Week end with friends.

My good friend Michelle invited us to spend the week end at her cabin in southern UT. We had a great time hanging out with our friends and as always the kids had so much fun.

We went to an apple orchard to pick organic apple. The kids really enjoyed that!

Anaïs was fascinated by a lady bug that landed on her hand.

We went through a cave that was pitch dark...kind of freaky!

The guys...

Jeff caugh a horney toad and of course all the kids wanted to touch it!

LPA beach party

This week end we drove to California for the Orange County LPA Beach Party. We love going to LPA events in CA because a lot of our LPA friends live there! We got there on Friday night and stayed at a local hotel. Our friends the Mallinsons stayed at the same hotel so we got to hang out on Friday night which was fun for us grown ups but also for the kids. Anaïs was fascinated by the beer bottles and just HAD to hold one all by herself, so we rinsed one out and let her have fun with it. LOL I want to emphasize that we rinsed it out though, I swear we're good parents and don't give beer to our baby! lol Sam and Evan spent the evening wrestling on the sofa bed...lol

Anaïs and Caitlin were pretty good considering how late it was for them!

The day after, on Saturday, we headed to the beach party. It was so much fun and we always enjoy catching up with our CA friends!!! Once again, I wished we lived there!!

It was a lot of fun!

Poor Anaïs got a pretty bad sunburn even though we put lots of sunblock on her.

How can your heart not melt...

...when you see this.After I put the kids down for the night, I went to check on Sam and found her asleep holding a picture of Jeff, Anaïs, Sam and I. Seriously, how sweet is that? She is such a loving person and has such a good heart!

Also, I wanted to post pictures of Anaïs sitting up, she has been doing so good lately!!

I am so very lucky to have these kids in my life, they are the best!!!

First day of kindergarten!

Today Sam started kindergarten...what a great day for her! She has been talking about it for weeks and could not wait to go back to school. She goes to such a wonderful school, I can't wait to have Anaïs go to that school!!
She had a brand new backpack and lunch bag which she was very excited about. She picked a Barbie backpack and a Hannah Montana lunch bag.
This year, class starts at 8:00. This is a big change for us because she used to start at 8:30...it's crazy how much of a difference 30 min can make! I was so scared of being late that we got there super early! LOL

At this point, she was starting to seriously get sick of me taking pictures. On this picture she was telling me "come on!! let's go to my classroom mom!!".

She could not get there fast enough!

It's nice because there are a couple of her friends from last year which makes the transition so much smoother!

She did a really good job today, we are so proud of our big girl!!

My little baker

Today Sam and I decided to bake a cake. It's is one of her favorite things to do. We made a french recipe, a yogurt cake. My mom used to make yogurt cake with me all the time when I was a kid and I keep such wonderful memories of those moments. I sure hope Sam will remember these times later on just like I do.
The great thing about this recipe is that it's very good and SO simple to make!! I swear Sam could probably make it on her own. The ingredients are very basic: flour, sugar, 1 cup of yogurt, oil, baking powder and eggs...that's it. Oh and I just add a couple drops of vanilla extract.
Sam did everything by herself, I just helped with the dosage and breaking the egg shells.

As you can see, Anaïs was supervising our work from her high chair. LOL

Now, the best part: licking the spoon...or the cake mixer.LOL

Here is the before... And the after:

In France, we don't really put frosting on our cakes. I know I know, most Americans would say "but it's the best part!!!". This cake is VERY moist and rich with the yogurt so I really can't imagine putting frosting on it, besides I feel like the frosting would take over all the vanilla flavor of the cake.

I mentioned that Sam loves baking, however she doesn't really enjoy the cleaning up and waiting until the cake is baked part. So she just joined Anaïs who was cruising on the hardwood floor and had some fun with her.

Finally, we got to taste our cake for dessert, it was a success. :)

Also, tomorrow is a very exciting day for Sam: first day of kindergarten!!!! She is beyond excited! She is staying in the same school so the transition should be pretty easy. I will post pictures tomorrow.