One of my favorites

Today Abby and I went shopping and strolling at Broadway Plaza, which has this Italian piazza feel to it and it is always beautifully landscaped. We stopped at See's Candies to pick up teacher thank you's and I bought one milk buttercream, which is my all-time favorite candy. I took my time and enjoyed - no relished in - every yummy morsel. And then something amazing happened - I was satisfied! I, who have consumed fistfuls of non-buttercream chocolates in the past, was completely satisfied by one of my favorites. This was my lesson for today: when you go to enjoy something, go for one of your favorites, and all you'll need is just one.

An Amazing Bay Day

Yesterday we went to the Festival of Sail in San Francisco and enjoyed a gorgeous day of wandering around the piers, touring tall sailing ships, and taking in the sights. Hannah was nervous about meeting pirates, but the few that we got close to were nice and/or funny so she's a step closer to being a pirate-fan. Abby enjoyed her view from the baby backpack and loved grooving to the live reggae band. Marley really liked the pirate-themed bouncy structures. All the girls loved exploring the fountain in Justin Herman Plaza. After our day on the bay, we met up with our friends the Valle-Jhandas for chinese food in the Sunset and that's always a nice way to spend time. I received a Sony Alpha200 digital SLR camera for my birthday (so spoiled, I know!) to replace my Canon Elph that was broken on our Calaveras camping trip. Yesterday was my first day using it and I am in love!

No More Pencils, No More Books...

Today is the first official day of summer vacation! This was the view from our kitchen window this afternoon and it sums up the day nicely. Marley completed Kindergarten yesterday! She had a "Kindergarten participation ceremony" on Tuesday (can't call it Kindergarten "graduation" because not all Kindergartners advance and heaven forbid we leave anyone out, even if they never did a lick of homework). The Kindergartners treated the audience to poems and songs and it was super cute.

I've purposely kept our summer calendar semi-clear so we can all recharge our batteries. We are going camping this month for a couple of nights (the girls' very first camping trip), we'll be going to the Amazing Bay Day and Festival of Sail in July with Girl Scouts and we'll be spending lots of time at the pool. We are doing a "staycation" this summer to work on updating our kitchen. Other than that, we are just cruising. Ahh, summer!

The Shins at the Park

Tuesdays are our park days. We drop Marley at Kindgergarten and head to one of our favorite playgrounds. Hannah's favorite is the tire swing and Abigail is all about slides these days (she has both of her sisters beat when it comes to bravery at this age).

How the Shins Beat the Heat

We are having a little bit of a heat wave. Today's high was 92 and it's supposed to be close to 100 tomorrow and Friday. What do we do when it gets hot? We put on bathing suits and play outside! We also eat popsicles but I didn't take pictures of that!

My blog adventure begins

Ooh- my first blog. I'm not sure how diligent I will be at keeping this, since the things I usually want to do when I have a few extra minutes away from my three young daughters are of the personal hygiene sort - you know, brushing my teeth or (gasp) putting on make-up. However, I have been wanting a forum where my friends and family can keep up with our goings on, so here goes. Climb on the skinny branches, right?

I am uploading a few recent pictures of the Shin girls. Enjoy!