Long Overdue

Abby's 1st time skiing

.....and on the way home from skiing below!

The girls' gymnastic Birthday Party

Decorating the tree and visiting Santa

Emma's santa wishes:

A Nintendo DS, and a real camera

Abby's santa wishes:

A jewlery box, sparkly shoes, nightgowns

At the theatre for Junie B Jones Xmas Play!

My favorite pic of the girls sledding- Abby's face is priceless!










Abby's craft project- circus animals!

After school arts and crafts!

First snowfall of the year!

Sweet, sweet Abigail!

Emma chillin out before soccer. She looks WAY too much like a teenager here!!!

Halloween!!!!! Frankenmommy, tinkerbell, and cowgirl!

Halloween in Abby's preschool class

It's Tink!

Pumpkin carving

Mom's 60th Birthday Party on the Peddle Pub!!!

16 seat bike through downtown Minneapolis!

So fun!

Spencer and the girls!

After being reminded by my dad that I have been negelecting my blog, I decided to do a long overdue update. Life continues to be very fun and busy at the Souza household, and I can hardly believe 2011 is just around the corner. Emma continues to love kindergarten- she is an avid reader already, loves music time and of course, lunch and recess. Her teacher says Emma is a very kind and caring kid who often needs to be reminded that school is not ALWAYS about socializing! Ha!!! It's amazing to watch all she learns. A little startling also, that she has this whole life going on that I am not a part of now. She will mention things in passing that I have no idea where she learned. Some academic- cross checking and skip counting, and some not so academic- rock, paper, scissors, and the classic- "Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g......" I have had some heart breaking moments where she asked me how to handle it when kids call her artwork sloppy or what it means when kids families are "separated". These conversations never catch you prepared. She is growing up way too fast. She has finished her fall soccer and is now doing indoor soccer. She is having fun, but I think she enjoys it more for social reasons than althletic ones. She will start daisy scouts and swimming after the new year. She has been downhill skiing and has transitioned into a very good little independent skiier. This makes me so happy!! Since having kids, I have longed for family ski vacations where Mike and I can actually ski (or board) alongside our kids. That is in the near future, as Abby is a skiier now too! So cute and brave, she bombs down the hill. Abby continues to be our athlete and she is pretty talented at most things she tries. Abby is still in preschool 2 days a week and loves her teachers. She also does gymnastics and is very good at the bars and beam. Abby loves to sing and dance, dress up, and do crafts and art projects. She is also very independent and jumps for a chance to be a big kid and do things on her own! She will be starting swimming after the new year and continuing her ski lessons with me.

Mike is still working weekends and we have pretty well adjusted to that schedule. It is nice having him home during the week and although the girls and I do miss him on the weekends, we try to cram a lot of fun into our weekdays after school. Mike is playing volleyball once a week this winter and we are thinking of starting up a broomball league. We are very VERY excited to head out to Colorado- Kid free- for a ski vacation and to see some old friends and family in January. Nana and Papa will be watching the girls for our 8 year anniversary present. Fun!

That's all for now! I will try to update more consistently!

Kindergarten! and summer recap!

Wow, how can it be Sept 7th already???

Today I sent my little preemie off on the bus for her 1st day of kindergarten. She was so thrilled! I had already shed my tears earlier in the summer when she leapt onto her summer camp bus with all the older kids- my little brave one, with her purple glasses barely able to see me out the bus window. She needed help getting up the bus steps because her backpack was so heavy. Looking at me she signed "I love you" and waved, and I just lost it. How did I get so lucky to have her?? How did I raise a little tiny 5 year old person who just marches up on a bus full of 10-12 year old boys to go to full day summer camp without looking back at mom??? She amazes me. I am so proud of her courage and love of new adventures. So today for kindergarten she is more than ready, and know she will do great.

We had a wonderful summer, full of fun adventures. The 4th of July trip to CT was wonderful. So fun to see all the cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and spend some great time playing at the beach, and eating lobster. We had a fun visit from my best friend Ann Marie and her baby Nora. We had a lot of fun time at the cabin. Emma really morphed into a mermaid this summer and is now spending more time doing handstands, jumping off the dock and generally under the water that above it. Abby too is a real fish and very brave. They love wearing goggles and diving under to see what they can find in the lake. We did a lot of biking, berry picking, and ended the summer with a tent camping adventure.

Now that fall is here, we will be busy with school, preschool, Emma's fall soccer, and Abby's gymnastics. Fall is my absolutely favorite time of year and I can't wait to pull out the sweaters and jeans. Here are some pics of the summer and 1st day of school!

Summer!

We have been having a fun past few weeks now that school is out. Lots of bbq's and playdates outside with friends. We visited Minnehaha Falls for a picnic, walk around the falls, and a bike rickshaw ride powered by Mike and I. It was a great day.

We had a fun memorial week spent up at the cabin. We broke in the jetskis- the water was so warm already. Abby was so tired from all the fun- she fell asleep ON the jetski with Mike holding her head up. Too cute. The next day, we went tubing on the our huge barco-lounger tube, and she promptly fell asleep on that too, with me holding her of course. I guess she likes loud moving objects. FYI- The beer bottle in the pic of Abby in her innertube is just a prop:) it was mIke's beer, but she just looked so chill we couldn't resist the pose! The water is so warm already up there and we all have been waterskiing and swimming, it seems almost like we are getting an extra month of summer this year with the early warm up. Emma is attending vacation bible camp this week and so far having a blast. I love picking up tired, happy kids. Just makes the rest of the day go so much better. We leave for CT in a few weeks and are really looking forward to the beach, seeing family, and lobster!

The Graduate

Emma had her preschool graduation the other day. They held an assembly where the kids sang all their favorite songs from the year for the parents. It was pretty cute and Emma is very excited to become a kindergartner. We have started reading the Ramona Quimby chapter books at bedtime (remember those???) and she is very excited to be able to do "seat work" like Ramona at school. It was emotional saying goodbye to Mrs. Harring, Emmas teacher for the past 2 years, but I know we will still be seeing her as Abby will continue there next year.

We celebrated Mike's bday by going to a Twins Game and taking in the awesome new stadium. It was a really cold day, but we had fun nontheless and we won! Having outdoor baseball in MN is the best and everyone is beyond excited about this ballpark, making seeing a game so much more fun.

Papa and Mike set up a new playscape/swingset in our yard. We have been on the fence about buying one of these for a long time now and finially decided to do it. The kids wasted no time breaking it in and have been playing on it ever since. I do have a mini heart attack everytime Abby goes across the monkey bars. Has anyone ever seen a 2 YEAR OLD DOING MONKEY BARS? I swear that girl is definately an athlete-can't wait to see what sports she decides to focus her skill and energy with. She's pretty much potty trained- except for #2's which are still hit or miss. So far it's been WAY less stressful than with Emma. We are heading up to the cabin for a long strech of fun- hopefully the weather will stay warm.