1st day of School

Today was the first day of school for Ben and Ethan.

Ben went to his first grade class where he was surprised to find some friends from his old class.  His teacher's name is Sra. Eufracio.

He found a table full of old friends

Ethan started Kindergarten.  His teacher's name is Srta. Andrade.  He looked pretty terrified but was brave and didn't cry (and neither did mommy).

making sure i was still there

he had trouble with the line up concept

Poor kid was nervous 

They both had a good day and are excited to go back tomorrow!

My babies are growing up!

It has been a crazy summer around here.  Full of trips out of town, girls camp, and fixing up our house. Most of the pics from this summer are on my new iPhone (yes we did finally get them!!!) and I haven't figured out how to save them to my computer.  When I do, I will put them up here or on facebook.

In new news, they boys have started soccer.  It was really funny to watch them running around.  Ben doesn't want to do what the coach (ie his dad) tells him to do.  He just wants to kick the ball as hard as he can wherever he wants to kick it.  Ethan tries to follow directions, but, unfortunately, isn't the most coordinated child.  He trips over the soccer, divots in the grass, his own feet, etc.  Too funny!  I can't wait until their first game.

ready to go (dad picked out ethan's clothes.  i need to get him some practice shirts)

Ben will be starting 1st grade on wednesday and Ethan will be going into kindergarten.  He is doing dual immersion like Ben.  We find out who their teacher is on Tuesday.  Brynna started preschool this week.  She is going to Sunny Acres once a week so that I have a big block of time to go in and volunteer at the school or have appointments.  Then, probably, twice a week she is going to do a little preschool with her friends.  There are 5-7 or so kids around her age in church and we are going to switch off having preschool at our house each week.  We won't start that until September.  I am getting excited thinking about the fun things I can do with the kids.

brynna all ready to go.  princess backpack and lunch box of course

Easter Trip 2012

This year we went to my grandma's house for Easter.  My parents were there so we were able to hang out with them which was a treat.  We had lots of fun!

Before we went, the kids dyed eggs and decorated easter cookies.  They loved it!

so bored waiting

so cool

he was fascinated with the eggs

they are supposed to be eggs, rabbit heads, and carrots, but the cutters weren't the greatest

my little artist

she didn't realize she could eat it so she sat there bored for awhile while her brothers were finishing

oh i can eat it!

he made a little decoration in the frosting

and his masterpiece bunny (see the eyes?)

The day we got to my Grammie's, we went out to lunch with my parents.

yummy round table

my dad and ethan are the 2 biggest characters around!

Then we played out back.  Little Ben got 5 plastic easter eggs when he went to retrieve a ball that just flew over the fence on its own.  He then hid them around the yard and made everyone search for them over and over again.  There was one out in the open that took Pops 5 mins to find because he "thought it was part of the decoration."  Sure Pops.  We think you need your eyes checked again! :)

Ethan LOVED the bubbles

yea! sand!

awwww

Ben has a hard time keeping his eyes open in pics

we told him he looked like jacob marley from the christmas carrol

The infamous yellow egg.  we finally thought he found it...

nope, goes right past it again

And some videos for good measure ;)

I love that ethan is analyzing how the bubbles work while dad jumps around popping them.  ethan wasnt impressed :)

(I flipped the video so it was right side up, but it made it smaller.  If you push the square button in the bottom right, it will make it full screen and easier to see.)  Notice how brynna found the egg really quick :)  My dad thought he would be tricky and try to see how long it took Ben to find it.

Brynna finally got a hair cut

I finally caved and decided to cut Byrnnas hair.  It was so uneven, but because it was curly, it was uneven anyway.  But it was driving me insane, and she had just had her 3rd birthday, so I decided to give her a trim.  It looks way way better now!

before.  it was getting very long, but uneven (she is still covered in some of her dinner lol)

after (while still wet)

I forgot to take a good after pic with her hair dry, but here she is a week or so later

Our poor tree

We woke up on brynna's birthday to find out that our poor almond tree was murdered.  We are super lucky that it didnt hit the house or the fence or anything.  As we have cut it up, we have discovered termites in the trunk.  That mixed with the wind is probably what did it in.  Oh well, we wanted to take out one of the almond trees anyway.  We were just worried because some varieties need 2 trees to produce and we dont know if ours is one of those varieties.  Guess we will find out next year.

Brynna's 3rd Birthday

Brynna had a blast on her birthday.  She has been telling everyone for months that she was 3 so it is nice for it finally to be true (although now when people ask she has been saying "i dont know").  

She got candles in her birthday muffin

and got to get dressed all pretty for church

and she requested pink and purple cupcakes

she wasnt very good at blowing them out.  yummy spit :)

Then she opened up her cards

she was having trouble looking away from her cards long enough to look at the camera

then she got her present... a princess bike!!! (and helmet)

we put the dolly in to show her what that was for

She loves her bike and is becoming quite a pro at riding it.  

And I know I had taken a video of her riding but I cant find it on my comp, so I will have to take a new video and upload it.