Beach with the Roberts

With the Roberts' move coming up, we've spent a lot of time together this week. A Father's Day trip to the pool. Monday evening tennis (for John and Stace) and picnic at the park. A tea party Tuesday for the girls. And on Wednesday, our first (!) official beach trip.

 How on earth, you might reasonably ask, is this the first time we've done the beach together? No matter, at least we got it checked off our list quite successfully.

 The Three Musketeers gathered quite a sand crab collection...

 ...while the Old Couple (Odd Couple?) did a lot of digging. Violet, of course, wanted to stay far from the scary water. Johnny, meanwhile, spent a lot of time bravely in the waves.

 The girls had a rock-climbing adventure of their own, in and around time on the zip line and at the playground.

 Stace and John came up after Stacey finished work, and of course my Englishman dove right into castle-building.

 Stace and Johnny have a real connection. Stace is really going to miss this clever, sweet boy.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty opened up their home a few blocks away for showers and a place to rest and eat a last family meal together (for now). We sure appreciated going home with clean, jammy-clad children.
And Genia and I just thought it was cute to look back and see this car-full of happy, tired children. They were very nearly all asleep by the time we reached Valencia.

Happy Father's Day!

 Our church is fun: bacon-wrapped hot dogs for the dads, plus this "photo studio," started off our morning.

Stacey's Father's Day was calm and relaxing, following our wild and crazy birthday party the day before. We spoke to Gord and Dean in England to wish them a happy one, and relaxed with an afternoon movie and evening pool time.

 Cora was very excited to have bought Stace a gift - a Twix bar. We also will be going to the Petersen Auto Museum as a Father's Day treat for my car-loving hubby.










Such a fabulous, hands-on daddy our girls are blessed with!

Some Father's Day music...

Birthday Bash #1

 It's not every day you turn 40. And when you're as popular as Stacey, one party in one country just isn't enough. While we've been planning a big dinner in England for months, we didn't want to ignore the occasion at home. 

Stace said he'd like to take part in a scavenger hunt. I thought we'd do it in teams, and end at Meadows Park, where we could play some games, all for points. Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty took over from there. Then, it was back home for a grilled dinner. 

I hid clues in buckets around our neighborhood and then across McBean and at the park, with little rhymes leading you from clue to clue. The four teams also had to find and photograph various things related to Stace, like the number 40, a coin from his birth year, and an awesome car. This team - JT, Jim, my dad, Scott and Keith, photographed Keith's Jag. Stace picked this one to win the points.

 

Another task was to "photograph the rain that Stacey misses."  Here is Stace's team's idea, getting a neighbor to spray the hose.

 Back at the park, Bill (a junior high principal) ran the games. There was a water balloon toss, wet-ball dodge ball, Twister, filling empty milk jugs with cups of water, watermelon-eating, a pinata - it was a ton of fun and very well-organized.

 Here's Michelle and Cora tossing water balloons...

 ...but John and Ave won the points. In fact, they won many of the points in the different games.

 The wet dodge ball game was a hit - we had such a fun group of friends to celebrate with.

Most of the games involved getting the dads wet. Thankfully the weather cooperated (and it wasn't too hot to play around outside.)

Watching the watermelon-eating contest was priceless. This round was between the previous rounds' winners, John, Rigo and Jim.

The pinata brought out all the aggression in Johnny.

The moms were blindfolded before they got to take a swing. Stace never got a chance to hit it - Colleen broke it open before the men got a go.

Back at home, Brad took over the barbecue while everyone chatted and enjoyed a lovely evening.

Jim and JT's little guy Jonah was a hit - everyone wanted make him smile.

Thanks to Michelle for making all the delicious Nutella cupcakes and cake! And thanks to my dad for the photos! And thanks to everyone for coming out.

Moving on Up

Cora's last day of kindergarten was Friday, when the teachers handed out promotion certificates, final packets of schoolwork, and posed for final hugs and thank-yous.

We're so proud of Cora; she learned so much this year - how to read well, to add and subtract, to write all her numbers up to 100, and more. She received a glowing report card from Mrs. Hawthorne, and we know she's more than ready for first grade.

But are we? That's another story. I've loved all the fun things in kindergarten, and picking up Cora at lunchtime for us to spend our afternoons together. We'll have another adjustment in August to the longer school day, and I know Violet will miss her playmate.

A final class photo of Mrs. Hawthorne's K/1 class, 2012-2013.

After the little promotion ceremony at the park, many families stayed to eat and play. We're so blessed to have Stace working in town, so he can easily attend school events like this.

After the fact, I regretted not getting a nice  photo of Cora and Johnny on their last day of kindergarten, like we have from their first day. Here, they're enjoying the picnic and Kona Ice snow cones with their friend Daniel, who goes to our church and was in Johnny's class.

Daniel's mom Jen and I became friends this year, walking together a couple of times a week after dropoff. Alas, she too has moved out of the school area, so we won't be seeing each other as often.

And, a last shot of nearly all the girls from Cora's kindergarten class: Cora, Vivian, Sophia H., Sophia M., and Tyler Belle.

Fun Final Week

 Cora's last week of kindergarten was full of fun activities.

On Monday, the fathers were all invited in for a special pre-Father's Day treat, with songs and donuts.
After "Donuts with Dad," Stace stayed and spoke to the class on what aerospace engineers do for their job, for a unit on community workers.  He used a Lego building set to explain his job, and I hear it went well. I'm sad to say that he didn't have a camera on him.

On Tuesday, the children brought in board games to play, and Wednesday was "Pirate Day," when they made pirate treasure maps and ate Pirate's Booty. I was so happy that Cora was game for dressing up. You never know with her. We just needed a black vest to complete her homemade outfit.





On Thursday, Grandpa took Violet so I could help out with Water Day and the class party, which consisted of ice cream sundaes.

The first game involved the children picking up as many marbles with their toes from the cold baby pool as they could.







Then, there was the traditional wet sponge relay, with the two teams racing to get the most water into their bucket. (Or racing to squeeze the most water onto their teammates' heads...)

 What's Water Day without water balloons? One mom actually contributed 350 water balloons! This meant the children got to go through many, many rounds of balloon-tossing.

Cora first paired up with Sophia, who has been her favorite kindergarten girlfriend the past few months.

For another round, she and Heath were a team. They actually won one of the rounds, keeping their balloon intact the longest.

Heath and his family are moving out of the area when school gets out, so we won't be seeing him anymore. Too bad, he's such a sweet, friendly boy. I like any kid who tells Cora she should be nicer to me and listen to me!

 There were plenty of balloons left after the game for a water balloon fight.

Then, it was time for the ice cream party. Here's Cora and Gabe, who I'm sure we'll see this summer at the pool with his mom and sisters. But, I doubt he and Cora will be classmates again, since Gabe is a year older.

Such a fun week for Cora!

Sleepover

 Ave stayed over Friday night, after we all played at the pool together and then had dinner together. The next morning, this was the sight on the trundle bed.

 Then, it was time for tea and breakfast for the girls' pillow pets.

It was cute watching Ave play with Cora and Violet with her animal; she's getting so big, she and Cora are more likely to paint nails and have dance parties together than play dolls.

But this time, she had just as much fun playing with toys and animals as Cora and Violet.

We kept Ave with us for lunch and errands, which helped Cora get through several stores without complaining.

On Monday, we had Genia and the boys over for lunch, and Owen and Violet had fun with some shaving cream.

Those following the blog closely have probably picked up on the fact that we've been spending a lot of time with the Roberts lately.

Sadly (for us), that's because our time together as neighbors is nearing its end. They'll be moving off our street and out of the area at the end of June, to John's home state of Montana for a new life in academia. We've known for a while, so we've had some time to get used to the idea, but now that it's coming closer we're trying to soak up as much time with them as possible.

May I have this Dance?

What's a classic car show without a live band? And without little girls dancing, just to watch their dresses twirl?

Final Volunteering Friday

Friday was my last day to volunteer in Cora's class. Sniff, sniff!

I've really enjoyed helping in her class this year; it's full of great kids, and I'll miss seeing them.

Here, Mrs. Hawthorne uses the projector to show the kindergartners where to glue down their zebras' tails.

Here's Cora and Trent, who Cora has known since she was 2 when they were Skippers together in Pioneer Club. I hope they get to be in the same class in school in the future.

 After the zebras were finished, and the first-graders were at recess, Mrs. Hawthorne read a story to the kinders.

After recess, it was time for art - they used pastel chalk to color in suns, which they had previously outlined with glue. We cut out and pinned these to the wall - the only things on the wall now, since everything else has been sent home.

 After cutting, gluing and chalk, the desks were filthy. And Monday was to be the special "Donuts with Dad" presentation, an early Father's Day event.

The desks had to be cleaned! It was funny to watch 6-year-olds having so much fun with shaving cream.

In fact, we bought some cheap shaving cream afterwards, to entertain the girls with.

 After school, before we picked up Violet at Grandpa's, Cora and I went out for a drink and a little shopping. We chatted about school ending, and whose class she might be in next year. It was nice spending some time alone with my oldest.

A good Thursday

 On Thursday, Vivian's grandma invited us and some of the other girls in Cora's class to come over to her house for a pool playdate. Here are classmates Violet, Sophia, Cora and Vivian.

 The girls had a lot of fun; here they are playing on a surfboard.

 That evening, Genia and John had us over for dinner. Stace was excited because he got to play with Johnny and Owen's Legos.

(Actually, Stace built a car, following the instructions, to take with him to Cora's class when he spoke about his job in engineering. He was going to explain how he writes instructions for putting together aerospace parts.)



After dinner, John played some music on the computer sung and played by his brother and sister. The whole family is musical! Cora and Ave took the opportunity to have a dance party.











Before the night was over, Cora presented to Ave and her brother a frame she and Stace made for them to remember Rusty by.

The Roberts had to say farewell to their 10-year-old Boxer last month, and Cora wanted to make them something to help them feel better.