Mosaic Rose

tea collection - mosaic rose wrap dress. ariana wanted her hair in 2 pigtails, and to use matching hair ties. the geox shoes matched the trim. usually at pickup we hang around and chat with the teacher - really to wait for the traffic to die down. then we ran into the new principal - it gave us a chance to introduce ourselves and get to know her too. this will be the third principal for ariana ever since she started kindergarten at eastin, each one lasting only 2 years. to come to think of it - ariana and her class will only attend eastin for 2 more years, it only goes up to 5th grade.

TBT Turquoise Blue Thursday

tbt - throwback thursday on facebook. ariana is only 8 years old, so there isnt that much far to go back. altho she did wear this turquoise chevron (sky) from gymboree desert dream line last month at disneyworld. its more comfortable to wear summer dresses to the disney parks than shorts. we're going to try a new thing this year for school - to pick something out the night before. altho it could change in the morning depending on the weather. ariana planned to wear something blue. she could only pick from dresses hanging in her closet, as i havent pulled the skirts out. the weather is still warm enough to wear saltwaters sandals - good thing she got a pedi.

First Day Fourth Grade

 fourth grade. ariana picked her justice outfit from last year. she told dad she's saving him money by not buying a new outfit. little does she know that i shop practically every week online. it all started by matching the school bag from disneyworld. she had tried the outfit on a month ago and it still fit. she must have had a growth spurt as we found the skirt on the short side this morning. plus it didnt help with the heels on the tommy hilfiger shoes.

BFF Back to School

the girls planned to wear the B-F-F heart necklaces on the first day of school. each girl was already thinking that one of them will forget. well they all remembered to wear a necklace - except one wore a different one.

Ode to Summer

Every summer in august, we always say we're going to start having ariana go to bed early little by little. this way she will be back on track for school. the plan was to shoot for 11:00 bedtime, 10:30, 10:00, and ultimately in bed by 9:30 at the latest. well we got a late start and she was in bed usually by 11:00. we finally told her to go to bed, and to just lay there even if shes not tired. ariana sleeps for 9-10 hours and has been waking up around 10:00. she said "I woke up really early in the a.m."

Everybody is going to the school to find out class teacher assignments. We have prepped the girls that they might not be in the same class - and still be able to see each other at recess & lunch. Ariana has one bff with her. When she found out - she said "I'll live". ariana is wearing gymbo desert dream - this time the hot coral one. the girls were so happy to see her - that they adorned her hair with little flowers. 

Tutti Frutti

Likha Filipino dance classes are 2-3 hours long. The kids are preparing for the big show in November. We usually go to Rita's frozen custard afterwards. This time tutti frutti for some frozen yogurt instead. 

Wine Castle

Castillo di Amorosa. this is the last summer day to go out before school starts. i have been wanting to take ariana to the "castle"  up in calistoga (napa). its one of the few wineries where children are allowed. she got to drink grape juice and did some coloring, while we tasted 5 wines. cheers. ariana is wearing a linen dress from janie&jack, vibrant garden line. i had purchased this years ago (size 6), and it finally fits now.
UPDATE: sunday morning 3:20 am, we were woken up by a jolt and rattling sound. both realizing it was an earthquake, altho ariana had slept through it. a 6.0 with the epicenter in american canyon-napa area. can you believe we were just there 12 hours before. the last time the bay area experienced a big earthquake was in october 1989 loma-prieta.

Still Swingin'

Putting away Summer

With one more week left until school starts next Wednesday August 27th, i got a head start to transition out the closet. i took down most of the summer dresses to fill one storage bin - just hoping she'll be able to fit next year. i did leave some hanging as the bay area usually gets a heatwave in september (indian summer). next step is to bring in the fall tubs. those ones should fit as we just put them away not too long ago. and i only need to move out one drawer - out with the short outfits for the skirts.

White Elephant

now that ariana is going into the 4th grade (10 days and counting), they get released at the other end of the school. first grade comes out from the front, and 2nd & 3rd graders at the side doors. i was thinking that when it rains how the kids have to walk outside. i brought up the idea of enrolling her in kids first, an afterschool program. this way she could just stay inside and i pickup in an hour, not having to deal with traffic. ariana is totally against this. we took a trial run-through to the school - less than a good 15 minutes walk. showed her the exit route and where i'll be standing with the other mommies. we're going to put a poncho in her backpack that she could put over - just in case. she was brave enough to weather the thunderstorm at disneyworld. ariana is wearing a linen top from crazy8 with gap shorts.

SF Exploratorium

a couple of years ago the exploratorium moved from the palace of fine arts to the pier. this is our first time going to the new location. it is a hands on science museum for kids, and adults as well. We had dinner at il Fornaio in the city. Then had time to roam around Levi's park. Ariana is wearing a nautica dress.

Summer Swing

right when i'm planning on taking down the play structure - ariana has been going on the swings. go figure. josh took off the slide a couple months ago. i've been tending to the backyard - to save my lawn during the drought (and really to get my daily dose of vitamin D). ariana usually comes outside and plays, she has learned to push herself on the swings. kuya josh comes out with my new camera and turned it into a photoshoot. she's wearing a jelly the pug dress. i got this on zulily and it was suppose to come with a matching doll dress. ariana did her own hair - wanting bangs. to me she looks like doc mcstuffins minus the pigtails.

My new cam

I had a red Nikon J1 - loved it. It was the only camera that recorded video and let you snap up to 14 pictures at the same time. Before vacation, the dreaded "lense error" message appeared. Good thing I bought the extended warranty. Geek squad to the rescue. Josh talked me into getting a canon dslr. 

Pistahan Filipino

photo credit G.Cruz likha.org

the LIKHA kids performed at pistahan - a filipino festival in san francisco yerba buena gardens. they performed Tadek again.

Tropical Bloom

it was a mama-nana day. went to the annual scrapbook expo. funny i used to attend these events with my crop buddies and add to my supply stash. now i barely buy anything and in this for the make-n-takes projects for ariana to do. she told everybody that i'm the scrapbooker and shes a "crafter". the last photo albums i put together was for ariana and her bff girlfriend. they have been together since preschool and i always take pictures of them together. we finally gave it to her on the last day of school. i still have to work on the book for bff number 3, she joined the girls in the first grade. the expo was at held at the convention center next to the hyatt hotel. we had lunch out in the pool terrace. ariana is wearing gymbo tropical bloom dress in a size 7.

Bright Ideas

This dress was delivered today from gymboree latest line. It's a size 8 and I had ariana try it on - where she ended up wearing it. Coming home from the mall, the moon was a big red orange ball. We pulled off to a vista point to watch the sun going down. Sorry, my phone doesn't take the best picture. 

Shoe Shopping

I know I haven't been posting. You see ariana takes a break from our daily photoshoot during the summer...unless we go someplace. Funny thing is - she's the one that picks out her outfit. It's a no holds bar -she could wear anything since it's just around the house. If it was left up to me - it would be pajama days for the rest of the month.

I had ordered keen sandals in a size 1, as we passed down the 13s to her girlfriend. Her toe would hit the top when she walked, altho it did fit for now. I was able to go to Nordstrom to exchange for size 2. Most definitely these will last a couple of years. Too bad some kids shoes dont come in half sizes.

On vacation I had packed all these shoes/sandals. Note we purchased the 2 geox shoes at the outlets in orlando. ariana ended up wearing saltwaters most of time. These were a size 13 from last summer, and I knew they weren't going to fit much longer. They were white and went with most of her outfits. So if you see ariana donning the pink northside pair whether they matched outfit or not - you know why. We got the size 1 pair delivered today. I opened up the package while we were in the car and ariana put them on right away.

Before vacation, I had ariana try on all her boots. 2 pairs of brown boots and 2 pairs of black suede style boots still fit, plus all her rainboots. What didn't fit was the black patent size 1. Ariana said "I could wear these one last time." Meaning they are feeling small already. Mind you the next time she will wear them would probably be in oct the earliest. In the outgrown pile it goes. Gymboree latest line has a pair of boots on sale - size 2 ordered.

The plain white shoes for cheerleading are fitting on the small side too. Reebok has a sale going - even on cheerleading shoes. The size 1.5 fit great with some room to grow. But the question is - to cheer next session or not?? Shes set for PE which is twice a week. Geox, Reebox, Nike. Right now its all about "comfort", where before it was to coordinate with the outfit.