She's Four....I Can't Believe She's Four

I both love and hate that my little girl is getting so big, but what can you do?

Since the Boy is in Arkansas, she decided she wants to wait and have her party when he gets back.  We thought it would be good to go ahead and let her open one present on her birthday and take her to the movies. She loves her little, purple scooter and is working on how to drive it.

I love you, Sis.  You are absolutely amazing.

Arkansas!!

The Boy has left for Arkansas for the entire month of June! We left the day after school got out and he is already having a blast.  He got to sit in the captain's chair on the plane and push a few buttons.

He is mostly going to play ball for his uncle who coaches a 7-8 year old team there.  They are serious about their baseball in Arkansas. They play full rules and use a pitching machine, which the Boy has never seen.  I was honestly worried.  I stayed in Arkansas long enough to catch his first game with the team.  After only spending 15 minutes of practice with the machine, he did awesome!  Struck out once, but got a hit and a run, too!

His teammates were so welcoming and friendly and curious why the Boy was a foot shorter than all of them. Despite that, he fit right in.

We got to spend a little time with my family and he made friends with Aunt Jo's dogs. He's going to have a great time!

Drummer

The Boy saw a drumming performance at his school and decided he wanted to be a part of that action.  So we put him in a bucket drumming class.  

He had a great time learning the song (which was largely the beat to We Will Rock You) and performing for his school mates at lunch during the last week.

Lifeguard

While we were at a primary swim party a mom came up to me and said, "I want you to know that the Boy just saved Sam's life". 

A three year old had gotten into water a tad too deep for him.  The Boy was the only one who saw it and quickly grabbed and moved him to more shallow waters.  Good job, Boy!!

Preschool Grad!

The Girl graduated preschool!!!

Oh wait, no she didn't. She missed one major requirement - you have to be old enough to go into kindergarten.  That's okay, sis, we'll try again next year.

Baseball!

The season went pretty well for the Boy.  He's a decent little hitter for his size and has mostly stopped playing in the dirt while he fields.

His coaches were exceptional and we are looking forward to summer when he goes to play ball for his uncle in Arkansas.

Mother's Day

I've been on a mason jar craft kick. So when The Man asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I told him I wanted him to make me one of these:

He bought the supplies, but I ended up doing most the work.  He helped with the "manly" parts, and I love how it looks on my back patio.

Science Fair

I tried to avoid it, but the Boy enthusiastically accepted the call to participate in the science fair at school. 

Once we decided on learning about sound and playing the water glasses, it was not that bad.  He was a big hit with the other kids playing Mary Had a Little Lamb over and over.

Gilroy Gardens

Since The Man missed Spring Break, we decided to pull the kids out of school and activities on Friday and head to Gilroy Gardens.  It's a great little amusement park a few hours away geared toward little kids. The Boy, even at 44 inches high, was allowed to ride most the roller coasters (which he loved).  Since it was after Sprink Break AND during a school day, there were no lines at all. We rode things two and three times over.

They had a little splash area - greatly appreciated on a very steamy day.

And we had a bit of a family water fight at the waterfall.  Do ignore the placement of the Boy's hand. We took three pictures, but the hand was in the same place in all of them.

Loved it. Perfect for our kids!

Easter

Easter here was beautiful and we kept it easy.  My kids loved playing with the neighbor's little ducks.

 Sunny and simple. Doesn't get much better than that.

Soccer Girl

I now officially have two kids in soccer. 

She loves playing and, as a bonus, she looks so stinkin' cute in her cleats!

Spring Break

Due to a mishap in the vacation planning process, The Man had to work on Spring Break. So the kids and I took a day trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium without him.

We spent the entire day there and the kids loved it! Can't wait to do it again next year.

We found....other ways to spend our time that week.

We did get to spend some time with Dad at the Drive In. We love to throw a blow up mattress in the back of the truck and bundle up.  They always show a double feature, but since it was Spring Break both were kid's movies. We stayed up until 11:00 that night. Great way to end the week off!

Ugh

Daylight savings for a child is like a full moon for a werewolf.

Updating

I have grown tired of waiting to remodel the house.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and paint some of the ugly 90s oak cabinets in the kid's and the master bathroom.

I heard of this great product from Rustoleum for painting cabinets without sanding so I gave it a shot.  I don't know how long the paint job will last, but I am extremely pleased with the final results. 

Here is the kid's bathroom before:

And here it is after using the base coat and the glaze provided.  It has the beachy, driftwood type feel I was going for and I love it!

 

 

 There was enough left over from the kit to do the master bath (and probably another two bathrooms after that if I had them).  So I decided just to use the grey base coat and no glaze on ours.  No before picture, but it looked just likes the kid's cabinets.  Here is the after:

When we moved in, the white hardware on the cabinets looked so bad that I removed them all and we just lived without knobs. Once I painted them grey, though, they looked gorgeous. So satisfying for $75 and a week's worth of work

Sports!

February was a busy time.  We ended basketball season and started baseball season. 

Here he is with his basketball coach getting his medal after the final game.  The coach was really awesome, but I think the Boy's basketball career is over.

And this is Opening Day for youth baseball.  He is on the Giants this year with a couple of buddies from his class.  One of his coaches actually played for the Oakland A's so we are thrilled to be a part of the team!

Happy Birthday, Boy!

The Boy turned seven. He's just not a little boy anymore.  We celebrated with his choice of meals, which was:

Spaghetti for breakfast

 Pancakes for lunch and pizza for dinner

 Some presents followed by a lively game of laser tag with dad

  And a minion cake

He is wishing really hard here.  Happy Birthday my Boy!