Welcome Katharina!

I’d like to officially introduce our new au pair, Katharina. Even though she arrived in the middle of August, and her pictures have appeared on my blog, I haven’t had a chance to write a bit about her. Katharina also comes from a Russian family from Germany. She’s an only child and she loves cats and Spiderman, just kidding! (This is an inside joke.) I won’t lie, it’s been a rocky start for her, she had a loss in her family just before she got here, and on top of that this has been the most difficult transition for Ashley. Ashley is a creature of habit, and had a pretty rough time when Natalia left. While Katelyn can still be bribed with lollipops and donuts, Ashley is very loyal and it takes time for her to get used to change. I thank Katharina for her patience and for hanging in there while we figure out our new school routine, and learning everything that we do on daily basis.

At this point, Katharina has bonded with the girls and they miss her when she’s not there. We are grateful for having another caring, sweet au pair as part of our ever-growing family. Katharina has learned the ropes quickly, and is doing great keeping up with kid’s school, swimming, dance, library, and all the house responsibilities! Not to mention the never-ending help that I need in the kitchen with prep and clean up :) I’ve even tested her cake decorating skills, and she’s passed the test!

Last week was Katharina’s birthday, so we had a BBQ to celebrate the occasion. She helped me make her a chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

(It doesn’t get any more American then that!) A couple of her new friends came over, along with Indira, my mom, Joan and David. We had a great time! Check out this birthday cuddle from Katelyn!

Ashley learned to ride her bike without the training wheels!

Ashley reached another huge milestone recently. She's been asking us to take her training wheels off her bike all summer, but we weren't sure if she was ready yet. None of the other kids on our street her age can do it yet. This Labor day, September 3th, we finally did it and Mike started to teach her to ride. The first day was not easy, check out her first ride with Mike helping her: Ashley insisted that she wanted to practice more, and with help from Mike, myself, and Katharina, she got the hang of it quicker than I thought she would. After a while she said she doesn't want any help, and wants to do it by herself. She really surprised me, how determined she was to get this! She made a couple of boys on our street feel a little embarrassed that she got it before they did. She's now able to kick off by herself, and stop, and turn! Congrats to Ashley!!

Mike’s Commencement Ceremony

This month, we had another super-amazing accomplishment to celebrate, Mike’s Thomas Edison State College Commencement Ceremony! Mike earned a degree in Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Computer Information Systems. Even though he got his diploma last winter, he had to wait for commencement until now. He’s worked really hard for this, and graduated with honors and a 4.0 GPA!! Here’s his graduating class:

Can you find Mike?

We made a M-I-K-E sign to hold up so that he could easily spot us in the stands. (My mom and Ashley are hiding behind letter K)

Here’s Ashley and Katelyn with Mike after the ceremony. They behaved themselves really well, considering we had to stay seated for over two hours! They made special graduation cards for Daddy, telling him how proud they are of him!

Here’s all of us (minus Katharina, who’s taking the picture)

It was a day to remember. We are so very proud of Mike for all he's accomplished, completing his degree all while being a good daddy to our little kiddies, working full-time, being a Mayor of our town!

Our 12th Annual Wedding Anniversary BBQ Fiesta

This year we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. And to keep with tradition, we again threw a big backyard BBQ to celebrate the occasion. Even though our wedding anniversary is in June, we’ve moved our BBQ to September, so that we can celebrate Katelyn’s birthday, which is only a week after our anniversary date, and not have to combine the two. This year we decided to go with a Mexican Fiesta theme, which included Mexican style food (all homemade), margaritas, sombreros and Mexican mustaches. :) We had about 120 people over at the house, but everything went without a hitch and we had a great time! It was really nice to catch up with some friends that we haven’t seen in a while, and see everyone’s kids! Here’s a slide show of the pictures that I took: Note to self: need to delegate picture taking to someone else :)

The Fresh Beat Band Live Concert!

There’s a show on TV called The Fresh Beat Band, it’s about four friends in a band who go to school together and love to sing and dance. Ashley and Katelyn absolutely LOVE this show and know all of the songs that they sing. So, for Katelyn’s birthday, I was lucky enough to be able to get us front row tickets to the Fresh Beat Band Live concert!! It was Ashley and Katelyn’s first concert, and it was amazing! Here’s us waiting for concert to start:

These guys can really sing, and they were so good with the kids. Since we were in the front row, they got to talk to them, and it was as if they were singing to Ashley and KK, making eye contact with the kids and waving to them. Ashley was just beside herself, they look, and sing and dance exactly like on the TV show.

Shout (the guy in the orange shirt), came off stage and sat next to Katelyn and I! She’s still talking about it!

It may be cheesy, but it was really fun to see Ashley and Katelyn so excited! It was a great afternoon!

Ashley's First Day of Kindergarten!

I can’t believe this day has come, Ashley started kindergarten!! My little big girl is now taking the school bus to school every day! She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Rogers. And she already made a new friend! She’s learning to read at a fast pace, and her writing skills are pretty impressive for a 5 ½ year old! Here’s picture of the first day of school. She has to wear this tag for the first week, so that there’s no confusion about where she has to go once at school.

And here’s her getting off the bus on the first day, big smile, she had a great first day!

Every Friday, Nana is there to walk with us to the bus stop, it’s a special treat for Ashley. There’s a nice shady bench on the corner of the bus stop, so we can relax while we wait for the bus to come.

I have to say that Ashley has been surprising me with some amazing new things recently, really showing how mature she’s getting. We are very proud of her!