The Best Parts of Summer...

Friends, S'mores and Sleepovers!

Mastering the Monkeybars

Brady couldn't wait to show me (and have me record) his skills on the monkeybars!

Goodbye Second Grade!

Second grade brought:

• A continued love for drama. 
• The start of choir (another love!)
• A dislike for the idea of homework 
• Her first crush
• Tons of socializing - playdates, sleepovers, parties
• and lots of lost teeth.

Legos!!!

Father's Day 2014

We had a fun Father's Day. We started the morning with giving Daddy some gifts and cards. My favorite part was hearing him read the Father's Day Questionnaires that the kids had completed. So cute!

 

 Afterwards, we headed to one of Josh's favorite museums - the Museum of Flight.

 Daddy doing what Daddy does best - teaching and sharing everything he knows with the kids.

Then, it was off to Arizona Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner with the Drevniaks.  And of course we had to take our annual Father's Day family pictures :)

T-Ball

Brady just ended his T-Ball season and he LOVED it! Here are a few highlights from his season...

Everyone thought B picked number 24 for Griffey but no, it was for Marshawn Lynch! :)

 Nice Hit B!

B, playing "pitcher", makes a nice throw to first!

Choir

Abi joined the choir this year and has been practicing with the Puma Cubs (a choir open to Kindergarteners - second graders) for the past two months.  As with her drama teacher, her music teacher is so talented and really gets the kids excited about music. Each year, they create a themed performance and this year was food so all the songs talked about or referenced some type of food. Tonight was their big performance.  Here are just a couple of her favorite songs:

Brady can't wait to be in choir next year!  On the first day of choir practice, Abi came home with a CD of all the songs to help the kids learn them.  We kept it in the car and Brady loved listening to it. In fact, it was requested nearly every time we got in the car, even before I could get the car pulled out of the garage. Needless to say, we listened to it A LOT! Everyone in our family (including Josh and Nattie) could sing every word to every song :) Hopefully his enthusiasm continues to next year when he can finally join!

San Diego

Here are a few pictures from our trip to San Diego. Although the main purpose for our trip was to celebrate Great Grandpa's 80th birthday, we also got a chance to visit with family, hang out at the pool, explore San Diego and even spend a day at Legoland. A big thanks to Ferryboat Grandma and Grandpa for making it possible and allowing us to stay in such beautiful accommodations.

Of course our first stop after arriving was the pool.  Luckily it was right across from our room and included a playground, splash park and even a water slide.  The kids had a blast!

We stayed at the Welk Resorts and they had lots of fun activities for the kids - 

we even attended a candy sushi making class!

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have from the day we celebrated Great Grandpa's 80th birthday. Before the celebration began, we took some family photos including this one which has 3 generations of families. Afterwards, we had lunch with family and some of Great Grandpa's friends.

We also spent a day at Legoland with Abi and Brady. Nattie spent the day getting spoiled with Grandma. 

Abi and I went on the water log ride right before headed home. As you can see, we got drenched!

Grandma and Aunt Peg also took all the kids to San Diego Zoo.  

They returned with a tiger, panda and monkey!

Meanwhile, Josh and I got a chance to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet on our last day in the sun! 

Brady's Last Day of Preschool

Hard to believe that Brady is finished with preschool and it will be another 2 years before we go back with Nattie. He had several great years at Best Beginnings which included some awesome teachers, lots of fun experiences and good friends.  

First Day of Preschool - September 2013

Last Day of Preschool - June 2014

This is the last time that these two will be in class together as we will be going to different schools next year.  Not sure how they are going to survive! Although according to their teacher, this may be a good thing due to their constant need to talk to each other :)

These are just a sample of some of B's school work that came home in a folder at the end of the year.  I love that both Josh and I are 100 feet tall but he is 100 years old and I am only 20 :)

Audition: Jungle Book

Yesterday Abi auditioned for a role in next year's production of The Jungle Book. This is the Fall play which is only open to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. After getting a list of the roles, she decided that she wanted to try out for the role of Baby Elephant.  In order to audition, she had to sing a song of her choice for 30 seconds and perform a 30 second monologue (again, of her choice).  She decided to sing one of her choir songs (Food Glorious Food from Oliver) and for her monologue, she chose to do some lines as Mother Gothel, from the movie Tangled.  Apparently Baby Elephant was quite a popular choice as there were LOTS of kids trying out for this role.

As I have said many times in this blog (and to her), I am in awe of her ability to get up in front of a room of her peers and teachers and perform with great confidence.  It is truly a gift and one that I hope she continues to grow, as she has a passion and a love for it. I'm so grateful that we attend a school which has such awesome programs which foster that confidence and encourage creativity and the arts.

This was her first "true" audition (in the past she has done group auditions with no monologues). She worked really hard on it and I'm so proud of her. Fortunately, all her work paid off because today she was offered the role of Kaa Snake (actually, she is part of Kaa - the tail).  It didn't seem to bother her that she didn't get the role of Baby Elephant - she is super excited to be a part of the new play and can't wait for rehearsals to begin next Fall. Stay tuned...

Brady's Preschool Graduation

Today we celebrated Brady's preschool graduation.  It was as cute as ever! I will definitely miss attending all the awesome programs put on by the preschool for the next few years. 

The best part of this video is watching B trying to make the numbers on his fingers!

Gotta love Brady's enthusiasm!

Signing the Alphabet...pretty sure he missed about half the letters but it is still so cute!

After all the diplomas were handed out, they played the song "Happy" as the kids were walking down the aisle. Brady did not walk, but danced all the way down the aisle - unfortunately I did not get a video of it but it put a smile on everyone's face and was the perfect exit!

Best Buddies

Sad that this will be the last year of school together! :(

Brady with his awesome teachers - hope they are still around for Natalie.

And off to Kindergarten...