Happy 3rd Birthday, Camille!

 (there were 3 candles, but she got 2 out before I took the picture)

Grandma Dianne came for the weekend to help Camille celebrate 

(Auntie Stacy got sick last minute and couldn't make it)!

I started asking Camille the same questions on her birthday that I ask Connor.  

Here are the comments from our 3 year old girl:

1.   What is your favorite color?  PINK & PURPLE

2.   What is your favorite toy?  MY PONY

3.   What is your favorite fruit?  RASPBERRIES

4.   What is your favorite tv show?  PAW PATROL

5.   What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  MAC & CHEESE

6.   What is your favorite thing to wear?  JAMMIES

7.   What is your favorite game?  BINGO

8.   What is your favorite snack?  COOKIES

9.   What is your favorite animal?  A PONY

10. What is your favorite song?  ABCD

11. What is your favorite book?  GOODNIGHT MOON

12. What is your favorite cereal?  THE ONE WITH THE MARSHMALLOWS

13. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  PLAY WITH THE HOSE

14. What is your favorite drink?  FIZZY WATER

15. What is your favorite holiday?  SKYE (?)

16. Who is your best friend?  MOMMY

17. What do you like to take to bed with you?  BABIES AND MY PINKY

18. What is your favorite breakfast?  BREAD

19. What do you want for your birthday dinner?  NOODLES

20. What do you want to do when you grow up?  MAKE DINNER

Go Hammerhead Sharks!

Connor started soccer this fall and it was good (it was actually really slow).  He spent a lot of time watching the ball....or watching the clouds move by.  He didn't get aggressive with it until his last few games.  Camille wasn't very interested in watching soccer, fortunately, the games were only 30 minutes long.

High five from his coach after scoring a goal!

Connor is so sweet to his baby sister (most of the time).

First day of Kindergarten!

It's a good thing there aren't any pictures of me without my sunglasses on because I was crying my eyes out watching my baby boy go line up for his first day of Kinder.  It was a little embarrassing because I seemed to be the only Mom who couldn't keep it together...

Connor's school is 1 block away from our house.  Here we are walking him there!

He was so excited.

My post here is really late, but Connor has now been in Kindergarten for just over 3 months and is loving it.  We are amazed day after day with how much he has learned.  He is already reading, writing and doing addition!  We are so proud!

Connor has also lost 2 teeth in the past few months.  Fortunately, the tooth fairy has remembered to come both times.

Fun in Minnesota

Here we go with trying to make-up for the past 3 months of blog postings that I haven't gotten around to...

We made our annual voyage to Minnesota mid August.  As usual, we had great weather and fun times at the lake!

Grandpa John & Cindy with our crew. 

Auntie Stacy came too.

Connor became obsessed with UNO.

Then we headed to Rush City to stay with Grandpa Don, Grandma Dianne and we loved the waterpark!  We're already looking forward to hitting it again next year.

Connor passed his swimming test so that he could swim in the deep end and go down all of the slides by himself.  He was, by far, the smallest kid in the deep end and all the cool kids were talking about him being such a good swimmer.  He was a star for a few days...

I couldn't stop smiling while watching this little guy!  Mom and Dad had fun playing at the water park too!

Until next year, Minnesota...

Happy 5th Birthday, Connor!

I'm sure I have said this for the past 4 years, but I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast!  As Connor told me months before, "5 is a pretty big deal Mom."  

So, we threw him the Power Rangers birthday party that he requested to include a giant bouncy slide.  Amidst a drought in California, his party date was a day full of rain and storms.  It magically cleared up right before his party and was sunny until everyone left!

Dinner out on his actual birthday

Our little model posing before the party

Every year, I ask Connor the same questions to see how things have changed from the year prior.  Here are his responses as a 5 year old:

 1.  What is your favorite color?  GREEN & BLUE

 2.  What is your favorite toy?  POWER RANGER MEGA FORCE

 3.  What is your favorite fruit?  RASPBERRIES

 4.  What is your favorite tv show?  SPIDERMAN

 5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICH

 6.  What is your favorite thing to wear?  SLEEVELESS SHIRT & SHORTS

 7.  What is your favorite game?  MINE CRAFT

 8.  What is your favorite snack?  WHOLE APPLES (NOT SLICED, FULL)

 9.  What is your favorite animal?  LION & TIGER

10.  What is your favorite song?  BROKEN EYES by Two Gallants

11.  What is your favorite book?  CARS RADIATOR SPRINGS

12.  What is your favorite cereal?  COCOA PUFFS (he has had them once)

13.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  PLAY TAG

14.  What is your favorite drink?  JUICE OR 7-UP (he has had a sip once)

15.  What is your favorite holiday?  CHRISTMAS & HALLOWEEN

16.  Who is your best friend?  ANGELINA & EMILY B.

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you?  MY BLANKEY

18.  What is your favorite breakfast?  CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES (1st time having them morning of his 5th birthday, compliments of Daddy)

19.  What do you want for your birthday dinner?    22ND STREET LANDING FISH STICKS AND FRENCH FRIES

20.  What do you want to do when you grow up?  BE IN THE ARMY

Connor's Preschool Graduation

Connor is on his way to Kindergarten!  He had a graduation ceremony honoring the 3 kids who are leaving daycare for Kindergarten this fall.  Here is our handsome guy who starts "big kid school" in 2 weeks!

Miss Livia...the best daycare provider and friend to our kids!

Connor and his best bud, Yadier.

We have loved our daycare so much and are happy that they will still provide full time care for Camille as well as before and after school care for Connor.

Weekend Adventures

We had a pretty fun weekend full of adventures!

Holding a tarantula and snake.

Tide pooling at the beach - Connor found sea urchins.  

Riding bikes.

Hanging out and being silly.

Swinging.

And Mommy's favorite...finally enough hair to play with! 

Less than desirable Memorial Day weather kept us from the beach, but we did head down to the harbor to check out activities at the Battleship IOWA.  

Camille wasn't as excited as Connor and Daddy were to sit inside of the cool Army trucks.

Connor did awesome at all of the shooting games winning the grand prize!

What a surprise, we woke up from our family nap to sunny skies and warm weather!  We spent the rest of the day playing in the back yard.  What a great weekend!

Here are the kids saluting our American flag before we took it down for the night.
Proud to be American.
Thank you soldiers for fighting for our freedom!

Memorial Day 2015.