Friday, August 2, 2013

Zach's Awards~

Well, since Mikayla starts back to school in 2 weeks I'd better blog about all of Zach's end of school awards.  The summer has been busy and good and fun, but not good for blogging.  I guess that's best,    but there is a lot I want to remember!
My handsome boys!

This is Zach being silly getting his Awana certificate.  Memorizing scripture is sooooo easy for him, but he really never wants to work on Awana at home so he only made it through one book.  Still proud of him though!  Maybe more importantly he earned enough Awana bucks to buy a giant stuffed Rasta Banana and a giant blow up banana.  Thank you to the parent who donated those items!  From all his years of Awana and being at a Christian school in Indiana he has a good amount of scripture memorized.  Lately, I have been trying to talk to him a little about what those verses really mean.  Remember when I used to post videos of him saying scripture in Pre-K??!!??  That was when he was Landen's age. 

Zach and his teacher at the end of the year open house.  Yep, he is finally taller than one of his teachers.  This is a goal he has had since 1st grade.  She was a great teacher and we were really blesssed by her no nonsense, unflappable teaching style.  
Funny how he wore his shirt from his school in Indiana!
This is Zachary the morning of the We The People competition. He was sooooo nervous but then his team ended up getting a perfect score!  
This is from the practice competition at school that parents were invited to.  He pretty much had his and all the other team members speeches memorized and if someone said something wrong or incomplete his teacher would look at him and tell him it was ok to stand up and clarify or add to it.  He really excelled at this and I wouldn't be surprise if he ended up being a lawyer or even president someday.

Zach has participated in Math League the past 2 years and it is pretty much just doing word problems for 2 hours every week.  Can you even imagine!?!  But he looooves it and he finishes his work in about 20 minutes and usually only gets 1 or 2 wrong.  I'm not really bragging (maybe a little) this is just how his brain works!
Zachary's school does a 5th grade Culmination, aka Graduation.  They get a certificate and do a couple songs and a slide show of kindergarten pictures.  It is really sweet and there's not a dry eye in the house.
They always sing Happy Trails at his school because they are the Wranglers.
But most importantly they serve cake afterward!!

So proud of his big brobro!

Even Zachary questioned if this was his kindergarten picture.  This is why I spend the extra $ to get the year printed on the corner of his school pictures.  This is Zach at age 5.5 and above picture Landen had just turned 4.  Same face just different hair!
The teachers made this montage of pictures with some sappy 80's music.  It was like they were trying to make me cry.


Then they sang "I'm Proud to be an American." Insert sobbing.
That's it!  We survived elementary school!







Last but not least was the Presidential Awards.  Between Mikayla and Zach we have quite the collection of Presidential Letters.  
Such a giant.
This is our amazing Principal!  He does a lot of great things, but this year he made a point to take his work out to the lunch tables every Friday so Zach and some of his friends could have a Chess League.  There weren't any parents willing to volunteer so he just made it happen!
All the kids were required to give a 1 minute speech.  Zach talked about how thankful he is for his family support.=) So proud of our smart, handsome, young man!
I meant to take a picture of his certificate signed by Obama.  I still will because it is pretty cool!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Santa Barbara~

Santa Barbara is only about an hour away from where we live.  So we decided to take a little day trip with Landen for a kind of belated birthday present for Jeff.  This was back in May when the big kids were still in school.
 We finally found ship wreck park and let Landen burn off a little energy after the drive.





 Then we went to the wharf to walk around and get some lunch.  We saw lots of sea creatures!
 And it was a gorgeous day!



 Not the best picture of me, but here's proof I was there too!
 We could see the wharf from our seats at lunch and Landen loved watching all the boats.
 The absolute highlight for Landen was seeing this giant boat lifter thingy come and start lifting this sailboat out of the water.  A little boy's dream!


Monday, July 8, 2013

13 Pictures for her 13th Birthday~

Mikayla had the great idea to do a make your own pizza/cupcake, movie party for her 13th birthday.
 We also decided to go with a neon theme for the decorations.
 A few pictures before all the girls arrived.  Landen was right there in the midst of everything.=)

 Can't believe my baby girl is 13!!  There is no accounting for where the time has gone, but I am just so blessed to call her my daughter and friend!
 I set Landen up at the other table with a few toppings so he would be out of my way while I got the pizzas ready.  Jeff found him a few minutes later just eating all the toppings!

 I eventually sent all the boys away so the girls could get started making their pizzas.  We did use pre made crusts because I am not that crazy!
 I love the look Mikayla and her friend are giving each other!  She has the best group of friends from school/church.
 Just a few toppings!
 Mikayla's creations.  I also made the cupcakes ahead of time, but I made about 60 cupcakes because I am a little cray cray. (Mikayla has banned me from saying cray cray in her presence.)  Yep, I have a teenager!
 The girls had so much fun with the decorating and talked non-stop the entire party(4 hours!)  They had so much fun and Mikayla even said it was "so much fun!"  She even thanked me for all the work I did!
 Anything for my baby girl!  It was my pleasure to be able to give her a great day with her friends to celebrate that special day 13 years ago in Lodi when I endured 24 hours of drug-free labor to bring her into this world. Ha!  I was about as exhausted after the party as I was the day she was born.  I'll pretty much do anything to avoid a sleepover with ten 13 year old girls. 
We finished the night by watching Soul Surfer.  The girls chatted through the whole movie, too!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Bubbles~

Is there anything happier than a child enjoying bubbles?  I think not.  Something so simple bringing so much joy.  Seems like that kind of happiness isn't allowed when you are an adult.  But I really enjoyed watching him play this day.  Hope you enjoy too!










 Yep, we are getting our yard worked on.  It is finally finished!  Pictures to come.
 Just enjoying some pretty flowers.

Hey mom, why aren't you taking a picture of me!?!?