Catching Up-November and December

We have had a busy fall with school, after school activities, and travel. Emma continues to play soccer and has now scored 3 goals for the Pixies. She is also taking Ballet this year. Ian loves preschool and will start Soccer in the spring. He also has learned to swim and always asks if the pool is open when we drive by. He can't wait until next spring to be swimming again!

In October, Dan and I went to Germany for a "work trip" we visited Munich during Octoberfest, Salzburg, Mad Ludwig's Castle, and the Christmas town of Rothenburg. We traveled to Virginia for the week of Thanksgiving and had a great time visiting with family and friends. We are staying in California for Christmas with both sets of Grandparents visiting for the holidays. Here are a few slideshows of our adventures.







And here are a few videos of our musical adventures:

Thanksgiving music with the family




Dancing in San Jose with one of our favorite children's musicians, "Mr. Peter"

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our Flamingo.....


and our Little Minion

First Day of Second Grade

Emma started Second Grade Today! She was really excited to go to school this morning and see all of her friends and her teacher. Most of her class stayed the same this year and she her teacher has looped up with them to second grade.


First Day of School Picture


And a silly faced one


One more


Friends!

And just to look back, here is the beginning of First Day


And the beginning of Kindergarten

Dance Camp

Emma had a great week at dance camp last week. She got to learn about several different kinds of dance including Ballet, Jazz, HipHop and Tap. She has decided that ballet is her favorite and will be continuing on in that for the fall. Here are a few videos of her performance at the end of the week.

Ready for Second Grade

Emma is really ready for second grade; and she really looks like a second grader now. She lost her two top teeth last night.

Summer Vacation Part 3 - Crater Lake and Northern California

After spending a hot week in Florida and cruising the Caribbean,  we thought it would be a good idea to go some place a little bit cooler for our last week of travel. Dan's brother and family were going to be up in Oregon for the week, so we flew back to California and then drove up North to spend the week. We spent 3 days in Crater Lake, Oregon. We lucked out and got to stay and a big room in the lodge right next to the rim of the crater. We did a lot of hiking (Ian amazed us a little with how much we pushed him). One day we even took a boat to wizard island (the volcano in the middle of the lake) and we climbed to the top of the and ate lunch in the crater.
The last 4 days were spent in Northern California. On the way south, we went to the Oregon Caverns National Monument and got to see some amazing rock formations underground. In California, we went hiking in the Redwoods and took a jet boat tour where we saw several species of birds including a bald eagle. Here are just a few of the many pictures that were taken on the trip.

Summer Vacation Part 2-Cruising the Caribbean with Mickey Mouse

Since we were already in Florida, we decided to spend the next week of our vacation trying out our second Disney Cruise. Once again, we loved it! We did a week long cruise of the Western Caribbean including stops in Grand Cayman, Mexico, and the Bahamas on the Disney Fantasy. We spent a lot of time enjoying the boat as well as doing a few shore excursions including tubing and snorkeling. Disney's private island is amazing, the service all over the boat was wonderful and our kids loved their kids club area. Here is a slide show of just some of our pictures from the week.

Summer vacation part 1- Walt Disney World

Right after school let out, we embarked on three weeks of traveling. Our first stop was Florida for a week of fun at the Walt Disney World Resort. We met my family their and had a great time going to all the parks and spending time with the family. Below is a slide show of some of the fun.

Lets rewind... Back to May

We have had a fun, busy summer and with Emma starting school next week, I am finally catching up on all the things we have done since you last heard from us. So get prepared for a bunch of post all about our summer vacation.

Before school let out in May, Dan and Ian went to New York to celebrate Grandpa's 70th birthday.




Cousin Keaton and his family were able to make it, too


Ian is not turning 24, but he did turn 4 and Keaton turned 2. They had their own little cake at the party


Along with their own little table


They also got to bond over boy things like sand and trucks

After Ian returned from New York, he and his class hosted a beautiful Mother's Day Tea



The class sang quite a few songs

Complete with hand motions

Ian and his wonderful teachers

Trying to get a picture of Ian and one of his besties, Madison


In May, we also traveled to Minnesota for my cousin's wedding. Emma was a flowergirl and Ian was a ring bearer. It was a great weekend catching up with family.


Ready for the rehearsal at the beautiful church

Practicing walking down the aisle

Getting hair done

The flower girls

Emma

Ready to go to the church



Ian was proud of his "suit" even if he was not a superhero liked he thought he would be when we told him he was wearing a suit

The girl cousins

School ended at the beginning of June so each of the kids posed for their end of the school year pictures



So that catches you up on May, next post will be about our first week of vacation in Disney World!

School Appreciation Night

Every year, our church does a school appreciation night for the teachers in our school district. This year, the decorations were over the top with a jungle theme that included monkeys, trees, and even a broken down jeep. Here are a few pictures of our sanctuary transformed:





It was a great evening of appreciating all the work our teachers do for our children throughout the year.

Emma goes to Work

Last week, Emma got to spend the day at Google for take your child to work day. Google does a really good job at having a lot of age appropriate activities throughout the day. Here is a little of her fun day:


Breakfast to start the day

A little engineering

Learning about how computers are put together

A little science

Some art

Some physical education

Lunch

A picture with the project daddy works on

Soccer Practice

Dan got me a new camera for my birthday, so I took it to soccer practice one day to see what it could do. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.


My constant companion


Emma is in Pink

Ian's 4th Birthday Party

In April, we celebrated Ian's fourth birthday. He requested a rocket birthday, so we had rocket dogs, to eat, flew rockets to the moon in our games, and ate a yellow rocket birthday cake. We had a great time celebrating with some of Ian's friends.
Here are a few pictures from the day:


Playing "Pin the Rocket to the Moon"


Ian was not very close :)


The Cake


Ian liked his yellow rocket


Blowing out the candles


Happy boy!


With some of his friends