End of summer fun~

Sorry these pictures are out of order, but I am too lazy to move them.  Ha!  At least I am finally blogging something.  Here is some fun that has been going on here lately. 

He finally got brave enough to ride his motorcycle and now he loves it.  He said that now that he's four he can ride it;)

Landen got a slip 'n slide for his birthday, but we couldn't use it because we got new grass this summer.   Finally, the new grass took root and Zach begged to do the slip 'n slide.

Landen just sort of scooched down the slip n slide, but he loved it!

 One last trip to the beach before school starts and we start getting too busy on the weekends.

The Channel Islands were so clear this day and the water was very calm for Ventura.

These beautiful waves just kept coming out of nowhere. Daddy was teaching them how to dive under them.  Mikayla tried a few times and then high-tailed it out of there.

Laaaaaandeeeeeen, are you eating saaaaaaand?!?!

Eating sand is it's own punishment.

She said she had horrible beachy hair.  I told her people pay hundreds of $$ on products trying to get their hair to look like that!

Our sweet boy!

Still can't believe we live here!

Most nights the mountains behind our house get this beautiful orange glow right before the sun sets.  It only lasts a few minutes, but it is so gorgeous.

Sweet Mikayla cheering him on and the beautiful mountains in the back ground.  One of those perfect moments I am blessed to capture.

It was getting really dark out which is why this picture is so grainy, but I love it anyway!

Landen still won't go anywhere near the water.

Picture I took from the car when we were leaving the beach.

So I guess summer is officially over, even though it has been getting up to 100 degrees the past 2 weeks.  But that doesn't last long around here and now we are back to perfect weather so I have nothing to complain about!

First Day of 6th Grade~

 Finally, two weeks after Mikayla and one week after Landen, Zach started school!  Yes, they are at different schools again(oi!).  He was accepted to her school, but unfortunately it didn't work out for him to go there.  I know God has big plans for him at public middle school.  One of his teachers who he has for 3 of his classes just finished her masters at Biola, a Christian college.  Also, he has a great principal who told us the entire campus can be in lock down mode in 18 seconds!  Ultimately, he is in God's hands always.  I know he will have a great year and he is excited to be with all his friends from elementary school.

My handsome young man!

He is 5'5" now!

Such a cool dude!

Landen insisted on a picture with brobro for his 2nd day of pre-k.  So sweet!

And another one from Landen's first day.  These two are peas in a pod! My sister Kelly said it best, waking up to these smiles everyday is such a blessing!

Some pics from my iphone4.  Yep, I got one for my birthday.  It was actually an even trade.  I'm not bragging I just want my great, great, great grandkids to be impressed!

 Just for fun here's Zach at orientation practicing opening his locker.  Sometimes I still have nightmares  that I can't remember my locker combination in jr. high.

 His locker before we attacked it with bleach wipes.

 After

 Some moms were allowed to cover the entire thing with contact paper.  I was told, "It's fine mom!!!!!"

There he goes...

First Day of Pre-K~

~Landen Alexander~

~4 years 2.5 months old~

43" tall~35.5 lbs.

Favorite Color~Green

Favorite Food~Cucumbers

Favorite Candy~Green Gummy Bears

Favorite TV Shows~Fetch with Ruff Ruffman & 19 Kids & Counting

Favorite Animal~Giraffe

Favorite Farm Animal~Cow

Hates Kisses~

Wants to be a fireman, carwash driver, trash truck driver, and an astronaut when he grows up~

Just started remembering his dreams~

Be still my heart!

 He's only going to Pre-K on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but he feels like such a big boy!

"Let's go mom!"

He IS a big boy!

Oh, my dear, sweet baby.

First Day of 8th Grade~

 Well I'm going to have to skip blogging most of our summer fun because Mikayla started 8th grade last week!  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of her before school, so we took these after school.  Of course, Landen insisted on jumping in there too!

Sissy is HIS girl!

 She's about 5'7.5" now.  I say about because at the Dr. she measured 5'8" but at home she was 5'7.5". Either way she is TALL!  She wears the same size shoe as me, 9.5 or 10 depending on the shoe. She really wanted high top black converse for the new school year and they are size 10.  It finally dawned on me that her feet might end up being bigger than mine!  

Gorgeous!

 Same school, same friends, 8th grade started off great!  She got all the classes she wanted, Musical theater, Advanced Vocal Ensemble, and Bible Discipleship.  We are so blessed that she is able to attend such a great school and I pray she has another amazing year.

Oh you!

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!