Holiday Jazz Performance

Avery recently had her Holiday Jazz Perfomance. She did great! Her class has been working on the holiday routine for a couple months now and it really came together very nicely. You can tell that Miss Lindsey and all her students have been working hard in the studio!

                   Their song was "All I want for Christmas"

Thanksgiving in Mammoth

We had decided to spend Thanksgiving just the four of us this year in a cozy cabin up in Mammoth Lakes. It was beautiful with white snow everywhere! Avery and Callum loved playing in the snow and had a blast snow boogie-ing down the snowy slopes. They could have been playing outside all day long and didn't seem to mind a temperature of about 18 degrees as the daily high. (Yep, that was the warmest it got) We had so much fun throwing snowballs at each other and making snow angels. It snowed pretty much everyday we were there so we were very happy that we had decided to bring up the tire chains for the trip, as I'm not sure we would have been able to get around without them. Luckily there was a nice resident who had helped us put our chains on when we got up the mountain.

We had brought a turkey up with us so we were all prepared for thanksgiving day. We had a delicious meal sitting right beside the fire and a lovely view of the snow from our window. What else could we have asked for. It was such a great experience for the kids. This was Avery and Callum's very first time being in the snow together and they had embraced every minute of it. We left with many beautiful photos and some really great memories.

                                            Mammoth 2015
                                 

A Very Short Story

So I found this sitting on the top of Avery's dresser the other day and I thought it was quite funny. A story that is both witty and straight to the point!

Operation Christmas Child

So every year we've made it a point to donate to an organization called "Operation Christmas Child." What we do is find our old shoe boxes and fill them with lots of goodies for other kids in need. Avery and Callum each pick out their own personal items that they would like to put inside the box, include a special letter, and then we deliver it to one of the nearby donation centers. It's a great program and we all have so much fun doing it.

      Last minute checks before boxes are to be dropped off at the donation center!
                                 

Father Daughter Sock Hop

Avery and her dad had attended the Father Daughter Sock Hop at her school on Friday. This is the second daddy daughter dance that they've had at the school and they've always have a great time. I thought it was such a fun theme this year. I snapped some photos of them before they had left in their stylish 50's attire.

Silver Honor Roll

Another exciting, happy day at school today! Today was our second award assembly of the week and Avery received her Silver Honor Roll. We are superrrrr proud of her! She is doing great this school year! She was also elected as one of the Multiplication Masters in her class. I'm always so happy to see not only my kiddos, but other students as well, doing their best in school and I think it is awesome that parents and teachers continue to recognize these students who work so hard. Go Titans!!

Gold Honor Roll

Today was an exciting day at school. We attended the students Award Assembly at Temescal Valley and Callum was awarded a certificate for making first honors this trimester. We are so proud of our little guy and how he has been working so hard. He has come a long way since the beginning of the school year. We had a little difficulty getting him through the gate in the morning and walking to his class was quite a challenge for him. The transition from kindergarten into first grade was very different and scary. He was so used to the smaller environment with the kindergarteners and now he is in there with the older kids. It was quite an adjustment for him but he got through it and now he is doing GREAT! His big sister has helped him tremendously as well and has been so helpful with getting him get to class each morning. Avery would put her arm around him and pep talk him all the way to class. It was very sweet. We see that he has definately becoming more confident on a continual basis and we are very proud of him.

Happy Halloween!!!

So, I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated Avery and Callum's blog. I don't want to admit it, but I think it been a little over a year now and sooo much has been happening with them! Because it isn't possible to go back and share everything that has happened the past year, I will post about recent events. My goal is to hopefully continue and to keep it going and going. There is just far too much to blog about for me to not continue with all of their personal milestones. Plus I always love keeping my family and friends in the loop with their daily happenings.

Our Halloween was so much fun!! Avery had dressed up as a Black Kitty Cat and Callum was the caped Crusader "Batman!" We had gone trick or treating with some friends around our neighborhood. They seemed to do pretty well with the candy this year. There were lots of neighbors that participated this year so that was nice. There were only a few pieces of candy I had to discard from the pile and amazingly they haven't gone crazy with the candy yet. We usually let them have candy for about the first week and then we end up throwing the rest of it away. I know... it's so sad. :(

Here are some Halloween photos of the kids throughout the week.

Happy Halloween 2015!!!

My Little Firefighter

Callum recently got to play fireman at his friend Ryan's party. The firemen came and gave them a lesson on how to be a firefighter and let them play tug a war with the fire hose and the kids rode up and down the neighborhood on the firetruck. Here's my cool little fireman ready for action!!

Swim Lessons

Today was Avery and Callum's last day of swim class, well atleast for the next couple of weeks. (We had to fit our family vacation in there somewhere) They both officially passed Level 1 swim today and were awarded with a lollipop and a certificate after class. I'm so proud of them, they both did awesome and conquered their fears of being out in the water. They feel more more at ease in the water now and learned kicking, rythmic breathing, bubble blowing, holding their breath, and front and back arm motion skills. They will start Level 2 and 3 early July and continue throughout the rest of the summer. They are both having so much fun and should be little swimming pros by the end of summertime!! ;)

               Yaaayyy!!! Our certificates for passing Level 1!!!

                                 

            Here is some video footage I got of them jumping into the pool at the end of class today!

Blueberry Picking

We took the kids blueberry picking at the Temecula Berry farm this weekend. This had always been one of our favorite spots to come and the prices for blueberries are pretty cheap by the pint. There's something about picking your own berries that makes them even tastier and it's such a fun experience for everyone. We've already gotten to enjoy delicious blueberry pancakes and smoothies and still have enough for the entire week.

Wordless Wednesday

Callum's last week of Preschool

Had a good parent teacher conference with Callum's preschool teacher Ms Felisa today. He is doing great and more than ready for kindergarten! With much thought, I've decided to pull him out of school a little early so this will be his last week of preschool. I couldn't have been happier with his school this year, he had some really wonderful teachers and made such a great group of friends. We will definately miss them, but on to bigger and better things.....like being a BIG kindergartener! :)

In his school portfolio Ms Felisa had put some pictures of his drawings that he had done throughout the school year. Each month he had drawn a picture of himself and I thought they were too cute I had to post them. Notice how each month they become more and more creative. My favorite one is November, he has such a big smile and a whole lotta teeth, lol. I'm thinking these are gonna be keepers!!

End of the School Year Awards Assembly

                                                      Way to go Avery!!!


Today was Avery's Award Assembly at Temescal. Despite almost two hours of going through first and second grade awards....ugghhhhh, we were very proud of her for her accomplishments. She was awarded a certificate for most improved in Math (yay!!!) and a Titan's Ten Reading Award. All of the kids did great, lots of proud moms and dads today!

The school year is almost over, 7  1/2 days and counting before summer! Wow, can't believe it, 2nd grade is just around the corner! It's crazy to think I will have a kindergartener and a 2nd grader in a few months from now. Which means I will be at school A LOT! All that good stuff, doubled, but I have to say I really do love it!

Butterfly Project

Avery had to do a class project this past week in which she was to choose any insect and to make a life like model of it and then present it to the class. She chose the Monarch butterfly! We had spent most of the week working on the project and putting together this butterfly. I'm not gonna lie, it took quite a bit of time getting everything put together exactly and the wings were definately the most time consuming. We used crumpled tissue paper for the wings and had to glue each one on separately. But in the end we thought the butterfly came out great. Here are some pics of the finished project!

Funny Conversation with Callum

This is a funny conversation that Callum and I were having in the car yesterday morning on the way to his school.We were driving through Montecito Ranch, which is the community where his preschool is located:

Callum: Mommy, this is a nice neighborhood to live in.

Me: Yes, it is but you need a lot of money to live here.

Callum: Me and Avery have money!  (referring to the change in their piggybanks)

Me: Yes, well we are going to need a lot more money that, lol.

Callum: Avery needs to wiggle that tooth!!! (referring to Avery's loose tooth, he knows she will get more money from the tooth fairy soon)

Happy Easter

The Elsa Hair Do

Avery wanted me to do her hair up like Queen Elsa from "Frozen" today. Her friends have all been wearing the "Elsa" hairstyle at school and since she loves Elsa so much, I thought it'd be really cute. Her and her brother have watched the Frozen movie now about 25 times and have memorized just about every scene in the movie. Avery performs the song "Let It Go" for us on a daily basis. It's very cute! Despite not having any gel or hairspray, I managed to pull her hair back and make it look similiar to Elsa's. Thanks to You tube for having such great tutorials on how to do this particular hairstyle!