Madison's 1st Day of School!

Last week Madison officially started her career at Saint Andrew's School. We were a little nervous because in the weeks leading up to the start of school all she could talk about was going back to her old school. Then the morning of her first day she said she "didn't like her costume"! When we picked her up 3 hours later she was chattering nonstop about how much fun she had & the "beautiful dress" she was wearing :-) Challenge averted.

I teared up when I saw her in full dress for the first time. It brought back memories of the 8 years I spent in a plaid skirt.

The teachers are smart & make them wear name tags for the first few days

You Should See the Other Guy

Mike & I were heading to Healdsburg to celebrate my girlfriend Tanya's 30th birthday & we are minutes from San Francisco when we get a call from my Mom...Luke had split his eye open on Madison's bed. We turned around as fast as we could & sped back to our little man. It wasn't too serious...he didn't even need stitches. Sweet little Madison wanted to comfort Luke. In an effort to get his snugglies from his bed she took the corner of Luke's bed to the eye & ended up with a bump of her own. Not a good day for the Allen family! Fortunately everyone was just fine. Nothing a bandaid couldn't help :-)

The injured twosome...still happy as can be in their favorite t-shirts...

Poor Luke-man...when he woke up the day after this his eye was swollen & completely black & blue...

Naked Friday

My girlfriend Brigit hosted a playgroup lunch last Friday & it turned into a little nudist colony. Nobody was anticipating the kid's desire to swim in the baby pool so we just let them go in buck naked. Suffice it to say that I don't feel comfortable posting naked pictures of children on the blog (just in case of the creepies) but it was absolutely precious!!! I was able to grab a couple of adorable pictures of Olivia & Grant who have a year or so before they can join in the fun...

Olivia & Grant...

Olivia...

...and big sister Paige! Twins?

Gilroy Gardens - Take 2

We had such a blast at Gilroy Gardens the first time around that when my girlfriend Heidi suggested going again we were all for it! We had so much fun that I bought a pass that will get us in through 2010 :-)

Thomas cruising the fishies

Luke, Theo, Thomas & Madison on the spinning buckets

Theo & Luke driving the firetrucks

Theo & Heidi waiting for our turn on the cars

Heidi & Theo cruising in a 1950's car (you had your choice between 1950's & 1920's...we picked 1950's because the line was shorter & they looked like "Flo" from the movie Cars.)

Luke taking me for a drive

Heidi & her boys in front of the waterfall

Luke, Mommy & Maddie

All of the muchkins

The Lake (which we have yet to try.) You need a 1:1 parent/kid ratio to take these boats out. Madison has mentioned both times that "when Daddy is here I am going to ride a ducky!" :-)

Theo & Luke on the artichokes

Madison & Thomas

Exhausted after a long but fun day we take a break for some ice cream (in Luke's case a churro...the kid doesn't like ice cream! Weird.)

Grandpa Silly's Birthday

Grandpa Silly's birthday was a quiet affair this year. Mike was sick & Uncle Jason & Aunt Jill are still in San Diego so we had a small bunch for dinner. It was still a great time!

What would a dinner with Grandpa Silly be without a little wrestling?

We're a little bit more gentle with Bagga Judy

It may have been Grandpa's birthday but baby Greta was the hit of the evening (as usual)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

Gilroy Gardens

We have a new favorite adventure spot! Friday we made our first trek down to Gilroy Gardens. I had been hesitating taking the kids there because I am not big on amusement parks & Luke isn't much for rides of any sort. This was completely different...it is a non-profit horticultural park. The setting was gorgeous, there were flowers everywhere. It was perfectly clean & about 75% of the rides were geared towards kids Maddie & Luke's age. We had such a fantastic time & can't wait to go back!
Luke, Madison, Elizabeth & Paige getting ready to head over the bridge

Luke wouldn't go anywhere near the carousel where the girls started off but he spotted these fish & couldn't wait to go on :-)

Maddie on the fish ride

The girls on the buckets (kind of like the teacups). You can see Luke in the background...at first we put him in his own bucket because we thought the girls would spin it too fast for him. Turns out he was spinning his own!)

They all wanted to go for another round so we added Luke to the girls bucket since apparently he's more adventurous than I thought :-)

On to the strawberries...Elizabeth & Luke

Paige & Madison

Race cars...

The artichokes...

Great day!