Mother's Day Continued

So, it's been so long since I have uploaded the pictures from my camera, that I never got a chance to finish bragging about how great my Mother's Day turned out! Yes, I said bragging... seriously, let's just call a spade a spade, right?? My husband and girls gave me the best day ever. After my most special breakfast in bed (see early post), the family had lots of other fun things planned for mommy!
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Some swimming...

Look at Ryan's back somersault

And Charlie's too
(I didn't get the best shot of it on camera, but she can totally do it too!)

And Ryan lounging under the waterfalls. How great is this shot? She didn't even know I was taking it!

We went for a family walk at El Dorado Park...

Charlie made a secret wish...

Here is my great family!

And even some beautiful flowers arrived for me during the day in my favorite hues of orange and yellow...I am one lucky mommy. A big thank you to my family for a great day.

Our Last Teddy Bear Open House

We had our last Open House at Teddy Bear Preschool a couple of weeks ago. This was Ryan's third year at Teddy Bear School and Charlie's first year. Our girls have been going to two different preschools this year. This one on M/W/F and one at their future elementary school on T/TH. Well since Ryan will be off to kindergarten next year and Charlie will go full time to their other preschool instead of just T/TH like they go now, Teddy Bear School will become a place of our past. I took lots of pictures of the girls and their classroom projects so that they can remember their time at Teddy Bear School this year.
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Here are the girls with their two great friends, Keira and Maya. Keira is in Rm. 1 with Charlie and her sister Maya is in Rm. 4 with Ryan. They are the only siblings in the school that have this unique bond. This has made for some fun playdates.

Each room has a theme for Open House and the kids work on projects for weeks and weeks leading up to the big night. Since this was Charlie's first Open House experience, we visited her room first. She was thrilled to show her the Ocean theme her class had been working on. Plus, Aunt Marzie had just sent the girls these new dresses in the mail as a spring treat. Open House was the perfect debut for the new dresses!

Here is Charlie so proud of her "Crabby-Crab" (as she calls it) and also "Bruce the Shark" (ya know, from Nemo!)

Keira waited so patiently to jump in for a picture! They are so cute together.

Oh look, there are 2 Charlie's in this picture!! Charlie did a great job showing us all of her projects. I tried to take pictures of many of them (and post them... sorry you can skip that part if it boring but I want this blog to be like a baby book/journal for the girls so this way they can see their work in case not all the art pieces make it into the "Save for Charlie" or "Save for Ryan"

This is what Charlie wrote on her beach pail questionnaire.

All the kids made fishing poles with fish attached and tackle boxes with fishing licenses. (Hmmmm... I see a fan-tastic party theme brewing! Doesn't that sound cute?)

Here is the beach display of art projects... the teachers are so clever!

Charlie's purple flip flop. Now, come on... would my girl have it any other color?
"At the beach, I would to find a starfish and swim in the ocean with a friend. I would like to see a dolphin swimming. Dolphins are my favorite."
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Now off to Room 4 to visit the desert! Ryan's class learned all about desert plants and animals. Over the last month or so, even I think I learned a lot about the desert! Ryan would come every day and tell me facts about road runners, or javelinas, or coyotes. What a little smartie pants!

Each child had a cactus on the door to welcome us inside. Ryan's said:
"I like tarantuals because they are furry and they can't really hurt people much."

Ryan's clay rock.

We counted over 20 different desert animal projects that Ryan's class created and decorated the class with so it was hard to find each of her projects. Here is where we found one of her projects. She posed of course.

Ryan and Charlie pose next to the giant cactus. Ryan had been talking about this cactus for weeks! I'm glad I finally got to see it!

At first in Room 4, Charlie was a little scared of all the desert animal projects so her big, brave daddy held her tight! I got a picture!

Coyotes are very, very important in our family. Since daddy is not home in the morning when we get up and get ready, we call him on our way to school every morning. And every morning he asks where the coyotes are. And every morning, two little girls start making the loudest coyote sounds you can imagine from the back seat of the car. Then, Steve's partner from work chimes in with the "Big Coyote" sounds from Steve's end of the phone. It has become quite a tradition. Finally, as we start to hang up the phone in the morning Steve always tells the girls to keep the coyote sounds "nice and loud ALL the way to school." He thinks that's so funny that mommy gets to hear the LOUD coyotes all the way to school! Thanks a lot Steve-o!
Anyway, Charlie and Ryan stood next to the coyote project in Ryan's class and gave us their best coyote yelps. It was classic. I'll never forget and hope they don't forget our morning tradition.

Mommy and her coyotes.

Happy Open House Day girlies! Almost time for summer!

OMGoodness... We went to mass!!!

Yes, you had better all sit down for this one... The Grace family went to mass on Saturday night! Well, it wasn't like on a whim so don't get totally excited just yet. We were invited to our friend's son Kyle's first communion. Ryan was so, so very excited that she got to go to church! Mommy did her hair extra fancy (which mommy is very proud of as you can tell in the pictures) and she picked out her silk dress for the festivities. The girls were very well behaved and Ryan especially loved the songs. Mommy is such a schoolie... I opened the book and followed along the whole time. I learned the songs so that I could sing them with Ryan. We have been wanting to start going to church for awhile because Ryan really, really loves God and everything to do with him but we were waiting for the registration period for Sunday School to open up. What a coincidence that the forms became available this very week... Ryan can't wait to start! She has A LOT of questions about God that she is impatiently waiting to ask!

All pictures of Ryan's fancy hair do! She wanted it to look like Amanda's hair from her school. Amanda has naturally curly ( I mean really, really curly) hair. I told Ryan that this is about as curly as it's gonna get with her hair. She loved it all the same.

Our friends offered to take a family picture for us. Help me out my Catholic friends and family, is my dress too short for church?? Isn't there some sort of rule about dresses needing to hit the floor when you are on your knees or something or is that just reserved for Catholic School rules?

Kudron Family BBQ

We got together a few weeks ago with my side of the family for a little BBQ to celebrate the adult spring birthdays in the family (me3/31 - my dad (4/2) - and Nancy (4/12)! Yes, yes, I got to celebrate my birthday yet again. I'm afraid to say that this was officially the last celebration!

Nona and Grandpa brought the girls some fun gifts that were left over from their Valentine's Day party at the "club." Those old (hhuh... uh... I mean active, retired) people apparently know how to party... whoo-hoo!

The cousins being entertained as usual by Uncle Mike.

Grandpa filling up his plate at the BBQ buffet.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Awwwe... me and my lovely husband!

Nona and Grandpa with some Mother's Day flowers!

Lovin' the First Trophy!

I know I got ahead of myself with the Mother's Day post but I just had to say a quick Happy Mother's Day to all the mommy's that read this blog (plus show what a great hubby and kids I have!) I had a super fun and relaxing day! Now, I can go back and catch up on the posts from events that have happened in the last few weeks.
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Stinger season is officially over. Ryan got to participate in her very very end-of-year pizza party/awards ceremony! She was so ecstatic to receive her very first trophy and to be with her friends in "normal" clothes! They ate pizza, ran around, played games, earned tickets, and bought silly little plastic toys for like a bijillion tickets each! Totally what I remember from growing up!

Our Stinger! One of the youngest in the league and could hang tight with the rest of them sluggers! Nice work Ryan.

All the players sat up in front as the coach called them up one by one to receive their trophy, a piece of the banner, and to hear of few words about them from Coach Kim. I paid close attention to study up as soccer season is fast approaching and I've already signed up as "Coach." These traditions are exactly what I remember too (except the banner thing, that's new)... the whole night brought back great memories of my childhood!

Coach Kim said that, "Ryan was her favorite because she has a daughter named Ryan too!" She also said that Ryan was one of the youngest and did a great job learning to hit the ball from the pitcher. When the coach asked Ryan who was going to coach her in softball next year, Ryan's response was, "Mommy!" (Mommy responded under her breath, "Not a chance sweetheart!!)

Coach Kim and Ryan
We definitely got the best coach in the league! She was so motivating and sweet! I think all the little girls ended up LOVING softball because of her!

Team picture!

Charlie did a great job supporting her sister through the ceremony! Afterward, she was even more thrilled when she realized that the ball on the trophy actually spins! "Look mom, it actually spins!" Actually is her new favorite word. I love the way she says it.

Ryan did not let that trophy go for a whole week! She took it to both preschools to share! She is so proud of that thing! And... we are so proud of her!

One season down... Hmmm... about 12 more to go (x 2 Grace Girls)! Love it!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I don't have time to write all the details just yet because my family is taking me on a family bike ride and walk at El Dorado Park but this is how my day started... Breakfast in bed!!! Can't get any better than that!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I hope your day is as special as mine is going to be!

Stinger Bee Gone

Ryan had her last Stinger game last weekend. What a sad day! She had a great game though. She had two fantastic hits (from the coach, not the tee). She got to hit a homerun (which basically means that she was the last one up in the inning and got to run all the way around the bases and get cheered into home plate by all the "fans"). And she got a ton of field play by playing catcher!

The official "Dug Out Mom" got Ryan in all the gear for her inning at catcher!

"Catcher in the Ry(e)"

She was much happier about playing catcher this time! Her last turn at this position did not cause smiles like this!!

Charlie's version of supporting her sister during the game!

Gigi and Papa drove down to watch the Friday night game! Papa was so impressed at how well all the girls hit the ball from the pitcher! Not one girl hit off the tee from both teams! Such a change from the beginning of the season.

Just posin' with her Apple Bottom Jeans! Oh boy, gotta love this girl... every time I'd snap a shot with the camera, she'd say, "let me see how it turned out!"

Great season Stinger!