The Kids beach days at school

The girls enjoyed a fun packed last week of school. They both celebrated beach days with a ton of water activities, game days, movies, ice cream, pizza, and loads of fun! I can't believe my babies will be in first and third grade in a couple of weeks. Both girls had terrific teachers, Miss Mitchell and Mrs. Williams this year and really enjoyed learning. Claire can now read and write and do simple math. We are working on her handwriting. Savannah LOVES to write stories and especially songs. She is excellent at Math as well. We are working on getting her to love reading more and have it be less of a chore. We look forward to a lot of fun for the summer break!

Father's day

Todd had a great Fathers day. We started out with a pancake breakfast in bed with a few homemade gifts from the kids, some new ties for church, and a picture of the kids and I for his desk at work. We let him enjoy a nap after church and a rib dinner was brbecued for dinner. Caulder had his first taste of ribs, and boy did he love it and get sooooo messy. We have the best daddy in the whole world, and I hope he knows it!!

Claire's Birthday

Claire turned 6 on June 4th. The day started out with a classic breakfast in bed full of way too much sugar ala Claire style. It was followed by mom bringing cupcakes to school to share with friends, and then an attempt to make a Gumball cake. The attempt failed, and we were lucky for a grocery store nearby to replace the "fallen" cake quickly. Claire wasn't too upset. We had some close friends and neighbors to help us eat the cake and celebrate with Claire. On the weekend she took her "best friend," (at the moment,) to John's Incredible Pizza and had a blast eating, playing games, and enjoying a few rides. They ended the day with some posing in the glow in the dark mini golf area and some HUGE ice cream sundaes.

Night at the ballfield

The girls did enough reading at school to earn free Modesto Nuts (yes, that is actually our local baseball team's name,) tickets and a chance to parade onto the field. The had a blast! I think their favorite part was the free hot dogs and soft drinks that came with the ticket, and sitting with all of their friends. Savannah and Claire even took extra allowance money so they could buy cotton candy for themselves and some of their friends.

just some highlights

These are all photos from the past two weeks at our house. Some things pictured: The girls' jog-a-thon's at school. They have to run around the field and see how many laps they can do before passing out.... almost literally, Todd and Claire taking in an Oakland A's game, and Caulder licking the bowl clean of ice cream.... the only food item he does this with!

Some other highlights not pictured: A massive stomach bug that invaded our house beginning with Caulder and spinning it's way through each and every one of us leaving mom and dad with lots of laundry and hand holding. I think the worst is behind us. Caulder also earned his first black eye of childhood this past week when he fell off our stage in the playroom. He must have hit the edge just right, because his eye turned so black we had to nickname him spot!

Check out my Slide Show!

Conversations with my Claire

This is my picture of the week. Man, I love these babies...

I have to relay a funny conversation I had with Claire this morning so that I have it written down and don't forget it. So many times we recieve very funny insights into her mind by the things she says, and I don't write them down and later wish I had.... So here goes... I'm in the kitchen doing dishes and she is finishing watching a Dora television showwhen she says...

Claire: "Mom, I'd be lucky if I had 17 fingers."

Me: Why do you wish you had 17 fingers?

Claire: Then I could have each finger do something different and I could do 17 things all at the same time.

Me: Sounds good. But why do you need to do 17 things all at one time?"

Claire: Because it's better than 10 things.

Case closed. She's right! I just wonder where she comes up with this stuff out of the blue? Do you think my endless multitasking is rubbing off on her? My quirky Claire. We just have to love her!