Daddy's Day

San Diego

This photo slideshow customized with Smilebox Our first camping trip of the summer was to Campland in San Diego.  While the name of this place is a little hokey the kids love it.  It is on Mission Bay just across from Sea World, which provide a nice firework display most nights.  We were a little surprised with the weather.  Cool and cloudy almost every day.  We were told this is known as "June Gloom".  Not a bad change from the sun scorched 100s in Las Vegas at this time of year.  Maxwell got to do lots of bike riding.  Proud moments for Mom and Dad watching him cruise comfortably on two wheels.  He probably rode about 20 miles over the five days.  Art got to ride along on his bike while pulling Annabel and Gabrielle in the trailer.  We went to Coronado Island for one of our activities.  Quite a picturesque place, but that bridge crossing over to the island kinda freaks me out.  Seems like it was built over 50 years ago and it wouldn't take much to go over the side.  We also went to the Silver Strand beach for a little shell collecting.  The following day was spent at Sea World.  The kids had a great time on the rides and watching the shows.  Annabel was quite impressed by that killer whale she referred to as "Shampoo". The following day was spent at the campground which allowed Maxwell and Annabel to do a little singing and dancing on the official Campland stage even though we were the only audience.  We are not sure where their skills in this regard come from but they sure do seem to enjoy it.  So throw in a little grilling out, some ice cream, more time at the beach and overall another great camping trip.

Last Week of School 2012

Maxwell's last week of school flew by!  Actually, the whole school year flew by!  My reign of Homeroom Mom is over and I will be the first to say, "I'm glad".  It was a lot of fun, but lots of work and very time consuming.  Maxwell and I made the teachers a crayon monogram a few weeks ago and we gave that to them on Tuesday.  I got the idea from our friend Mary Frances who had made one for her teachers and they came out so cute.  She actually made her monogram without the paper on the crayon and it looked very vibrant.  With lots of hugs and tears, I knew the teachers appreciated it.  


Picture without the shadow box.  I kept getting a glare on the pictures I was taking.  So I needed Art to take the picture, but he was in Chicago the weekend we made this.

10x8
P1 stands for Primary 1

The Moving Up Ceremony was very sweet.  A typical Montessori class has 3 grades in one classroom.  Each Kindergartener was paired up with a 3rd grader and then they took their place in the class as the 3rd grader moves on to 4th grade.  Maxwell said he was happy he was paired up with a boy because he didn't want it to look like he was getting married.  I cracked up at that!

At the Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony

 Afterwards, we enjoyed refreshments and a DVD of the kids.  One of the questions they asked the kids was "How would you change the world?"  Maxwell's response was, "I would make cooler animals like two-headed lions."  I'm not sure how this would change the world, but everybody did laugh!

Shirts they received for graduating

Each of their signatures was printed on the back

  Now it's time to enjoy the summer!! 

Annabel's Dance Recital

Annabel was so lucky to have so many people fly in to see her dance at her recital on Saturday.  She did a fantastic job and she had a lot of fun with the whole experience.  Thank you to Grandma, Grammie, Papa and Auntie Abby for taking the time to share this special event with us.

This free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Happy Memorial Day!

What a beautiful Memorial Day!  No wind and 80 degrees- can't get any better than that.  The kids swam and played outside most of the day.  Gabrielle likes to join right in with her brother and sister.  She has been walking now for 1 1/2 months and she loves sporting the dresses!  They do get in the way of her climbing on EVERYTHING though!

Our Friend Mary Frances gave Annabel this dress and now Gabrielle gets to wear it!

Awww, so cute!

Happy Mother's Day

As most of you know, Art is in Chicago visiting with Non so it's just me and the kids this Mother's Day.  I hope all of you that are moms have a relaxing and wonderful day!

Maxwell's teachers asked me to come up with some ideas for the kids to do for Mother's Day.  These were my Pinterest inspired crafts I did with Annabel.  They ended up doing the bookmark on your left.



Friday was the Mother's Day Tea.  Maxwell looked so cute singing his songs.  Afterwards, they gave us our gifts and we had lemon water (no tea!?) and cookies.  It was all so darling!

From left to right:  Annabel made me this in her Storybook Land class and she says they are "crystals" that she colored.  Maxwell made the bookmark and the picture frame at school.

On my way to the Mother's Day Tea and Annabel on her way to Rock-N-Roll Kids

My beautiful children on Mother's Day

Chuck E. Cheese's

Annabel really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for her birthday, BUT being that it was on a Saturday there was no way I was going to take the kids on a weekend.  So, Maxwell had 2 half days this past week due to Parent/Teacher Conferences and we decided to go on Thursday.  We got there about 11:45 and we were the only ones there!  By the time we left there were 6 other people.  Needless to say, it was great for me and the kids had a blast playing and running around.  The funniest part was they both could not believe that Chuck E. was singing Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO! 

Can't go to Chuck E. Cheese's without getting pizza!

Annabel's favorite ride

Hang on tight!

Maxwell made almost all the baskets!

I couldn't tell you how many times they "rode this ride".

Annabel wanted nothing to do with Chuck E. and he came out just for her!

Our new scanner was not cooperating with me so I had to take a picture of this instead.