Last Day of School!!

I think I am as excited as the kids that today is the last day of school. What's not to love about it!


NO schedule, no making lunches, no homework or projects, sleeping in (well as much as Rachel lets me), and best of all VACATION!!!


Bob has his sabbatical this summer too. Tomorrow is his last day of work for 8 weeks, so he gets to relax and enjoy the summer with us too.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! We were surprised this morning with a green table, and a basket of green goodies.

To keep the celebrations going we had Green Eggs and Ham, and green milk for breakfast.

We had a water fight with our green water balloons, played outside and had a green dinner.

dinner consisted of meatloaf ( not green), green mashed potatoes, broccoli, green pudding, and for dessert- cupcakes with green frosting.

More Fun with Family

This last week we had some more family come and visit us. This time Aunt Sherrie, Grant, Emma and Grandma got to come see us. The kids (especially Ethan and Rachel) had so much fun having the kids here. Ethan got to even miss a few days of school to play. We went shopping, went to the park, had picnic, played and even went miniature golfing.
We were sad to see them go, and today Rachel wasn't really sure what to do with no one here to play with, so she followed mom around and got into trouble. Sure wish you lived closer guys!!!

Fun Run

Today the boys school had a Fun Run fundraiser. Rachel and I went down to watch the boys classes run. It is amazing how much energy that kids have!
Here are a few pictures.

Ethan and Jaxon after the race

Ethan Running

The start of the Kindergarten Race

Zachary Racing

Zachary Racing again

Brandon Running

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Wallace come for a visit this last week. The kids (and Bob and I too) were really sad to see them go.

While they were here we were able to celebrate Valentines with them, do some work in the yard, go miniature golfing, and to Organ Stop Pizza.

The boys are already asking when summer vacation will be her so we can go to California to see them and all the rest of the family again.

Here are a few pictures of our fun.

The gang at Organ Stop Pizza

Miniature Golfing

Valentines Dinner

Gingerbread House

It is a yearly tradition at our house to make a gingerbread house. This year was no exception. The kids all helped out and put on some of the decorations. Rachel ate more than she actually put on, but overall it turned out great.

Getting started

Rachel putting on her candy

Licking her finger's clean



Zachary with his decoration

Christmas Sunday

Trying to get 4 kids to hold still and look at the camera at the same time is next to impossible, but enjoy a few of our attempts this morning.

Dressing a girl for the holidays I have to admit is so much more fun than boys!!!! But she wouldn't sit still and pose. This is the best shot we had. She was all decked out today! And spent the whole time in the hall at church since she was SO loud today. It's a good thing she is so cute!

Flat Colin

Recently we have had the opportunity to help out a few cousins with their "Flat Stanley" projects. Last week we got a little different version of this. My cousin's son sent us an e-mail with a scanned copy of his flat self. It asked us to take a picture somewhere and e-mail it back to him with a letter. I liked this idea since it always takes me so long to get to the post office to mail it to the next person. Technology has its perks.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. The day started great with Rachel sleeping in! We then went and got donuts for breakfast to surprise the boys when they got up.(Brandon slept really late and didn't get his picture taken)
We had a nice day at home getting a few things done, Rachel had great naps, and ran a few errands.
After dinner of a pumpkin shaped pizza, the kids got their costumes on. We had told Brandon that he was to old to go Trick or Treating this year. But when we decided to go with the Star Wars theme, and a friend had an awesome costume she had made for her husband, (Thanks Marie)we told him he could go and carry Rachel and her basket!
So this year we had Darth Vader (Zachary), Clone Trooper (Ethan), Princess Leia (Rachel) and Obi-Won Kenobi (Brandon).
They were quite a hit around the neighborhood. Rachel at first didn't want to keep her wig on, so to get pictures at home I gave her a sucker to play with. It still had the wrapper on it. And it worked to help get some pictures.
Well, they took off in a hurry as soon as pictures were done, and I forgot to get the sucker back. Good news, bad news. She kept the wig on once out the door, but got the wrapper off the sucker. By the time she got home she was covered in sticky drool. Her costume sleeves were stuck to her body!!! We had to literally peel her costume off her.
We now have more candy than we know what to do with, and some hyper kids. Glad it only comes once a year!!!

SICKNESS

Sickness has hit us hard the past few weeks. So the above products , soap and hand sanitizer have become an obsession of sorts for me.

It all started about 2 weeks ago, Ethan got a really bad cough,which went into pneumonia. All the other kids also got the cough, but that is all. Other than a week home with sick kids all then was well. Then Rachel got an ear infection last week. She is now doing great, we caught it really early.

Then Sunday night Brandon started running a fever and complained of a headache!!! So I took him in again on Monday morning and he tested positive for influenza. Yeah Us!

He has now been secluded in his room for almost 3 days and being such a good sport about it. We had lots of fun things planned for fall break this week, but now we are staying home.

Since we have been taking tons of precautions since everyone got sick the first time and now have added the lovely masks below, I am hoping beyond hope that it won't go through the whole family.

First Day of School

Today the kids started a new school year, I think they were all excited to go. They got ready this mornings with no complaints and we had a ton of time to spare. I know the novelty will wear off and we will be running out the door within a few weeks.

Brandon is starting the 7th grade. He only has one teacher he knows. The 6th grade math teacher from last year moved up with them. She is awesome, so he is looking forward to Pre-Algebra. He also has Honors Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Visual Arts, and this quarter a science elective on Space- he is really excited about this. Over the other quarters he has vocal music, P.E, and another elective I can't remember now.

Zachary is going into 5th grade. He will be in Mrs. Hill's class. Brandon also had her.
His class should be a really good class this year. Of the 27 kids in his class 9 of them are LDS. Only 2 of those are also boys, there are a lot of girls his age. So he starts the year with a great peer group. I love all the kids his age they are all so kind and loving to each other.

Ethan is in full day kindergarten, he has Mrs. Schmidt as his teacher. Both of his bothers had her too. So we know what an awesome lady she is. He hasn't said much the past week or so weather he was excited or not, but he was up at 6:00am this morning. He walked right out to the playground, but his backpack where the teacher told him, and then was a little put out I made him take a picture with the teacher.
When the bell rang he lined right up, and waved when he saw I was there. No worries!!

Ethan and Mrs. Schmidt

Here are all the kids right before we left to go to school. I don't think Rachel realizes they are going to be gone all day and that she is stuck with me. Luckily her friend Kameha is going to go by this afternoon for a while.

It's hard to believe I have a 7th, 5th, and a kindergartener. I don't feel old enough to have an "almost" teenager (as Brandon like to remind us) .

Cousins

We had so much fun doing things with our cousins while we were visiting Sacramento. The kids only get to see each other once a year, but they always get along really well and have so much fun. Rachel took a day or two to warm up to them, but she had lots of kids (and aunts) to play with too!

Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa's

(Click on photo to see full size)

This morning we all got to get out and help out around Grandma and Grandpa's house a bit. The boys helped Grandpa move some tree branches he was trimming, and Rachel and I helped pick green beans, carrots, yellow squash and tomatoes from the garden. Brandon and Rachel enjoyed eating the carrots and green beans.

Jump Sky High

Today we took the kids to a really cool place here in Sacramento called 'Sky High Sports'. It is a huge place with trampoline floors and walls. We met up with all of Bob's sisters and sister-in- laws and all the cousins. We had a blasts. It was so fun to jump with all the kids. The boys want to go again next week before we leave, they had that much fun. Here is our group shot right after we finished our jump.

Here are a couple of videos of my sister and I trying to do stuff the kids did effortlessly. I guess we aren't as young as we think we are!!!!

Memory Lane

Tonight I took the kids with me on a trip down memory lane.

First to my Elementary School:

Then my Jr. High School:


And then the high school:

After that we also drove around the neighborhood where I lived until I was 15.

Then we headed to the park to watch the dress rehearsal for Strauss Festival. I use to go watch it every year. It seems we always time our vacations just a week or two before it so I haven't seen it in years. My sister has been a backstage "dresser" for the last few years, and now my mom is too. So we decided to tag along and watch a little of the dress rehearsal. If you are ever in Sacramento the end of July, it is amazing to watch.

While at the park they also got to explore "pirate island". That is what it was called when I was a kid. It use to have these huge wooden climbing structures and slides. One of them looked like a ship, hence the name. We spent many hours here as kids. But of course they have been taken out since they were really "dangerous". Now it just looks like kids ride there bikes out there. That seems a lot safer!

Swimming

(click on the images to see full size)
The kids have been swimming almost every day. It is so nice to have such good little swimmers. They have gotten so good this summer. Ethan spends the whole time going off the diving board or trying to touch the bottom of the pool.

Picking Apricots

Grandma and Grandpa Redfearn have an apricot tree which is ripe for the picking.
So tonight we went out and picked a few bucketfuls.
I think the kids ate as many as they picked.

Zachary discovered he does like apricots!!

So does Ethan....

And Rachel too.....