Isabella & The Peanuts Gang

I was grateful to attend this

Charlie Brown production with Isabella and her class!

The show was outstanding

-I'm always blown away by anything "live"-

and it was a great chance to spend some one-on-one time

with my daughter.

She is a beautiful girl,

nearly as tall as me now,

and it blows me away that once

upon a time she ran around in diapers...

Okay...crying now.

I love you, Isabella!

xoxomom

Iris & Grandma Lopez on a Field Trip!

I have the greatest grandma in the world!

While I was on a field trip with Isabella,

Grandma Lopez accompanied Iris on her

field trip to the Sunflower Market.

They had the best time together,

and as much as Grandma looked out for Iris,

Iris looked out for Grandma!

Since this field trip,

Grandma has had a mild stroke,

making it impossible for her to do something like this again.

How grateful I am for time well spent

together as families,

and for captured memories too!

Thank you, Grandma!

You do so much for us!

Isa & The Mosaic Art Contest

Our town hosted an art contest
and called for all area
fifth graders to participate!

The goal?
To create a mosaic art piece
using the theme:

Nature and Wildlife

All winning entries would
be turned into real mosaic pieces
to be displayed at a local sculpture park!

Isabella's mosaic representation of

Half Dome

(It's in her blood!)

was selected,
and she, and like classmates,

set to work with real mosaic tile!

Isabella and her good friend Katie!

Woo hoo!

Congratulations, Isabella!

Your piece is amazing!

{Now we just have to hike you up there!}

xoxomom

Iris' 100 Days...

Iris,

And her bead masterpiece

celebrating  her 100th day of school!

We had some major fun with the glue gun,

and managed to keep from our burning ourselves

-yea!-

so all in a all,

a successful project!

Congrats, Iris!

And keep in mind,

there are many, many, many

more days of school...

{smile}

...but you will do

AMAZING!

We love you, sweetheart!

xoxo



17 A's = 17 Free Donuts!

Granted,

we are not donut-people...

That's not to say that we don't EAT donuts,

we just buy them very, very rarely.

But when your girls amass an astounding

seventeen A's collectively on their report cards

-GREAT JOB, GIRLS!-

and Krispy Kreme offers one free donut for every A,

well...

Guess who was eating donuts?

The boys,

riding, or should I say, feasting, 

on the coattails of the girls efforts,

and happily doing so!

...

Isabella, Ava, & Iris,

You girls all make your mom and dad

so, so proud!

We love you very much!

xoxo

mom + dad

The Living Book Fair

What is a Living Book Fair?

Turns out,

it's pretty awesome!

Each grade selected a classic story

and brought it to life!

Thank you, Iris!

You did amazing in your play:

The Giving Tree!

You worked so hard to

memorize all of your lines,

and you sparkle "on stage"!

Ava's puppet show,

"Jack and the Beanstalk"

was a hit with all the kids!

Way to go, Ava!

Bella's class shared

"The Sign of the Beaver",

and brought to life a Native American village,

complete with a wig wam,

fishing, setting snares, and grinding cornmeal!

What a fun way to end the night!

Girls,

we're so proud of you!

Thank you for a wondeful evening!

We love you!



School's Out...And Leaves Are Scratchy

With Samuel back at school for his MBA,

we developed a tradition to celebrate and

kick-off his summer or winter breaks:

We ALL go to school

on his last day of class and

bum around until he's officially done!

The kids love exploring the campus,

and I love not waiting at home another night!

This year, being winter break,

the leaves were everywhere which

provided endless entertainment for the kiddos.

The downside?

Leaves don't feels so good down in the all

the nooks and crannies-

which is where they absolutely end up

when you play like these kids do!

HAPPY WINTER BREAK

and...

ONLY ONE MORE

SEMESTER TO GO!!!

A True First Day

I cannot believe it!

The first day of school is already here!

The summer, as usual,

has flown by!

My girls,

are so, so beautiful! 

And so big!

It really does seem like just yesterday that

I was folding pink onsies...

...

Not only is it the first day of school,

but their first day at a new school!

It's a huge leap of faith for all of us,

but after much thought and prayer,

we enrolled them in a charter school.

We love the classics-based curriculum,

the focus on Founding Father's principles,

and the uniforms, I must say,

rock!

The girls love it and we couldn't be happier!

Fall,

here we come!

New Territory...

Trying on uniform pants for the upcoming school year...

Lookin' good, Ava!

{She looks great in everything though...}

School's Out...

With the onset of the last few days of school we

celebrated some milestones!

Owen completed his first year of pre-school with

a bash at the park!

He loved his classmates,

and with the exception of getting spit on,

it was a great experience!



 Way to go, guys & gals!

 

Moving on up,

Iris Luciana advanced from kindergarten to the first grade!

That's no small feat and we are so proud of our Duck!

She had a wonderful year with a great teacher and

something I will never forget is seeing her postiviely

rocket into reading!

Iris, you are amazing!

Celebrating with a little graduation cake... 

...which isn't easy to do with these guys hanging on every bite!

Thank goodness she's wonderful at sharing!



Next up, Ava!

My new big bad third grader!

I was able to swap babysitting with a sister in our ward

so I could help out at her end-of-the-year field day. 

What a blast!

I was bummed I left my camera at home,

but seeing her and her classmates run around and

getting drenched to the bone was pretty funny.
...

Ava,
we love you, girl!

How is that you are growing up right before our eyes?

You did great this year and we are so proud of all your acheivements,
especially your progress in math!

Bella ended her fourth year with a Heritage Lunch!

She was all gun-ho to make mole',

but I talked her into a spicy dessert instead:

Cinnamon & Cayenne Brownies with

a rich Chocalate Ganache 

She made them all herself,
and to my dismay,

brought home an empty plate!

...

Come fall she'll be entering her final year of elementary school!

Yikes!

I'm choking up as I type...

sigh.

This is what's supposed to happen, right?

They grow up,
get bigger than you,
leave home...

Well, we're not at THAT point yet,
but the fact that we're anywhere CLOSE
to any of the above is startling to me.

Deep breaths...

Enjoy and savor the now...

...

It's been a few weeks now and all of the hoopla

has officially come to an end. 

I have ALL of my babies with me

every single minute of every single day now
and I'm loving every minute of it!

{ Note }

We've come to the mutual understanding

that asking me the same question over and over again

will result in a chore!

Hence the abilitly to love "every minute"!  

...

H A P P Y  S U M M E R !