The Ballet

An opportunity came up for me to take Mya and Sara to a ballet.  I wanted to make this night real special for the girls so I told them about it last week and we counted the days.  They were so excited.  I took the girls to Old Navy to pick out a dress to wear. Thank goodness all the dresses were on sale!  And the night of the ballet we left a little early so I could take the girls to Starbucks to get a hot chocolate.  And then we finally made it to the ballet performance.  It was very nice, although the girls got pretty sleepy towards the end so I took them home before it was over.  Mya is very excited about taking ballet lessons when we move home.  This performance only made her more excited.

Chloe didn’t come with us, but she wanted to wear the girls’ headbands while they were getting ready for the evening.

The girls modeling their dresses

My two ballerinas

Sara dancing for us

Mother's Day

It has been a very nice Mother’s Day!  On Friday night, Dan took the girls shopping for me.  They came home with some wonderful things.  The girls each picked out makeup for me.  Sorry Aunt Jen….it wasn’t Mary Kay.  Dan let them purchase the one thing that they wanted to get me so I got some pink eye shadow in the shape of a cross from Mya and Instant Age Rewind makeup from Sara.  Apparently my age is showing at 35???  They were so proud to give it to me.  And then Dan was super excited and couldn’t wait until the actual Mother’s Day to give me my present from him.  I was okay with that!  He bought me a beautiful teal dress to wear on Mother’s Day.  He picked it out by himself and got the size just right.  So fun!

I really wanted to go to the beach today (Half Moon Bay), which isn’t very far from us.  But the temperature on the beach is 50 degrees.  Yikes!  That is too cold for me to enjoy it.  So we went to church and then Dan took us all out to eat at P.F. Changs for dinner.  He told me he would cook a meal for me, but we both decided it would be safer for us to go out to eat….ha ha.  We are a bit tired today too.  Dan and I discovered the TV series Lost for the first time a few weeks ago.  We have been watching the episodes at night and recently headed into season 2.  Both libraries around here do not have that season so we had to rent from Blockbuster, which is 15 minutes from our place.  So we have been doing marathon nights of watching Lost, trying to get through season 2 and not racking up big late fees.  Needless to say, we were up late last night finishing a disc.  But it is so worth it!

Church today was another gift for Mother’s Day.  The sermon was fantastic.  The pastor focused on the life of Paul and how God saved him despite his rebellious life.  He took the sermon from 1 Timothy 1:12-17. He focused on how much we need a savior and presented the gospel in a heavy, wonderful way.  Dan walked away from the sermon with tears in his eyes and a lot of conviction.  He said it was made clear to him why we are at this particular place.  He realizes how important paying off debt became to him…the sole reason for moving out here… and then God put us here in Pleasanton….not saving any money….to teach us that money is not to be worshiped.  We came here kicking and screaming, not wanting to pay for this apartment…I guess it is time to quick kicking and screaming. It was a powerful message! 

Here is my make-up from the girls....

And here is the reason I love being a mommy!

The dress!

Day Hike

On Saturday we took a hike to a place called Little Yosemite.  It is in a national park only 15 miles down the road from our apartment.  A resident of our complex told me about it and said that her family had a wonderful time there.  What we didn’t consider was the temperature difference from the weekend she went to the weekend we went.  When she went it was in the low 70s and when we went it was close to 90 degrees.  We went early in the morning, but the other thing we didn’t know was that the path on the hike was full sun.  We did go prepared with packed lunches, hats and sunblock, but it was a rough hike with the little ones.  The hike was an easy path, but too hot for the kids.  However, we trudged on and made it to our destination….a beautiful waterfall with swimming holes and rocks to climb.  Once we got there we were happy we made the trek and the kids had so much fun.  But getting there and going back home were a little tough on us all. So what did we do when we got home….all 5 of us took a nap.  It was a very nice afternoon of rest.

Here are the girls all ready to hike.....in skirts.....with Keen shoes.....

Starting the long trek to the waterfalls......

This is Dan trying to motivate the girls to walk a little faster.....

Our little snake friend that crossed our path.....

The girls acclimating to the cool water and rough terrain.....

Chloe discovered the fun in throwing rocks in the water.....

The Keen shoes after the hike.....I love my girls to have muddy shoes!

Sara

Our second child, Sara, has beautiful eyes.  I see peace in her eyes when I look at her.  She is easy going and goes with the flow.  Yet she has a sensitive spirit.  She gets hurt easily, but forgives easily too.  She is the one that keeps us laughing through life.  She can take a stressful situation and find humor in it and her smile is contagious.  Sara has always been a child who has played independently.  I remember a picture I took of her when she was real little….she would play with Mya’s doll house and the little people for hours by herself.  And to this day she can entertain herself so easily.  Sometimes we will find her sitting with her princess dolls having conversations with them and enjoying her quiet time.  It is fun to listen in on those conversations.  Sara is yet another princess in our family.  She loves wearing dresses and doing ballet for us in the living room. She is truly a “girly girl.” She loves her purses and princess figurines….they go everywhere with us, although we have some work to do with her organizational skills.  She is not one to keep track of her belongings….we often find ourselves asking her on numerous occasions where her things are.  Somehow she loses things in our small apartment all the time.  But again, that keeps us laughing with her.  Sara’s sweet spirit keeps our family balanced and in check with making sure we have fun with our time together.  We are very grateful for her obedience and soft heart.

Chloe

Awhile ago I did a special blog entry on Mya to highlight who she is and how special she is to us.  So now it is Chloe’s turn.  And I will be sure to do one on Sara too.  Once we are home, I plan on having the blog printed into a book…one for each child to keep in their memory boxes.  I hope that someday they can look back on this experience, read about it and remember how amazing God has been through this journey.  I think it is important for them to see the heart of me and Dan as to why this journey happened and what we have learned.  It will be something we will talk about for years to come.

So now on to sweet, little Chloe.  A friend from the MOPS group back home used to call Chloe “Squishy” when she was a baby.  I loved that nickname because it described her very well.  She was a baby who loved being held and she would get all squishy in your arms when you held her.  And to this day, although she isn’t quite as squishy, she still loves to be in someone’s arms.  She asks to be held often and if we are sitting on the couch, she backs herself up to us so she can sit on our laps. She loves to lap sit and read books or watch movies or just sit and listen to us talk.  She loves having Mya carry her around too.  But at the same time, she is very independent and likes to walk places.  She gleams with pride when she can do something herself.  She creates a lot of attention at the swimming pool because she does it all on her own.  She wears a lifejacket and gets in and out of the pools by herself.  She hangs around the stairs in the pool and occasionally drifts into the water to kick a little bit.  Then she finds her way back to the stairs to play again.  Every once in a while she needs our help when she floats on her back and can’t get upright by herself. I suppose having two older sisters has made her act much older than her age.  She is quick to learn, smart and surprisingly very compliant these days.  Without saying intelligible words all the time, she communicates amazingly well.  She has conversations with us and I wish I knew what she was saying.  But somehow, she gets her point across and gets what she wants or needs.  One of her favorite things to do is choose her clothes….oh yes, she tells me which dress she wants to wear sometimes….and then after I put it on she prances around the room, just like her big sisters do in their clothes.  She has already learned that clothes make her feel pretty….oh boy!  We have a princess in the making.  I think I mentioned in a previous blog, there is something about Chloe that is unique and special and so neat.  We are lucky to have her as our third child. She is just beautiful and makes life very fun!

The Countdown Begins

I was looking at the calendar today and realized that we are less than two months away from heading home. We are already starting to think about which direction to drive and what sights to see along the way. We rushed out here, but we are going to take our time getting home. I find myself wondering if the next 7 weeks will go slow or fast. Unfortunately, I think they will go slow because I am homesick for a lot of things. We have more to explore in this area where we are living so that will keep our weekends busy, but as the time gets closer I find myself longing for things at home. Just today I walked the girls to the park and let them run through the sprinklers on the lawn. That prompted Mya to talk about her memory of the blow up swimming pool that we used to put in our front yard at home. This event, of course, always attracted the attention of cars driving by. It seemed like the whole town knew when the Donatini clan was in the front lawn. So I began missing those simple comforts of home. Like my bed.....oh....to have a bedspread again. It will be glorious. In my mind I am already redecorating the bedroom and can't wait to paint the walls something new. And to have two cars again....seems like such a luxury that I will certainly appreciate. And my refrigerator that has filtered water on the door. That means we don't have to buy any more bottled water. And I miss having hangers for our clothes. And then there is the obvious....we miss the people....family and friends...the community. I can't imagine what it will be like to go to the grocery store and actually know someone. Man....that means I have to start doing my hair and putting make-up on more often. Ok...it would be so worth it! It will be very good to return. In the meantime, we will soak up our last months in California where the beach and the mountains are a few miles away. Now that I will miss!

Papa and Nana

On Tuesday, the girls woke up very early because they were super excited for our visitors.  We waited and waited and waited and FINALLY….the afternoon came.  It was a long day for the girls (and their mother).  At one point we even pulled up the chairs to the window and stared out, just hoping it would help the visitors come sooner.  And then we saw the white van pull around the corner and Papa and Nana….who we haven’t seen in almost 1 whole year…ran out of the van and hugged their grandchildren.  It was a wonderful sight!  Our visitors from Ohio had finally arrived.

My dad and step-mom came to California to visit us for five days.  The day that they arrived we hung out at the apartment for a while and then I cooked dinner for us all once Dan got home.  It was so fun to see family.  The second day we spent the morning in the town of Pleasanton.  Their downtown….or Main Street…is something like scenery out of a storybook.  It is quaint, and has tons of unique shops and restaurants.  It was fun to just walk around and look in some of the stores.  Then after naps, we drove to Hayward and picked up Dan from work….and continued driving to San Francisco.  We ate at a seafood restaurant….double yummy because I got to eat crab. Then we drove the crooked street and the Golden Gate Bridge.  And the kids were SO good that evening.  The third day we drove northeast of San Francisco to the Jelly Belly factory.  We had a tour of the factory and sampled some wonderful flavors of jelly belly candy…..I especially liked the puke flavored one (just kidding on sampling that one, but they really did have that).  That evening Papa and Nana took the kids to dinner while Dan and I went on a date.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory and sat really close beside a couple who were fighting.  It was super fun!  No, actually, it was amazing to have some time together, even in a noisy restaurant.  There is something to be said about just looking in each other’s eyes and knowing what we are thinking….which comes with being married for a while.  And the last day, we went to the mall and then to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  Then we said our goodbyes.  Thank you for visiting us Papa and Nana!  We had a wonderful time together and we will see you again soon!

Minutes after they arrived  

The girls doing Papa’s hair 

Jelly belly factory 

Final goodbye