Easter Fun

Today for Easter we went to church and then hosted an Easter Brunch. The kids were up very early to see what the Easter bunny had left in their baskets. They were happy with a little chocolate and bottles of bubbles. After church they tried out the bubbles and I got a few pictures of Gina in her pretty Easter dress with her hair down (she almost always insists on having it in a braid or pony tail now). Dylan was hoping to wear a t-shirt and shorts to church but VERY reluctantly changed into long pants and a new polo shirt.


We had a full house of grownups and kids for brunch. Nana was there early to help with the last minute cleanup. Becky and her friend Dave came as well as Noemi and her three kids. This year I also invited another mom friend, Cindy, who came with her two kids and parents who were visiting from NC.

Here are the kids, somewhat patiently waiting to start the egg hunt in our front yard. We gave the 4 year olds and 2 year old a head start though I think I should have given them more. Dylan was actually the first one done. I never got a shot of him looking for eggs. I think there may be one or two more eggs still hidden, but the kids got most of them.

Swim Time

Spring is here, the weather is getting warmer, and so it is time for swim lessons for the kids. The kids didn't have swim lessons last year, so I decided to start early with lessons this year. Dylan was excited about starting the lessons, but tentative once we were at the pool. He is now old enough to have a private lesson without me being in the pool (yeah!) but he wasn't so sure about the new teacher. Once he was in the pool and comfortable kicking his legs, he started smiling and laughing and had a grand time jumping into the pool from the side. He was reluctant to put his face in during the lesson, but he was putting his head under during play time.
Gina and Andrew are getting some lessons as well. At first I didn't think we would have time with their other activities, but I was able to cram in 4 lessons this week because of spring break. Gina is better at swimming right now and is comfortable in the deep end of a pool, but she is learning to breathe by turning to the side and the backstroke. Andrew needed more help but he is very enthusiastic and is catching up to Gina quickly.


They are taking lessons at the same pool Gina started at when she was 2 years old. Here she is floating in the pool at 4 years old...


and here she is 5 years later.

Little House

Ever since we visited the Living History Farm at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT two years ago, Gina has wanted a pioneer girl outfit. After a bit of looking on the internet, I found a shop on Etsy that sells made to order outfits complete with matching bonnet. Her class is studying the pioneers at school and they have an overnight field trip to a ranch where they get to pretend to be homesteaders. So for an early birthday present, I ordered an outfit.

Gina's class also do a presentation in May on a historical figure from the 1800s where they dress up as the person and talk about that person's life. Gina's first choice? Laura Ingalls Wilder. She spent the last weekend coming up with a second choice, just in case (Belle Starr).

Monday afternoon she came home to her early birthday present after being able to pick Laura Ingalls Wilder for her presentation.

Here she is looking through the Little House cookbook which she picked up from the library.

Basketball

Gina loves playing soccer in the fall and spring. This year I asked if she wanted to give basketball a try in the winter by playing in the local YMCA league and she agreed. She is the tallest player on her team but she doesn't have the same enthusiasm for the game as some of the other players on her team.

In the first game, she walked down the court to get on offense and then walked down the court to get on defense. She touched the ball twice in that game. As the season has progressed though, she has improved. Before each game, I tell her to focus on running to get on defense and then on offense and that has helped. I've also tried to tell her to imagine that the other team are her brothers and she needs to get the ball from them. That just makes her laugh though. In the last game, she finally made a basket which made her day. One more game to go and then she can focus again on soccer.

End of the year recap

Since I've been so bad about posting this past year, here a recap of the last month.

We managed to wait until Dec 22 to get our tree, and despite the smaller selection, we found a perfect little tree. The kids enjoyed decorating it and I only had to do a little rearranging of the ornaments after they were done.

We fit in a visit to Santa at the mall. All three are still enthusiastic about Santa. Gina asked for a skateboard but settled for a scooter. Dylan insisted on asking Santa for a DS game (wasn't going to happen) but Santa did deliver on the Beyblade top toy. Andrew only wanted the Beyblade toy. In fact he had been obsessing about it for the past month as some friends at school had them. Since he couldn't get one right away, he ended up making them out of Legos and we even found directions on making the launcher out of Legos.

December also means a week of choir performances. Both Andrew and Gina did it this fall, though Andrew was less enthusiastic. Juliette, the choir teacher made sure that they sang Zippity Doo Dah since it was Andrew's favorite. I think his favorite parts though were getting hot chocolate after the performance at Peets Coffee and decorating cookies after the last performance. He may not show a lot of enthusiasm for the class but every so often, out of the blue, he starts singing the songs that he learned.

We have gone to San Jose each year to see the Nutcracker, but this year I took Gina to see the Nutcracker in San Francisco. We dropped the boys off at Auntie Alice's apartment and arrived in plenty of time. I had bought tickets for the balcony so we were really high up but since we were at the front of the balcony we could see everything pretty well. They have changed the story from when I used to see it as a kid but I loved having the live orchestra and I liked how they set it in 1915 San Francisco.

The month we also welcomed a new member of our family. Cason Beckett Johnston was born on December 15. They came over for Christmas dinner and the kids were only mildly interested in their new cousin as he mostly slept, but Nana was thrilled to get more time holding the baby.
Of course the kids got all kinds of stuff for Christmas. In addition to the scooter, Gina got a chemistry set, a weaving kit, a sewing kit, and a sea otter toy. it is really hard to figure what to get Dylan as we have so much stuff from the other kids. Dylan received a tennis racket, a zhu zhu pet hamster that rolls around and makes sounds, and a polar bear Webkinz.

When Andrew first looked under the tree he was very grumpy. Gina said, "Yeah, presents" and Andrew replied: "No yeah, No yeah!" He didn't see a package that looked like the Beyblade package in the store, but he saw them for Gina and Andrew. He got much more chipper when we started opening stuff and he was very excited to get a box with two Beyblade toys and the stadium to play with them. Here are all three kids launching their tops.Here is Andrew trying out his new RC toy: a very large Jeep from Boppa. It is too large to really use in the house so he had fun chasing it around the school yard.

The day after Christmas, I took the kids ice skating with my aunt and cousins. Gina had a great time, Andrew would skate fast and then fall, and Dylan and I held onto the wall most of the time. It was Dylan's first time on the ice. I was doing okay until I tried getting off the ice and ended up on my back. I was a little sore, but later I discovered a huge bruise on my leg which is still healing.

After the festivities of Dec 25, we still had one more Christmas celebration. We drove up to Rocklin to visit Grandma. She had gone completely overboard once again with presents for the kids. Andrew was thrilled with a Star Wars lego set and spent the entire time putting it together. He also got a RC airplane and car. Dylan also got an RC airplane and a Playmobil zoo set as well as two large Tonka trucks. Gina received a very nice art supply set, plenty of critter dolls and another scooter, but this one makes sparks.

Goodby Tooth, Hello New Year

Andrew has been talking about a loose tooth for a while now and last night it finally came out! His first tooth! He was quite proud to show off his new gap. He was a little worried that he didn't have a pillow to put the tooth under (he still sleeps without a pillow) but we improvised with a folded up quilt. The tooth fairy didn't seem to mind and left him a gold dollar coin.


The kids wanted to stay up until midnight, Gina has been talking about it all year. She and Andrew stayed up to watch the ball drop, though Dylan crashed about 10:30pm. This morning Gina and I got up at 8:30am to go on a walk at Rancho to help celebrate a friend's birthday. It was cold but not raining. Gina kept up a good pace, and despite a slip in the mud, seemed to enjoy the walk. At the end, coffee, hot chocolate and goodies were waiting. A nice way to start the new year.

Dylan is now 4

Dylan turned 4 two weeks ago. His birthday is always a little anti-climatic, falling between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

At preschool, I brought popsicles for snack. Normally, that might be a little odd for mid November but it was still about 80 F that week.

We had presents and a ice cream rainbow cake that evening after going out for pizza at Jakes. The highlight at Jakes is the one race car video game, the pinball machine, and the trinkets that you can buy for a quarter.

We also had a party with some of his friends at Pump It Up two weeks later. Since I waited too long to make the reservation, I could only get the Sunday after Thanksgiving, not the best time as lots of families were out of town. Even though it was a small group, the kids had a great time going down the slides and through the obstacle course. Then it was time for cake. Dylan had requested a rainbow cake and I obliged.

Soccer

All three kids played soccer this fall. Gina played in the under-10 group so this year they had a goalie to contend with. Gina played goalie a couple of times but it is not her favorite position. Her team had a tough season, they only scored a couple of goals through out the season but they did get a tie and win their last game during the end of the season tournament.


Andrew played in the under 8 group. It took a while for him to get comfortable. He was called for a hand ball in his first game which really upset him. He definitely improved during the season and even scored 3 goals in one game. But of course, the most important thing about soccer is the snack after the game.

Dylan also wanted to play soccer like his big sister and brother. He isn't quite old enough for AYSO so he is taking a soccer class on Thursday mornings. After the first class, he asked every single morning if he was going to soccer. I guess he is hooked.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of 1st grade for Andrew and 3rd grade for Gina. Hard to believe that the summer vacation is over. The first day of school has been easy the past few years, with the kids getting up, dressed, and eager to leave for school. But not this year. Andrew was a little anxious and while dressed, he rolled himself up in his quilt and said he didn't want to go to school. The prospect of going out to dinner for pizza and video games, cheered him up a bit and he was more willing to go. Gina wasn't as quick to get up and get dressed either but we were able to leave with plenty of time to get a quick photo on the porch.

At school, Gina found her friend Noya who is in the same class. Apparently, they got to pick their seats and are currently table partners. We'll see how long that lasts.

I caught a quick picture outside Gina's classroom as her teacher was arriving.

Then it was Andrew's turn. I stood with Andrew outside his classroom and watched him go inside. I was aiding in his classroom this morning too so I got to see him settle in. I tried not to hover around him too much but I enjoyed watching him figure out where things are in the classroom with his table partner. Later, he said that the day was fine. Hopefull, day 2 will be good as well.

Dylan at Logger Days

Here is Dylan riding the mechanical bull:

Other Montana Fun

The kids enjoyed playing in the creek in the front yard. When I told them to go play by the creek, I should have known that they would end up in the creek. The next time they played there I made sure they were wearing shorts.

We spent one afternoon at nearby Lake Como. The lake has a nice beach and a large shallow area for the kids to swim. Gina loved sitting in the inner tube, floating around the lake, and occasionally being pushed around by Dylan.

Once again, we tried letterboxing with the kids. This year we were more successful as I remembered the stamp, pad and notebook. My dad helped them find the first two and I helped them find one just outside of Darby by the Bitterroot River.


Here is Dylan sitting quietly on the porch, watching deer in the yard. My dad puts out corn for them so there are often 3 or 4 deer in the evening.

After we picked Vic up from the airport, we visited Fort Missoula. Below, the kids are in front of a log cabin used as NCO housing.
In the museum, Gina enjoyed dressing up in old clothes while the boys tried their hand at the cross cut saw.
For Vic and me, the highlight of the trip to Montana was taking a day to go to a Bed and Breakfast in a nearby town while the kids stayed with Boppa. We stayed in the house below which was near the river. We had a huge king size bed and jacuzzi style bathtub as well as a view of the river from our window. It was great! Maybe next year, we will stay two nights.

Before heading back to my dad's house, we visited nearby St. Mary's Mission, built in 1841. It wasn't open but we toured the grounds.


While we were gone, my dad and his friend Kathy took the kids to Big Hole Battlefield where there was a beading demonstration. The boys were not into that so they stayed outside throwing rocks and sticks. Kathy and Gina though got to try beading a small bag.

At night they had a cookout of hot dogs, cowboy beans, corn and s'mores for dessert. Kathy got Andrew to try the beans by mentioning the effect beans can have. Can you tell she has boys?

Below is a picture from our last day of the kids with their riding teachers, Kathy and Jack.

Logger Days

This year we stayed in Montana during Logger Days. It started off with a bull riding competition on the edge of town. The kids also got to see some fancy horse back riding. The rider above helped corral the bulls after the riders came off. A couple of times the horse had to back up quickly to avoid the bull. No one was seriously hurt but a number of riders limped off the field.

Two days later there was a parade through town. There were lots of emergency vehicles, cars, horses and at the end, two trucks pulling logs for the competitions. The highlight for the kids? Candy. Every single vehicle that went by threw out several pieces of candy to the kids, it looked like Halloween.

At Logger Days my dad found a reasonably priced hat for Dylan that he liked. Here he is as we are waiting to sign up the kids for their events.
We saw some of the Logger Day events like the springboard event, women's cross cut event and choker race but mostly we were going back and forth between the kid events. Andrew and Dylan were in the 6 and under tricycle race, Andrew and Gina each did the tug of war event and Gina also entered the watermelon eating contest.

The tricycle race was harder that it looked because it was on grass and once the kids turned at the far end, they slowed down and it was difficult to get going. Andrew managed really well and came in 2nd place. For the tug of war competitions, both Andrew's and Gina's teams won. They got extra tickets for winning which were put to good use in the bounce house/slide area. There was also a drawing for a bike at the end of the day. Andrew was sure he would win but of course, he didn't. The kids all took a turn on the mechanical bull as well. Dylan and Gina seemed to enjoy it the most though neither liked falling off at the end onto the super hot tarp.

At the end of the day, they also had a sawdust pile for the kids to search for coins and toys. The littlest kids go first but Dylan didn't want to try. Then they let the 5-7 yr olds go and Andrew joined the fray. He came up with a slingshot and 2 dollar coins. Gina tried once they opened it up to all the kids but it was so crowded, she quickly gave up.

It was a fairly warm day and at one point the kids talked me into buying them each a can of soda. They were so excited to be drinking Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. I think it was the highlight of their day.