A First Place Blue Ribbon for Catie!!!!!!!

On the 16th, while we were in Honolulu, Catie's swim team The Riptide had a swim meet against another team in our town, the Stingrays. Our girl, swam her personal best freestyle time so far this season with a time of 28.34. She WON her heat!!!!! We were so sad to have missed this!!!

She was so thrilled, when we called her to see how the meet went she said "Mom, I got first place!"..."I looked around me under the water and nobody was near me." We're thrilled she loves being a part of this team sport! We'll see what this Saturday brings!!

Back to reality....

The holiday is over........

we got back Sunday around 5pm from Honululu.....The girls had a great time with Anna, Steven and Norah...However, the Bainbridges were wiped out from having 3 girls running around, and all the activities my 2 girls had while we were gone! It was a nice break for 4 1/2 days....now we're on the eve of company...tomorrow my parents come until July 10th. It's going to be busy...the girls are so excited they are STILL awake and it's 9:05pm...they're sharing Catie's room so my parents can have the spare bed in Meigan' s room, so the 2 girls in one rooms is a treat for them...

stay tuned for more pics later this week..as Meigan turns THE BIG 4 on Thursday.....

ALOHA!!!

Greetings from Honolulu!
Brian and I are here a the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach!
Having a wonderful time......tanning, swimming, sleeping in........

oh, wait...where are the girls?????

at home....with our dear friends Anna and Steven and Norah.....in a moment of COMPLETE DELUSION they offered to take our 2 while I accompanied Brian on his business trip to Honolulu!

ARE THEY NUTS??? you ask......hmmmmmm, I think they might be! Not only are my 2 whiny, trying to throw power trips, mopey and difficult....I thinnk it's all going wel.....ISN'T IT ANNA?????? :))

Today, Meigan informed Anna "Anna, sometimes I'm the boss of you".....and I'm not kidding...verbatim from the almost 4yr. old.....cheeky thing! and Catie...SOOOOOOO sad that school is over, she's been moping for 2 days...

the things your kids do when you leave them with someone else!!!!

on the positive...Brian and I flew first class on United...I actually got to read a book for 5hyrs. and sip wine the whole time....HEAVEN!!!!!!!!

I've slept in, shopped, tanned, swam in complete peace and quiet!!!!!!!!

we're lucky to have such amazing friends.....not only are they disrupting their lives and Norah's nap schedule by taking over my 2 kids and living in our house, they sent us a bottle of bubbly to enjoy in our room! well, yes, of course it's GONE!

I can't post pictures, as the Kodak program isn't on Brian's computer now, but if can download it i'll try to upload pictures!!!

Kristin

Catie's swimteam update...

My little swimmer is doing AMAZING!!!! She has knocked so much time off her original time trials in early May, it's just fantastic! On Saturday, she got her freestyle down to under 30 seconds. She got a late start, but she kicked in, and she caught the girl infront of her, and overtook her and finished at 29 seconds!!! It was the best finish!! I was right at the edge of the pool cheering her on hard, and I was SOOO happy for her! ..and she swam her backstroke at 36 seconds....that's down from over a minute in early May!

She's really getting it now, understanding that the only thing to beat is her own time...and now she swims fast!!

It's so fun to watch her...it makes me cry every time she finishes her heat!! She gives it her all and her best...and of course, that's all anyone can ask for!! We are so proud of her!!!

Swim...Swim...Swim....

The weather has been mostly great for swimming, albeit for the stinkin' winds that come up every afternoon!

Meigan's been swimming without her floaties now for a week. She took 2 swimming lessons last weekend, and screamed through them both! I however, have the best swim teacher,who doesn't care if kids scream, and they can't get out of the pool.....Meigan hated it...but she also GOT IT! that little stinker listened to everything her teacher told her, and she came home and refused her floaties and she can now swim across the whole shallow end! she's obsessed with it, and is in every day, cold or not, swimming like crazy! she takes a few breaths, uses her arms.....she's a determined little stinker! but we're not surprised, she's like that for everything... by the time summer is over, I suspect she'll be able to swim to the deep end....

Novato, CA Brownie Troop 1067

On Wednedsay, we had Catie's brownie troop meeting at our house. It was the last meeting of the year, so it was of course, a pool party! 9 bikini-clad 6 & 7yrs. olds frolicking in our pool for the afternoon...snacking on cheese curls, chips, juice, pizza and ice cream sundaes! What more could a girls ask for! It was FUN! and Catie loved being the host for the meeting! All the girls go to the same school together, so they'll be friends for a long time! This just gave us a glimpse into the future...god help us when they're teenagers...we're doomed!

ORDER IN THE COURT!!!! ORDER IN THE COURT!!!!!

well, that wasn't gonna happen on Monday the 4th! These 3 girls were full of beans at 9am when we entered the courtroom for our readoption proceeding.

however, we did manage to get the unruly under control to raise their right hands and swear that they would NEVER disobey their parents again.......:) he he he...

We had a wonderful readoption with Judge Beverly Wood...she took us back into chambers and completed all our paperwork there. She took Anna, Steven and Norah too, so we could all do it together...all the good pictures are on Anna's camera... we now, just wait for the girls' California Birth Certificates!!

Who says you have to play IN the playhouse....

not Daddy apparently.....he thinks they belong on the roof of the playhouse....
surprisingly, they didn't get blown off the roof...it was howling wind here today...

GOOOOO RIPTIDE!!!!!!!!

Saturday was a BIG DAY for Catie! It was her first official swim meet for her team Novato's Riptide! She was VERY excited and so ready for her big day! We were out of the house at 7:00am, at the pool and she was warming up by 7:30am.... She did GREAT! Did her best! We are so proud of her!!!

Here she is before we left the house...
and a good luck hug from Meigan...

I took this just before I lined them up for their heat....the sun was right in her eyes, as you an tell...

and here is our champ, making her way down lane 2 in her freestyle heat. She came in just over 30 seconds....pretty awesome for this first time swimteam participant!!!!

A Tuesday Surprise

Today, Meigan and I picked up Catie from school and went right down to Larkspur and got on the Ferry to San Francisco. There we got to see my brother Ryan, up from LA for business. The girls get VERY excited to see their Uncle, as we don't see him very often. He lives in Eagle Rock (next to Pasadena) with Nicole and our little niece/cousin Ella, who will turn 1yrs. old very soon! The girls ran like crazy to Uncle Ryan when they saw him, it was really cute!

We had a quick visit and dinner at The Marketplace Cafe at the Ferry Building, and it was FUN!

The girls have a Ferry tradition...no matter what time of the day it is, chips are a MUST on the Ferry! As you can see by this picture...2 very happy girls!!

Sweet Catie...growing up so fast....

It's hard for us to believe, that in less than 2 months, Catie will turn 7yrs. old. She's been with us for almost 6yrs. now, yet it seems like forever! She's changed so much lately, maturing rapidly...She's a fantastic student, quite a swimmer on our local swim team, loves her art class and will be playing soccer in the fall...she's always reading, writing and drawing...and she's amazingly patient with her little sister 80% of the time...

She knows her story...knows how she came to be our daughter....and she in recent times, gets a bit sad thinking of her birthmother, and is full of questions about all of it.

She's such an amazing little girl...we are so incredibly lucky......and to say that we are her parents is both an honor and a priviledge....

We love you so Catie!!!

These were taken Mother's Day out at Limantour Beach in Point Reyes...

Pee Wee Soccer Star

Here is Meigan in action!! We signed her up for a pee-wee soccer clinic for 5 weeks! She LOVES it! ...she's out there for 45mins. every Saturday and just goes and kicks the ball, and she can control it pretty well.....

Strawberries taste best when you grow them yourselves!

We've had our first official "harvest" here in Novato....the weather has been perfect for Catie's strawberries to grow....tonight we got a few of our first ripe berries......Catie chose strawberries for her planter boxes, and Meigan chose cucumbers and tomatoes...







however, since Meigan's cucumbers and tomatoes are nowhere near ready, she had to get in on the strawberry action and plead with her big sister for "just one pleeeeeeeaaaassseeee".....


nuthin' left on that one...this kid can clean a strawberry faster than anyone I know...

What are little sisters for??????

welllll......to cart their big sisters around the backyard, of course......

Sooooooo Busy.....so little ltime to blog.....

Where DOES the time go with 2 kids??? well, it goes to school, preschool, volunteering in class, doing the class art project for the school auction, driving back and forth to swim team practice (oh, did I neglect to post that in March??)...soccer sign-ups, gymnastics.....blah, blah, blah.....it never ends it seems......oh, and I do fit in the gym for me most mornings a week.....phew, makes me tired just typing all this.....

As an updated to our owl visitor a month ago.....we actually got the owl back, and got to let it go ourselves...it was VERY cool...the kids thought it was fun, and the little owl even came with 2 of it's own DEAD MICE for a snack.....yep....Brian picked it up from Wild Care, and they threw in 2 of the dead little suckers....but our owl wasn't going for them...so it flew away, across the street into the neighbor's yard..... what a fiasco that was...but quite exciting!

We had a visitor this past weekend, one of Brian's closest childhood friends from Long Island...he lives in Riverside now, but he came to see us...we haven't seen him in years...we had such a fun visit with Ed..and the girls loved him and he loved them... Brian's been traveling a lot (nothing new there).

Here are some pics from the past month!

Meigan and Daddy out at the Point Reyes Lighthouse

Catie was a bit apprehensive waiting for the owl to fly away.....

I found Meig one day, up in the cabinet getting herself a glass for water.....monkey!

Catie models her new uniform for Novato Youth Soccer......she'll be wearing #1 for the season!! she is very excited!!!

a shot of the girls on Friday on the way to school...

The girls on the Larkspur Ferry on Saturday with our friend Ed...the girls didn't leave him alone for a second the entire weekend! We had a great day in San Francisco, ate our way through the city, and walked the girls from the Ferry Terminal, to Pier 39, to China Town, back to the Ferry and home...they ate all day, and were STILL hungry at 8:30pm that night...

A trip to the city is not complete without a ride on the Pier 39 carousel.....or a trip to the Sea Lions.

How much damage can a 5 inch Screech Owl do in a home??

Wel, we have had quite a few exciting few days...starting at 5:10am Friday with a loud banging coming from the living room...Brian got up to see what it was, then I got up, and we knew there was "something" in the livingroom fireplace...but what "IT" was, we weren't sure...whatever "IT" was, was desperately trying to push the fireplace doors open...so we got the flashlight out and looked in...I was expecting to see one of the many gigantic racoons that we have here, but nooooooo.....what we saw was this little, big-eyed bird...we looked closer and realised that it was a FREAKIN' OWL!!!!! an owl in the house.....what the?? we looked at each other, laughed for a second and then said "oh s_ _ t"..now what do we do?" For startes, not wake the kids at that hour....

I called the Marin Humane Society emergency number...they came over at 5:45am...told us it was a Screech Owl...she tried to get him, and he said "nope, not gonna catch me"..and he jumped up on the flu door opening in the chimney and became unreachable.....

then, he jumped back down about 10mins. later, so back came the Marin Humane Society...we waited, waited, waited...no owl coming out....I was past time for kids to eat, get dressed and to school....so we had to leave the house with the little sucker back up in the chimney again...

I take both girls to school, and I call Anna to tell her I can't make the gym, due to my little "friend" in the house...LUCKY for me, Anna's neighbor works for WildCare, this great organization in San Rafael that helps animals ...so Anna and her neighbor Becky came over, and Becky tried to get the little owl out, but no luck....so she called her ofice and and they have an "extraction specialist" on their staff.....so she came up....and tried and tried and tried and tried for 2hrs. to get this little stubborn, naughty owl out of my fireplace....we had to dismantle the gas fireplace, take the doors off the fireplace, even had a person inside my fireplace up into the chimney trying to get this little 5 inch bird OUT!!!

here is Becky (in the blue shirt) and Jasmine...trying to get our little "friend" out.....

but Jasmine has been defeated by this 5 inch little creature.....he's not coming out.....

we blocked the entrance with a sheet taped to the outside of the fireplace, took the cap off the chimney, hoping maybe the owl would go out the top...so last night we all went to bed...Meigan passed out from pure exhaustion...and Catie was SO worrid about this owl getting out into the house....she finally fell asleep, then at 11:30pm, she was crying out LOUDLY in her bed...I ran into her room, and she was sobbing uncontrollably....I asked her what was wrong, and she said she was too scared to get up and go to the bathroom.....poor bean....so I took her in our room, and she fell asleep with us.....so much for getting a good nights sleep...

This morning, 7:25am, Brian gets up...and comes down into the living room, and all I hear is "oh no"...and I hear Catie come running up the hallway and she jumps on me in the bed and under the covers....I hear Brian chuckling to himself, and he says "hon, we've got a houseguest in the TV Room"....

and here it is.......

so, I called the Humane Society again, and our same wonderful person came back, and caught the little sucker, but not without a fight...he got out the net the first time, flew to the living room, then she got him again, then he escaped again in the kitchen...and finally she got him and put him in the box to keep him safe....he'd had no food or water for over 24hrs...poor little owl......

now, what did he do inside the house????? well, he knocked over picture frames, turned my walls sconces sideways, and turned pictures on the wall in my entry way sideways and upside down....he must have been flying the loop around my house...I'd have loved to see that! All things considered, it could have been much worse...he was really kind to us and didn't do that much damage.....

Then, it was all over and Winnie saves the day!!! here's our favorite Humane Society Emergency Rescue person...she came on Friday morning and tried to get him....and she came back this morning...Catie opened the door and yelled out "Hi Winnie, come quick the owl is in our house"...so cute!

she grabbed the fiesty owl with her hand after his 3rd escape attempt this morning.....then let the girls get right down next to her and see him upclose...they thought it was really cool.....though Catie was hesitant to get too close, Meigan ran right up front fast!

so, here we are at 10:00pm...the fireplace is put back together, picture frames righted, sconces fixed and kids asleep with no worries.....

and we're SOOOOOOOO tired!

The End of an Era...

Tonight we bade farewell to our beloved car...we loved our car, but it grew too small for us and 2 kids, and carpooling, swimteam, etc...nevermind when Nana and Grampa come, there's no room for them either.... we got this car before Catie turned 3....oh, so many memories in that car...so many tantrums, spills, goldfish dumps, laughs, roadtrips......but, it was time to say farewell to our lovely Lexus.....

AND HELLLLLOOOOOOOO TO OUR NEW 2007 NISSAN PATHFINDER!

this nice little gem is right up our alley! with a 3rd row seat, for Catie and her friends, and it folds down for extra storage.....

as you can tell from the next few pictures, the girls are VERY excited about the new car!

Catie tries out the side mirrors for blowing kisses......

Meigan has excellent form scaling the folded down 3rd seat to get into the 2nd row....

I think it's safe to say, these new wheels are a BIG hit with the girls!!

now, about that new car payment.......

How To Catch a Leprechaun...1st Grade Style.....

here it is...Catie's leprechaun trap!
what a FUN 1st grade project! I though I'd help her, but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....I got the "Mom, Daddy is an ENGINEER and he KNOWS how to do this...you don't!".....well, smack me in the face...geesh.......

so, on the weekend, Catie and her engineer Daddy got busy with this contraption! trapping the leprechaun with chocolate gold coins, with sticky tape! I say it's a winner!!!!

so much for my idea....I just make lunches, clean up messes, drive to school, art class, play dates, gymnastics and swimteam.....