Sister Trip!

For my sister's birthday this year, Mom and Dad gave her a flight to Napa for a sister trip! We spent two nights with my grandmother, who happens to live about 50 minutes from Napa Valley. Joy and I rented a car and made our way from San Francisco to Grandma's house, stopping in Sausalito for an amazing lunch and fun shopping an the way. The next day, we worked our way through the wine country and had a great time! That place is Heaven - so beautiful, and SUCH GOOD FOOD! We ate dinner at Mustard's - and if you're ever in Napa - you MUST eat there. Just incredible.
We had a tough time getting home the next day (rough day to be flying standby, I guess), but we made it home without having to spend the night in an airport, which is always a plus! :)
Here are a few pics...she has pics of me, and I have pics of her. So it goes when traveling with two!

Take me out to the Ball Game

Scott's parents were here last weekend, and we decided to all go to the ball game! The kids had a great time playing...I don't think they watched that much of the game.
A major highlight was the ball the boys caught during batting practice, followed closely by the peanuts and Cracker Jacks we brought to snack on (cliche, I know, but SO good!).
During the 5th inning, they had to stop the game to repair one of the lights. We waited and waited, and finally ended up leaving. It ended up being an hour-and-a-half delay, and we got to finish the game at home in the air conditioning. AND, we get free tickets to the game on July 5th for our "inconvenience". Whoohoo!

End of Year parties!

Is there anything better than the end of school for a kid? Amidst all the fun and hooplah, I cry every year. It's just a big fat reminder of how quickly my kiddos are growing up.






We're ready for a FUN SUMMER!!!
Then, first grade and third grade - here we come!

Kindergarten Graduation

A bittersweet day for a mom. Kindergarten graduation. Having two graduate at the same time was tough - I can't begin to imagine what high school graduation will be like. I won't think about that now.
Their part was "J is for jingle - a bell makes that sound. J is for jet that flies all around". They were by far the most talented kids up there. :)
My dad has the really good pics...I'll have to get those and post them later.

This was a shining moment in my career as a mom. I had on my calendar that Kindergarten Graduation was at 1pm. Scott had arranged his work calendar to be there, and my parents were planning to come as well. I planned to get up to school super early to get front row seats - we are, after all, the only family with 2 graduates! I got the kids all dressed up and sent them off to school. I was in my PJs washing dishes when I got a call from the kids' teacher around 8:30am. Ms. Herndon said, "Halle Grace says that you believe the graduation is this afternoon. You know that it's at 9:00 this morning, right?"
Uh, no. NO!
I threw on some clothes and made phone calls as quickly as I could. We all made it - even Scott made the 30 minute trek and didn't miss more than 5 minutes. We were, however, nowhere near the front row.
Whew! It was one of those days I was SO glad to have a "type A" daughter!

Halle Grace's Cinderella performance

At the end of May, Halle Grace's ballet class got to perform in their ballet company's Cinderella production. Her little group of ballerinas were forest fairies who came out and danced while the fairy Godmother worked her magic for Cinderella. They did such a great job! Just getting all dolled up was enough to make our girly-girl's whole year! :)



And if you just can't get enough ballet (or if you're an adoring family member who wasn't there)...I'll attempt to load the video.
Sorry - no luck. I'll try it through Slide.com.
Stay tuned (I know you're on the edge of your seat - don't fall off!)

New House Nesting

The nesting bug has finally hit. You know that excitement that gets your adrenaline pumping for things like painting and sewing and hanging pictures? I has been worried that it wasn't coming. But with the trip and the end of school activities, I think the nesting bug just took a little longer to hit me.
Yesterday, I stayed up until 3am painting my kitchen island! I know, I'm crazy. But it looks great and it's DONE! I've also started texturing over the kitchen wallpaper and have a couple of paint colors on the walls to see which one I like best. The next big kitchen project is painting the rest of the cabinets. The island is a different color, so it was easy to start there. The rest of them is an overwhelming project that I've been dreading, but I'm finally getting the motivation to get it done. I love painted kitchen cabinets. I think they hold so much more charm than stained cabinets. I took a "before" picture that I'll post in a bit.
I've also started cutting out sewing projects. I have literally BOLTS of fabric waiting for me to turn it into 8 curtains and 6 pillows. Who wants to come help? (come on, Renee!!!) :)
Scott will be worried when he hears my other project. There is a giant tree/bush of some sort that is taking over the front of out house. Scott is out of town and I got out there last night with the saw and "trimmed" it up good. He he! Grant helped me break up some of the limbs so it would fit in the trash truck. It was the hugest pile of limbs and branches that we have ever put out. We were returning home from Art Camp this morning when I saw the poor trash men trying to get it all in the truck. I was too embarrassed to pull in and have to acknowledge them dealing with my big mess, so we drove around the neighborhood for a bit. Ha! When we came home, it was all gone. The house has a whole new look after my little "trim". You can actually see the front of it now! :)
I'm off to take a break and watch Bedtime Stories with the kids. We're having a campout in the playroom!

The Past Month (or so) in Pictures...Part 1

Halle Grace's one-year homecoming celebration...

Some of my faves from Hawaii...















We stayed in Honolulu with our long-time friends, the Pinkstons. Then we were off to the Big Island! We stayed at the Hilton Wiakoloa Village (which is incredible!). We are not "resort" people, and this was a first for us. We had an amazing time (but we'll be back in a condo next time). I got suckered into one of those time-share sales calls last Fall. They made us an offer we couldn't refuse at this resort, so we jumped on it! We got an awesome vacation for a steal of a deal, but had to sit through a time-share pitch for a couple of hours (which we turned down...WHO actually buys those crazy time shares??!!). We've never done anything like that before. This one was definately worth it!
We enjoyed the beaches as the Big Island - great sand, prefect boogie-boarding waves, and amazing snorkeling (we swam with sea turtles AND a shark!). We were disappointed that we couldn't see the volcano erupting. The lava flow changes course all the time, so there's no predicting what you'll be able to see. When we were there, the lava was flowing in an inaccessible area. There were lots of interesting craters and steam vents in the National Volcanos Park, which was neat to see (but Yellowstone is better for that sort of thing, in our opinion).
We got to taste Kona Coffee and macadamia nuts right off the tree - we visited a quaint little farm on the Kona coast and got a great tour from the owner. He let us pick nuts and avacados to take with us - yum!
We also got to visit a true black sand beach. This sand is formed when hot lava hits the sea water and crystalizes into this incredibly fine sand. It was raining when we got there, so we didn't stay long, but the kids got build sand castles for the sea turtles. :)

Hawaii is such a special place - truly a masterpiece of God's creation. Everyone should see it at least once...

Next post - Kindergarten graduation and the last day of school.