4th of July 2012

Happy 4th of July! 

   We had a great day as a family.  It all began picking cherries- they were Delicious!  

 

Then we went and threw rocks in the water at the beach:

Next was the Olcott Amusement park:

 

The afternoon was spent napping/resting/ getting ready to BBQ with friends. 

We even did a few sparklers:

 

and ended with glow necklaces and an amazing firework show at the University.  

She's 5!

Our Kate turned 5 on Monday!!! 

We opened some presents in the morning- thank you Grandma and Grandpa Damstedt for the great dress, card, and tea set!   

 (For breakfast she wanted toast and sausage.)

 Usually we are camping for the 4th on her birthday, but this year we are here so she got a party with her friends.  

Since Kate is our only child with a summer party we had to have a "Splash" party. 

 As her guests arrived she gave them a beach ball to decorate. 

We ate lunch and then played lots of water games and races. 

We filled 100 water balloons!

She had an "ice cream sandwich" cake:

 and got WAY too spoiled with presents:

 That evening we went to dinner with the whole family and then came home to open more presents from Gradma and Grandpa Miller.  

 She got 5 Friends Lego sets (1 she already opened as soon as it came.) Everyone had a really fun time putting them all together. 

Happy 5th Birthday Kate- we LOVE you!

"Gross" .... ology

Yesterday was fun!  

We went to the science museum in the morning and had a great time in the new "Grossology" exhibit.  We got to go in a nose and it even "sneezed" us out: 

 

 This guy talked about snot..

 You could practice making "toots"

 The got to climb on skin:

 and take out bones:

 We even played a little trivia game:

 and of course we could leave without learning about barf... 

We also went to the "new" permanent exhibit where the dinosaurs used to be.  

It is awesome!! It's all about the body and this thing was really cool: 

 Downstairs in the large play area Bruce made this light castle and was pretty proud:

Yesterday was fun- tomorrow is another one!

Last Week of School Countdown....

5-  On Monday the kids passed out gifts to all their specials teachers.  I made these cute boxes and we filled them with chocolates. 

4- Tuesday both Jane and Bruce had picnic lunches.  Bruce got to eat in the hall and then go play outside, 

and Jane had an "Egypt" party & pizza.   

(with Amelia)

3- Wednesday school was only from 9-10:45 and will be Th & Fri too.  We gave Bruce's teacher this super cute basket from all the parents: 

2- Thursday was an assembly where they passed out awards.  Bruce won 1st place in photography  

and Jane got honorable mention in drawing.  

(she is walking back and Kate is waving to her right in front of my camera)

*Plus we gave the bus drivers a cold bottle of water and little drink mix-ins. 

Here is a picture of Bruce's crazy class:

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Stay tuned.. .

(Plus- you may be thinking, "you're still in school!" but we do go for 180 days like everyone else and don't start again until after Labor Day.)

Kate's PreK Graduation and Dance Recital

Last Thursday Kate had her Pre-Kindergarten graduation.

 

 Ava is the blonde cutie in pink and she and Kate were dance buddies and friends.

 

 We love Ellie!  Most every morning we'd pick up Ellie for school and her mom would bring them back in the afternoon. 

Her friend Nolan:

 

 Ellie, Mrs.Paula, Kate, and Mrs.Sue:

 

 We made the teachers a little scrapbooks with a page from each child.  Here is Kate's:

  So proud of you Kate!

 

 On Friday night and Saturday afternoon she had her dance recital.  It was SOOO cute.  They danced to "I Enjoy Being a Girl" and she LOVED the stage:

 not the greatest picture, but just to give you an idea:

 This cute mom was spraying all the girl's hair with glitter and Kate is getting ready for her turn:

 We "Enjoyed" watching you dance Kate!

Bruce Day...

This is what the bathroom floor looks like after you've had cub scouts in the morning, a baseball game, and a piano recital all in the course of 8 hours:

 This morning their tiger cub den went to a police station.  We put together this super cute "Tiger" basket to thank his leader.

 He played a baseball game, they won and he threw someone out :)

At 4:00 we went to his first piano recital.  He was so excited to play:

He played Tyrannosaurus Rex and Dancing with Frankenstein. 
Here he is with is teacher Sister Brinton.  She made them all really cute boxes of chocolate with music note paper and also baked an awesome piano cake for the refreshments. 

We're proud of you Bruce!