disneyland - day 1

We arrived in California on Sunday afternoon and decided to head over to Downtown Disney. The kids each picked out a hat to wear and we wandered through the Disney shops. For dinner we went to a yummy pizza place. While we were there a cute guy in high school was earning extra money by making balloon creations for the kids. Grace and Kyleigh each had him make a princess crown, of course. Garrett got a ladybug bracelet and Jack got a fire breathing dragon. Hopefully, Carol took some pictures of those with her camera because this is all I have from that day.

best friends

Grace has such a sweet spot in her heart for dogs. She and Casey sit like this all the time. If Grace happens to go to bed and her door is shut, Casey paces back and forth until I open the door for her to sleep in the room. Sometimes she sleeps on the floor, but most of the time I find them snuggling together on Grace's bed in the morning.

garrett's new look

Garrett has been asking to go to the eye doctor for a while now, but I never made it a priority. Well, when I got a call from the school nurse saying he really did need glasses I finally got him an appointment. It really is not a surprise that he needs glasses, I started wearing them when I was 8. I think he looks great, they make him look older.

2011 spelling bee

Garrett was able to participate in the school's spelling bee this year. He had to be the top in his class, then the top in his grade in order to be in the school bee. The school bee included kids from 2nd grade through 6th grade. I am so proud of him, he made it to the 6th round and took 6th place. 

Round 1-church


Round 2-basket

Round 3-gossip


Round 4-thermos


Round 5-lightning


Round 6-waiver

The bell means that he spelled it wrong. I think he knew as soon as he missed the "i" that he had spelled the wrong word. Great job Garrett!!!

artwork sept 2011

Garrett entered this drawing into the school's Constitution Week contest. He was one of only a few students who entered and he was proud of his drawing. I am glad that he was confident enough to enter even though none of his friends did.

Grace's class just finished a whole unit on apples. They even got to make applesauce in class and eat it. This is her final drawing for the apple unit. I love her apple trees and I love her sweet handwriting. She is getting so good at writing and making up stories.

And of course another great piece of art by Jack. You can see that it is a leaf-eating dinosaur standing next to an erupting volcano. His handwriting has improved so much as well.

jack

I feel so bad for Jack. He is the last child and I keep forgetting to take pictures of his lost teeth. With the other kids I took pictures and posted them immediately. Poor Jack lost his teeth about 3 weeks ago. I finally took pictures last week and it has taken until today to finally post them. I really need to be better about staying on top of things with all the kids.

Also, Jack's artistic abilities have really taken off. Literally 1 week before school started he was scribbling all over the page when he colored. Last week he brought home this picture and I just thought it was great! Just in case you can't see it, the python is eating a mouse! And from the looks of it the python already has one in his tummy! I love it!!!

more violin concert

Garrett has had a fun time learning to play the violin. This was their first concert and it was only after 6 classes. His teacher wanted to give them an opportunity to play in front of their family. At Christmas they will have their big concert for the whole school. You can see in the videos that he is only plucking the strings, they start using the bows next week. That should be interesting to listen to :)

It was funny to watch all the kids, they had such serious looks of concentration on their faces the whole time.

garrett's first violin concert

2011 first day of school

These pics are all mixed up, but you get the idea. The kids have been counting down the days until school started. No one was more excited than Jack (and me). At the school when everyone was lining up to go inside there were crying kids and crying moms, but Jack was all smiles. He has the same teacher as Grace had last year, Miss Spearow. Grace gets Mrs. Deadmond and Garrett has Mrs. Cole. Garrett had no problems with me taking pictures at home, but once we got to the school it was too embarrassing for him. Too bad, I had to take a couple of pics! It should be a great year for all three of them!

lake powell '11

We just got back from our annual trip to Lake Powell with Grandma Barb and Grandpa Mike. This year their group bought a new boat and it was wonderful. It was so much fun to spend time on the lake.

Rebecca, Jason and their brood of kids came also. It was so fun to see the girls and Kingston again. Jason's oldest daughter Navy and her friend Brady were there as well. The kids had so much fun playing together.

They spent time burying themselves in the sand, complete with anatomically correct features :)

Catching and releasing creatures including a lizard, frogs (or toads, I can't tell the difference), and tons of guppy fish.

They played cards and watched movies when it was too hot to be outside.

And of course there was lots and lots of swimming and sliding of the on boat slide.

These are the only pictures I took, Mom and Rebecca had their nice cameras out and I usually didn't bother with mine. I can't wait to see all the pictures that I missed. We had a great dance party on the beach on our last night there that was so much fun! Thanks Grandma Barb and Grandpa Mike for hosting our big summer vacation in style!