Halloween Fun

 

This year for Halloween Dylan decided to be Darth Vader while Andrew decided on the CryptMaster costume after I said no to all the zombie costumes. The giant ax was the biggest selling point.  It originally had a skeleton mask but he never liked how it fit, so he used his ninja mask from last year.

Gina spent the last two months working on her bird costume. She came up with the design and put it all together, except for a little help sewing on the velcro for the wings.  It was very colorful! I think I will be finding little colored feathers around the house for quite some time though.

We went around our neighborhood with three other families from school, 10 kids in all! The kids kept worrying that we would miss a house or two but in the end, their bags were pretty full. We will be eating candy until Easter.

Around the Bend

Our summer vacation this year was divided into two parts. First we went to Oregon and then our usual jaunt to Montana to visit my dad.

Some friends of mine wanted to meet up in Bend, Oregon to do a triathalon. They wanted me to do it as well but I just couldn't quite figure out how to train for the swimming and biking. I've been running though so I signed up for the 10K and the 5K. Vic was less than thrilled to be going to Oregon just for a running event, but hoped to catch up with our friends who we don't see very often.

The event also sponsored a kid event, a splash and dash. The kids had fun going down the slide and through an obstacle course and then a run to the bridge and the finish line.

And then the best part: shaved ice!

We also got to visit the High Desert Museum just outside Bend. The kids loved seeing the river otters and the Gila monster.

There was also an area built like a homestead. The kids pumped water to water the garden and played a game with sticks and a hoop. They even had fun scrubbing a porch and sweeping.

To get to Montana, we drove to Portland to drop off the rental and take a plane to Missoula. I figured we would get an early start, visit the zoo or Children's museum in Portland and then fly out the next day. However, no early start, a long drive to Portland and so when we got there, it was raining and half an hour until closing. So instead, the kids climbed around an old locomotive. Then we drove to a restaurant that I had read about only to discover that it isn't open for dinner during the week. Portland was a complete bust. So, onto Montana...

Highlights of the end of 1st Grade

Andrew also had a busy end of the year in 1st grade. The focus of the last few months of school was the ocean. So there were field trips to Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Seymour Marine Lab. At the Aquarium, the kids got to touch sea stars and sea urchins and feed sea anemones and sea cucumbers. After lunch, the kids got to see a few things in the aquarium so our group headed to the sea jelly and sea horse exhibits. The leafy sea dragon below was Andrew's favorite.

At the Marine Lab in Santa Cruz, the kids learned about the Santa Cruz ecosystem. Below, Andrew got to pet a leopard shark.


For the his ocean project, Andrew got to study the sea jelly. Here he is at the Art Show with his ocean folder.

And here he is showing Gina and her friend Erika his Sky Tree picture up on the wall.


Here are Gina's ceramic contributions to the Art Show.


The last few weeks of the school year went by quickly. Andrew's two teachers announced that they wouldn't be returning next year. I got a little bit of warning so another parent and I were able to put together a photo album. I never did get a photo of Andrew with his teachers but they did a great job helping Andrew grow during 1st grade. He started the year being very cautious, reluctant to raise his hand and speak up in class. By the end of the year, he was quite comfortable in class. Hopefully, this will carry over to 2nd grade.

The end of Preschool

Last week was Dylan's last day of preschool. He got to wear a crown with sharks which he loved. I had the kids each pick out a book to donate to the preschool since they each went there. I was sad to say goodbye to Dylan's teachers and they were sad to see him go. We had been at the school for 8.5 years ever since Gina was 4 months old.

Two weeks before, Dylan had his preschool graduation ceremony. The kids are always very cute walking in and then singing a few songs. This year they did it inside the classroom as the garden was under construction.

Highlights of the end of 3rd grade

In the spring the kids went to Ardenwood Farms for an all day field trip and got to hang out with chickens and sheep.

The class also went on an overnight field trip to Elkus Ranch.

The trip started with a 4 mile hike from the top of Skyline down to Purisima Creek. The weather was beautiful and we saw lots of wildflowers as well as quite a few banana slugs. The kids then spent three days learning how to take care of the animals on the ranch, pulling weeds in the garden, and preparing their homesteading report. The kids were divided into families and they had to come up with a plan for how much land they needed and how they were going to use the land. On the second night, each family presented their proposal to the "town council". Gina dressed up in her prairie outfit. The night of the town council was also Gina's 9th birthday. The kids had already planned on ice cream for dessert so I made some cake to go with it.After Elkus, the kids focused on their 1800 historic figure report. Gina had picked Laura Ingalls Wilder. She had read all the books and we found numerous biographies at the library. She worked hard on her project and did a good job on the report. At the end, the kids dress up as their figure and the parents get to go around to each kid and hear their presentation. Gina was one of the few who had their report completely memorized and she got a lot of compliments on her presentation.

The last two weeks of school went by quickly with the kids sorting through their work and bringing home bags of papers and art projects that I still need to sort through. The third graders got to walk to a nearby park on the day before the last day and had a fun day playing and running around.

The last day of school was a little sad as I was sorry to say goodbye to Gina's totally awesome 3rd grade teacher. Gina had a good last day as she got to go off with her friends for lunch and frozen yogurt. Now it is 10 weeks until 4th grade...

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.