Hats!

Sebastian recently found his winter hat in his drawer and wears it around the house constantly!  Even though it is still in the triple digits some days, he still runs around in this things until his head is sweating and I make him take it off.  I have to admit though.... he is so darn cute in it!

Playing in the Rain!

It's been a while since I've posted anything.... things have been moving pretty fast around here.  We had a nice rainy day a few weeks ago and the boys had a great time playing in the rain.  Here is a video of their fun.

Soccer Star

Sebastian just finished his first season of soccer.  This was his first experience with an organized sport and although it started off a little rocky, he quickly got the hang of it.  He was on a team with other 3 and 4 year olds, so you can imagine what kind of challenge that was for the coach.  His coach did a great job though teaching them some basic soccer skills and then they played a game for the last 30 minutes.  The games mostly consisted of the coach throwing out a ball and yelling "Go score goals".  Sebastian liked this part the best and really got in there to fight for the ball.  He might be little, but he sure is mighty!  Here is a video of today's game where Sebastian scored a goal!  He is number 5 (the little one).

What a difference!

Well, it is hard for me to believe it, but we no longer have a Kindergartener in the house.  School ended last Thursday and we now have a big 1st grader!!  I took a picture of Tyler on his first day of Kindergarten and thought it would be fun to compare it to his last day.  What a difference a year makes!  Tyler grew an inch and a half this year and matured quite a bit.  It is hard to believe this is the same kid 9 months ago (notice how much taller his head is than the door handle on the second picture).

                                                First day of Kindergarten, August 2012

                                                     Last day of Kindergarten, May 2013

Splash Day!

Today was our last day of preschool which means... Water Day!!!  Sebastian spent the morning playing in the water with his friends and yes, he did manage to completely soak mommy!  If fact, many of the kids decided to take his lead and drench me.  It was fun though and I dried quickly in the heat.  Here are some pics from our water day.

It was a great way to end a great year!

End of Kindergarten!

Well, it is really hard to believe, but the end is almost here.  It seems like just the other day we were sending Tyler off to his first day of Kindergarten and now here we are with just 3 days left!  In just a few short months we'll have a first grader in the house.  Tyler has had a great year in Kindergarten and learned so much from his fabulous teachers.  He has come so far and still amazes us each day with his new knowledge.  Here are some of the things that Tyler has mastered this year:
* Reading independently
* Addition and Subtraction math facts
* Word problems (reading them and solving them)
* Tying his shoes
* Writing simple sentences
* Retelling story elements

 Tyler's teacher, Mrs. Olivas, held a small celebration ceremony where each student received a character award.  The received the "Most Studious" award.  Here is his Kindergarten class and him receiving his award.

Tyler has also made several good friends this year and hopefully some of them will end up in his class again next year.  Here is Tyler with two of his friends, Landen & Eddy

Oh what fun!

Last week at preschool, the kids got to have some fun with the sand and water.  We connected PVC pipes from the water faucet all the way out to the sand.  We then turned on the water and let the kids dig tunnels for the water to travel through.  They had a blast digging and playing in the sand and water.

Sand - Buckets - Water --- What more could a boy ask for???

Mother's Day Tea

A few weeks ago, at Sebastian's preschool, they threw a Mother's Day Tea.  The kids all made hats for their moms and we were served a very special lunch.  The kids all completed a questionaire about their mom and we had to guess which one was ours.  Here is what Sebastian wrote:

My mom is 2 years old.
My mom is the prettiest when she goes to school.
My mom likes to make pancakes.
My mom always says, "go put your glasses back on" (That's the one that gave it away)

 Eating some yummy strawberries with whipped cream!

This is Sebastian and his teacher Ms. Linda.

Lego Building

A few months ago I found out about a contest put on by Raising Arizona Kids magazine.  The contest was to create an original Lego structure with the whole family.  The winners would receive 4 tickets to Legoland for 2 days.  You can imagine how excited we were about this contest.  We spent several days over the course of a week planning and creating our structure.  The boys decided to build a castle.  We each took part in building our castle.  Tyler planned out how many rooms our castle would have and the details for each room.  Our castle had a kitchen, map room, treasure room, animal stables, a working draw bridge, look out tower and of course, a king sitting on this throne.

Here are a few pics of our creation:

The results are in and even though we did not win, we had a great time working on this project!  We'll have to try it again next year.

Flagstaff

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog, but I'll try to catch everyone up with what's been going on around here.  I'm going to start with our trip to Flagstaff during Spring Break.  Last month my sister, my friend Shannon and I took our kids (six total - yes, we are slightly crazy) up to Flagstaff for a couple of days.  When we arrived at the condo, we were greeted with a mound of snow in the driveway!  We don't get snow around here very much so this was very exciting for all the kids.  Lucky for us there were several shovels in the garage, so we gave each kid a shovel and put them to work clearing the driveway while we unloaded the cars. 

Here are the kids earning their lunch:

After we unloaded and got things settled, we headed to a nearby park to enjoy our lunch outdoors, get some playing in and a little hiking too.  There were several snow patches, but the weather was in the mid 60's and very enjoyable.   Here are all the boys:  Sebastian, Nathan, Cameron, Colton & Tyler

 It was a challenge, but I did manage to get a picture of all six kids (although I couldn't get them all looking at the same time).  From left to right:  Colton, Cameron, Megan, Sebastian, Tyler and Nathan in the back.

After the playground, we enjoyed several hours hiking and playing in the woods.  Here in the "campfire" that the kids built together with a little team work!

Our final destination was a stop at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park.  The weather was perfect for a day at the park.  The kids enjoyed feeding the giraffes and seeing a variety of animals including an ostrich, tigers, zebra, snakes and bears.