Kara

Friday was Kara’s birthday.  She is now in her final year of being a single digit age.  She is such a good girl and is so helpful and kind.  I sometimes think she is older than just 9 years old.

This is our off year of big friend birthday parties.  Birthday’s are totally important and special around here and we always try to make the birthday person feel like its their day.  We did something new and exciting this year for Kara’s birthday. 

We had a little family get-away to a resort out at Lake Las Vegas.

I received a flier in the mail offering some summer packages.  I presented Kara with an option to have  2 or 3 friends go to the movies with her or have a family overnighter at a hotel.  She picked the second option.

We had such a great time!

This is the view from our hotel room.

Kara wore a birthday crown all day to mark her special day.

We started her birthday with breakfast at the hotel.  It was part of the package and it was a nice perk.  The service was a little lacking though.  One guy was kind of running the whole seating/ordering/serving portion of it and it was slow.  I think breakfast took over an hour and a half.  But we were on vacation and so we just went with it.

After breakfast, we headed out to rent a boat.

The kids were all very excited about this part of the day.  And actually I was too.  This was the part that had caught my eye in the brochure.  Our stay included, hotel, breakfast for up to 6 people, 18 foot electric boat rental and 2 paddle boat rentals for 2 hours.  Very exciting.

We got down to the marina and the guy running the rentals informed me that they weren’t allowing any rentals due to the wind. 

So there I stood, four kids in tow, beach bag packed, swimming suits on and a birthday girl longingly staring at me, feeling all of my plans unraveling around me.  (Paul was having a major work crisis at the moment and was on conference calls trying to sort it out in the hotel room)

I asked the guy what options we had.  I explained that we had already paid for the package and that we were far from home.  I mean we were all the way out in Henderson for crying out loud!  He was nice and felt bad but explained that the boats don’t go very fast and that the wind was reportedly going to pick up very soon.

So I asked again if we could just try it out.  And he very apologetically said no.

So then I said that it was Kara’s birthday and asked if we could just go around the little cove area right where the marina is.

And then he said yes.

Wahoo!!

It was really fun.  We drove the boat under a bridge and over near our hotel room.

This is a picture of the bridge we went under.

We called Paul and he came to the window and we were able to wave to him.  Thankfully, he was able to wrap things up for a bit and he ran down and joined us shortly after that.

There was no one else out and that is partly why the guy let us go out.  He was really great and told us where to go and let us stay out a bit longer. 

Because there was no one else out, we let all the kids take turns driving.  Needless to say, all of them, especially Cooper, loved it!

The girls jumped in after a while and we had fun pretending to leave them!  We had to keep things lively!

It was a totally different experience for us.  I really enjoyed being with just my little family.  Everyone was really well behaved and it was a memorable vacation.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and checking out the little lagoon at the resort.

We could see the waterfall from our room and Cooper was dying to check it out.  I think it was a little louder than he expected!

Kara is such a good sister to offer him some reassurance!

After we swam and swam and played and played (and got the worst sunburn I have had in years)  we headed home.

Evidence of a good time!

We continued the birthday celebration with presents and cake and ice cream.

 

We are so happy to have Kara as part of our family.  She has a great personality and she is so smart.  Kara is such a great big sister to Cooper and Cassidy.  She tirelessly plays with them and helps them so much. And she is a great sister to Allie too.  She helped Allie study for upcoming tests and she is one strict quizzer! When it comes to Kara, you don’t need to tell her to ‘raise the bar’ or to go the extra mile.  In most cases she’s done that and more.  She has high expectations for herself and is always striving to be good and choose the right.

Kara is the model student too.  When Tauna was here, she asked Kara is she ever gets in trouble at school for talking to much.  When she said no, I think Tauna was confused.  You see, Kara never stops talking.  She even talks in her sleep!  But like I mentioned before, she works hard and knows how to follow the rules.  So that means no talking at school when she shouldn’t be!  And that also means that she holds it in and we get more at home!  But we love Kara and there is always something to say when she is around!

Kara- thanks for a fabulous birthday weekend and choosing to spend it with your family.  We love you so much!  Happy Birthday.

Last Day of School!

I need to finish up with school stuff so I don’t have to think about it for a few more months.

The girls wanted to do something personal for their teachers this year.  Kyrstin was visiting and she is always good about helping (i.e. mostly doing for me) with craft projects.  So with the help of her and her friend Chrissy, we made really cute magnets for each teacher.

I wanted to do something with the magnets so we made a magnet board to display them on.  Kyrstin and I went to Home Depot and bought some metal pieces.  Then we bought some frames to put the metal in.  They turned out really cute and the girls were so excited to give them to their teachers.

Allie wanted to bring her teacher flowers because she knew that she loved them.

She attached a note thanking Mrs. Booth for helping her stick with it!

Kara added chocolates to her magnet board.  We also were able to find some alphabet paper and we made magnets that spelled out her teacher’s name.  Mrs. Condon’s magnet board turned out so cute!

D.A.R.E., Choir and Field day

As we wrapped up our end of the school year festivities, it seemed like I was at the school every day, sometimes multiple times a day. 

D.A.R.E. Graduation
Allie participated in the DARE program and the 5th grade had a big graduation program to finish it off.

Allie wanted to get a picture with her D.A.R.E. instructor Officer Chavera.


And of course we had to have a picture with our Principle!  He is such a nice man.  For the last couple of weeks at school, he would get chocked up when ever there was something to do with the fifth graders.  Allie has been at this school for the past six years and has really gotten to know him and most of staff members during her time there.  She is even friends with the head of the custodial department!



Choir

This is the first year that we have had the opportunity to participate in a choir program.  We have had a brand new music teacher who is in his first year of teaching. He was ambitious enough to start a choir for the fourth and fifth graders.
They practiced before school and got to perform at school functions and at a Choir Concert.  Mr. Lui did a great job especially considering this isn’t his native language and it was his first year teaching.


Allie got to have an instrument ‘solo’ during part of one of the songs.


Kara is looking forward to participating next year.


Field Day
Field day is a fun day to be at the school.  Its great because I can take Cooper and Cassidy with me and they love going to the girl’s school.

They loved watching all the kids participating in the different activities.

All of the girl’s friends love Coop and Cass.  Coop gets kind of embarrassed sometimes!  Wait for a few years and then he may be thinking differently!

I captured Allie being goofy with her friends!


Poor Kara had to miss out on the fun.  She is still having foot problems.  The podiatrist said she needs to avoid running and doing a lot of activity for a while.  So that means no PE, which isn’t a horrible thing if you ask her, but unfortunately it also means no Field Day.









The twins are so cute and nice to the poor girl! (Kara just guest blogged for me while I was away from the computer for a moment.)  
She was an awesome cheerleader on the sidelines. And she got to keep her teacher company too.

This just about wraps up the school year for us.  Thank goodness!

The last night in the nursery

Whenever we had a big change coming up in our life, my mom would tell us the day before the event that it was “our last night in the nursery”.  It’s a reference from Peter Pan regarding Wendy.  Wendy’s dad tells her that she is growing up and that that night would be the last she would spend in the nursery with her brothers.  (I’m not sure what version this is in)  We have grown up saying this when ever we had a birthday or the night before school would start, before a move or before a baby was born. 

And so, Allie just had her last night in the elementary nursery.  She is officially done with grade school and moving on to Middle School!

And Kara is now a fourth grader.  (She put this horrid lip gloss on right before I snapped the picture.  Luckily it wore off before we got to school.)

Wednesday, the day before the last day of school, was awards ceremony day.   Both girls were presented awards.

Kara’s teacher has absolutely loved her this year.  It has been really fun for Kara to have a teacher recognize and appreciate her wonderful talents.  Kara received the ‘Be Kind’ award and the Citizenship Award.  The teacher said that she was always kind to everyone and so helpful the whole year.

Allie also received two awards.  She was caught “Being Kind” like Kara was and she also earned “The Great American Award.”  It is not required to learn facts about America anymore, it is optional.  There was quite a list of things to do to earn this award.  She had to learn The Preamble to the Constitution, the National Anthem, a US timeline, and all 50 states with their capitols in alphabetical order.  It was a HUGE project. 

Only a handful of kids in the whole fifth grade earned this award. 

Allie is so funny.  She got her award and then had to make her way back to her spot on the stage. 

She knew where I was sitting in the crowd and when she got to her spot she looked right at me. 

Then she flashed me her amazing smile!  It was so funny because all of my friend moms looked down the aisles to where she was looking at me and they were all laughing and smiling knowing that was genuine Allie!

We are very happy with Allie and Kara for all of their hard work this past school year!

And even happier that its summer now!  (but stay tuned for a few more posts related to the end of the year- it was a really busy one this year!)

Almost Summer!

My brother Daniel and his awesome family came to visit a couple weekends ago.  The trip went way to fast and we weren’t ready for them to leave.  Unfortunately Dan had to get back for work.  Fortunately Kyrstin didn’t!  We found a cheap rental car for her and sent him on his way.  

Kyrstin and Logan got to stay the rest of week and we had such a great time.  Kyrstin was a huge help and we were able to squeeze in everything on her list- shopping, Mexican food, visiting with friends, swimming, and a craft project.

Paul had some work people in town and some meetings at the Red Rock Hotel.  Which was great for us because we were able to go use the pool one of the days.

Something was on the lens of the camera phone and some of the pictures are a little smudged looking.  I am hoping that it will distract from the big white girl in the right of this picture!

The pool was really great and we had a little pool all to our selves.  The only down side were the swimming suits that the life guards wore.  Itty-bitty and I mean itty-bitty bikinis, and let me tell you, I know there would be a major wardrobe malfunction if they had to try and save anyone wearing those things! 

It was quite a eye full.  We had to make sure and keep the phone pointing down into the pool to avoid some accidental exposure in the background, if you know what I mean!!

We are so glad that we got to have such a good visit with them!

Running on Fumes!

May flew by!  With our fabulous trip to New York and then leaving again four days after I got back to go to Disneyland with the girls, there hasn’t been a weekend without stuff packed into it.  I have been running almost non stop to fit everything in and get everyone where they need to go.

I read that you should always keep your car gas tank at least half way filled up.  It is supposed to get better gas mileage and it is good for emergency preparedness situations.  I have been trying to be more mindful of the gas tank.  I don’t ever want to be stranded.  I have only ever run out of gas one time in my life- and it was in the parking lot of a gas station!  I had to have two guys push my car to the pump!  Wasn’t horrible but I still never want to be in that situation again.  Paul is always good about filling up my tank whenever he drives it and I really appreciate that.

He and the kids were out dropping something off at Paul’s nephew’s house and on their way home Paul noticed that I only had about a fourth of tank of gas left.  So he swung by the gas station to fill it up.  Once he got there he realized that he didn’t have his wallet with him!  He had been working out in the yard and then got in the car with out going inside. 

Not a problem though.  He was just trying to be helpful.

Two days later, I left to take Allie to music lessons.  As we headed down the road, I noticed that I was hovering dangerously close to the ‘E’.  I decided to drop Allie off and then go get gas before taking the kids to the park.  So we did just that.  I dropped Allie off and then I went and found the gas station.  We weren’t in our neighborhood.  We were about 20 minutes from home and I had to drive for 3 or 4 minutes before I found the gas station.  As I pulled up to the pump, my gas light turned on. 

Perfect timing!

Cooper and Cassidy had both fallen asleep in the car and Kara and I were just chit chatting away.

I reached down to grab my purse and to my horror, I realized that I had left it AT HOME!

AGH!! 

Now, I know that once the light comes on, it is supposed to mean that I have about a gallon left.  And I should be able to go 15 miles or so on that.  But, I can’t explain it.  Something about that little light glowing next to the big letter E, that is so unsettling to me.

So Kara and I searched the car for money.  We came up with $3.85.

We looked all over the car- in all the pockets, the seats, the cup holders and the floor.  Some pieces were stuck together with who knows what.  We kept looking until I had enough for one gallon.  Then I gathered it up and headed in to pay.

I handed the cashier the hand full of coins with a kind of embarrassed expression and I apologized for all the loose change.  He was very kind and told me not to feel bad and told me that it happens all the time.

Kara and I got a good laugh about the whole experience.

Especially when we realized that we were 4 cents short of a full gallon!

The gas light didn’t even turn off!

I am happy to say that we were able to pick up Allie, make it home, get my purse and get to the gas station with out running out of gas.  And all was well! But I think I held my breath the whole car ride home!

I have now added a few more coins to the cup holders and will be working even harder to use the half way mark as the empty mark!

 

Magical Kingdom

Allie has been part of a great Girl Scout troop for the last two years.  Some wonderful moms of Allie’s friends created the group.  We have been fortunate to know most of them since kindergarten and so it has been really fun to participate.

This year the troop did amazingly well with their cookie sales.  They did so well that the troop decided to go to Disney Land!

They covered the girl scouts and then opened it up to any family members who wanted to attended.  Paul and I decided that since it was a one day park hopper pass and that because we were going on a Saturday in May, that it would probably be better not to take Coop and Cass.  Luckily they aren’t quite old enough to fully understand what was going on or we might have had some problems. 

So Allie, Kara and I car pooled with some friends and away we went.

We stayed at the Girl Scout House in Anaheim.  There were about 18 of us in the house.  we slept on air mattress and had a giant sleep over.  We were still hushing the kids past midnight.  It was borderline threats at the point.  They were up bright and early at 6 am.  I guess they were ‘just to excited to sleep!’

Here’s a picture of the kids who stayed at the house with us. 

We met the rest of the troop at Disney Land.

I was prepared for a very hectic, crowded day.  I packed light and only brought my cell phone as a camera.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad until later in the afternoon.  We were able to do a ton of rides and see several things that we haven’t experienced before.

The kids were real ‘troopers’!  We stayed almost to the very end of the day.  We pulled out of the garage at 11:50pm!  I think they were asleep before we got back to the GS house……which was only 5 minutes away.

The next morning we were able to head over to New Port and spend the morning with Aunt Jeanie, Uncle Cray, Katie and Daniel.

There was a park that was honoring veterans in preparation for Memorial Day right near their house and we stopped to experience all the flags on display.

It was a jammed packed weekend but all-in-all, we had a pretty good time. It was fun to spend time with the girls and have some fun with them.  And it was really nice of Paul to miss out on the fun and stay home with Coop and Cass. It would have been really hard doing all that we did with them in tow. 

I guess that means we’ll have to go again!