Happy Birthday Luke-man!!!

Today our sweet little man turned 2-years-old!!! We can't believe it, we can barely remember life without him. I'm in the process of uploading the tons of pictures we took today. I will post more details tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to our handsome little devil!!!

Reese's 1st Birthday & a Fun-Filled Weekend

We had a busy weekend & one of the highlights was our friend Reese's 1st birthday party! It was a perfect day @ Wildwood Park in Saratoga.
The birthday girl & her Mommy, Ashley

Look at those kissable chins!

Reese & her Daddy, Noah

Uh Noah...is it her 1st birthday or 21st? :-)

The Allen & Scharrenberg crews...Madison & Thomas...Luke & Theo (& the back of Michael Saso's head)


Luke & his new best friend, Theo (it was really cute because it was the first time they actually played together instead of parallel)

Madison & Thomas displaying the food in their mouths

I think they're telling secrets...

I had to take this picture...it's of a large Big Bird balloon stuck in the trees. Ash was telling me how it took her an hour to get these balloons blown up because they couldn't figure out how to do it. The Allen kids are there not 5 minutes when they start pounding on poor Big Bird & he takes off for the sky. I felt awful! Luckily Ash & Noah could have cared less :-)

That was Saturday & our weekend didn't stop there (but that was where I stopped taking pictures). Bagga Glen took us to a fabulous dinner @ the Grill on Saturday night. Thank you Bagga! Sunday we headed over to Danville for a BBQ @ our friends the Clark's. We had such a great time catching up with a lot of the people we were close to when we lived in San Francisco. Most of us have moved to the burbs & have multiple kids now so getting together isn't as easy but when we do it is always a blast! Thanks again Wax & Bubby!

Picnic Lunch with Gigou

Today, after swim lessons, we had a picnic lunch with Gigou (Aunt Jill's Mommy) at Cuesta park in Mountain View. We had so much fun! It's been too long since we've seen Gigou...we missed her so much!
Madison getting in a snuggle before Luke crashes the party


Gigou & the monkeys

Rocker Chick

Tonight we had dinner at the Florio's & the hot toy of the night was Paige's guitar. Maddie rocked it! You can see her gogo dancer, Paige, in the last picture :-)

Swimming

Tuesday was supposed to be Luke last day of swimming for the season & before I decided to sign him up for another round, I snapped some great pictures. It's amazing how far both of the kids have come in such a short time. A couple of months ago Luke cried the minute we dunked him underwater or made him float on his back. He only wanted Mommy & nothing to do with his teacher, Matt. Today the minute Luke saw Matt walk in he was so excited. He followed Matt everywhere he went until it was time for the lesson. During the lesson he was jumping in all by himself! Matt now just has to say "back floats" & Luke-man rolls right over. Madison (who has always been a fish) has made amazing progress. She currently working on her "big arms" (freestyle) & "painting the sky" (back stroke). It is so wonderful to watch their daily progress :-)
Luke doing his back floats

Matt & Luke giving Mommy a big "cheese"

Getting ready for a dive...

...and he's in!

Both of the kids are in the pool at the same time so at the end of the lessons they get to ride on the "magic carpet" with each other & work on their kickers

Luke the Gymnast

With Madison in school 3 days a week Luke deserves a little fun too! With the weather changing we have been joining some indoor activities. Friday mornings Luke can be found showing his moves at the Gym!
On the rings...still needs to work on that upper body strength!

Nothing more fun than a trampoline!

Luke & his girlfriend Elizabeth

The sprint down the trampoline...

...always ends with a face plant into the foam! (his favorite part of the day :-)

Elizabeth taking a tumble into the soft stuff

Our Pretty-Painted-Nail-Princess

Madison has been (to put it nicely) a bit combative lately. A line I hear from her often is, "Mommy, I am grumpy." I chalk it up to her fierce independence and an oncoming growth spurt (both of which are good things :-) Needless to say when it was time to get ready for the first day of school Wednesday...we had words. Lately she has been very intrigued anytime I get a pedicure. I told her that if she cooperated & wore what I had picked out for school that day we could paint her nails when she got home. She was so excited! She talked about it the entire way to school & it was the first thing she mentioned when we got home. She decided on pink for her toes with sparkles on one foot (only) & a light purple for her hands. She was so thrilled with the way they turned out that she was dancing around her room saying, "Mommy, I am as pretty as a princess!" It was a misty-eyed moment for Mommy :-) I think we can rule out tomboy...

The finished product...

The pretty princess herself!

Luke's 1st Bowling Experience

Madison had her first day of school yesterday so Luke was entitled to a little fun as well! It was blazing hot outside so Dara & I decided to take Luke & Paige to a new bowling alley in Cupertino. The kids LOVED it! It was the perfect way to spend a morning.
Luke & Paige getting set to pick out their bowling balls

Our cute little guy in his bowling shoes :-)

This is so exciting!

Stay away from that ball return Luke-man!

Paigeee's turn!

Off it goes...

Luke giving a big cheer for himself after his turn

Looking down the lane to make sure it gets there (After he rolled the ball he would get upset & want it back. This happened until he figured out that the cool ball return delivered it right to him :-)