All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

What is seeming to now become a trend, we discovered that although one of Lily's front teeth was loose, it was not planning to come out on its own.  And...her permanent tooth was coming in behind it! (again!)  So, off to the dentist we went...

Her "before" shot

What I did not realize at the time was that the dentist was not only going to take out the loose baby tooth, but the other front tooth as well! (It was not even remotely loose.) He said she needed the space so the other permanent tooth would not do the same thing. Poor Lily. She had quite the ordeal having two teeth removed, but she handled it so well.  

Her "after" shot with her teeth in the treasure box

As we were discussing teeth and the tooth fairy on the way home from the dentist, Lily asked, "what does the tooth fairy do with all the teeth?" I attempted to drop the subject with a quick "I don't know" so as to avoid any further questions that would require imaginative responses, but Lily was not satisfied with that answer. As we were getting ready for bed, I caught her writing this note...

Talk about the kiss of death for this tired mama! I was already trying to figure out how I was going to stay awake long enough to complete the mission, let alone come up with a "fairy" type answer to her question. Not to mention, she knows my chicken scratch handwriting by now so I was going to have to bring back the school girl cursive to make it look legit. So I did what any 21st century mom would do...I Googled her question! I quickly found toothfairy.org that had many answers to all things tooth fairy. I decided on this as my response...

Now, if I were completely on my game I would have used some sort of glitter pen with fairy dust but it was after 10pm and I was in no mood for fanciness :). Anyhow, she completely bought it and was so excited to receive a response from the "Tooth Fairy"! In fact, I honestly think she cared more about the note than the money we left her. That is totally Lily.

Lily's first day of 2nd grade!

Yesterday was Lily's first day of 2nd grade!  Feels like just yesterday I was taking her "last day of 1st grade" picture!  She was very excited to get back to school and see all of her friends.

Her new teacher, Miss "CJ" Johnson had a "Bat Cave" set up in the room for back to school night and a photo booth ready with fun accessories to dress up and pose in.  She seems like a fun teacher and Lily is excited to be in her class this year.

We hope you have a great year in the 2nd grade, Lily!

CA Beach Trip 2014- part 2

We arrived home from the beach house on Aunt Sarah's 40th birthday!  And the festivities were just beginning....

Birthday dinner with the family at Shogun Japanese Restaurant

(Sam cracks me up in this shot :)

 

The kids were excited to try using chopsticks!

Birthday girl with silly birthday hat :)

Jackson had no issues digging in to Aunt Sarah's birthday treat- green tea ice cream!

Lily climbing Grandpa's jacaranda tree

The next day was Aunt Sarah's birthday party.  They rented a bounce house/water slide for the event and the kids were in it ALL day!  Huge hit and great fun for all.

Grandma, taking a much needed break from the party set up!

snack break with cousins Jake & Sam, and friend Olivia

once more kids arrived, we were taking bets on when there would be an injury.
thankfully, we survived without a trip to the ER! :)

We spent Sunday in Indio at Rich & Judy's place.  Nice and relaxing day in the pool!

Uncle Mark came home for a visit on Monday.  It was great to see him as well as visit his new home which he will be moving to in the next couple of weeks.

 On Tuesday, we walked a couple of blocks down from Grandma's to Liz's new place!  We had fun playing with Brooklynne, Cameron, and Dyllin.

Being silly 3-year-olds :)

can't believe they are 2nd graders!

I love this picture...for so many reasons.  This reminds me of Liz and I as kids.  And it's funny too because Liz was always taller than me, up until high school :)  These girls are fast friends every time we go out to visit and I hope they continue to be.  

Drive-in night with the fam!  We saw Planes: Fire and Rescue
Lots of fun!

Our last day was spent at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  I love this place.  So much for the kids to touch and explore and so much to see!  Wish we spent more time there to experience it all...but there were bus loads of camp kids so it was a mad house.  Another time...:)

 I wish I was good enough to say which twin this is! :)  I think the top is Ethan and Grandma is with Charlie

trying to touch the sand sharks and sting ray

silly squid head!

Aunt Lauren treated all the kids to cups of nectar for the birds to drink.  They all had fun watching the birds land on them.

This was totally unplanned and a little freaky.  I was holding my phone out to take a picture of the kids when this bird landed on me!  Thankful for the reverse camera option on the iPhone, I was able to capture him.  I did not have any food, so he didn't stay on me long :)

J-man playing it cool... :)

checking out the penguins

 What a fun week and fun trip to CA!  We can't wait to go back and if Jackson had his way, he'd be living right now in Grandma's "Route 66" room (or "96" room, as he calls it).  So thankful for all the memories!