It's The Sun!!!! Pt. Pleasant Beach Day!

About a month ago our friend, Michelle, called and asked if we wanted to play hooky with them and join them for a beach day today (6/25). Little did we know when we talked about this day, that the ENTIRE month of June would be rainy and overcast so we hemmed and hawed all week long and made alternative plans to go to the Camden Aquarium.

But luck was on our side and today was the most perfect day! It was in the mid 80's, no humidity, light wind and blue skies! I cannot believe how beautiful it was considering it was ugly and cold yesterday and is supposed to be ugly and raining again.

Sofia, Michelle, and Charlotte
Sofia and Rob
Sofia is so funny, when you tell her you're taking her picture she leans into the person she's taking the picture with but she still won't look at the camera. What is it with my kids and not looking at the camera?!
Jackson, Charlotte, and Ella being made into mermaids/merman

Sofia was really concerned with the fact that it's not bikini season. She was afraid she wouldn't look good in her bikini. I told her she was crazy. I mean you don't get a body like this without working for it!
Oh, and notice the watershoes..Ella (born in San Diego) is a major beach girl. She runs right into the ocean and spends hours jumping in the waves. She gets knocked down and jumps right back up and goes in again. Sofia is not a natural beach girl. By the end of the day she was hanging out like an old pro but the only way we could get her to walk on the sand, was to put on her beach shoes....oy, what a look!

Here she is chatting on her blackberry. Don't be jealous of that body ladies, you can get it too...

We spent 4 hours on the beach! I was so surprised that Sofia lasted so long without a nap but she was having a blast. Around 3pm we decided to wrap up at the beach and hit the boardwalk.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...dippin dots?
We rode a bunch of rides, of which I don't have a lot of pics of but I do have these,

Charlotte and Ella on the swings
Sofia enjoying the Nemo ride

We packed up and hit the road around 4pm and hit every type of traffic issue out there-construction, accident (x2), high school graduation + lots of cops on the road, but even with the long ride home, it was such a wonderful day and worth it!

Stepping Stones Children Museum

Ella's been out of school since June 5th and summer camp doesn't start until next Monday so we've been trying our best to keep busy but it's been raining NON stop since the 5th of June. When I say non stop, I mean NON STOP, including a freak icy hail storm on the 15th that ripped apart all our plants and flowers. So it's been a little difficult getting out since things like parks, beaches, pools, playing in the yard, etc...is out of the question.

So on Wednesday, the girls and I met our friends Diana, Natalie, and Jeremy at Stepping Stones Children's Museum in Norwalk, CT. I'd heard really wonderful things about it and had been wanting to go for awhile, so what better time than now.

It was only about an hour way, but even though I've lived here over 3 years, I still chuckle about the fact that in the same amount of time it takes to drive through Los Angeles, I can drive through three states (NJ, NY, CT).

The whole way up Sofia kept singing "NAAATALIE! JEREEEMYY! NAAATALIE!!" Have I mentioned that Sofia is obsessed with Ella's friends? She knows them all by name and can point them out in pictures, oy! But poor Sofia has no little girl friends. All her friends her age are boys!

At the Waterdeck

Sisters exploring together
Sofia on the "big screen"
Now that I'm a star, I don't have time for you people!

It was a great place and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

Swim Lessons

Ella just started her real big girl swim lessons yesterday! It's crazy sitting by the side of the pool while she's in there with her swim teacher.

It's a great class because it's semi-private which means only 3 kids, and one of them is Ella's BFF, Natalie. The girls had so much fun and helped each other so much.

Ella and Natalie before getting into the pool
Ella on her back-sort of...she wasn't so sure about this but got better at it the second time around
Blowing bubbles and doing ice cream scoops with her arms
Waiting at the edge of the pool to jump in

The best part about swim lessons (for me) is that since it's at a local gym, babysitting for the little ones is part of the package, so I actually get to sit in a chair at the edge of the pool with Diana (Natalie's mom) and talk like an adult for 30 minutes! Wahoo!

Sunday Sunday...la la, lalalala!

We had such a wonderfully busy family day today.

We started off the day celebrating Hannah's 4th Birthday Party at the cutest little ice cream shop. The kids got to play for awhile and then had pizza, played some more and then got to make their own ice cream sundaes. The girls had a blast!

The Birthday Girl leading the conga line

Ella and Natalie in the circle and dancing

Doing the Limbo
Sofia
Ella gets low
Ella, Hannah, and Nadia
Conga line to the ice cream sundaes
Notice the caboose

We then got into the car to head out to Manhattan for a party hosted by one of the Partners, Mark, that Ricardo works with. His place is beautiful. It's a 3 story brownstone on the Upper West Side with it's on roof top terrace. It was amazing. Seriously, the house is bigger than ours here in the burbs and the location is so prime!

The girls walked into this party like they owned the place and quickly got every grown man to play with them. It was pretty funny, and quite entertaining.

Ella passing out Barbies to Stefan, Janos, Weda, Gareth, and Mark (can you tell by the names that they are all here on international rotations?)

Getting them to participate in Ring Around The Rosie/The Hora

Swinging with Weda
With Gregory
Sofia even got into the action with Janos
Ella with Janos and Gregory
Sofia dancing for everyone
Sofia and Attila (Janos' son)
Janos and Attila doing baby acrobatics!! This was crazy and Attila LOVED it!

Ricardo and Me on the roof top terrace
Ella and Me

We left Mark's house around 4pm and stopped at a great park on Amsterdam and 77th. It was huge and had a great "spray" area. The girls were so hot-it was almost 90 degrees in The City today and we had packed a change of clothes so we decided to stop to let the girls run around a bit.

The spray area
Ella having a blast!
Sofia not fully grasping the concept of sliding DOWN a fireman's pole...

We then stopped for some dinner-which Sofia thoroughly enjoyed
before heading back home to the burbs for quick baths and bedtime.

Today was such a great end to the weekend. Perfect weather, perfect company, and a perfect time!

Ella's Last Day of Preschool

Today was Ella's last day of the 3's Preschool. I really cannot believe the year is over. I also can't believe it's June, but maybe that's because this Spring has pretty much felt like a San Diego winter. It's mostly been in the 50's/60's and today its been pouring all day long. But, I regress...

So, we dropped off Ella off at 9am like usual but we all came back at 11:30 for what was supposed to be an end of year picnic but because of the rain turned into an in classroom pizza party. It was fun nonetheless!

The kids made adorable tie-dye shirts earlier this week and when we showed up they all had them on. Too cute!

Like every other day, when Sofia spotted Ella,
she ran to her and they gave each other a giant hug
Sitting in the circle for songs. Ella wouldn't move from Sofia's side, even when the circle kind of moved over a couple feet, Ella stayed planted to Sofia. Sofia had to sit on a carpet square even though it wasn't "meeting time" but she always sees the kids sitting on the square so she's learned that's what you do when you sit in circle time.
Singing
Video of Shabbat Shalom

They then sang Old Mac Donald and Ella got to pick the first animal. She chose snake....

Ella sitting in teacher Lisa's lap. Ella really loves Lisa and the feeling is mutual. Lisa gave us her email and phone number so we can keep in touch when we move. She and Ella had a really nice bond.
Pizza Time. Of course Sofia had to sit at the big kid table in between Ella and Carli. Carli LOVES Sofia and is like her little mommy. Sofia even asks for Carli by name.
Ella and Mia enjoying their fudgsicles
Saying goodbye to her teachers.

With Lisa. I'm so sad I forgot to ask Ella to look at the camera.
With Anita
With Donna
With Marta, the teachers aide and a favorite of all the kids. She's just wonderful!
When we came home we decided to bake a cake to celebrate the last day of class (and because we were stuck inside due to the rain and Sofia took a horrible nap...)

We decided to get a little "creative". We also couldn't wait for the cake to fully cool to ice it so the icing melted a bit which although not ascetically pleasing, was amazingly delicious!
The girls enjoying their cake
I enjoyed a nice big piece as well. Darn you chocolaty goodness! I can't resist you!

So, despite the rain, it was a really nice day. I can't believe next year Ella will be in Pre-K..in San Diego! Geez, time really does fly.

Oh, I realize too, that I forgot to do a post about Hazel's birthday party at My Gym last weekend. I'll try to post it sometime this weekend. There's some cute pictures.