when the kids are a little bit older, i’d like us to have a weekly family fun night together.  this would consist of a special dinner eaten together and do a fun activity.  the purpose is to build family closeness and create special memories.  and for me to take pictures of!  as tedd tripp points out: “The most powerful way to keep your child from being attracted by the offers of camaraderie with the wicked is to make home an attractive place to be. Young people do not run from places where they are loved and know unconditional acceptance. They do not run away from homes where there are solid…

  aww…   and just to show that the boy is indeed bigger than the girl…  

we decided to hit the open road for a day trip to san diego over the labor day weekend.  except the road wasn’t quite so open what with all the other cars on the road apparently with the same idea.  the extra traffic added an hour to our drive.  we had been deciding between heading north to santa barbara or south to san diego, chose san diego, and realized only after we got there that maybe we should have headed north since we were in the middle of an extreme heat wave and uh, heading south would only make it warmer!  oops, will have to figure that in next time…  so instead of san…

“mommy, pee-pee’s coming!” says mikey, standing by the bathroom door and starting to do the pee-pee dance. “ok, let’s go to the potty!” i say from the living room where i had been sitting next to allie.  mikey and i trot into the bathroom.  at which point allie starts to cry.  this has been the usual for tonight as she’s been unusually clingy and has cried everytime i wasn’t holding her or sitting right next to her.  i figure she might be coming down with a cold or something and further figure that she’d be alright until after mikey finished his business. just as i help mikey plunk himself down on the toilet, allie…

i was able to sign mikey up for a two-day class (wednesday and friday) at the cabrillo marine aquarium this week.  the class was called “tales between the tides” and it was just for 3-5 year olds.  and as an added bonus, our good friend esther was teaching the class!   phil had the morning off and was able to stay home with allie, so it was just mikey and me for the first class.  i seized the opportunity to take pictures to my heart’s content.  which means, lots of pictures in this entry.   we started off in the aquarium’s classroom where the kids could go around and explore…