California Vacation

 When I started this blog almost 4 years ago I did not imagine that I would enjoy writing it as much as I do.  In the beginning I wrote from Sydney's perspective and wanted to share all the baby highlights and milestones but now it has turned into more of a photojournal for the girls. Although I post many of these pictures on facebook, every year I print this out and create a book to save for the girls and know that as they get older they will appreciate all the many things they have done in their lives and all the documentation to back it up.
Jason had a crazy idea to travel to California for our summer vacation and while I thought he was nuts to travel for almost 2 weeks with the girls, the vacation was fantastic and we got to do a million different things.  Gonna try and sort through my 600+ pictures and capture some of the highlights so here goes....

 Arriving in San Jose airport, the girls are ready for fun! They fit perfectly into the overhead bin storage check in the terminal and had fun playing around. if only they were this happy during the entire flight...





Olivia enjoyed her first lollipop (why didn't i try it sooner into the flight??!) and looked so funny with her blue tongue!

We took the girls on their first college tour. Jason wanted to show they Stanford University and I had lots of fun discussions with Sydney about growing older.  It was a picture perfect day and the weather was fantastic after our very hot & humid DC summer...

olivia especially enjoyed running around the Stanford campus. 

Our California adventure had just begun...lots more in store for the Martin family. and many more pictures to come!

July 2012 pictures

After 4 weeks of camp at B'nai Tzedek, Sydney was all ready to go to dance camp!  She enjoyed another 4 weeks of dancing, arts and crafts and playing with new friends.

She even got to dress up like a princess for a whole week and dance-pure delight! A definite highlight of the summer.

Olivia and I did lots of fun things while Sydney was at dance camp including a shabbat mommy & me at the JCC, Run Wiggle Paint & Giggle class at kidville and playdates.

We took a weekend roadtrip to Winchester to see GIGI! 

Papa, Gigi, Daddy & the girls...a fun weekend in Winchester

Sydney had so much fun at dance camp...i don't have a lot of pictures but snapped some cute videos when I came to pic her up.  Olivia would run to Sydney and then they would dance the last dance together with the older campers and little kids.
And then the girls would come home and dance some more...

21 months!!!

Sydney and her dance teacher Miss Caitlin! Sydney had such a wonderful experience there and we can't wait for more dancing this fall!

She was so proud of the many art projects she made this summer. Sydney got to do many fun things like sand art, painting t-shirts, games and more.  But nothing slowed her down--not even that broken collarbone!

my creative girl decided to decorate the letters in her room to make them more "fancy"

it sure has been a wonderful summer overall and now that camp is over we are all getting excited about vacation and then SCHOOL!

Sydney camp photos

 Sydney spend the 1st 4 weeks of summer vacation at B'nai Tzedek summer camp program.  She had so much fun with her school/camp friends despite a broken collarbone, bee sting and scorching hot temperatures.  Since I am not at camp to take pictures and have no idea what really goes on all day, i get to enjoy the photos from her teachers...here are few of my favorites from the summer:

LOVE this photo of Sydney and Sienna on the last day of camp...these 2 are inseparable and Sydney was so excited the two of them wore matching dresses and were "twins" for the day. They certainly spend a lot of time together and had fun hanging out all summer long.

Sydney and Hanna working on some water colors

Sydney loved helping Morah Yafa in the garden...maybe she'll do something with our plants and flowers at home?!?!

Group project-working together

 Sydney sure loves to help out--cute picture, great smile!

water play-definite highlight of camp

Sydney on the monkey bars--pre-accident

playing in the sandbox--with evidence that she did in fact wear her sling at camp

picnic lunch outside

sandbox--one of the outdoor playground activities i was comfortable with Sydney doing...

yup-still wearing the sling! but that doesn't slow her down and she loved doing all the art projects

4th of july art activities-sydney's beaded necklace was sooo long. great fine motor skills!

seems pretty organized for a whole bunch of kids in one classroom!  

parachute time!

Olivia is 20 months

 20 months! 4 more months until she is 2 years old.  i can't handle this...where has my little baby girl gone?

such adorable sweetness

Sydney feeding Olivia pizza--such a great big sister!

picnic/pizza party! not one kid looking at the camera but the real challenge was just getting them to all stay seated at the picnic table so i'll consider this a real accomplishment

Sydney sporting her guitar slippers

Princess Rapunzel aka Izzy came to visit

 dance party...Sydney singing and dancing as usual. No broken collarbone is gonna stop this kid from singing and dancing!

Cousin Zach and the girls enjoying some Knock Knock jokes-preschool style...

broken bones, really??!

Sydney really wasn't sad here--just pissed off that I was taking her picture and not giving her the breakfast. But I actually got a picture of her wearing her sling.

In camp last week she fell while climbing up a slide and broke her collarbone.  She's been so amazing through all of this and i'm sure its no surprise that this has not slowed her down one bit! She still dances all around and has been feeling fine.  Went to the doctor for a follow up yesterday and she is healing nicely and cleared for swimming and dance camp.  It's amazing how resilient kids are!  Their mommy's--not so much. Still cringe every time she makes me "hold her boo-boo" so she can wash her hands.

See--she would smile for the camera! And don't you love the sling all fancy with pink & purple paint plus princess stickers!!?!

We were so excited that Sally, Scott, Izzy and Charlie came to visit and are staying with us for a few days. It is always a lot of fun (and complete craziness) but we love having them visit.  The girls all look so cute in their matching outfits (and Olivia loves being one of the girls!)

3 cuties!

Sydney has been absolutely delighted to have all this Izzy time--the girls have had lots of quality time together and played lots of dress up, princess, arts and crafts, running around, etc...we love having the Wood family stay with us!

Green Meadows

What could be better than getting a ride from daddy?!  We visited the Green Meadows Petting Farm last weekend and had a great time!

Sydney petting a 3 week old baby calf. 

Even Olivia went right up and touched the cow.  Who are these kids and why do they not think touching and feeding these animals is disgusting, like their mommy?!



Yup-Sydney milked a cow. So did Olivia (with a lot of help from mom)

Olivia feeding a goat...or maybe just giving one of her famous staredowns

those goats were probably stuffed from all the food sydney was feeding them. she must have gone back a dozen times to get more food for the goats, sheep, etc

Love this family picture where we actually got all of us to look at the camera at the same time--that is impressive!

Sydney LOVED visiting Sydney the Kangaroo (laying down in the background)

look at the cute baby lamb i'm holding...

 just a quick photo of the kids walking carefree around the farm--they look very comfortable here.  hmmmm....

can't get enough of this smiling face--love it!  we had such a great time at Green Meadows!