Ben's 1st day of Kindergarten

Ben started his first day of Kindergarten today at Summit Charter Academy.  He is in the dual immersion class which means that he will be learning spanish.  His teacher talks in Spanish and they have a couple of aids that help the kids in english (that is so they don't confuse the languages).  They met in the cafeteria and then walked to their classroom.  Then they had to write their name and age on a paper and as I left, the teacher was showing them how to draw a face.  I think that they were going to have to draw a face on the paper after that.

When he got home he said that he had a good day but he didn't like the bus and he doesn't like his teacher that much because she talks in spanish all the time.  I told him, "of course she does, you wanted to be in dual immersion!"  

Ben's Meet and Greet with his teacher

On Friday, Ben got to go meet his teacher and check out his classroom.  He will have Senora Fuentes.  He found his desk and looked around his classroom and around the school.  He even played for awhile on the playground.

Ben's classroom

Ben in his desk

My kids watch too much TV

My kids decided that they wanted to make a floating lantern like on Tangled (the disney movie).  Big ben says sure.  When we say sure to something, even if we didn't really mean it, our kids NEVER let us forget. So we decided to try and make one for family home evening last monday.  We made a cute little balloon and tried to tie a tea light candle under it for heat.  Well, a tea light doesn't make enough heat so we cut it off and tried using a blow dryer.  That didn't really work either.  But we had lots of fun trying.  Yea for family time!

our pieces

putting it together.  not sure where brynna's shirt was.  i think she got it wet and decided to take it off

lighting the balloon

watching to see if it will blow up

brynna wanted her baby doll and lamb to watch

attempting the hair dryer

Starkweather Reunion

Over 4th of July weekend Ben's Starkweather side of his family decided to get together for a reunion.  Friday we went to the beach in Monterey.  It was windy and chilly, and yet, we all got horrible sun burns.  That made the rest of our 4 day camping trip a little miserable.  But we had fun and I went swimming in the ocean for the first time since I was a kid!  The camp sight was really nice.  There were A-frame cabins and a huge grass field and a basketball court and volleyball court.  There were also these rope swings tied to trees throughout the camp site.  The main building had a kitchen and a dining area that was indoors (for those of us who don't like to eat with the bugs.  There was also a large fire pit with stadium seats around it.  The only down fall was the poison oak.  Luckily, none of us got it, but my brother-in-law did.  We had lots of fun.

on the way home, brynna was so tired that this is how she fell asleep.  it didn't look very comfortable.

Hunter Reunion

For Father's Day weekend, Ben's Hunter side always gets together for a reunion.  This year it was up in Redding.  We camped out and got to visit with lots of Family.  Friday we went to Whiskeytown Lake.  The kids splashed around in the water and we all had lots of fun.  Ben brought his scubba gear and went snorkeling in the lake.  He said there wasn't much to see.  Just rocks and such.   

Ben playing Volleyball with his cousins

Brynna helping with the ping pong balls

Ben collecting pine cones

"i don't want my picture taken!"

At the lake, ben kept riding this log around

ben on his "canoe" 

both boys on "canoes"

tired out after all the swimming

oh no the lake monster :)

ring around the rosie

funny, no one wanted to do the all fall down part.  the water was a bit chilly :)

The closest we got to our yearly update of our girls.  Bobby was out of the water at the time :(