Random

I've been getting lazy in documenting stuff, a lot of pics are from the iphone so here's an update on some random stuff...

Leila and Kenya had to get some vaccines, these were Kenya's "kindergarten" shots and she honestly she has been looking forward to them for a long time.  I got her all psyched up for it at Leila's last check up but they weren't able to do Kenya's so she had to wait for her own check up.  She checked out great with the doctor, was in the 75% for her height and 25% for her weight, lucky girl.  When shot time came she laid down and was a bit shocked at the pain and started crying.  I felt bad, I told her it would hurt a little but I think it's better not to make them too scared, which she obviously wasn't scared going into it.  She was brave.  Leila was next and there were more tears.  Nothing a sucker didn't cure, along with some lunch and a trip to the park.  This spring weather has been fabulous!

 Showing me her shots, all smiles now.

 She had dance pictures that day too.  She wanted me to take these pictures of her while she was waiting for her turn.

On the last day of school we made our first trip to Cherry Hill.  It was a really nice day and not crowded at all.  A good kick off to the summer followed up with some s'mores that night.

Dirty s'more face

Family movie night.  We were watching "Zookeeper", wouldn't recommend it.  Charlie was very aware every time they said the "g" word or the "h" word, which was kind of a lot.  He had a hard time ignoring it, which is good, but he's so aware of everything it makes me nervous.

Charlie finished another soccer season.

We volunteered to do a Family Home Evening at a care center that is by our house a few weeks ago.  I sort of let Mark be in charge of it, he's good at stuff like that.  He passed it on to our kids which was great.  We created a little talent show and put our kids to work.  Charlie taught the lesson on priesthood, he read a story and shared an experience of when he was 4 and we were leaving to drive to Disneyland.  That night he woke up in the middle of the night and threw up, we were planning on leaving at 3 am.  Mark gave him a blessing and he didn't throw up again.  That's stuck with him ever since. :)  Kenya did her dance and Charlie did some Taekwondo, they sang a song and passed out some cookies.  We were pretty proud of them.  It was something we wanted to remember.

Here they are in front of the Country Care Center.

Brown Stuff

Mark and I did the Dirty Dash with a few couples in our neighborhood, a 5 mile run through lots and lots of mud and obstacle courses.  I was not expecting to be walking through mud pools, I totally wore the wrong kind of bottoms and they were driving me crazy the whole time.  Plus it was so crowded that we had to wait in line to complete the obstacle courses that were set up.  It took so long that we ended up taking the "short cut" because we had to all get home to our kids.  But it was still fun to do it with friends, mud and all.  

 This picture makes me laugh because we look like we're posing for a dance picture.

Ben and Sarah, me and Mark, Jeff and Chelsa, Brett and Amy.

The next brown thing is brownies...

My kids love brownies (who's don't!) from helping me make them, to licking the bowl, waiting for them to bake and finally devouring them, they ask me to make them all the time and I usually give in because I love how happy it makes them, Mark too. :)

Goodbye First Grade!

Charlie's end of year program.  They acted out play's that classmates had written and sang some songs. It was cute.  There are a lot of first graders! 

I recorded a little bit of a couple of his songs

Kenya really wanted to get on the stage with the kids.

First day of first grade. 

Last day of first grade.

I'm so proud of Charlie this year.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before on here but he got asked to switch classes in the middle of the year and join a new first grade class that they had decided to add.  He said he was okay with it so I let the school switch him.  It was a struggle and an adjustment.  Especially with his spanish teacher.  One night he was crying to us about it because he didn't want to go to school, he said his spanish teacher was mean, and he wasn't learning anything, he was going to think time a lot and acting out.  Mark gave him a blessing and we talked about seeing if we should try to switch him back to his old class, it was about March at this point.  We decided to talk to his teachers and if it wasn't a major problem then we didn't want him to think he could get out of hard situations so easily.  His english teacher was great and gave him a lot of praise and said they were working with the spanish teacher, basically teaching her how to be a teacher to little kids.  Well, after that point things turned around.  he never went to think time again and he started liking school, including spanish, again.  There's no doubt in my mind that the blessing helped, and I'm proud of him for sticking it out and turning a bad situation into a good one.  I put a little card expressing some of this to him with a box of skittles and a new swim suit on his bed on his last day.  He came down after finding it and said "Thanks mom!  You didn't have to do that you know." :) Sweet boy.

Aquarium

For Greta's birthday we went to the aquarium with some of my family.  It was suppose to be the zoo but the weather did not cooperate so the aquarium it was.  Kenya and Greta's brithdays are three days apart.  It was crowded!  The kids really liked it though.  Leila especially.  Every animal she sees is a "doddy" so she was yelling "doddy! doddy!"  Every where we went.  She also only wanted Colby or Jared to hold her, she wanted nothing to do with me or Mark.

 We were trying to get all three of them to stand by the penguin that was their size.  Leila finally caught on by the time the other two were done trying to pose.

The penguins were cute.

 Leila showing Colby a "doddy" for the hundredth time. :)

Finally Five!

     Kenya has been asking and asking "when is it gonna be my birthday?" for months and months.  She has watched almost every friend turn five and would almost get upset that she was not five and that their birthday was before hers.  A couple days after her birthday she asked me "when is my birthday again?"  I said "May 25th."  She said "not again!"  Like she thought it changed every year, it cracked me up.  She does not like being the youngest, sorry sweetie!  I tried to explain to her that eventually she would like being the youngest, like when all her friends turn 30 and she's still 29. :)

     She had a family party this year but I let her pick a few friends to take to "Get Air" the trampoline park.  It was suppose to be a couple but it's hard to narrow it down so it turned into four.  We drove out the Get Air to find that it didn't open until 2:00, it was 1:00.  Kenya was a little disappointed but quickly got over it when everyone seemed just as excited to go to Boondocks instead.  

Love this picture!  Brighton, Kenya, Leila, Kiley, Greta, Brooklyn.

When I asked her a couple weeks back what kind of cake she wanted said a unicorn cake with a rainbow and drew me a picture.  She was pretty excited about the outcome.  I was excited that it was a less involved cake and pretty simple.

The three stooges Leila, Scarlett, and Emerson

She got a new scooter!

She loves getting cards...

     I love this sweet girl so much.  She has always been our little snuggler, we love it.  She comes into our room some mornings and sneaks right into the bed cuddling right up.  It's hard to not let her stay.  She is my helper, she loves helping me cook and still says "skir" for "stir".  She is a good big sister to Leila, and loves to take care of her, even if Leila doesn't always love it.  She is reading pretty well, she wants to memorize all the words instead of sound them all out.  I think that's more how I learned to read, I don't remember sounding words out much, she likes doing flash cards more than reading books but she is so excited for kindergarten and to learn spanish.  I am sad she's going to kindergarten.  It came so fast!  I love listening to her sing and memorizes words to songs really quick.  She's also good at making up her own words and still plays so well by herself.  Kenya, you light up our lives with your smile, personality, and your adorable little face.  We love you!