Another SCORCHER!

Well, yesterday was in the 100's again. The kids needed to get out and my parents just returned from Hawaii, so we decided to go to their house to go swimming.


We stopped to get lunch, before we went swimming, at Carl's Jr. Reese said that she wanted a hamburger, which is not usual, with nothing on it. When we get to my parents' house I gave her half of the hamburger. She took forever to eat it and when she only had 1/4 of it left, she gave it to the dog. So, I gave her another 1/4 and went to the car to get sunscreen and wouldn't you know it, she threw it in the trash. So, finally I gave her the last 1/4 of the hamburger to eat and stayed there to make sure she ate it. I did this because she was eating slow and by this time just want to be finished so she could go swimming. She ate it but it took her forever to chew it and swallow it. You'll see her in the video still chewing instead of swimming.


Brooke loved swimming. She is at that stage where she thinks that she can put her face in the water and just drink it. The other night when I was giving her and Reese a bath, she went from sitting into her crawling position and wanted to crawl in the tub. Then she stuck her face into the water. I had to quickly grab her and pull her up. It happened so quickly while I was bathing Reese. It's scary how fast a little one can easily drown in just a small amount of water.


My brother, his girlfriend and her friend went swimming with us. My brother, Justin, taught Garrett how to do a cannon ball. Then that's all he wanted to do.




She couldn't find her goggles so she wouldn't put her face in the water.

Random events

Monday, we noticed that Cinderella and zoey were looking a little lopsided. It turns out that Cinderella end up dying. I told Garrett that it didn't look good for zoey and that he needed to say good-bye. He began to cry and said that he didn't want his fish to die. Garrett knocked on the bowl and some how his fish slowly came back to life. Garrett then said, "He came back to life! That was a close one!"


Reese has been very motherly lately. She names her babies after people she knows. The other day she named her bitty baby, Ali. Ali is a good friend of mine whom my kids adore. Then the other day she was talking about taking Kayla into Garrett's room. Kayla was one of her classmates in preschool. I asked her which baby doll was now Kayla and she said, "Kayla is the truck that I'm playing with". So, apparently, she now names toys.


I caught Reese yesterday with some slippery stuff on her hands. I turns out that she opened up my cabinet in the bathroom, just enough to get her arm in because of the child locks, and grabbed the baby oil. Some how she got it open even though it has a child proof cap. I put the cap back on to test it and it came off very easily. Then I tried it again and it was much harder. I guess if it's not on just right the kids can easily open it. So much for child proof caps.


The kids have been waking up way too early since Aaron has been in Armenia!


I went to Garrett's kindergarten orientation and met his new teacher. She is very young. My guess is that she has been teaching maybe 4-5 years. I'm sure parents thought the same about me when I first began teaching. She seems very nice and is willing to work with me to see what will be best for Garrett next school year. Going to his orientation made me miss work, well, it made miss working with my friends, especially my dear friend Ali.


Garrett has been reading everything he can get his hands on. He now loves to read "The very hungry caterpillar". He is also reading "Harold's purple crayon".


Today, I asked Garrett and Reese to clean up the game room. I went to get ready and when I returned, only Garrett was cleaning up. Reese was lying on the couch watching T.V. letting Garrett do all the work. I told her to help clean up and Garrett said, "No, no, no I've got it mom. I don't need any help". He is such a good kid. I told Reese to get up and help. Eventually, she did but it was at a snail's pace.


Brooke is beginning to crawl. She crawls for just a couple of moves and then collapses and does the army crawl. I think it's the fact that she can go faster on tummy then on her hands and knees.



The kids had these stickers from a birthday party they went to on Saturday. They decided that it would be funny to put the tiny sunglasses and mustache on their faces. They got a kick out of how funny they looked.

Back from hiatus

Last Tuesday, Garrett and his entire class had a picnic at Ayala park in Chino. They played, signed little graduation dogs and ate pizza.




Last Wednesday was Reese's last day of school. She had such a great year and really enjoyed going to school. She didn't want to leave when I went to pick her up. She wanted to stay and take a nap at school. Everyone asked if she would be back next year, but unfortunately she will not. She will be going to a new preschool that is much closer.

Her wonderful teacher Ms. Linda

Her other wonderful teacher Ms. Patti

Thursday, Grandma "T" came to town because mommy and daddy had a wedding to be at on Saturday. Our friends Chris and Lisa were married at a winery in Temecula and Aaron was part of the wedding party. We forgot to take pictures of ourselves but I did get some of the bride and groom. We had a great time and I danced all night long!

Aaron went to Armenia on Monday and Grandma "T" left yesterday.

Mommy is home now with 3 kids until next Wednesday. Wish me lots of luck!!!

Graduation video!

Here is the video of Garrett's graduation. The light in the church was really bad so it is difficult to see Garrett when he is walking in. He is the second one to the last. We cut it down so it isn't that long. Enjoy!

Graduation

Here is a picture of the graduate.

My camera didn't work when he was walking down the aisle so I had to take this one after the graduation ceremony.

Garrett did really well up on stage. He didn't look nervous or worried. He seemed to enjoy himself, even when he had to keep getting up to receive awards. He received the most awards of any of the students (yes, I am bragging but he has worked hard all year and he deserved them). He received the Outstanding Citizenship award, Outstanding Reading award (kids needed to be at a level 3 for reading and he was at a level 6), and the Spelling and sight words award (he got 100% on spelling and reading his sight words all year long). We were very proud of him all that he accomplished.

Here he is receiving his spelling and sight word award.

Here he is receiving his reading award.

Twelve of the fifteen kids had a letter to spell out kindergarten and then had a little poem that went with it. Garrett had the last "r" and his little poem went as follows: R is for remembering all that we have learned. He did a great job and said it loud and clear. Below is a picture of him saying his poem.

The kids sang and presented their parents with a flower for mom and a card for dad.

Then the kids received their little diplomas and we went to the school gym to have cake and punch.

Garrett getting his diploma.

Turning of the tassels.

Throwing of the caps!

Weekend!

Saturday, we planned on going to a birthday party but Reese woke up from her nap with a fever. So, we didn't go. We had another birthday party to go to on Sunday and I didn't want any of the kids to get sick. She broke the fever but still has a nasty cough. Aaron discovered that Brooke can go from scooting to sitting up. He asked when she first did that. I said a couple of days ago. He was a little hurt or upset. I'm not sure which one, but he said that I called with the other two when they did that or anything. I told him it's the third kid and I don't have as much time. I'm lucky I have time to clean, cook, shower, eat, take pictures and do this.

Sunday, all the kids slept in along with mom and dad. Reese didn't wake up until 9:30, once in a lifetime, don't think that you'll get that lucky this weekend, grandma. We did go to the other birthday party. We went to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids ran around like crazy kids but they had fun. Then Reese woke up with a fever again. I think she didn't fully recover. She just laid on the couch and was extremely mellow.

Today, I can tell that Reese still isn't herself because she put herself in time out. I asked her why she was in time out and she said because she cried. Now, if you know Reese, this is totally out of her normal behavior.

Tonight is Garrett's graduation from his little kindergarten, even though he is doing it again; therefore, I'll have pictures and maybe some video.

Here is Garrett in my old classroom last Tuesday. We went to collect some of the remaining things that I still had there and I still have to go back to collect the last little bit.

Garrett took this picture of Brooke.

What happened to May?

As I write this, I can't believe it's already June. What happened to May?


Friday, I went to stroller strides with Reese and Brooke. After stroller strides, we celebrated May birthdays and had some banana bread. Reese was so happy because she was sung to once again. After, she sat and listened to a story and then mommy pushed Brooke and Reese on the swings.
Mmmm, yummy bread!


She says, "Hi, Everyone!"



Listening to the caterpillar story


Doesn't she look like she's having tons of fun.


I took some video on my little camera, again. It's of the girls swinging. Enjoy!

My parents took Garrett and Reese to the church festival on Saturday. Aaron and I took advantage of two less kids and went to dinner with one child. It was weird to only have one kid with us. When the kids returned the next day they came with two new members of the family. We now have two goldfish that the kids won at the festival. Garrett named his fish Zoey and Reese named her fish Cinderella.

Last week, Garrett's teacher stapled a sentence, that he has to recite at his little graduation, to a note asking to practice every night. I asked him if he knew his sentence and he said, "No, because he can't read Spanish." I didn't understand what he said and he pointed to the note that the teacher had written in cursive. He thought that was Spanish. I thought it was cute and that I would share it with everyone.

Reese has been very motherly lately. Last week, I caught her taking her babies around in the strollers and talking to them about how they were going to be late for stroller strides. I guess she wants to be like mommy.