Just around the corner....

Jane is almost two! She's having a little party with some of her friends Friday morning Oct. 14th. Daddy has to leave the next day for FL all week, so we want to celebrate early with him! Jane is such a talker, she fits right in with the three year olds. And knows ALL the names of friends. She still sings her goodnight song, naming each one, "night-night Merrell, night-night Luke"....,etc... Now she sings to all the songs we play in the car. It's amazing to hear a voice that little come out with the right words - she really connects to sound and rythym - always has. She has copied our tone and phrases since she just a few months old, like "roaring" like a tiger, because Ella was doing that to her all the time.

getting ready.....the halloween decor is slowly starting to creep out - well Ella keeps running to the garage and pulling stuff down from my cutting table that I've pulled out. Our 4th annual Halloween party will be Sat Oct 22nd. Invitations went out today to 53 families. Whew.

Ella and Jane - Halloween 2005. They insist, we think it fits.


Ohana - the family. From front - Eloise, Adam, Jane and Kate. (no, I will not be wearing a bikini, thank you.)

Current events

the girls loved playing at Cabrillo rec center's playground last week. We took Charlie there too, it's so nice you can gate off the opening so he got to explore too. It was evening and a softball game was going on there. I got pizza to go across the street and we had alittle playground nighttime picnic eating our dinner and watching the softball game on a warm summer night. We were waiting for Adam's plane to land before we went home. We played a little basketball on the court right there and then watch a kids hawaiin dance class that was going on inside. Lots of fun at Cabrillo, a good little known place in PL. We'll definitely be back!

wheee! she did this slide about 20 times

Eloise leading 'storytime' during a recent playdate.

Jane still loves that peekaboo. Got some new prints, just dropped off a ton to the seamstress, did a swap meet sale 2 weeks ago. The cooler months are starting, so it's getting a little more busy.....
Oh yes, Eloise took this picture!

Jane taking a picture of me. She'll run to get 'her' camera whenever I've got mine out. And help me capture the moment.

Jane refusing to open eyes for a picture

school time!

Big 3 year old has started preschool. Eloise goes MWF afternoon, for a few hours. She loves it, all but the part about keeping her sneakers on the whole duration. She has a couple of good friends there, Lauren and Ross, that were in her class last year too. This year she gets to attend "Lunch Bunch" 45 min prior to her class, where she brings her lunch to eat with friends from all the classes and then plays a little before they walk them over to her classroom.She does lunch bunch about 2x a week, so Jane can get down for her nap. Jane is pretty tired by then, so far it's working out good. :)


Eloise and Lauren first day of preschool. They're a week apart in age, and have been playing together since 2 months old. Lauren lives right down the street. She is shy and hardly talks to others, but she speaks in paragraphs to Eloise and screams and runs with delight when they play. So it's a good match.


Big girl Jane wanting to go to school too. She might start in January with the 2 year old program.....

lucy brown went down - all by herself.

Bye Bye Lucy. She's resting with God. Ella cried a little this morning, but that's about it. Now she will inform you that hey "Lucy di-edd OK!?" like she said to Jane when she was looking for Lucy today. Jane, who of course, does not understand her absence. But really, Ella does have compassion, we talk about how Great Grandma and Lucy are both with God now. And she told me she needed to go to church to be near them. So I tried to explain that God is always with us and so is Lucy and Great Grandma. She kind of got it, but I think she thinks we hold a lot of stuff inside our heart. I think she's probably right. Both Jane and Eloise were hanging out with Lucy on her last day. They all had good times together: photo proof of some memories at Granddad's blog, link at left. Yes, we all love Lucy!