Preschool graduation

Andrew's Preschool graduation was on Saturday, May 30th and he could not have been more excited. He talked about it for weeks. It was held at a local park and it was followed by a BBQ. All of the kids sang various songs that they had learned throughout the year including the ABC song and the itsy bitsy spider. They also danced to the the chicken dance song - Andrew inherited my lack of dancing ability. Finally it was time to get his diploma. They had little caps and gowns for each child and the teacher called them up individually.

Mrs. Rosario shook their hands and asked them in the microphone what they wanted to be when they grew up. Andrew said, "Darth Vader". Nice. Although there was a doctor, dentist, and a fireman mentioned, there was also another Darth Vader and a Batman.

Here is his whole class with their diplomas.

A family photo after the graduation. Again, Claire won't look at the camera.

One of the families brought a pinata for everyone. It was a huge Nemo and weighed 40 lbs! It took several rounds of hitting it to even make a crack in the exterior.

Claire even got a chance to hit Nemo. Andrew is excited to be going to Kindergarten, but he seemed worried when I told him it was every day and for more hours.

Mia's birthday weekend

Last weekend, we decided to go to LA for Mia's first birthday, or as Landon, Andrew and Isabel call her "cute little Mia". Andrew was thrilled to be able to spend time with his cousins again and we were thrilled to keep him busy. Since we had such a great time a few weeks ago, on Friday we headed back to Malibu for a day at the beach. This time my parents, Ryan, Mandy, Landon, Isabel, Mia, Lisa, and Taylor were able to come.

For a while Claire was content to hang out on the blanket with Mia. At first it looked like she was interested in Mia herself, but really it was about the food. Mia and Taylor were so good to wear their hats all day. Claire wouldn't touch hers.

Andrew, Landon, and Isabel had a great day running around, digging in the sand, and hanging out. They weren't too sure though when Lisa grabbed them and took them into the water. Isabel was the only one who didn't seem to mind.

A lovely family photo at the beach. As a side note, Claire will not look at the camera. It is so frustrating!

It started with just Landon getting buried, but soon they all wanted to be in the sand. Landon actually got buried almost all the way. He didn't want to get out of the sand to go home. We had a great day at the beach and it probably would have been better if we had reapplied sunscreen at some point in the day.

On Saturday morning we took the kids to the Los Angeles Zoo. We hit the children's petting zoo first. Andrew wouldn't pet the goats or the sheep, while Landon and Isabel really liked it. Claire was terrified the whole time.

We saw lots of animals including the zebras as in the picture above. We could not seem to locate the elephants though, which seems odd since they are quite large. For lunch the kids got animal lunch boxes which they loved. For the remainder of the weekend there were many plastic Cheetah fights.

For Mia's birthday Mandy planned a BBQ at a local park. There was just one problem - no BBQs. We decided to stay and play for a while though.

Mandy's friend brought a boomerang which Danny promptly threw in a tree. Danny started throwing sticks at it to try and get it down, but that didn't work. They finally got it down with a football, but it was pretty funny to see all of them looking up in the tree.

Lisa and Taylor hanging out at the park. We eventually went to Mandy's parent's house to have the BBQ and the main event - baby vs cake. Mia had a super cute cupcake cake all to herself and she loved it!!!

I don't know how she didn't get sick from eating so much icing! She just kept going until they finally had to cut her off. We had a great weekend with the family. Andrew told me later that he really misses Landon and that he wants to move next door to him. If life were only that simple. Happy 1st Birthday Mia!

Birthday Boy

Today Andrew is 5 years old. It is hard to believe that he will be going to Kindergarten in the fall. It seems like he was just....

this old. Happy Birthday Andrew!

Star Wars party

We had Andrew's 5th birthday party on Saturday. Andrew was very quick to tell people that his birthday wasn't until May 18th. He wanted to have a Star Wars themed party. He requested to invite all of his friends from church and school including the teachers.

In a repeat of last year, he wanted a bounce house. Just like last year, it happened to be the hottest day of the year so far. This year I was armed with water bottles for the kids. Their faces were so red when they got out of the bounce house. We played stick the asteroid to the rebel ships. For those of you who haven't played that game, it is the updated Star Wars version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Then we decorated space ships. There were lots of stickers and pens to personalize their ships.

Then we got to "fly" our ships. They were made from paper plates and bowls and they flew surprising well.

The next activity was destroying the Death Star with water balloons. The were (poorly) drawn with chalk on the driveway, so when they were hit with the balloons, they erased the chalk. The kids loved this. We also did a pinata outside. There are not any pictures of this because it was over so fast. While I was explaining safety rules for the kids, Andrew hit the Darth Vader head pinata and almost broke it in half! Not good.

Instead of a cake we did cupcakes, can you tell what the design is? It is two light sabers hitting each other of course! I don't think the kids could tell either.

Andrew requested that all 5 candles be in one cupcake.

The best part for Andrew was opening the presents. He was very excited about this Lego set. Overall it was a great party, we just hope that next year it won't be quite so hot.

Mother's Day

I received some very cute craft projects from the kids for Mother's Day.

At preschool Andrew made this flower by tracing his hand and then applying a picture of himself. He also got to paint the pot. I had asked him last week what he did at school to get paint on his shirt and he said it was a surprise present and he couldn't tell me.

At church both kids made a "stacked" flower out of cookies, gumdrops, and marshmallows. They were so cute! They were put on a wooden skewer which was the stem. Claire was so exited to give it to me. She licked the gumdrop all the way home. I kept telling her not to eat it and she would smile and give it another lick.

Malibu

On Monday, Mandy and I took the kids to the beach in Malibu. We gave them a choice of the beach or the zoo and they chose the beach. It was a beautiful day!

Here is Andrew's life guard pose. He was so excited to finally go to the beach. He has been asking all winter when it would be time to go again.

Landon and Andrew posing - finally a good picture.

Andrew, Landon and Isabel playing in the sand. Right after we applied sunscreen they were practically rolling in the sand, so it was quite the mess when it was time to leave.

Mandy spotted 3 dolphins swimming not far off the shore. In keeping with my track record, I missed a few spots while applying sunscreen. Wow, I was in a lot of pain the next two days at work.

Here is Andrew on the plane ride home. We had such a good time visiting cousins. Andrew can't wait to go again. They were pretty wild the whole time and Mandy and I didn't know how anyone could handle twin boys this age.

Cousin time

I had to go to Burbank for work this past weekend and decided that it would be fun to take Andrew to visit his newly relocated cousins. Needless to say, Andrew had a wonderful time and cried when it was time to leave. There was a lot of running around, yelling, and eating.

We had a Wii tournament and the favorite game of the kids was the running! Here are Andrew and Isabel in a race.

Landon and Isabel kept posing for pictures while Andrew was mad because he wanted to be the photographer.

Erik was wrestling with Landon and Andrew. It is all fun and games until someone gets smashed! No, Andrew is not laughing. He was at first when he was on top of Erik, but not when he was on the bottom.

Andrew and Landon racing.


Ryan and Mia.

Here I am with Mandy, Mia, Lisa, and Taylor. It was so fun to just hang out on Sunday afternoon and catch up with each other.