my kindergarten boy

Easton's first day of Kindergarten was today. AAHH!! He was ready, but I don't know if Parker and I were.

cool, new backpack

cheese, extra big for Mom.

At the Kindergarten evaluation, his teacher gave us a blank cutout and we were to decorate it to look like Easton. I think we did pretty good.

At school

sitting on the rug, waiting for the bell to ring.

Easton, I hope you love school. You are such a sweet, strong boy and we love you so much! I hope you will come out of your shell and meet some really good friends this year. Good luck!

ssshhhh.....

the prince is sleeping.

as I am putting Easton to bed tonight, he looks over at his toy box and says, "Look what Keagie did..."

he's got a new ride

Easton has been working on getting a new bike. He has been riding his big-wheel around for the last year and a half. We did a prize chart and for every extra thing he did, he got a sticker.

The finished prize chart.
The new bike. He was so excited. On the way to the store, I was telling him the store might have to put it together, so we might not get to take it home right away. We were in the bike section, he picked out the yellow and red one, and a salesclerk came to help us. Easton walks right up to him and says, "So, how does this work? Do we take this one, or do you have another one that we put together, or do you put it together and we come back and get it?" The clerk kind of laughed and said, "Have you been here before?" We did have to come back the next day to pick up the assembled one, but Easton understood that and didn't complain.

He wanted to go straight to Grandma's to show her the new bike and rode it in her driveway for a minute.

That night, after dinner, we went outside and he rode for an hour in our cul-de-sac. It was awesome.

He is one happy boy.

swim lessons, round 2

Our second round of swim lessons went so good. There was about a month in between lessons, and I was worried that they would forget what they had learned the first time around, but they did awesome. Keagan was in Preschool level 2 and by the end of the 2 weeks was swimming under water by herself for a few feet. Easton was in Level 1 and his confidence was so much better by the end. He could back float by himself and float on his tummy much better.

Keagan's teacher was a boy this time, and I think she had a little crush on him, although she adamantly denies it. :)
She would talk about Jacob all the time.....

Easton's class was smaller this time, with only 4 kids--the first session we did had 6. So, that was really good for him because he was able to get more one on one attention with his teacher. There were also some extra teachers swimming around that helped each class when they needed it.

I am so proud of my little fishies.

super random kid quotes

*while driving to taekwondo today, for some reason Easton was talking about Thanksgiving. Keagan pipes up and says, "I love 'Hungry, Hungry Hippos!'"

*then, on the way home from taekwondo, "Keagan, you are weirder than a hedgehog!" ---Easton

proud mama

I signed Easton up for Taekwondo through the university. It is a summer program and is 6 sessions. He loves it. The first week at the end of class they sat in a circle and said why they were great. One kid said because he plays basketball, another said because he is nice to his siblings, etc. I didn't know if Easton would understand what he was supposed to say, but when it was his turn he said, "I am great because I have a good soul." I wanted to run across the room and hug him because I was so proud of his answer.

At the end of class last time the teacher let them run out their extra energy with the pool noodles. They each got a shield and a "sword" and chased each other around the room. He loved that part and it was so funny to watch them all.

our summer

swimming lessons, picnics at the park, dance class, summer school

Keagan's little swim class. She LOVED it and passed to go onto Preschool 2. Go Keagie!
Easton's swim class. He loved it, except that one day where he cried the whole time because the water was too cold...., he wasn't as comfortable in the water as Keagan was and I signed him up to redo Level 1.

Keagan's class. She is the one with the pink ponytail holder.

Easton's class

Getting ready for dance class. She loves this also and has been pretty good so far with it. The class is for an hour, which for 3 year olds is long, and you can definitely tell when they are all done at the end.

July 4th

We went and had a bar-b-que at my folk's house and then did fireworks.

I did Keagan's hair in "firework" style. She loved it.

cousins

doing pop-its

our little family

Parker's new baby

For Father's Day we got Parker a gift certificate for a new grill. He looked around and found one that he liked and went and picked it up. It was supposed to be free assembly, but somehow the store forgot....(lame sears) so Parker and I put it together. It was a bit daunting at first, but we managed to do it.

It is awesome and we have used it a ton already. Nothing like grilling in the hot summertime.

Balloon Fest

The kids and I did the balloon fest the Saturday before the 4th of July. I have been doing this since Easton was just a baby. We missed last year because we were out of town, and it just didn't seem like the 4th of July to me. So glad to get back to our tradition.

Even though it was super early, the kids were excited to be there.

This year the Darth Vader balloon made it's first appearance in our balloon fest. Easton was so excited to see it. And there were Star Wars characters walking around the festival, which was even more exciting.

There was a huge line to see Darth Vader, but we were able to squeeze in and take a picture. One of the storm troopers put his hand on Easton's shoulder and Easton said afterward, "He was squeezing my neck!" He was so excited.

The Coke bottle was a first this year too. 180 feet tall. It was cool to see it go up, even if it was only for a minute.

June 25...

ICE CREAM!!

We always have ice cream on June 25th to celebrate Parker's sister's birthday. Ice cream was one of her favorites, so all around the country, the family does ice cream on June 25.

Happy Birthday, Abbey!

California, part 4

My last California post, until next time.

One day we went to the OC Great Park. It is an old Naval base that the county wanted to turn into an airport, but the residents didn't want another airport, so they are turning it into a park. There was a carousel, which the kids loved, and a hot-air balloon that you can go up in. Everything is free, which is awesome. We couldn't do the balloon, because they said there was too much wind (which there wasn't....) but we did the carousel twice and walked around the farmer's market that they have.

pretty awesome bike rack

There was a little park for kids to play at, so we took a little break after lunch to let the kids play.

King of the mountain.

Keagan wanted a unicorn, but they didn't have any, so she had to settle for a "pony with jewels."

Buddies.

This was our last day. We were so sad to leave. We can't wait to visit again.