Tura Lura Lura

You have a front row seat to Cb's debut guitar performance!  (Technically, it's a ukelele, but it works well with her small hands).

Swimming

Cb's joined our neighborhood swim team this summer and has been doing an amazing job!  She swims every morning and has gone to a few meets.  Her favorite stroke is breast stroke and she likes diving off the blocks.  She's a super swimmer!

Kung Fu Maston!

My little ninjas received their new belts!  They had a nice belt ceremony with a demonstration of what they've learned.  F received the next solid belt up from white, yellow, and Cb's received one higher than that, yellow/white (stripes are in between the solids).

They are fierce, but cute...can you have that combination?!

The Nutcracker and Piano Recital

We had a full and fun day on Saturday.  Cb's started us off with a magnificent performance of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" at her Christmas piano recital.  I am always so impressed with her confidence in performing.  I thinks it's great and I hope she keeps it as she matures.  I always get so nervous performing solos in front of people, which is why I play in a large group of musicians where no one can hear me.:)  Hopefully, she takes after her dad in that area.  He is a great performer and musician and I can see her following in his footsteps.

From there, we went to a lovely lunch in Old Town where we enjoyed hot dogs, burgers, fries and milkshakes.  Yum!  Once home, it was time for Cb's, F and I to head out to watch The Nutcracker.  B and I take turns taking them, so it was my turn this year.  This was also F's first year going.  They both enjoyed the performance.  Cb's can follow along with the story pretty well, so she gets what's going on, for the most part.  F liked the music the most.  He was humming along with the pieces he knew and he was glued to looking down on the pit orchestra during the breaks.  Actually, he was watching one musician who was playing a game on his Nintendo DS.  Still, he liked the music too.

7th birthday!

Another birthday, not as late, but still behind, was Cb's 7th birthday!

She wanted a swimming birthday, so we had a mermaid theme.

Everyone swam for the first hour and then we had a break for lunch, cake and presents.

Everyone got a goodie bag.

Lunch was "sub"marine sandwiches, peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches, crab legs, sea cucumbers, goldfish, fruit salad, chips, and ocean water.

Her cousins were very kind and generous with presents.

The mermaid cake.

Daddy and pug were all tuckered out!

Moving On

The end of the year wrapped up a couple of weeks ago and Cb's and F both had milestones.

First, at Cb's school, one student from every grade received a "S.O.A.R." award, but I forgot what each letter stood for.  Anyway, Cb's was the kindergartner who received it!  I was so proud!  It was a strange feeling because it's the first academic recognition she's been awarded.  I can't describe it, but if that's how I felt about a kindergarten award, I am going to be a mess as she gets older and achieves more.

Second, F graduated preschool!  He is excited to be in Cb's school and class next year.  I'm looking forward to teaching them both, as well.

Finally, here are some pictures from our first zoo trip of the summer.

It was a bit hot, so we cooled off by dumping water on our heads.

Family

 

These last two days, B and I had the pleasure of going on a mini-vacation to Estes Park!  Thanks to LivingSocial, I got a good deal at a nice lodge, Murphy's River Lodge.  Thanks to my mom, we had someone we love and trust taking care of the kids.  Unfortunately, we had a few issues with the room temperature not working correctly and hearing everything above us, but the room was nice and the staff was really friendly.  There was a jacuzzi in our room, so we got to relax in that and watch movies in the evening.  Believe me, it was hard not to pick an animated movie, but we did it.:)  The river was frozen, so B didn't do any fishing.

The town was beautiful and quiet.  A lot of the shops were closed, and we weren't used to not seeing hordes of people on the street.  We did discover a nice knitting shop, which was my favorite, but I didn't by anything.  I love perusing knitting shops and I LOVE alpaca yarn, but at $15-$20 a skein, I can't bring myself to buy it.  Maybe when we become rich.:)  We did buy some souvenirs for the kids, though.  F and Cb's love Brave, so we bought them each a bow and arrows.  Cb's bow has black bears carved on it and F's has moose.  The tips are rubber, so they can't do too much damage.  I didn't think they'd be able to shoot them, but they figured it out quickly.  I set up some stuffed animals in the living room for them to "hunt".  Let's just say, the angry birds and stuffed pug didn't make it.  Little A loves sorting things, so we bought her some nesting dolls.  The shop where we bought the nesting dolls was awesome!  They had so many cool nesting doll sets.  B bought a cute Winnie the Pooh nesting set for himself.  Tiny A doesn't like too much, yet, so we bought him a stuffed moose.  He's more interested in playing with whatever everyone else doesn't want him touching.:)

Before leaving for our trip, I took some pictures of these adorable faces.  Enjoy!