Neighborhood Block Party

Every year on the last day of school our fabulous neighborhood has an awesomely fun block party. It starts off with the kids' bike parade. All of the kids decorate their bikes or scooters and then ride them around the cul-de-sac. Michela did a stellar job this year. You can also see Aria's bike in the background but she ended up not wanting to ride it.

As usual there was a long line for the food, but it is fun chatting with friends while we wait.

Treat, treats and more treats abound. Snow cones, cotton candy, ding dongs from the cake walk and loads of goodies brought by half the neighborhood.

The kids had fun in the bounce house, shooting hoops, playing with friends and Hunter was having fun climbing trees.

The grown ups got to participate in Name that Tune. Most of it was kind of old school, so I was no help at all. As we walked home we could still hear the music going and the laughter of our wonderful friends and neighbors. This has to be the most perfect way to start off the summer.

School is Out!

Today was the last day of school for the kiddos.  Actually last hour and a half, I wouldn't really call that a day.  Does anyone else's school do this ridiculous thing?  I took the kids to school and had just enough time to go home, do 40 minutes of weight lifting, jump in the shower and then race back down there to get pictures of the kids with their teachers.  It's a good thing I went down there because I ended up taking some other neighborhood stragglers home who missed the bus.

Chase had a fantastic year.  He actually loved going to school every day.  His teacher, Mrs. Jones, was so amazing.  I loved going in to help out every week in her class.  She just adores her students and makes learning so much fun.  She sings a lot, which makes me smile because I am always singing things to my kids too.  Chase made some great friends this year and he is so excited to be a 1st grader next year.

Hunter was in Spanish Immersion this year.  He learned a lot and I'm amazed at how well he can speak Spanish already.  He is such a shy kid but he made some good friends this year.  Miss Campos was a very fun teacher.  I loved going into their class and the music would be playing and the kids were dancing around while they were learning their spelling words.  Hunter is a great little student and did such a good job this year.

Michela was in 4th grade and had a good time making lots of new friends.  She continued to do so well in school and had so much fun this year.  They did so many great activities and field trips.  Her teacher, Miss Burrows, was brand new to teaching and had so much love and patience for her students.  She won't be coming back next year because she decided to go on a mission.  Yes, she is that young.  She just got her mission call to Ukraine.  

I was so worried at the beginning of the year about how they would adjust to this new school, but it all turned out great in the end.  I don't know why I worry so much!  I've really grown to love their school and all of the faculty there.  It's been a great school year and hopefully we will have lots of fun this summer.  Now does anyone have any ideas on how to keep four children entertained all day?! 

Bobcat

Hunter started scouts last month and he has been so excited about it. When we first got his scouting book he was looking through it and I kept hearing, "Cool", "Awesome", and "Can we make this?" Scouts is the perfect thing for Hunter, he is having a great time with it.

At pack meeting he received his Bobcat award.

He worked so hard at passing it off. It was fun to see him as they were drawing all the symbols on his face.

It is the beginning of a long list of hard work and awards yet to come. I'm actually pretty excited about it all. Poor Michela is so jealous, she would love to be a cub scout. We'll just have to let her join in on the fun whenever possible. I remember being an honorary scout when my brothers did scouting. Mike already helped Hunter and Michela make rubber band paddle boats. They actually floated quite well in our bathtub. With the rate Hunter is going I'll probably be blogging about his Eagle Scout in no time at all. :)

Yes, I know the shirt is a bit long, in fact it looks like a dress, but we had just bought his shirt a couple of hours before the meeting. I only had time to sew on a couple of patches. I ended up having to duct tape his den number on his sleeve. Yikes! I'll have to hem his shirt so he can actually tuck it in.

No Doubt

This is what the card said that my sister gave me for my birthday.

Sometimes birthday presents are PAR

for the course, but I wanted to do

something A little MORE.

I have NO DOUBT that you will enjoy it.

Be ready to go tomorrow at 6:30 pm.

Isn't that so clever! At first when I read par for the course I was like, "are we going golfing or something? Who's birthday is this, mine or Mike's?" But I quickly caught on and then I was so excited! What a great sister I have! Thanks Tiffles!

Here's Tiff and I getting ready to go. Aria decided to join in the picture. She was convinced she was going with us.

We picked up our tickets at will call and went through the first door. Ends up we were on the floor. When we first walked out we noticed there were no seats and I thought, "Oh boy, what have we gotten ourselves into?" We ended up standing the entire night while being surrounded by people jumping and dancing around. It was so much FUN! We were probably 20-30 feet away from the stage so we could actually see their faces and everything going on. There was quite a mix of people there. There were teenagers, little kids with their parents, 30 somethings all the way up to a little old grandma who was down on the floor with us!

The opening act was Paramore, who I love, and they sounded incredible. The lead singer was so surprised that the audience knew so many of the words to their songs. She was tiny, but she has a huge voice. I tried to video some of the songs but the music was so loud that the audio on the videos didn't come out very well.

When No Doubt came out everyone pushed further forward and suddenly that 10 inches of personal space you were enjoying became nada. Haven't these people heard of personal boundaries? Holy Hannah, by the time we got out of there it was like we had been standing in a sauna for 3 hrs. with a hundred other people. Don't get me wrong though, it was totally worth it to see No Doubt back together again and live! They put on quite the high energy performance. This is the only picture of Gwen that sort of turned out.

She was so beautiful and so in shape to be bouncing around the stage all night. She even brought her son Kingston out for a minute so the crowd could sing Happy Birthday to him. And when they were introducing the band they were saying where people were from. They said this one backup vocal, keyboard, trumpet guy was from Richmond, Ca and Tiff and I started screaming. Then they said his name was Steven Bradley and we couldn't believe it. Steven Bradley? Steven Bradley that played the trumpet in band with our brother Kurt? I would have never recognized him. In high school he always had a flat top and now he has these really long dreadlocks. We wished we could have shouted out "E.C. Gauchos" but he would have never heard us above the crowd.

What a fun night and what a great way to end my birthday weekend. Thanks again Tiff, you are the best sister ever!

Memorial Day BBQ

We had our friends the Gardaniers over for a Memorial Day BBQ. They are such a fun family to be around. We always have a great time when we get together. We played golf in the backyard as well as soccer and baseball. We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed sitting out on the patio and chatting.

Here are some of the kids loading up their plates.

Aria getting down to business.

A picture of the entire gang.

Daniel eating a double decker watermelon slice.

Aria and Chase couldn't get enough of Aunt Tiffy's fabulous garlic bread. As you can see from Aria's cheeks she also loved the watermelon.

To end the evening we made Key Lime Pie ice cream and ate cookies. What a perfect and relaxing day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday, but it seems like I've had a birthday weekend! On Saturday Mike and I took the kids to see "Night at the Smithsonian". My sister Tiff joined us for the fun. It was a cute movie, not quite as good as the first one, but still a good laugh. Then we went and got pizza and ice cream. Yum! My favorite birthday meal hasn't changed much since I was a kid. :)

This morning I got to lead the primary in singing Happy Birthday to myself! Very awkward. Mike and the kids gave me beautiful potted flowers out in the yard. Gorgeous!

Here are some hanging baskets of dancing ladies. At least that's what we called them when we were growing up, I actually don't know the flower's real name.

We had a yummy dinner at Mike's parents' house with his family. And the weather was so beautiful. Not too cold and lots of rain. I wish it would rain once a week just so I could enjoy that lovely weather. I love how rain just washes all the grime away and everything looks so clean and beautiful afterwards.

Mike's mom cracked me up when she said now that I have turned 35 I am half way through. I asked, "halfway through what?" She said, "when I turned 35 I figured I was halfway through my life. After 70 I won't be worth much to anyone anymore." What? Don't you know that 70 is the new 60? My Mom is turning 70 this year and she is incredible! She walks the Berkeley Hills every single day for at least an hour. She is smart as a whip, gardens, teaches piano, and has the best sense of humor. When I look at her I think 70 isn't old at all! It's funny, but when I hit 30 I felt like my life was just getting going. In my 20s I was always so unsure of myself and didn't know what I needed to be doing. I am loving the 30s! I feel like I am in the best shape of my life, I have a confidence in myself that I never have had before, I know my purpose in life, I know where I'm headed, I have an amazing family, a sweet husband and wonderful friends. I'm actually excited for what lies ahead of me.

Tomorrow we are having a little barbecue with friends and the best birthday present of all is tomorrow night. My sister got us tickets to go see No Doubt and Paramore in concert at the E Center. I am so excited! We saw that they were coming and we had talked about it a couple of weeks ago and wished we could go but probably guessed it would be sold out. I can't wait to see Gwen and the boys back together again playing all of my favorite songs! I guess when you turn 35 you deserve an entire birthday weekend, don't you think?!

Our Own Produce Section

I've been wanting to plant a garden for years now, but this year we finally decided to actually do it. My wish list consisted of zucchini, squash, tomatoes (Roma, cherry, ...), carrots, onions, basil, cilantro, pumpkins, strawberries, lettuce, bell peppers, ... what don't I want?! Mike came home with some seeds and we went to town. We had to move a couple of bushes to make room on the side of the house that gets the most sunshine. We ended up planting Roma, Cherry and Regular Tomatoes, squash, zucchini, carrots, basil, cilantro, strawberries, pumpkins, watermelon, and cantaloupe. We already have a peach and plum tree and some raspberry and blackberry bushes. The kids helped us plant the seeds and Mike worked out a drip system from our existing sprinkler system. I love having a handy hubby!

Michela made little markers for all of the different fruits and veggies.

I can't wait to see some little green sprouts!

I remember having a garden when I was little and I loved going out every day to see what had changed from the day before. I can't wait to be able to go outside and "shop" at my own produce section instead of having to go to the store all the time. Is anyone else doing a garden? Do you have any tips for us newbie gardeners? I'll have to post some more pictures as our crop starts to show. :) By the way, Aria was inside taking a nap during the planting. This is the only reason we were able to get so much done!

I am the Biggest Loser

So I was watching the finale of "The Biggest Loser" last night.  I have not been a regular watcher of this show, but something about this season sucked me in.  I think I liked the whole dynamic of the couples, someone there to support you, cheer you on and help you through those difficult times.  I was totally bawling as I watched these people step on the scale for the last time and I was so excited for them as they saw their total weight loss.  A lot of these people lost enough weight to equal a whole other person!  Can you imagine having to carry all that around with you your whole life?!  I was amazed by the 18 year old boy who lost 207 pounds!  He's got his whole life ahead of him now.  What an amazing transformation!

I've never had to struggle too hard with my weight.  I danced every day for most of my life so I was pretty fit.  I wish I had appreciated what I looked like back in those days.  Why do we as women get so down on ourselves.  We can't ever be happy for what we have or for what we look like, it seems like we are always thinking we need to be more than what we are.  Watching these contestants last night I was thinking, "I weigh less than all of these people (well except Helen, way to go Helen!), yet I am not confident in the way I look."  What is wrong with me??

Last year I was totally unmotivated about losing the weight after Aria was born.  Thankfully my friend Natalie told me about the trainer she was going to.  I signed up knowing that I needed a kick in the pants to get out of my funk.  It was great having Natalie there with me, I loved having someone to commiserate with and help me laugh through the tough workouts.  I lost 20 pounds and I was in the best shape of my life.  After I stopped going I kind of slacked off a bit.  I kept exercising, but not as hard as I had been, and I started eating junk again.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  I swear I am sabotaging myself and I am doing it knowingly!  

Well I have been exercising very diligently these last four months but I can't seem to stop eating sweets.  I know better, yet I keep doing it.  Does anyone have any advice?  Does anyone have any healthy snack options that might be able to satisfy my sweet tooth?  Does anyone want to join me in my quest to master my food addiction?  What else can we turn to when we are stressed, depressed and feeling a bit lonely?  I could use all the help I can get, because I am feeling like the Biggest Loser lately and I don't mean that in a good way.  

Hunter's Baptism

Wow, I can't believe my little boy is old enough to be baptized. What an exciting day it was for Hunter and our family. It's been a couple of weeks of preparation. We had a great Family Home Evening lesson all about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. When I asked Hunter what it means to get baptized he said, "we can have all our sins washed away." Then I asked him why this was important and he said, "because I have a lot of them!" Oh my goodness, he is such a character.

Hunter and I also had a great little Mom and Son shopping trip for a suit. He was making me laugh because he was walking about five feet behind me the entire time. When did he start feeling embarrassed to being seen with me?! We had to try on like 10 different suits before we found the perfect one. And of course we had to get it big because he grows like 2" every month! I had a good night of hemming! He looked so handsome in his new suit and tie.

I felt like I was beaming the entire day!

We were so proud of Hunter and his decision to be baptized. He is such a good boy, so caring and sweet. He always surprises me during Family Home Evening and Scripture time. I think he's not listening and I'll ask him a question and 95% of the time he has an answer.

It was a wonderful baptism, short, sweet and so full of the spirit. I was so thankful to Grandma Peggy for letting Hunter know how strong the spirit was in the room when she got up to say the opening prayer. I hope he remembers how that felt for the rest of his life. It felt so good to see Mike baptizing Hunter in front of our family and close friends. What a sweet and tender blessing Mike gave Hunter as he confirmed him a member of the church and blessed him to receive the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful that Mike is a worthy priesthood holder and can perform these special ordinances for our children. My heart is full as a Mother and I am so thankful for my sweet children.

Here's Hunter with the wonderful men who helped to confirm and bless him. Uncle Brian, Uncle Matt, Dad, Grandpa Larry and Ben Peterson. What a lucky kid Hunter is to have so many great examples of righteous and caring men in his life.
The primary gave him a little baptism questionaire to fill out and it is going to be read tomorrow in sharing time. It asked what his favorite part of the baptism was and Hunter wrote, "pulling the plug." He was the last baptism of the day so he and Mike were asked to pull the plug in the font. He thought that was a pretty cool thing to do.