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...