Summer is here!

WOW! We kicked off our first official week of summer with a bang!  Here are a few of the highlights...

A  Crazy Busy Saturday:

I ran the Fontana Days Half Marathon in the morning.  My time was 2 hours, 7 minutes with an average pace of 9 minutes, 44 seconds per mile.  About average for me.  One of these days I will beat 2 hours!  I enjoyed the run, hot at first but then a breeze came through which made it very pleasant!  

We went to a wedding at the Redlands temple in the afternoon, and then celebrated my dad's retirement in the evening.  He worked for Edison for 32 years and deserved to CELEBRATE!  So, my sister and I planned a party at Buca de Beppos with family and close friends.  It was a very relaxed, pleasant evening!  Congratulations Dad!

Learning to Work:

Tanner is now in charge of keeping the backyard grass cut.  He does a great job and is quite proud of his new responsibility.  

Charity cheers for him when he mows!

Lego Heaven!

Months ago my mom planned a trip to Legoland and the new Legoland Hotel for us.  We surprised the boys on Thursday morning by waking them up early shouting:  "Wake up, we are going to Legoland and staying at the Legoland Hotel today!"  Hunter's response was "I just need a few more seconds to sleep."  And Tanner didn't believe us at all and thought we were just tricking him.  Well, it was true and they were in pure Lego Paradise for two whole days!  We played all day at Legoland on Thursday, where Tanner kept saying Legoland is just something to do while you are waiting to get into the hotel and eat at "The Brick" restaurant.  They were thrilled with the hotel, and got to spend all day Friday at the park again.

We got in an hour early on each day so we beat a lot of the crowds to the bigger rides, which made for short lines all day!

I think someone likes choo-choo rides!

With the package we got, it came with tickets to the water park.  Having spent time as a lifeguard at Raging Waters, I am not a big water park fan, but decided we should at least go check it out since it was already paid for.  It was a pretty cold day, but we decided to go for it!  It was a really nice water park for younger kids.  None of the water slides were over the top, the water was warm, and we really enjoyed ourselves!  We did need to take advantage of the $5 "family dryer" when we were done though-it really helped us to warm up fast!  My mom kept Charity entertained while we were getting wet which made life a lot easier for us! 

We had a great time at the park, but the extra special part was the Legoland Hotel!  This hotel is specifically designed for kids!  Legos everywhere!  The hotel rooms had different themes, and my favorite part was the sectioned off kids room with bunk beds and all!  The boys and my mom stayed in a Castle themed room, while Ladd, Charity and I stayed the night with Pirates!  

Here the boys are in their little room-they are watching their own little TV!  There is also a trundle that pulls out underneath, so you could easily fit three children here!  I seriously hope other hotels pick up on this kid room and make it an option at regular hotels!

Charity loves the Lego monkey in our Pirate room!

This Pirate was hanging out in the Lobby, where there was also a giant Lego pit where kids could sit and build, as well as a giant castle that they could run around and play in.  The boys loved The Brick Restaurant.  It was a buffet, with a special buffet just for kids and Lego decor all over.  Very cute.  Tanner wrote more about the trip on his blog here, if you want to read more!

We were all very sad to leave...

Charity's Birthday!

Charity turned 2 the day after we got back from Legoland.  We kept her celebration simple with family, cake, and ice cream at home.  It gets a little wild with all those cousins at my house, so from now on I think I will keep ALL family gatherings at the park!  We went for a ladybug theme this year.  Charity has a cute ladybug costume that she loves to wear, but I know it won't fit her by Halloween, so I took advantage of it for her birthday!

Here is Grandma's special cake...

and cupcakes to satisfy the rather large amount of cousins...

 Is this not the cutest little 2 year old bug you've ever seen?

 She is not so sure about everyone singing to her and looking at her...

 I think Charity liked her cake... (good thing I changed her out of her ladybug costume before she dug in!)

We LOVE Charity.  She is smart, cute, lovable, and as sweet as can be!  Her brothers adore her, she melts her daddy's heart, and her mommy is tickled pink to have another girl on her team!  She has bundles of energy to keep up with brothers, learns new things every day, likes to go "nigh-night",  and has climbing skills like no monkey I've ever seen!  Happy Birthday to my sweet 2 year old!

Hopefully the next few weeks of summer will slow down a bit...

Last post for this school year...

I like to take pictures of our school room at the end of the year.  I don't put up much at the beginning of the year, because I like it to be a child centered classroom designed by them!  This was the first year I did not have a bedroom as a school room.  We used our downstairs dining room, converted to office, now converted to school room.  It actually worked well.  I stored a lot of things in a closet upstairs, so only what we were actually using this year made it into the school room.  There are three big windows in this little room, so not a lot of wall space, but we managed!

 We wanted to show off all our hard work throughout the year to our grandparents, so we had an Open House with the "B" family.  Their grandparents live near, so they were there as well as both sets of our grandparents, my sister, and our teacher from the Charter school.

 The kids each performed a piano piece and sang the school song.  We had lots of art on display and a slideshow of the year playing on the computer.  It was a good night, and I was happy to go back and look at all we've learned throughout the year!

We had the boys' art portfolios, journals, and a few other projects on display at the Open House.  

Follow by Email

I added a gadget above that allows you to follow my blog by email!  So, instead of always checking my blog, hoping to see something new and fabulous only to be disappointed by the same old pictures you've already seen, you will get an email telling you I've updated my blog and to come check it out!  Rumor is that google reader will be ending as of July 1st, so this kind of takes its place!  Thanks to all of my devoted readers! (All two of you!)