favorite painting at the Legion of Honor. Our pizza was really good considering. Erik Beer came over to join us for dinner. He brought a lager which he made a couple of months ago. It tasted like honey and was very yummy.

CIA and visiting Ron

Ron recently entertained the Japanese delegation at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). He invited us to join him for lunch and WHAT a treat it was. Not only was it nice being able to spend some time with him, but the food was fabulous. The building has a quite a history and is the former site of Christian Brothers winery. When the 89 earthquake destroyed it, they donated the building to the Culinary Academy. Since, the academy has been looking for sponsors to assist in rebuilding. The Raisin Growers Association has been big supporters of the Academy. There is a beautiful stone walkway dedicated to the Raisin Association as well as a mini vineyard. The girls had a lot of fun with Grandpa Ron. Ron even made it known that the girls were coming and someone would need to fix them pasta. One of the chefs made Ainsley and Kaley a couple of different "kid friendly" pasta dishes. Kaley could not get enough of the meat sauce! After, the chef had Michael take his photo with the girls. Not too common to see a blondie w/blue eyes and a blondie w/brown eyes in Japan! As usual, the girls made themselves at home, but were on good behavior (thank goodness). They really enjoyed trapsing through the grape vines sampling grandpas grapes. I am sure this is exactly what the CIA had in mind when dedicating the grape vines to the raisin growers. We had a really great time!

Lost another tooth

Ainsley very proudly pulled out tooth #2. She woke up yesterday, saying that tooth was just "hanging there". When Michael tried to remove it, she screamed which cuased him to remove his fingers from her mouth. The next thing we knew, there she was with her fingers in her mouth, pulling her own tooth. The tooth fairy was able to locate a silver dollar from the local Safeway (this was what we'd decide the tooth fairy would leave, and we had a stash of 27 of them....until Mr. Robber decided that he needed them....so frustrating). Anyway, she told all her friends at the Wakefields BBQ last night that the tooth fairy was going to leave her a silver dollar, so thank goodness we were able to locate one.

Monet exhibit

My parents were here to babysit the girls while Michael and I attended a Land Rover event in Carmel a couple of weeks ago. While here, we took the girls to the Monet exhibit at the Legion of Honor. It was a lot of fun and the 53 paintings were quite impressive. Ainsley was funny to watch. She would grab the earphones from my dad and jam them on her head and then stand and analyze the painting being discussed. She was a crack-up. Quite a sight. Kaley, on the other hand, was partied out and just wanted to be held....until we got outside, when she decided to take out her energy on the poor pigeons. Those birds were glad to see the Worthley girls leave!

Conservatory of Flowers

Lst week, I took the girls into the City to see the butterflies at the Conservatory of Flowers. Wow, that place is amazing and I give Robin Williams and his wife due credit in raising the funds to restore the Conservatory. It was destroyed after the '89 Earthquake and sat...sadly...for several years before enough money was raised to have it rebuilt. What a truly special place! Anyway, they have an exhibit right now, the Butterfly zone, in which they are hatching several hundred butterflies. The girls has a ball following the butterflies from one plant to another, in the hopes of having the butterflies land on them. Many of the native plants in the butterfly zone are ones which we have planted in the yard and we are hopeful that we will get some butterflies next Spring.

Ainsleys first day of school

Well, the day has come.....our little Ainsley is going off to big girl school.
Her teacher is Mrs. Haneberry and she attends Sequoia Elementary. This school is a charter school and very academic. She was quite proud that on the second day of school, they were already doing math. She will then recite that 2+2 is 4 and so on. Of course, being the Ainsley that she is...she already knew this! She is off for Labor day from Sept 1-5. When I picked her up from school on Thursday, she said "mom, I really liked Kindergarten, but didn't learn much. When we go back after Labor Day, I'll be really excited about starting 1st grade. " She is so use to doing little classes, she thought that Kindergarten was a week long class. She is so funny sometimes. I think Kaley is enjoying her time with mommy..one on one. Kaley will start school on Tuesday. She goes T/TH from 12:30-3:30 and Ainsley has the morning schedule 8:05-11:27. So, Kaley and I hang out every morning and I will be with Ainsley one-on-one Tue/Thurs. I am really going to enjoy this year and will be sad when Ainsley starts full day next year :( We'll cross that bridge when we get there.