Wow....

Has summer really gone with us not posting the entire time? Well Lets see what happened over the summer. Genevieve is walking and she turned 1 on Spet. 19th. Sophie is in 1st grade. Ty is back in preschool for his last year before kindergarten. I am coaching Ty and a bunch of other kids in U6 Soccer. We went to Missouri and SF over the summer, check out the pics on Mcadara.com. That's really about it... I'll post more soon, promise

Cute campers

Brianna, Ty, Logan and Sophie... climbing fallen logs.

She scoots, she crawls, she stands!

T Ball

Here are a couple of photos of the kids receiving their trophies with their BFFs - this was of course the highlight of their season! Sophie is hiding under her giant hat and I love that you can see the spot where her tooth was.

Memorial Day

Ok - way behind here with posting. I have a million photos I would love to share and will work on posting a few. For now, here are Memorial Day Camping photos. We went to Sugar Pine Point with the Yetters and Trutna's, sans Judy who stayed home with a sick little Casey.

We had a wonderful, albeit freezing time! Just wish we could have had actual snow to accompany the 34 degree nights...didn't seem to bother the kids a bit as you see them frolicking in the photos. They played outside all day each day despite the temps and sleet. We even managed to get in a couple of hikes - one of which was 4 miles long! Go kiddos! We toured a great old mansion and the grounds and visited the beach. Tahoe is beautiful regardless of the weather and everyone enjoyed the break from the valley.

Thank goodness for my Moby Wrap- I don't leave home without it! It made slinging Gen around a breeze on my back and kept her very happy and cuddled.

So many babies...

And we love them all...

Soph's Field Trip

Oh, how I hate to say this, but don't Sophie and Carson make a cute couple. This photo just cracks me up!

Kitties

Someday, I'll blog again, someday da ta da ta...

Sorry peeps, busy right now feeding babies upon babies... :)

T-Ball

Sophie (Cheetahs) and Ty (Lions) are now in T-Ball! This is a rec league put on by the YC Parks and Rec department to introduce kids to T-Ball in a fun, no pressure environment. So far the kids are having a blast, Sophie's friend Mackenzie is on her team , and Ty's friend Ryan and Rachel are on his, so it's "Good Times" when they all get together (for the kids and the parents).
Here are some pics!

Sophie'sFirst Report!!

Hey all, it's Scott posting.
Sophie just finished the first report of her illustrious school career and I had to share.

"Elephants are mammals. There are three living species of elephants. A baby elephant is called a claf. The African Elephant weighs up to 16,000 pounds. They can live up to 70 years. Elephants have wrinkly, gray skin. Elephants can spray water or dirt from their trunks."

Please admire the accompanying artwork :)
S-

Evie and Emma

Here is Evie's first documented baby play date. Her little friend Emma came over with her mommy to do some shopping at Sweet Noelle. Hard to believe that Emma is only 2 weeks older than Genevieve. Frankly, I could eat them both up. Gotta love that gorgeous hair - Genevieve sure did and tried many times to remove it!

Here is another cute one of our little model sampling our stock items...

Tile - ooh la la!

Have a sneak peak at our tile project - soon we will have lovely tiled bathrooms! We chose a very neutral Travertine and threw in the occasional accent tile. I can't wait to see it done. Of course, like every home improvement project we now have a list the length of my arm full of upgrades for the house. This place is an openended project...!

Did I forget to mention the absolute best part of this project? We hired someone!! Whoo hoo!

Kami is here!

We are proud to share photos of our sweet baby niece! We can't wait to meet her in person. I really miss my brother and his family and look forward to our June visit. Missouri - here we come!

Meet Kami Sue -
Born April 2nd at 11:50 am , 7.5 lbs, 21 and 1/2 in long

Isn't she precious? Such gorgeous hair.

Toothy and Toothless

Here are photos of the kiddos...

Teeth lost and gained...

Well, our big girl has now lost all 4 of her front teeth. And our little one has two new pearly whites on the bottom. Apparently, we are on a trade basis in our house. Really drives home the fact that time marches on... and kids are growing up. It's enough to make a mommy cry (and believe me I have).

Next week Sophie and Ty begin T-Ball! We are all excited and have started practicing batting in the street. This will be Ty's first adventure in organized sports and we hope he has a good first experience. He is definitely an athlete, but only time will tell where his real interest lies. Right now he is focused on his friends interests. For example, "Mom, Wyatt is REALLY INTO skateboarding. And Tony Hawk; he is really into Tony Hawk". Where does he get this stuff? This is pre-school? I just have to sit back and take it all in...

Off to bed, the tooth fairy comes tonight and we all know that we must be soundly asleep before she can make her deposit!

Zoo and Fairytale Town

Happy Easter

Another holiday down - how can it be? Time is flying this year for the Mac's...

We had a fabulous and fun Easter brunch with our great friends - if you weren't here we certainly missed you! Great food, great friends and great weather! We certainly could not have asked for a better way to spend our day.

We had our 2nd annual Easter Egg Hunt - great fun for the under 8 set and lots more fun for all of us "big kids" to watch.

Here is a picture of our beautiful girls joined by their friend Paige all dressed in their Easter finest. Paige and Sophie have mother's with clearly unbeatable taste in clothing...

Here is the best picture I could get of our 3 cuties all together - notice the tattoo that refused to fade on Ty. Apparently he will be 96 and still have a giant robot tatoo on his arm.

And last but not least - who can resist a daddy daughter shot?

Ty Taking a Bath!

I know, normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but hey, it's not everyday that a 4 year old takes a bath in the sink!
Check the vid!

She really is cute...

Campout Time...

Spring has started and we're off...! The outdoors are calling and this time of year just begs you to go outside and play. We have had our first camping adventure of 2008 at Canyon Creek near Lake Berryessa. This was a beautiful area with easy access and campsite views of the creek. The kids had a fantastic time jumping from rock to rock (and landing in the water more than once). You would not believe how brave they are! For that matter, you wouldn't believe how brave a baby toting mommy who also nearly met her demise in the water is.

We took advantage of the free campsite for the weekend - the tradeoff being that we had to sit through presentation on a camping timeshare program. Quite easy to say no to the $3,000 price tag. Particularly easy for me to say no to anything when presented by someone who only makes eye contact with my husband. Don't salespeople know who writes the checks? Did I mention he was also 15 minutes late? How lucky he is we waited with 3 kids in tow. But I have to say it was worth it as we had a great time at the campground. The park itself isn't particularly fantastic, but they have great mountain vistas and wonderful water access.

The kids were able to participate in the weekend craft and made gumball machines - clearly a dream come true for our gumaholic, Ty. Sophie filled hers with Cheeze-its and went with a Hawaiian theme to match her room. That little decorator is a girl after my own heart! Let's just say that although Ty's gumballs made it home, his dispenser did not. I am sure you can figure out the rest.

We all enjoyed a rowsing game of Freeze Tag. If you haven't played tag for a few years I have to recommend you give it a go! Scott challenged me to all kinds of other crazy activities involving the playground bars and I have discovered that we are both much more limber than we thought! Of course, I ache in a few places I forgot existed on my body...

Happy 4th Birthday to Tyyyyyger!

Our sweet "baby" boy has turned 4! Well, tomorrow that is. But as we had a whirlwind of a party at the arcade yesterday he is already convinced that 4 is here and who are we, the lowly adults to argue?

Ty chose the arcade in the mall as his venue and we booked a private party after the mall closed. Thank goodness we didn't have to worry about 4-6 year olds escaping into the mall! Everyone had a great, albeit very loud time. Just check out the cute little frosting faces and tattoos.

By far, our favorite moment was the pure joy Ty showed when he received his gift from his big sis Sophie - a pink Furberries Puppy! He broke into a big hug and was overjoyed. Way to go sissy!

Slide show to here

Snow(?) Day!

Hey everybody, this is Papa Bear Mcadara. Today we went to Downieville for a "Snow Day", which really turned out to be a beautiful 65 F day with almost no snow. But it was all worth it as we had great drive to a cool little town located on Hwy 49 for some good times with friends. Downieville was established in 1849 and a lot of the buildings (including the bar) are still around and being used. The kids did manage to find patches of snow(ice) and have a great time! They had snowball fights and they found numerous ways to slip and slide everywhere.
Check out the pics here.

Spring Fun

Here is a great picture of "the kids" (fantastic friends and playmates, Sophie, Ty, Mackenzie and Ryan) last weekend playing outside. It was windy, but warm and sunny. A new favorite in the backyard is climbing. We actually have a tree large enough to climb and of course the roof of the playhouse. The kids can scramble up onto the house and get a look at the tractor as it makes its weekly pass through the kiwi orchard behind us.

Tooth!

We have a tooth folks! How could this be? Our baby has reached another milestone and although it is exciting and brings joy, there are also some tears to be shed... and not just by Genevieve. I would love to post a picture, but as I cannot convince Miss Gen to open up and let me see it let alone photograph it, we will just have to wait for a big grin to see the sharp new tooth in action. However, I have felt it in action and let's just say... yowzer.

On another note; Sophie completed 13 laps in her jog-a-thon this morning! Way to go Sophie! Each lap is 1/8 of a mile and they had 20 minutes to finish. Frankly, I think she would have out-paced me by a couple of laps during that time frame.

Ty is having a FANTASTIC week at school in the big kids class and couldn't wait to attend this morning. Hopefully this is a trend that will last!

Work continues to be busy for both Scott and I, but we are thankful for it. I count myself very lucky to be able to work from home and appreciate all of the help that I receive. All I can say is if you don't already have a housekeeper - get one! It absolutely saves me threefold the amount of time that she puts into cleaning.

Where to start?

I am not sure where to start - we are definitely behind with updates. Sophie is doing well in school and just got her hair cut and styled today. She had 4 inches taken off and looks like a doll. All three of her missing teeth are now sprouting so she won't be a snaggle tooth for long!

She is gearing up for jog-a-thon and learning the value of a dime. Scott has coerced his co-workers into sponsoring her a dime per lap and she is thrilled at the prospects of all of those dollars. Even Tyger has pledged a dime per lap thanks to the change he managed to earn at his Mimi Susie's this week.

We have some hysterical photos of the kids attacking Papa Larry. It was good old fashioned tickle tackle fun with grandpa!

Ty started in the "big kids" class at Montessori. He was beyond excited to begin and came home full of information about his day for the first time this year. He is very much looking forward to his birthday at the arcade and continues to express how much he can't believe he is almost 4! If only he knew how time really does begin to fly...

Genevieve is doing wonderfully! Sitting up like a pro and even scooping up food. Of course, this means we have to go on full floor patrol as anything and everything will begin going into her mouth. Now if only we could get her to sleep through the night...

Genevieve with her Dad on Valentine's Day

Hey everyone!
Genevieve and I got to spend some time together on Valentine's day. Check out the Vid.

Genevieve Goes to School

Here is a picture of our little cutie - reading is so fun! We read a lot with the kids and she always wants to eat the books, so I finally got a couple just for her. Loaded with delicious literate calories and low in fat of course!

Sara and I helped Sophie's class with their science project this morning - lots of messy fun with ice and food coloring. You can imagine the combination when also mixed with 5 year olds... If only I had a little prep on the science we were supposed to be teaching!

The kids had a great time making messes and stacking ice cubes. Their sculptures were really beautiful and messy and I had to work to keep myself in check when dolling out the food coloring. It is hard to find a happy medium between experimentation and giant mess! Genevieve got a huge treat as she hung out with Mrs. Johl while she taught the remainder of the Kindergarten students. I believe she was the best listener in the group (except for big sis Soph of course).

School days

By Sophie

I am going to make a castle out of ice cubes this week in Kindergarten. Today we wrote sentences in our journals. I also did a letter D book.

Today I had a playdate with my friends, MacKenzie and Ryan. We played Webkinz online (http://www.webkinz.com/index.html) . It was really fun, I got to buy her some clothes at the W shop and she looks really cute.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to all! We had a wonderful party at our friend Shannon's home with our old playgroup. The kids decorated cookies and then gleefully devoured them. I am happy to report this is the first time Soph and Ty did not pile candy 2 inches thick and then crunch their way to the cookie. In fact, we had actual child made designs on cookies this year!

Just trying...

I am going to try to link to a photo book our friend Jennifer made of our rockin New Year's Eve Party. We had such fun that night and it was awesome of Jen and Jr to take so many photos.

http://preview.picaboo.com/Webview/CoverPage.aspx?album=000000000001BB8FC4&user=000000000000C7EEC0

Spring has sprung!

What a beautiful day today! No school for the kiddos and no work for me. If only Scott could have been home with us. :( The kids and I spent several hours outside enjoying the sunshine. After a rigorous weed pulling and general cut back day on Saturday we were able to enjoy a lovely afternoon in the backyard. Thank goodness the rain is gone for now! Sophie delighted daddy when she told him they hadn't played in their rooms at all today.

Sophie and Ty played fairies in their playhouse after a relocation (the house was moved to the corner under the "forest"). I have been proclaimed "the best mother ever" by Ty after transporting said house to its new home. Who knew that was all it would take?!

Evie got to try her fresh little toes on the grass - looks like a hit so far. She is so fair and turning out to be such a red head that I am a little terrified of what the sun will do to her! Not that any of us sport a stellar tan...

We have buds poking up everywhere in the garden areas and we can't wait to see what flowers show their heads. I couldn't even begin to tell you where we put which bulbs - it will be a wonderful surprise!

Tomorrow I plan to take actual photos of our little paradise. Stir crazy no more - rain, rain, stay away...

Sophie's 6th Birthday

Hey everyone!
We had a great time this past weekend celebrating Sophie's 6th birthday. She had a Tea/Costume party with 16 of her closest friends and Pom-Pom the Clown (see video).
Scott

GRAVE DIGGER

This post by Ty. I liked it and it was cool. It crashed into a big MINIVAN, an old, old van. It was awesome. The motorcycles were jumping off of ramps and it was awesome. When those guy who bury up dead people, he was crushing that minivan too. It is going to start on Friday too and we want to go again.

TY MCADARA

Welcome folks! After reading through my sis n law Jeanne's blog I have decided to go for it! This seems like a fantastic way to document some of the events in our busy lives and I hope to stay on task with it. I make no promises, but I hope to share a little on a regular basis.

I will kick off by explaining that as I sit here typing, (Evie sleeping peacefully next to me in the office) Scott, Soph and Ty are at the Monster Truck show. Stop your laughing, you know it sounds fun, and crazy, and ridiculously loud! No worries, they brought earplugs and I am sure they are screaming their heads off with pure joy right now.