Spring Break

WOW! I can't believe that the kids only have one more quarter of school left. Risa will be in 3rd grade and Brandon in 1st grade next year. It sounds impossible.

Risa is doing great with gymnastics. She has a great teacher and really loves all she is learning. Risa went to dance camp this week and performed a hip hop dance at the end of the day. She loves dance but we may try to get her into sports this fall. Soccer seems to be the direction she is headed.

Brandon and Risa both went to a Rock & Swim camp this week. They spent a couple of hours swimming with friends and then climbed the rock wall. They both did great. Risa makes it to the top of the wall and is really great at climbing. Brandon made it up over half way and said he's made it to the top also. But I missed out on seeing that.

We also made it to a spring training game. We saw the Brewers take on the Giants at the Giants complex in Scottsdale. It is a beautiful spring training facility.

Winter...

Yes, I know we don't really have a winter out here. In fact, it has been warm all of January. But the cold bugs still hit us. Risa has been fighting with earaches and strep all year and now has some sort of something else going on! Brandon has been very healthy all winter but got hit with flu/earache/strep all in the same weekend. Maybe all of these symptoms are actually strep but who knows!

Other than that life has been continuing as normal with school, brownies, gymnastics and play dates. Brandon has been doing a lot of 1st grade math and loves it. He whips through his math facts so quickly. Risa is a writer and loves to create new dramas in her journals. She is very creative and puts together well thought out stories. It's a lot of fun to read all that she brings home.

Ho Ho Ho

and Merry Christmas. The kids are having a blast with Santa and all the Christmas trimmings this year. Brandon is full of wonder and belief in magic and all things Christmas. He's memorized the lyrics to numerous Christmas songs and has kept the entire Christmas season fun for all of us. Risa loves the anticipation and fun with all of the parties. It's a wonderful time of the year and a wonderful time in childhood! Can you spot the difference between the "real" Santa and the "helper" Santa??

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all are having an enjoyable weekend. I'm taking the time to get caught up around here. So here's a quick run down... Brandon finished tee ball and lost another tooth somewhere along the way... and I love his grin! He's working on his other front top tooth and is hoping to sing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..." Seriously, he loves that song. Risa is still involved in acro-gymnastics. Her Christmas performance is in 2 weeks. Between Brownies and birthday parties Risa's social life is full for the next 2 weeks. Speaking of Brownies, Risa starts selling cookies once again in January. It doesn't seem possible that it's been a year since we passed out all of the boxes from our last sales season!

These photos are from some fun fall activities... Brandon at the pumpkin patch on his 1st field trip, with his tee ball friends, and in school. Risa and Kyra are dressed as their favorite fairies from a couple of their favorite books for Literature day and is playing in the "snow" with Kyra at Brownies. Fake snow is all the rage in Arizona!

I keep hoping to be a more active blogger! I try, Susan, I truly do!! Hopefully, it won't be a month before my next post. Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

We have heard "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. I asked my teacher what to wear... poked dotted underwear" a million times this week! AND IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! HALLOWEEN!!! YEAH!!!

And here are the 2 cutie kids... they went from cute princess and superhero Spiderman to a witch and skeleton. I guess the Halloween gene inherited from Gram Shirley has kicked in! Brandon had a great reason for his...he wants to be a "bone" doctor so he thought a skeleton was a cool idea when he saw it in the store!

We're off to gather large amounts of candy! Happy Halloween!!

Risa plays with the dinosaurs!

Risa took a trip back in time to the land of the dinosaurs! Her class went on a field trip to see the"Walking with the Dinosaurs" show that is currently traveling the country. I was a lucky parent that got to tag along. It was a really cool experience! The dinosaurs were HUGE! The kids loved the show! Everyone loved watching the dinosaurs "fight" to save their babies and defend their territories and went wild when the T-Rex came roaring out! The narrator was walking around with the dinosaurs so it gave us an idea of how truly magnificent these creatures were.

Tee ball has begun!!

Brandon is on his way to baseball stardom. Our switch hitting dude has begun his baseball career at the sweet age of 5. He hits off a tee, makes it to first, as he's running to 2nd he may get distracted and stop half way there. On the way to 3rd Brandon has to avoid the cluster of kids from the other team but zig zags his way through! Finally, he rounds third and makes it to home plate. Which he promptly stands on wondering where to go next! When Brandon is playing in the field... literally, playing... kicking dirt, talking to the other kids ... there are moments of brilliance as he joins the herd running after the ball. Yes, all 13 kids run after the ball each time it is hit! At least they understand someone has to get the ball back to the tee. Unless it is just a quick game of tag that has broken out and we just pretend they know to go after the ball! We remind ourselves that even Chipper Jones, ARod, Manny Ramirez and all of those other baseball dudes started this way. Go Dragons!!