First Day of Kindergarden

Sydney started Kindergarden on August 27th, which is also Todd's birthday. Sydney was so excited and ready to go by 7am. I on the other hand was very reluctant to go and sad. My sadness started the Saturday previouse when I took her clothes shopping. She figured out that there was an alternative to me bringing things home and she wearing them. I got a glimps of what the future holds for me as the mother of two girls who LOVE sparkly shinny things when Sydney brought me chetta patterned shoes with jewled bows and a pair of $90 dollar 7's jeans she wanted because they had crystals on the pockets! Once we "negotiated" through those choices (she got the shoes) we had a great time shopping and talking about what she thought kindergarden would be like. Having gone to Hanna Fenichal where playing dress-up and doing some amazing art project's each and every day, I felt I had to prepared her that there might not be as much, if any dress-up and the art projects would be a little more simple. She was fine with it as long as she was going to learn to read and walk to school.

The weekend before school I was looking at her baby pictures when I realized that what all those old ladies and strangers who had stopped me while I was struggling with three babies over the past 5 years had said to me was TRUE. It had all gone so fast and I have forgotten so many of the baby moments I thought I would never forget. I can hardly remember her being so small, or her baby laugh. I was so glad I had those pictures though.

Back to the first day of school. Todd, Sydney's Uncle Nate and I walked her to school. We took about a few hundered picuters of her and I took a deep breath and walked her into her classroom. She sat down on the mat with her new class, said goodbye to us and never looked back. It just about broke my heart...

Smelling the flowers...

On Saturday I had some long overdue one-on-one time with both the girls. Sydney and I went to the mall and to the soccer store in the morning and Bella and I went to Big 5 and Baskin Robbins in the afternoon. It definitely doesn't happen enough - the one on one time - and even more rare is having that time AND not being stressed or preoccupied with work or other matters.

Bottom line - the blackberry and cell phone are always gonna be there, but these moments won't. A few classic quotes just from our day around town on Saturday:

"Dad, your car is so dirty we have to take it to the dry cleaners...really."

- Sydney (as we got into my car to leave for the morning)

"Well, I am five and I wear size five clothes. Bella is almost four and she wears size four clothes...so I think we should get Mommy size 32"

- Sydney (when I asked her what size outfit we should get Katy when shopping for her b-day)

"Dad, I'm not afraid of fighting cheetahs...I'm not. And I'm not scared of bears either, I will fight them to, I will."

- Bella (totally out of the blue as we were driving home)

Ballet - hitting the stage

Sydney and Bella have been practicing for months and all the hard work paid off as they took the stage for their ballet recitals. Katy and I were in Europe and missed the big night (we did see the dress rehearsal, but yes, we still feel like horrible parents). Katy's parents were in town watching the kids while we were gone and made sure the girls were ready for their big night - including flowers from Grandpa Lowe right after the show (which were a big hit with the girls). More pictures later...

Bella always has a good time up there and is no stranger to the camera. Sydney nailed her routine to and showed lots of confidence on the stage. Grandma and Grandpa said they both did great and really enjoyed their performances. Awesome job girls!

London Calling

Living in San Diego now it's hard to imagine wanting to live any place else - much less a place like London where the it's rarely sunny, way more expensive than here and so far away from friends and family. With that said, I'd say at least once a month we talk about our time living there and what it would be like to be back there with the kids.

In June, Katy and I had the chance to spend a couple of nights there on our way up to Scotland. We stayed at a hotel a block away from the flat we lived in for 3 years...so it was kinda like going back to the old neighborhood.

I had been back to London a few times for work but it was Katy's first trip back since moving away in 2001. Fun to be back there and it brought back lots of good memories. It also gave us a chance to visit a few of our favorite local hang outs.

Nothing better than heading up to Wagamama's on High Street Kensington for a little ebi katsu and spicy chicken ramen on a foggy afternoon in London. Think we ate there 3 times in our 3 days...

Other highlights:

Spamalot - Got tickets last minute. Katy hadn't seen it yet and for me it was just as good the third time around...have to be a real Monty Python fan to fully appreciate it.

The Abingdon - Met our good friends the Sayers for dinner down the street from our old flat.

Da Mario's - Went to Da Mario's for lunch our second day. It's just across the street from our old flat on Palace Gate. Apparently this place was Princess Diana's favorite pizza place so they've got her named etched in the stairs. Kind of a funny place - definitely a family place but at night the basement turns into a disco. Katy and I probably ate here twice a month for 3 years (don't think we ever did the disco though...).

Hyde Park /Kensignton Palace - Went for a walk in Hyde Park first thing after we dropped the bags off at the hotel.

21-23 Palace Gate - Our flat for 3 years. Looks pretty much the same. The window in the top left corner was our living room.

Trafalgar Square at night - Had never really been there at night, very cool with a great view of Big Ben.

Harvie & Hudson - Best shirts in London. Got hooked when I was working in London and my office was on Jermyn Street right next to all the famous shirtmakers. Gotta make a stop here whenever in town (an excuse to spend the few pounds left in my UK bank account).