The first few days of summer

I took the kids to the dollar movies again. This week was Alvin and the chipmunks: chipwrecked. The kids had fun and Carter did well enough. He's a little squirmy but not bad. And for a dollar, most people don't care. 

Went swimming a couple of times already. The kids are doing so well in the pool. Carter jumps right in like he's a big boy. First time in almost ten years that my kids all got in the pool before me. I actually sat on a lounge chair for fifteen minutes before getting in. That NEVER happens. But they are getting older. And I have to say in this case, it's kind of nice. 

Snow cones are becoming a regular after dinner treat. 

And we are loving the swing Grammy and Pop Pop got for us. It makes for fun snuggle time together. 

Leah lost her first top front tooth. This puts her total count up to 3! The best part was there was no drama or tears. It just fell right out. Hooray! 

This past weekend

On Friday the kids finished the school year including preschool. Brandon had his last ever day of preschool and it ended with a party at the park. We are going to miss Grandma K and Grandma B so much. They have been such amazing teachers for him and he has thoroughly loved going everyday. 

Grandma K gave him a bucket with treats, two books and a photo album of pictures from the school year. Seriously amazing! 

They had mini program where the kids sang a few songs and got a medal and a sticker. Brandon checked it all out and then hid behind the stone wall. See the picture below. So fitting for him to go out that way .

And he apparently wasn't in the picture taking mood when I tried to grab a shot of him and his two school buddies. Oh well. At least he posed nicely with his brother (see above).

Then when we got home from getting the girls from their last day of school, I took a quick photo of them to remember what the end of 4th, 1st and pre-k looks like. Carter was napping so he missed being in this shot. I sure love these kiddos of mine!

Then after naps, we headed over to our friends house for swimming and bbq-ing. The perfect way to wrap up the school year. Good friends, food and fun!

Saturday afternoon Leah had her FIRST ever recital and she could not have been more excited. I think she was made for the stage. She wasn't nervous at all and did a great job on her performance with her class. Afterward we went to dinner to celebrate! 

I thought it was just the nicest thing that Leah's BFF, Gracie, came with her mom to watch Leah perform. And we got to go backstage during intermission so they could say hi to each other. 

To say Leah was excited to see her would be a gross understatement!

Then of course at the end they got to walk out for a final applaud. She's the one in the middle. The lights were too bright for my camera.

The show ended up being 3 hours and 45 minutes long, which was a BIT much, but it was worth it to see how happy Leah was. 

And when I woke up this morning, this is how I found Brandon sleeping (yes, he is still sneaking into our bedroom around midnight just about every night). I think he must have been dreaming about his relaxing summer that has just started! Haha.....

Some pre summer fun

There's about a billion other things I should be doing right now, but blogging seems to sound more fun...so the other things will have to wait. 

We're gearing up for summer around here. Only three more days of school left. I can't believe that means I'm on my last days with both my boys home. Brandon will be in Kindergarten so soon and then it'll just be me and Carter all day. Yikes...I don't even want to think about it yet. I'm going to miss Brandon. 

I wanted to take advantage of being at the pool with just my boys, so I grabbed a couple of friends to come join me and we had a nice Monday morning swimming, chatting and having lunch together. 

Brandon and his poses kill me these days. So expressive for a kid who wouldn't agree to even take a picture for such a LONG time.

And yes, that is my 2 1/2 year old in the pool by himself. The deep end even, which he got to by himself. He went back and forth across the pool a few times. Don't worry I was watching him closely. He had a swim vest and a floaty with him and he did really well. Only had to jump in once when he got water in his face and got disoriented. He was super proud of himself and told me he knew how to swim now. 

Went to the park in the afternoon to enjoy it before it gets too hot. Leah is a serious monkey. How she does that, I have no idea! She's amazing!

He he....silly boy!

Then this morning, I took my cute boys to the $1.00 movies to see "Parental Guidance". A movie about Grandparents coming to watch the grandkids while the parents are on vacation. Pretty funny. A bit heartwarming. But not necessarily a great kid movie. The boys did really well though and the theater wasn't too full, so Carter could walk around some and not bother anyone. Hoping to make it to more summer $1.00 movies. Cheap fun and the kids enjoy it.

Brandon Stats

Brandon had his 5 year well child check up for Kindergarten last week. He's behind a few shots, so we have to go back before August, but other than that he is doing perfectly!

Height: 44 1/2 inches (75%)

Weight: 41 pounds (48%)

His hearing and vision test were great too. He cooperated really well and was even brave for his shots, which are still a very hard thing for him. By the third one he was definitely screaming, but he did better than he has in the past. And afterward, we hit up McDonald's for a happy meal! 

Grateful for a healthy happy kid.....that always has to be making funny poses these days. Oh well!

A trip to the zoo

 Carter has been asking for weeks to go to the "animal zoo", so when my friend Brooke texted me this morning and said she was going, I thought it'd be a great day to finally go. I tried to make arrangements with Paul to meet him for lunch after, but it was too short of notice and he had a "meeting" at 1pm. But oh well. And I'd like to say I had a fabulous time and that the boys were super good and just happy to be there, but that'd be a lie. Brandon was tired from not sleeping well last night, which meant I didn't sleep well either. Carter was kind of crabby too, so we only lasted about 2 hours and I was pretty much done. Had to wrestle Carter into the stroller on the walk back to the car, and so to get me back he drug his feet on the ground to make it so I couldn't push. Well, I'm a bit smarter than a 2 year old and pushed the stroller with the two front wheels up in the air. So you can guess how happy that made him. But I had to laugh about it cuz honestly at that point, what else was there to do. So I walked to the car that way and was happy to strap the boys into their carseats for the drive home. Oh....where I nearly got ran off the road by a guy who refused to let me in his lane when clearly he could see that my lane was ending. And we were on the freeway, so if I didn't get over fast, it meant I would have face planted with the cement divider. That, I didn't laugh at too much. But I'm home now and Brandon fell asleep in the car, so he got a bit of a nap and Carter is watching a cartoon because for some reason, he wouldn't take a nap. 

But hey, you wouldn't know any of that from the pictures below huh? Looks like a fabulous day with my two cute guys! Ok, ok, so it wasn't all that terrible. We did have some enjoyable moments and we got to see all the gorillas together in one spot (that was cool) and the boys probably had more fun than I did. And that's what it's (mostly) all about anyway, right?

This lady was awesome. She let a tarantula crawl all over her and was also holding a madagascar hissing COCKROACH in the other hand. I don't think I'd want to hold either, but if I HAD to choose, I would pick the tarantula over the roach any day. She did say it bit her once though and felt like a bee sting. But that it wasn't venomous so it was okay. Tough lady.

Her husband was just down the sidewalk from her holding a baby python, which we did get to pet and that was pretty cool!

And the zebra was making his loud zebra sound, which I'm not sure I even knew zebras made any noise, but it was really loud and kind of a like a donkey, but not exactly. So that was cool too!

End of the year going ons

Ashlyn had her end of the school year band concert last night. Would have been nice if I had gotten a picture of her all dressed and ready to go, but it was kind of a crazy afternoon and I forgot. But she had practiced a lot and I think she felt pretty confident with her songs. And for a group of mostly 4th graders who had never played an instrument before September, they did a really good job!

If you look really close you can see her in the front row behind a boy that is standing up playing drums. Or, at least you can see part of her red hair anyway.

Then, this morning was the awards ceremony for earning 150% of your AR goal for the last trimester. Ashlyn was still a little bummed about her teacher throwing out some of her books during the first trimester and not counting them, so she didn't get the trophy. But she was still glad she worked hard and got the pin for her medal. Leah was super excited because this was her first time being able to earn her medal and SHE DID IT! Even with her teacher upping her goal a few weeks before the deadline. She worked hard too and read lots of books and took lots of tests. I'm super proud of both of them. It was worth sitting there with Carter for TWO hours to get to see them receive their awards. Sure love those cute girls of mine!

Just seven days left before summer break is officially here! Yahoo!

A beach celebration

I think Tina's birthday has turned into a yearly tradition of taking a girls day to the beach. I know....I'm a lucky spoiled girl. It was a small little group this year, but we had so much fun hanging out, chatting, relaxing, and let's face it....a lot of eating. It was a bit chilly this year, but before we knew it, it was 7:30. So we packed up and headed to get some dinner at The Habit and then back home to our cute families, who were mostly all asleep. 

Me and my cute friends.

Like I said, I'm a lucky girl! Sure am grateful to have these ladies in my life.

And on the way home, Paul's Toyota Highlander, which use to be my car, hit 100,000 miles. It was monumental so I had to take a picture. Luckily I was in a parking lot, so it was a safe picture taking. It's been a good little car to us and we hope to have it for many more years.

Mother Daughter hike

Look, my Activity Day group is growing. And we get another girl turning 8 in July. It's very exciting. I guess technically two of the girls in the back are friends of Meaghens, but still. They come often enough that they count. 

We went on an early morning hike last Saturday with the girls and their moms. It was a simple little hike. Probably didn't walk for more than 30 minutes because we had to save time for donuts and chat time. I think the girls had fun though and I'm glad everyone was able to come. I sure love these cute girls. They're a good group of friends.

After our hike and donuts, we walked over to the nature center and got lucky because this lady had just walked out with a barn owl. The girls had fun talking to the lady and hearing what she had to say about this pretty owl. 

42 years

This is Forty Two years together. Cute huh! Funny thing is their Anniversary was on the day WE returned from our Newport getaway. So we celebrated for them. But the funniest part was they both forgot it was their Anniversary that day until the evening. I guess that's what 42 years does to a person. We celebrated with them the next night at Rattlers, one of Gary's favorite places out here in Cali. 

Happy Anniversary to my favorite In Laws!

You made it this far, you might as well stick together for, well....eternity. (he he) Love you guys!

Our weekend in Newport

We left Saturday about noon and drove down to Newport. Got some lunch and got settled in at our hotel. Relaxed a little and then got fancied up for our dinner cruise with the Phillips. Yes...that's right. We totally ended up on a weekend getaway to the same city (within 5 miles of each other) on the same weekend, without even planning it. Once we found out though, we snuck in on their date night to celebrate Tina's 30th birthday. Lucky me that Tina loves me enough to let me crowd in. The cruise was amazing. Probably the best evening of the weekend. We toured around the bay for 3 hours, danced (just a little cuz I didn't marry a dancing fool), ate yummy food and laughed and chatted together. Such a memorable experience! 

We had a room on the bay with an ocean (well bay) view over looking a little golf course. So of course, I had to sit out on it and read my book(The Great Gatsby). Started and finished it that weekend (it was short). It was good, but horribly tragic and I wasn't expecting that. I still wanna see the movie though. But I'm definitely glad I know what happens.

Saw two movies in one day. My head was spinning a bit by the time we got out of the second one. Both were really good but intense. I'd say Star Trek was much better! Did I really just say a "Star Trek" movie was good? They've come along way from the old ones. 

Got a pedicure and a facial. Both heavenly! But no one beats my sister in facial superiority. Wish she didn't live all the way across the country!

Stopped to chat with the kids. Sure missed those cuties! 

Ate at Cafe Rio....twice! YUMMY!

Walked down to Balboa Island from our hotel. It was only a mile away. Then we walked up and down the bay and took a ferry over to the "fun zone" area where we rode a ferris wheel, got some ice cream and Paul played a few games at an arcade. (No weekend getaway is complete without Paul playing a few arcade games. Seriously, I think we went to one on our honeymoon too. I'm not even joking.)

We even ran into an old roommate of mine from my BYU days. One of my last roommates before Paul and I got married, so she knows Paul also. It was so fun to see her and her three kids and husband. I haven't probably seen her in 5 or 6 years. Totally random, but way cool!

And this pretty much sums up most of the meals I ate that weekend. Too much good food in too short of a time. But it was sure fun!

And on the way home we started thinking about our next get away destination. Such fun memories with my wonderful hubby. I'm one very very lucky girl!

Got home Tuesday afternoon and found some happy (and very spoiled) kids and perhaps some tired grandparents. But they are sure good sports and the kids just love them. Carter asked where they went for days after they left. Also grateful for all the handyman skills of my Father in law. I'm not sure he stopped much while we were gone. Whether he was playing with the kids or fixing something around the house for us. Paul and I couldn't be more grateful for wonderful parents/in-laws who made this weekend possible for us. We'll give ya about a year break before we bug ya again!