Happy 3rd Birthday Felix!

Today our beautiful son Felix Dashiell Vincent Dennis is three years old. He is no longer a little baby, no longer a toddler. Here is is at 10 days old as a curious baby, and 3 years later as a funny, silly boy.



Felix just LOVES his backyard swing and climbs like a monkey. He's impressed me so much lately with his long and complete sentences eg. Wednesday morning he said "Daddy and Felix will wait for Maria" and "When I get to school, could I wear my Spider-Man shoes?" His Oma said to him, "Come on, fella" to which he replied, "I'm not Fella, I'm Felix." He already had a shared birthday party with Ella a couple of weeks ago and yesterday we celebrated at pre-school with a Spider-Man jumper and cake.

Happy 6th Birthday Ella

Today is the day that Ella has been waiting for for years... today Ella is 6 years old! It was six years ago that Ella was born, one month early, tiny and cute.

Three years later, she was a funny, smart and silly preschooler...

And now she is a First Grader!


The long-awaited and oft-requested bunny has not yet joined our family but since it's been so anticipated, it may happen within the next few months. We have a busy weekend planned, and are very happy to have Ella's beloved and loving Oma here with us to celebrate.

Our Family Vacation

We went on vacation to Lake Arrowhead area at the end of June. We stayed at the quaint Pine Rose Cabins about 5 miles away, in the town of Twin Peaks. I posted all the photos that I took on our Shutterfly site: www.Shutterfly.com but there are things that I didn't take pictures of, like: our cabin www.PineRose.com, grilling veggie dogs & corn on the deck, hiking, and Ella swimming in the pool. She went in every day, going from us having to hold on to her very tightly, to being able to kick around holding on to a board all by herself at the end of the week.

Otto

(taken on my new camera-phone, not bad!)
So - we found homes for all five of the kittens we discovered, four in other people's homes (two each) and one in ours. We kept Otto, the white one with black spots (polka-dotted, according to Ella). He's quite a character, very vocal and pretty friendly. He also eats two breakfasts and two dinners every day (he's a growing boy) and he likes people-food like yogurt, pinto beans and corn on the cob:



He is still small enough for Ella to tote him around, but I expect he will be quite a hefty one when he grows up, considering his appetite.



Eying the kids' crepes on Bastille Day:




MamaRose, Otto's mother, who still comes around miaowing for her babies and waiting to be fed:

Ella's New Bike

Ella got her first real bike, and she loves it. Here she is riding at the special bike track at Encino Park near her school:

Happy Fortieth, Funky

Felix's new bedtime routine: drinks his "hot" (actually tepid) milk and asks to listen to "Blue Skies smiling at me nothing but blue skies do I see" (Willie Nelson) on my iPod.

Felix's new trick: go pee-pee standing up into the big toilet. So funny!!!

Ella's new thing: Being more adventurous with food. Current new favorites are buying her own school lunch a few days a week, and she loves pink grapefruit after trying them fresh from Granny's tree with sugar sprinkled on top.

Only one more week of school for Ella then she's done with her first year at elementary school, all done with Kindergarten. She is going to be in First Grade with a new teacher and different kids (some the same); on Friday we get to find out who her new teacher and where her new classroom is going to be... exciting! Ella was one of the Students of the Month - here she is showing Gabriela the certificate (click on all the pictures to see them bigger).


Amelia, Ella, Yuliana, Gabriela

Ella doing her homework in the beautiful brand new school library

Ella and Felix off to school

She's also done with Dutch school for the summer and will be returning to Groep 2 and Juf Iris in September. They ended the school year last week with a very fun speur-tocht (treasure hunt).

Felix has been taking "dance class" at his preschool with Miss Katie every Thursday. They had an end of semester show with the theme "A Walk Through The Jungle".



The first venture into kitten fostering is almost at an end. A coworker of mine is adopting Charlie and Loki henceforth known as Bhodi and Bub. Her good friends are adopting Tamago and Fez henceforth known as Olivia and Jack Bauer. It's very exciting for all of them as it's their first experience as pet-parents. I am enjoying the last few days of the pitter-patter of tiny paws racing around the house and then we'll be left with Otto, a companion and playmate for Byron and Toots (both of whom are not too enamored or amused with these babies). As I write, Tamago, Fez and Otto are curled up together on my lap. They must be going through a growth spurt or something as they ate two breakfasts and two dinners today!

Tamago and Otto

Charlie

Otto and Tamago

The Sunday after school ends, we leave for our one-week vacation, our first in 3 years and our first as a family of four. We've been on trips before, visiting family and such, but nothing with just the four of us, just hanging out together without any obligations. We've reserved a cute little cabin near Lake Arrowhead, which is not too far of a drive for us.