Day 273: Sunny street

I walked Edward up to the train tracks today, hoping to see a train go past. While we were waiting I took this picture of the street which looked very pretty with the light and shade. Unfortunately we never did see a train.

Day 272: Mugshots

Dave's and Elizabeth's passports expire in about a month, so today we finally got around to getting new pictures taken so we could apply for new ones. We don't have any international travel planned right now, but it's good to be prepared!

Day 271: Record highs? We have a solution for that.

The Bay Area is having record high temperatures at the moment. So it was great timing to have a play date with Elizabeth's friend Lindsay at their community pool. We could only stay for an hour, but they kids had lots of fun playing in the water, and I had a great time catching up with Liz. At her insistence, I even squeezed myself into my swimsuit and had a dip too. It was lovely!

Day 270: Daily walk

I've started taking Edward for a walk in his stroller immediately after dropping Elizabeth off at school. It's a very nice area to walk around, and I have a good route worked out that takes me about 35 minutes at a good pace. We're having a bit of a heatwave at the moment though, so I only managed a shortened walk today. Edward loves riding in the stroller, although he likes to point out every single airplane, truck and car that he sees, which can get a little annoying!

Day 269: Ending the summer with a splash

While I was out this morning, Dave filled up the inflatable pool, and when I got home he and the kids were having a great time in it. The water was rather cold though, and Edward didn't like that very much. It didn't stop him going in though, and they all had a lot of fun. Me? I opted to stay dry :)

Day 268: Backyard visitor

I spotted this guy hanging out in a web in the backyard today, so I put on my macro lens and took some pictures. He was in a shady spot, and I couldn't be bothered to get my tripod out, so I had to use the flash, but I think it came out pretty well, especially after some fun editing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Day 267: Ice cream social

This evening Elizabeth's school held an ice-cream social. There was free ice-cream, and a couple of bounce houses for the kids to play on. Elizabeth had a great time of course. I wanted to try and get a picture of the whole family eating ice-cream, but Edward spent the whole time playing in the playground. Elizabeth had fun playing with our neighbors Gabriel and Julian, and her new best friend at school, Ashley.

Day 266: Book club book

Book club meeting tonight. This is the book we read. I LOVED it! It was very well written, and I found something interesting and useful in every chapter. I have lots of things to follow up on, and lots of little ways I want to change the way I do things. It's a very inspiring book, and I think I'll be turning to it again and again for many years to come. I highly recommend it!

Day 265: Babysitting

Today I watched my friend's son while she co-oped. She's one of my friends from the MOMS group, and her younger son goes to the same school as Elizabeth. We were going to trade babysitting on co-op days, but we didn't coordinate our dates properly and she's not free on my dates. I'm still happy to watch her son for her though, and she'll watch Edward on some other days and I'll try and get to the gym or something. All went well today, and he had lots of fun playing with Edward.

Day 264: Pumpkin tree/plant/thing

At the supermarket on Sunday, I saw these interesting plants. Elizabeth always likes to get flowers when we go grocery shopping, she this week we got these. I have no idea what they are. They are like branches with tiny pumpkins on them! Very unusual and colorful. I edited this picture in Adobe Camera Raw again, to bring out the colors of the pumpkins.

Day 263: Another tooth gone

Elizabeth lost her third tooth Saturday night. It had been loose for a couple of weeks, and finally came out when she was brushing her teeth. I'm not sure if she has any more loose or not, I can't tell for sure. She has a molar coming in at the back already though. As usual she was very excited to get 'gold' from the tooth fairy, and used it to buy another stuffed dinosaur from the Dinosaur Train show that she likes.

Day 262: Fun at the church picnic

Today was our annual church picnic. The weather wasn't as nice as it usually is. It was dull and cloudy, although it got quite humid and stuffy during the afternoon. We still had a good time though. I spent some time manning the MOMS table inside, but we were tucked away in a side room and didn't get much traffic. I also took a few pictures for the CCOP Facebook page as part of my duties for the communications committee. Dave helped the Knights clear up afterward. Elizabeth had her face painted, then both the kids made fish kites (that's what they're flying in this picture). They had a great time.

I edited this picture in Adobe Camera Raw, and played around with the various settings to get this washed out effect, which I really like.

Day 261: Exhausted

Kishka is obviously exhausted from all the naps she took today.

Day 260: First co-op in Elizabeth's new class

Today was my first co-op in Elizabeth's new class. It went really well. It was school picture day, so it was a bit hectic, but still lots of fun. It's great to see how she behaves in class. Apparently she's bonded with one of the other girls, Ashley, which I didn't know! Unfortunately she wasn't there today, so I didn't get to see them playing together. All of the kids seem like good kids though, and I think it will be a good class. The teacher is really good too. I'm looking forward to my next co-op, which should be a little calmer so I'll have more chance to observe and talk to the teacher.

Day 259: Made with home-grown apples

Not all of the apples that fall from our tree are destroyed by the birds. Dave collects the best ones and cooks them up, then makes homemade pies from them. They smell delicious!

Day 258: Experimenting with black & white

I've been reading some more of my Photoshop Elements 8 manual, and I found a good way to convert color pictures to black and white in Adobe Camera Raw, so I've been playing with that. This method gives great contrast with deep shadows and bright highlights, and I love the results. I've been going through all my old photos looking for suitable subjects, but for today's picture I took a new one.

Day 257: Apple thief

Every year birds like to feed on the apples in our tree, and the apples fall out of the tree with holes in them and big sections missing. I finally caught one of the birds in the act.

Day 256: Somebody caught a bug :(

I awoke early this morning to the sounds of Elizabeth throwing up. We think she's caught a bug, as Dave was sick all night too. She couldn't keep anything down all morning, not even water, but she's been better for the last couple of hours, and is now sleeping. Hopefully she'll have a quick recovery, we have a lot planned this week. So far Edward and I are fine, and I am praying that it stays that way!

Day 255: We got this robot in Goodwill for $4

On our visit to Goodwill last weekend, Dave found this awesome robot. They cost hundreds of dollars when they first came out - we got it for $4! He still has his remote control, and it all works perfectly.

Day 254: And now for something completely different

Today I had my hair done. I decided at the last minute to do something different this time. I talked to my hairdresser, and decided to get rid of the highlights and go much darker, with red highlights on top. It came out well, but I think it's going to take me a while to get used to it. At least my husband noticed the change!

Day 253: New bible study materials

Today I started a new bible study course run by the church. I've enjoyed the MOMS one that I go to, so I decided to give the church one a try too. It is held on Thursday evenings and repeated on Friday mornings. I will go on Thursday whenever I can, but when that clashes with other events I'll go to the Friday. Last night was parent night at Elizabeth's school, and Dave had his Knights of Columbus meeting, so I went to the Friday meeting this morning. It's a bit early, 9.15, otherwise I would go on Friday every week. They have child care there so I can take the kids with me. It was a good meeting. We're going to be studying Exodus, so today we got all our materials and had an overview of the book. I'm looking forward to the rest of the course.

Day 252: You should have seen the other guy!

Just after I dropped Elizabeth off for her first day at school yesterday, as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I managed to back into another car! I felt so stupid, I don't know how I didn't see it. When I looked behind me I thought there was nothing there. So of course I parked and we checked it out (Dave was with me). It wasn't too bad, I was barely moving after all. The other car had a dent on the left corner of the rear bumper, and it had kind of popped off a little on that corner. My car has a small crack on the left rear bumper, and some scrapes. Since the other car was empty, I left a note with all my details. By the time we got home the owner had already called. Of course it's one of the other moms in Elizabeth's class! What a way to introduce myself! Anyway, she seems fine about it, and we are working together to get it sorted out. Our insurance should cover everything, so it's not really a big deal. I just feel bad because it was completely avoidable. Oh well. That's life I guess. If that's the worst accident I ever have then I can't complain.

Day 251: Back to school

Today was Elizabeth's first day in her new class at preschool. Dave came with us to drop her off. She was very excited, and looked so cute in the new dress I got her at JC Penny's. Her teacher from last year, Ms Kristin, popped in to give her a hug at the beginning of class, which I thought was really nice of her. We also stopped by her room after school to tell her how it all went. It went well, I think Elizabeth had a good day. She wants to go back again tomorrow, so that's a good sign anyway!

Day 250: Edward's getting Potty Power!

Edward has been practicing on his potty the last couple of days, and has been doing quite well. I don't think he's quite ready to move to underpants yet, but it looks like he might not be far off now.

Day 249: You gotta love Goodwill

We went to Goodwill in the Valley yesterday, since we weren't far away after going to Fry's. Someone must have been having a clear out, as I found loads of dresses in Elizabeth's size. I picked these six, and they were all only $5 each. I also got a new purse for $5 as well, and the kids got some toys. We always do well in the Cupertino and Mountain View stores.

Day 248: My new toy

A couple of my writing group have netbooks, mini laptops, which they use for their writing. They have less processing power and memory, but longer battery life, and they're smaller and lighter and more portable. I thought about getting one for a while, and I was going to ask Dave to get me one for Christmas. Then I finally decided to use some of the money my Dad gave me last year and get one to use for NaNoWriMo in November. So today we went to Fry's, and this is the one I got. So far I'm loving it! It was a piece of cake to set up and get online, and it has lots of cool features. I'm looking forward to doing some serious writing on it, and in the meantime I'll use it for my writing group.

Day 247: More new shoes

Edward will be starting Daddy & Me Soccer in a few weeks, so today we got him some new sneakers. He was tired though, and wasn't really in the mood to try on lots of shoes. These ones are fun though, as they have lights in the toes and the heels. While we were there Elizabeth decided she wanted to get some new boots too, so she got these ones for school.

Day 246: Meeting Ms Holly

Today we had 'Meet the Teacher' day at Elizabeth's preschool. This is a picture of her and Ms Holly. They got on very well, and she seems really nice. We met most of the other classmates and parents today as well. The children seem like a good mix, and I spoke to a few of the parents who also seem very nice. One of the dads is a guy called Dave who's from England! I think he and his wife might become good friends. Elizabeth had a great time, and didn't want to leave! She's really looking forward to next week, and going to school 'to learn things'. I volunteered to be the room mom this year, as no one else did. I don't think it's too much work, mainly emailing the other moms to make sure they're up to date with events, and arranging things such as birthday gifts for the teacher. Before we left today we stopped in to say hi to Ms Kristin. It was good to see her again, and I couldn't help a small pang of sadness that we are not in her class again this year!

Day 245: And that's in the shade

We've had a very odd summer this year. Usually temperatures are in the 90's and 100's by June, but this year we had to wait until the end of August! Last week was hot, and now this week is turning into a scorcher too. I try not to complain - it's still better than the weather in England ;)

Day 244: How long until school starts?

A few days ago, Elizabeth asked me to make her a countdown chart to her birthday. Since I don't think I have enough paper for that (!) I made her one to countdown the days until school starts. She's very excited about that. On Friday we have 'Meet the Teacher' day, and then school starts next Wednesday. She's going to be in the Cougar class this year.