First day of school

Tate's new kindergarten teacher, Ms. Hellen, packaged up a packet for each of the parents which included a keenex, a bag of tea, a cotton ball, and a note which read the following.

Welcome to kindergarten...

Thank you for entrusting your child to me,

I promise to do my best everyday

to be your child's companion in learning.

This morning, after you have wiped your tears,

make yourself a nice cup of tea, and relax.

Then, hold the cotton ball in your hand.

The softness will help you recall the gentle spirit of your child.

I will work alongside you this year to help your child grow.

Tate with his kindergarten teacher Ms. Hellen

Tate is ready outside his classroom for is first day. All of the kids who will be in his class are listed in each of the circles posted in the window behind Tate.


Ms. Hellen blew her whistle and welcomed all of the kindergartners on the playground to their first day of school. After lining up, she had all the kids blow their parents a kiss goodbye, along with a wave, and they were on their way into the classroom.

Then, we were on our way to Carson's first day at his new preschool. He started at the City of Rocklin preschool, his new "big boy" preschool, bright and early also at 8:30am. He will go three days a week here which is located at Ruhkala elementary. Ruhkala is only about one mile from our house and will be a great place to spend the next school year!

Carson's 4th birthday

This year Carson asked to have a camping birthday party. So, we reserved 4 campsites at French Meadows campground and invited some friends to celebrate Carson's day.

Carson wanted a Spider man themed party, so all his friends joined him in wearing Spider man masks. He had a great time with his pals.


Our 4 year old boy!

Carson was so excited to open his presents from his friends. (From left to right) Wilson, Collin, Carson, Tim, Justin, Tate, and Holly.

The one low point of our trip was when Carson had a touch of the stomach flu. He missed most of the fun at the lake on Saturday because he was was feeling so crummy. He slept for hours under the easy-up tent on his Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag.

The boys found that the bear food storage locker could be useful for storing kids also.

I caught Holly sitting on top of our picnic table eating forkful after of forkful of guacamole. She loved it!

Holly and I walked with our group down to the lake each evening at sunset.

Tate is a great big brother. He is always so kind to her and he did a great job keeping an eye on her at the waters edge.

Wilson and Tate went out on the fishing boat and helped catch a few fish. They had a great time and thought that the trout were very cool. Eric cooked the fish up for breakfast the next morning.

Our friend Brian brought his fishing boat this weekend and was kind enough to take each of the boys out for an evening boat ride. Carson and Russell got their turn, which just so happened to be Russell's first time ever on a boat.

" I eat everything"

Holly often goes with me to California Family Fitness Gym and plays in the child care area while I work out. She used to have to wear a sticker that read " I eat crayons". However, because of a few incidences involving bark, art supplies and Floam, she now has to wear a sticker that reads " I eat everything". I decided to take a photo of her with her sticker because this is one of those things that someday we will get an extra chuckle about when she is an adult.

Happy 4th of July

We watched Sun City's fireworks presentation last night, so we were lucky enough to just spend a relaxing evening at home before doing our own fireworks outside with our neighbors.

Our "All American" kids!





The kids will only humor me for so long with nice picture poses before things start to go downhill!

Carson

Tate

I was so excited to have this cute fireworks shirt and headband for Holly! We searched high and low for this headband which had been missing all day. Finally....Tate confessed that he had accidentally broken it earlier. He said that he didn't want me to be mad or Holly to be sad, so he figured that if he put it under the couch then we might just forget about it. After a long talk about honesty and some quick work with the glue gun, Holly was ready to look cute in her festive headband again.

Patriotic baby

Carson loved the sparklers

Eric and I had decided that the kids would just play outside with the neighbor kids and we would not spend any money on fireworks this year. Well, at about 8 o'clock, just as the sun was starting to go down, Eric started to second guess that decision. So at the very last minute, I drove over to a fireworks stand just down the street and picked up a few fireworks for us after all. We were so glad that I did because the kids really liked them and we all had a really fun evening!

San Francisco

So, we actually took this trip to San Francisco back in late April. However, because I sometimes have so many things on my " to do" list, I am just now getting these photos added to the blog.

We spent a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco and took in the lovely landmark view....the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather may have been sunny, but looks can be deceiving. The temp was around 55 and with the wind kicking at full force, the day was really quite cold.

The kids humored me by sitting still for a photo, but all they really wanted to do was fun around on the paths around this lookout point.

We spent a part of our afternoon at Golden Gate Park at the landmark windmill. We were not the only ones with this good idea, so we joined the crowd spent some time at this beautiful park.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came bright and early and left the kids each a basket full of toys and candy. Carson couldn't wait to start on the candy as quickly as possible.

Tate found candy, books, and toys in his basket. He is testing out his new quacking duck whistle. After a few quacks though, we quickly decided that it make a good "outside only" whistle.


RahRah joined us for a bit on Easter morning so she could see what the Easter Bunny had brought.

Holly was given a 2 minute head start on the Easter egg hunting. The boys patiently watched from the windows until they were given the ok to go out and start searching too. Tate had some luck finding some eggs over by our back gate.

Holly just liked to walk around out in the lawn with candy in her hands. She left most of her share of the eggs for her brothers to find.

My aunt Ricki and uncle Kevin joined us along with Mimi and Pa for our Easter morning!

Finally, all the eggs were found and it was a very happy Easter!

Ready for Easter

The day before our Easter celebration, Mimi came over to help us get ready for the big Easter event. First on the "must do" list was to color eggs. The boys went shirtless so that they wouldn't have the chance to stain up their shirts in the egg dying process.

Holly watched the egg coloring event so that she will be ready to join in next year. Woody was close by too so as not to miss anything either.

Mimi helped mix more color and vinegar as the boys closely watched her every move in anticipation.

Carson took his job very seriously and wanted to color as many eggs as possible.

Tate was proud of his coloring job too

No Easter egg decorating is complete without adding some stickers. Carson loves stickers and will happily add stickers to anything that he can.

Next on the Easter preparation list was to make the traditional "bunny cake". Holly watched her brothers lick the spoons after making the batter and realized that she was missing out on something pretty good. She climbed up on this step stool all by herself and found the extra spatula on the counter.

Ummmm.....that chocolate batter really is good!

We frosted, decorated, and sprinkled our bunny cake and this was our finished masterpiece!