ZOOOOOMMMM! Cole Turns 6!

Well, we have had a busy busy week! Sunday kicked off Cole's birthday celebrations! The family came over and we did lunch, cake (made by Grandma Annette of course!) and ice cream, and presents, naturally. Cole had a blast and we even had a couple of extra family members there! Carl's cousin Brad and his wife and two sons were in town so they came too! We had fun and Cole loved his "Cars" cake. Grandma got the race track fine and did the rest of the stuff except for the grandstand. I did that. If you look closely you can see the blobs of color have the look of a bunch of cars watching the race. I did this the day of, mind you, so the details are not that precise. Anyway, Cole really liked it and he got a few new "Cars" too. He got a lot of hotwheels stuff, some Rescue Heroes, a rocket launcher, some puzzles, AirBuddies the movie, a "Cars" skateboard with protective gear, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was a good day.

I Got New Glasses!

So take a good look and tell me what you think. I just got my new glasses and I really like them! But we can take a poll and get everyones opinion.

Just don't say anything mean, ok?

From Oak Glen to Brea

So while I was at Oak Glen I painted a birdfeeder and a birdhouse and some river stones. It was a lot of fun and I came up with my own design, which if you look closely at the second photo, you will see what looks like a pocket with a bandana sticking out of it. That is my Denim birdfeeder. I painted it a nice blue and then made pockets on either side to look like jeans. I enjoyed making it and the birds really like visiting it, as you can see! My birdfeeder tower is a little rickety to say the least, but I had to put it on something! No trees! So now we can look out the window and watch the birds eating. The minute we go outside the birds fly away. I was able to get this bird while I was in the back of the excursion, I cracked the back door open and very very slowly brought the camera out and got my shot! Enjoy!

Easter Sunday!

Well, Easter is always a hit at Grandma's house!

With 258 eggs hidden, everyone got plenty! Especially our two who were the ones most excited about looking for the eggs. The older cousins were limited to hard to find eggs and Will, who is only 2 1/2 found some eggs and then found the sandbox. So all in all Cole found 73 eggs and Kaleigh found 66. She was leaving the easiest eggs for Will to find so she would have had more had she picked up all she saw. They found plenty and enjoyed themselves. We had a nice lunch and then a nice selection of desserts afterwards. This always ends up being an all day affair and the kids really enjoy playing with their cousins! We moms and dads had a nice time too, good food, good company and best of all, no cooking to be done by anyone! Grandma Annette does make baked beans but those don't require a lot of time. So chicken, rolls, carrot sticks, deviled eggs, and so on. Really nice. I hope that everyone had as nice a time as we had!

Oak Glen...The Tradition Continues

Well as far as I know, we have been going to Oak Glen before Easter for around 7 or 8 years now, other than the year I was pregnant with Cole. It was a little too close to the due date for us to go.

But every year is wonderful and the kids now enjoy it even more because they have a little more freedom to do what they want. We don't have to go with them as much. We are all one group at the Oak Glen Christian confrence center. We all know each other and the people who work there too.

Since I still cannot figure out how to lay out my photos, you will have to look at them all bunched at the top, I guess! The flowers are all over the area and are beautiful purple and they cover a lot of the ground. The family shot is in the cabin and is also part of our tradition. We always, at least always try, to get a family shot in our cabin. Then the last is a squirrel that I caught getting a drink in the fountain in front of the cafeteria.

We do really enjoy our time at Oak Glen, it is really a time to reflect and enjoy ourselves as a family. Then of course we come home and go to Grandma's house the next day for Easter! No muss no fuss! She makes something simple and we all go over and have a ball. We are usually a little more tired than normal, but we can catch up since this next week is our Easter vacation! Yahoo!

What? The Year is almost over?

Well, boy howdy, the year has really flown by! It is only about 2 months and some change before summer! The kids in my class sure have grown! They have learned a lot and have matured a bit too. They will hopefully take something special away from this year! I know I will. This being my first class and all, I decided to make a memory book for myself! I am not sure if I will make one for every class, but definitely for this year. I have learned a lot from these guys too! This was partly a really gentle class and partly a challenging class. I don't care for the challenging parts especially when it includes non-english speaking students! It makes it very difficult to give out simple directions. But mostly it was a pretty breezy class! The kids that were a little more "active", responded well to boundries and it never got out of hand. So, all in all it was an interesting yet enjoyable year. Good with the bad, bad with the good, everything balanced itself out. So here is to my first class of students. I wish them well next year in the 4 year old class!