Weekend funnies

Kate has a new saying..."What the goggle heck?!"  I know where she got "what the heck" from - that would be yours truly, but the goggle???  The only thing that we can think of is that she and Brett have been talking about 3-goggles since basketball season, so maybe it's carried over.  Who knows?  Either way, it's funny as goggle heck when it comes out of the mouth of a three year old!

The other night we were all riding in the car together when someone said something funny and Brett yelled out, "That STINKS me up!"  Huh?  Did someone pass gas?  We were confused and sort of looked at each other, then Todd asked him if he meant "that cracks me up."  Oh yeah, dad - that's it!  Now he says that something stinks him up just to be silly.

Kids - where do they come up with this stuff??

Preschool Graduation

As of yesterday, we are officially the parents of a TFS Kindergartner!  Brett graduated from Preschool!  I don't think it's officially sunk in yet!

 Brett and I got to school early that day to help his teachers in the classroom, so we got to take pictures of a few friends and take pictures with his teachers a little earlier - before all the chaos started :)  They had a cute little ceremony with all five of the four year old classes in the fellowship hall at church. It was a little difficult to see the kids, but everyone pretty much got up and moved around however they wanted. They had a prayer; the pastor spoke; the director spoke; and they sang two songs - one was "Down by the Sea" which was absolutely adorable,

and the other was one that they sing with Senora Gail. It was just about the cutest thing you've EVER seen. Seriously. Cute. There's nothing quite as funny as watching little kids shake their hips -

and Brett with all of his 50% Cuban self, does so with great enthusiasm! After the school ceremony, the kids all went back to the classrooms for individual class parties. 

Brett's teachers had their diploma and a lunch bag embroidered with each kids' name.  They said a few sentences about each child as they called them up to get their diploma. 

Of course, Aimee worked "milkshaker" and transformers into Brett's little blurb!  Go figure!  After all of the kids had their turn, we gave the teachers their books - "Ocean Friends 2010-2011."  We had quotes from each of the kids -

"I like Ms. Aimee because... I like Ms. Mili because... and I like Ms. Kris because..."  Some of the quotes were really hysterical!  The kids were really excited to see themselves in a hardback book too!  Once they looked at the books we opened up the muffins and juice and cookies to let everyone eat and socialize.  The boys were in true boy form and were running around the classroom pretending to be cats.  I have no idea what it is with this class in particular, but they LOVE to pretend to be cats... at least when they're not pretending to be Transformers and playing Legos!  Ms. Aimee's "fearless foursome" (Brett and three of his friends) had a super-cute picture that one of the moms had framed and gave to Aimee.  She had the boys each sign the back of the frame as well.  Overall, it was a fun-filled two hour party!  I still can't believe that the little man is done with preschool!

Addendum - here is our friend's video of the ceremony.  The songs start about 2 minutes in, I think!

Waddling out of the pond

Today was Kate's last day as a Mighty Duck!  They had their end of year picnic at noon, in the 98 degree heat!  It was actually very nice - laid back and casual.  The kids got to run around and socialize with their friends while the parents tried (unsuccessfully) to convince them to eat lunch, which was catered by Chic-fil-a thanks to one of the other moms. 

Kate with two of her friends, Lilliana and Hannah.  There are actually only 5 girls in the class, out of 17 kids, but I'm not sure where Ava and Izzy were during the picture taking!

Kate and her teachers - Ms. Janet on the left is one of the assistants, Ms. Cathy (top right) is the other assistant, and Ms. Mary Grace (bottom right) is the head teacher.  These women are like saints because that class is a little crazy!  Nothing like 12 three and four year old boys to keep things interesting :)

The kids each had a paper bag FULL of goodies to bring home - mostly various artwork that had been hanging up in the classroom and the hallways.  There was also a book full of funny quotes from Kate from the whole year... here are a few of my favorites:

• When asked what gift she would bring Baby Jesus... her response was "A princess Ariel!"
• Instead of Roses are Red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, Kate said "My shirt is red, Bennett's shirt is Blue, Sugar is sweet, and so are you!"
• "If I were part of the circus, I would be the Pooper Scooper!"
• "If I caught a leprechaun I would let it play Barbie's with me!"
• "If I found the pot of gold, I would hide it under my bed."

We also got the End of Year update (progress report, sort of) and here are a couple highlights:

• Kate's cutting and gluing skills are excellent! (my toy room always covered in her scraps is good proof of this!)
• Kate can write all the letters in her name and can identify every letter in the alphabet!
• She is one of four children who are in the "Hundred Club!" (They can count to 100.)

We're so proud of Kate and how much she has grown this year!   We will greatly miss Ms. Mary Grace and the rest of the Mighty Ducks.  What a fun year it has been!

More Lego Fun

The party was on Saturday, and here it is Tuesday, and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and sort through the pictures!  I think I still need a weekend to recover from last weekend... work on Friday, the in-laws moving their stuff down here on Friday, the Kindergarten Playdate on Saturday, THE birthday party on Saturday, a friend's 1st Communion party and pool party on Sunday, and a full day of work on Monday.  God is definitely good for giving us a ton of BEAUTIFUL weather all weekend, but I am so thankful for a day off today :)

We let the kids play outside until everyone arrived.  The boys had fun playing soccer and playing on the playset and they get some extra energy out of their systems :)  Once everyone arrived, they were lined up and given instructions.

Everyone had to find their place card and that's where they also found a lego ring, a car base with wheels attached, and a lego man driver.  They each had to build their own car with 3 rules - it had to have a steering wheel, an windshield, and a driver.  You can sort of tell in the picture on the bottom right - the dads really got into it too!

They had 10 minutes to build their car, then they all went outside to take turns racing down the ramp.  There were a few crashes, and a few unpredicted turns, but everyone had fun racing!  There were prizes given for the furthest distance, the "best" car, and the "funniest" car.

After we took apart the lego cars, they had a contest to see who could build the tallest tower in 3 minutes.  The only rule was that it had to stand up by itself.  Again, a few of the dads got involved!  Eventually, some of the kids combined their tower and cheated won... I guess when the birhtday boy does it, it's ok :) 

Overall, this party was SO much fun!!  We only had it scheduled for an hour and a half, which FLEW by so fast!  If you're looking for more details, or where I got some of the ideas, please check the "birthday party ideas" tab on the top of the page.  Thanks for looking!

Lego Party

Today we celebrated Brett's fifth birthday with a bunch of his school friends. I still cannot believe that my little boy is almost FIVE! Time flies when life is a little crazy :) There are a ton of pictures to sort through from the party, but here are a few pictures of the set-up!

Each child found their placecard so they would know where to stand.  At each place, we had a lego ring, a mini-figure, and a set of wheels attached to a car base.  They had 10 minutes to build a car - the only rules were that it had to have a windshield, a steering wheel, and a driver.

The birthday banner, made by yours truly!  The idea was from Craftomaniac.

The table runner was just bubble wrap spray painted green to look like a green Lego mat

The balloon weights were jars with duplos inside

  

I think the 5 is sort of common sense :)

Harris Teeter cupcakes... delish (don't judge!)

A view of the table - ready for the car-makers to come in!

The boys were ready for the song to be over to dig in!

 

The cupcakes for the Ocean Friends - yellow cake and chocolate frosting, per Brett's request!

Kindergarten!

This has been a very big and busy weekend at our house, and it's only Saturday night!  Today we took Brett to the New Family playdate at TFS, his school for next year.  Even though it is literally on the same campus as the preschool he goes to now, it's now the elementary school, with the big kids... definitely a big deal!  We knew a lot of the families out there today, and met a few new ones as well.  Brett was certainly glad to see some familiar faces.  The boys ran and played hard like they do every day on the "little" playground, which is what they call it now - the "little" playground.  Wasn't it just last week that they called the preschool 3/4 playground the "big" playground?! 

Brett and 3 of his Ocean Friends and future TFS buddies

After the playdate, we had a few hours to get ready for Brett's FIFTH birthday party!  It was all Lego-themed and Brett thought it was just awesome, which is all that really matters to me!  Pictures of that to come!

Kids Together

Our friends had their daughter's 6th birthday party at Kids Together park in Cary.  If you haven't been to this park, I highly recommend it.  There is SO much to do, but it is really spread out, so if you have multiple kids, you may also want multiple sets of eyes to keep track of everyone!  The weather was iffy at best, but it ended up working out beautifully.  Since the weather was sort of hit or miss all day, the park was pretty empty, which is a rarity this time of year!



Shooting the camera girl is NOT nice!



Busted pinata!

The mom & dad with their birthday girl!

ARGH!

Brett's class had "Pirate Week" last week, capped off with a treasure hunt at the end of the day on Friday.  I tweaked my work schedule so that I got to see it for myself and I'm so glad that I did!  It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!  The teachers made each of the kids an embroidered pirate t-shirt - personalized with their name, hair color, and hair length.  They made the vests out of paper bags and had a parrot attached to their shoulder.  They even had the bandanas around their head and the eye patch AND they had their faces painted to look "scruffy."  Seriously - 17 kids.  It was awesome!

Looking for their treasure box of loot!

It took about 0.2 seconds to find :)  I'm just impressed they didn't drop it in the water!

Getting their loot from Ms. Kris

All lined up, ready to go on their hunt... they told the moms to "Walk the plank!"

"ARGH!" look at our hooks!

Cuteness!

My favorite part - the pirates are saying their prayers

I think this pirate is my favorite!

Band of Pirates

Friday night the church and preschool hosted a concert with Mr. Jim and his Band of Pirates.  Mr. Jim is the kids' music teacher and they think the world of him!  There is a great little amphitheater in between the new buildings at the church that was absolutely perfect.  We brought dinner and let the kids run around.  Several kids from their classes were there too, so the kids had a great time.  As you can see from the pictures, they started out watching Mr. Jim and dancing, but they quickly took off, running circles around everyone!

There they are, down in front, listening to the music

And there they go, up the hill, running in circles!

Fabulous group of moms!  I love these girls!

Fearless foursome - Brett with some of his friends from school and their class mascot, Lips

After the concert ended, the kids were having such a good time, so we invited everyone over to our house to roast marshmallows and let the kids play.  Wouldn't you know that the second we started walking to the car, it started drizzling.  By the time everyone got to our house, it was a full out downpour!  Thankfully, the rain eventually blew over and the guys got a fire started.  We all got to roast marshmallows and the adults got to enjoy a few adult beverages :) 

Mighty Duck Moms

Right before pick-up on Friday, the Mighty Ducks sang some songs that they had been practicing.  They were super duper cute - I loved it!

Fun at REI

On Thursday, coincidentally Cinco de Mayo, we went to North Hills to enjoy the live music and celebrate our friend's birthday. We got out there early enough to eat dinner and walk around. Anytime we go to North Hills, Todd takes advantage of it and goes to REI too. The kids love REI. There are bikes to ride, tents to play with, car-top carriers to climb in - the possibilities are endless!

Kate and I were supposed to be looking for the boys - she got very distracted with the tents instead!

She is obsessed with opening and closing each zipper

We were mainly looking at car top carriers while we were there.  This one fits two kids - SOLD!

Kate even demonstrated that she can sleep in it :)

(I'm kidding about really putting them in there, I promise!)