Lydia's first ever swim meet

After two seasons with the local swim team, the Sharks, and starting her third season, Lydia finally agreed to go to a swim meet.  Her coach challenged her a little by throwing in a butterfly event and the individual medley, but Lydia rose up to the challenge.  As far as I could tell, she placed in all four of her events and had a really fun time doing it.  Way to go, Lydia!

  

Warm-up

Watching teammates competing

25 m fly, Lydia is on the far right

Getting ready for the 100 IM

Lydia coming back from behind!

25 m freestyle

Stretch....

100m freestyle relay team

Lydia was first to swim

Washing up after the relay

An "after the meet" treat of yummy crepes.

In the late afternoon, we hung out with John and his family and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Ian and Sophie apparently enjoyed the bread.

Buddies Sophie, Allie, and Lydia

Lydia likes being an "older sister" type figure.  Hope she's not getting any ideas...

Wining and Dining

This week for mom's night out, I chose Wine Expo because my livingsocial deal was about to expire.  Little did I know that there was a private event going on and we were only allowed in the back room.  Even though people were still going in and out of the room purchasing the new game "uncorked", my friends and I still had a good time.

April helping cork back the human wine bottle

Santa Monica Saturday

We didn't have any officially planned this weekend, so we took it nice and easy and hung out in Santa Monica.  Sometimes it's nice not having anything to do.

Mocha and pastry at Amandine Patisserie

Rockin' it on the Promenade

Happy 25th anniversary, Santa Monica

Prima Ballerina

Though she will probably be the youngest and smallest in the class, Sophie has been promoted to the regular "ballet" class.  She said that she didn't want to do dance anymore, but when I told her that I would purchase her new ballet shoes and an outfit, she changed her mind quickly.  Hopefully she will not feel that the new class it too hard and still enjoy herself.

My little ballerina

Heat wave = Beach day

My friend Tom has been going to the beach every Sunday for the last few months and we got to join him again today.  The water was a bit colder than last week and the waves were not as good, so I just chilled on the sand instead.  Sophie went into the water briefly and was happy getting chased by the waves, while Lydia and Trung went all in.  I'm glad we can still enjoy the beach even with school already started.

It was another beautiful day

Fully dressed and tempting the waves

All giggles for Lydia and Isabelle

Sleepover

The girls have been asking for a sleepover for awhile now and since I was already watching my friend Magda's kids tonight, I figured it would be fine for the older two kids Julia (8) and Amelia (5) to spend the night.  Frank got picked up at 10:30 since he's only 4 and might be a little worried in the morning.

The evening started out with a pizza dinner, a movie, and a couple hours of playing.  Even after Frank left, the girls were too wired to sleep, which didn't happen until midnight.  Thank goodness we don't have anything planned tomorrow because this momma is going to need a nap!

The younger three kids played together while the older two hung out upsides.

The girls decided to ditch the tent for comfortable beds and feel asleep instantly after the switch.

Malibu to Santa Monica

I already knew that today was going to be a busy day, but then add on Lydia getting into a kayak class last minute and I was really thrown off.  Fortunately, my friend Magdalena took Lydia to the kayaking class and Trung helped me make the watermelon baby carriage and picked up the balloons for Guro's baby shower.  I was supposed to help set up and ended up being 45 minutes late since traffic up to Malibu was much worse than I expected.  After a couple hours at the shower, socializing and eating, we headed back to Santa Monica and met up a few families at the beach to catch a few waves.  The water was nice and warm and it was my first time in the water here.  The waves came quickly and were rough, but we managed to get a few rides in on the boogie boards.

Finally arriving to the superhero themed baby shower at the Malibu Golf Club

Norah and Sophie nibbling on Wonder Woman sugar cookies

Guro and her "super" diaper cake

All the little heroes

It was a blistering hot day, but the scenery was nice

Flower power

The hundreds of flags on the front lawn of Pepperdine University was certainly a sight to see

Down the ocean a little ways in Marina del Rey was my little kayaker

That's a big kayak for such a little girl

Julia, Lydia and Violeta...Roosevelt buddies

More fun in the water at Santa Monica beach

Beach days are the best!

Orange County Birthday Celebrations

A month ago, Lydia said that she wanted a birthday party this year since we usually go to Disneyland instead.  When we got to talking about who she would invite, however, she kept reducing the guest list because some of her friends had better friends that were on the list and she wanted all the attention.  So, I asked Lydia if wanted to invite just a couple of friends and take them for the entire day to wherever she wanted.  She liked that idea much better and actually only wanted her best friend Mia to join us to Discovery Center museum in Orange County.

We spent a good five hours at the museum and the girls found their favorite exhibits and kept revisiting them.  By 4, everyone was ready for a change of scenery and we drove over to Buena Park for my little surprise...Pirates Dinner Adventure.  The girls loved Medieval Times, so I figured that they would be excited about this dinner show as well.

Busy making designs

Personalizing by Trung

Sophie is stronger than she looks

And Trung, not so much.  :P

Cliffhanging...I made it 33 seconds

One of the girls' favorite exhibits...separating out recyclables.

Kayaking adventure

Lydia's absolute favorite exhibit is the grocery store.  The computerized shopping carts are so much fun!

BFFs

At the dinner show, Lydia got to hold our yellow pirate's flag

Group pic

The view from our seats was a little obstructed, but not horrible.

Here comes the dragon

The girls LOVED the show!

Doughnuts for the birthday girl

I thought it would be nice to surprise Lydia with doughnuts for her birthday this morning.  I woke up 30 minutes early in hopes that the line would be much shorter than down the block.  I was lucky it was pretty short, but I still had to call home to get Trung to make sure the girls were awake and ready for school by the time I finally got back home with breakfast.

The wait this morning was not half as bad as it has been all week, but I still waited a good 45 minutes.

So close, yet so far

That smile made it worth the wait.

Sharks - Take 3

Lydia's swim team started today and as usual, the first day was just for time placement.  Fortunately, this session her friend Julia is also on the team, so she won't hate it as much.  :/

 Smiles before and surprisingly afterwards too

Tiger moms watching from up above...photo taken by Sophie