World Class Kid

Each week in Mrs. Baker's kindergarten class, a new student is chosen to be "World Class Kid!" Guess who had her turn recently? Yup, Little Miss Ryan Corinne. The title of "World Class Kid" comes with so many exciting perks! We made a giant poster of pictures of Ryan's life and she shared it with her class during her interview. You can bring as many family members as you want to the interview. Ryan brought Papa, Marzie, Daddy, Mommy and Charlie! You also get to bring a snack. Ryan's snack had to start with the letter "G" for Grace. We brought grapes, Go-gurts, and Gushers! Then, the best part is that alllll week long when the teacher needs someone to go up to the office or run an errand... the World Class Kid gets to do it (and choose a friend each time to join her)!!

Our guests even brought gifts for the World Class Kid! She was so excited.... thank you Marzie and Papa! Papa and Marzie had to be down to Seal Beach from Pasadena area for the start of Ryan's school by 7:55 a.m.! What troopers!
Mommy with her World Class Kid
(and coffee in hand... it was pretty early!)

A family photo with our World Class Kid

Ryan's first task of the week... helping Mrs. Baker with the "Graph of the day." Ryan really does have a wonderful teacher. We got to see her do the whole morning routine and she is phenominal at fitting in some so many academics in such a short amount of time. The kids did graphing, vertical math equations (+ and -), letter sounds, and counting with ten sticks and ones to learn place value to name a few. She never has a discipline problem and all of the kids were very independent. This is a teacher's (uhhh, I mean mommy's) dream!

They even a have a "Dance of the Month." Does this boy look familiar to anyone? Well, this is Dylan! Remember what I wrote about him in the Thanksgiving Assembly post? Yes, Dylan LOVES Ryan...Annnddd...since it was the GIRLS this month that got to pick their dance partner, I wonder what assumptions we could make about Ryan??? Hmmm???

This move... "Rock back"

And ... "The Pretzel" (My favorite by far!)

And finally... "The Interview!"

Mrs. Baker has the kids answer several questions about their life and their favorites and they also get to share their poster with the class.

So cool

So very cool

So glad we get to do it again!

Disneyland Jackpot!

On the Monday that MOST Southern California students went back to school after Winter Break, my girls' school district took one extra day! I figured that this would be a great day for us to hit Disneyland & California Adventure! I was so very right on this one... we had a fabulous, easy, hardly any lines kind of day! We were able to navigate through both Disneyland, California Adventure, and then back to Disneyland for a fun-filled day! I'm missing some pictures (I'm just about to throw this computer through a window) because I'm having problems with my memory on the hard drive so it missed several pics. Some of which showed Ryan as a participant in the High School Musical 3 Show! She got to be on stage to dance! It was so cute!

Note to all mommies: Always let your children wear costumes to Disneyland!
Steve, of course, would disagree with this practice and I definitely "pick my spots" for this kind of fun day but... the entire Park "cast" acknowledges them ALL day long by their costume names. "Alice, where is the white rabbit today?" "Tinkerbell, have you seen Peter Pan? I can't seem to find him." This happened ride after ride all day long! We have done this a few times and it never fails! The girls feel like complete "Super Stars!" I don't think that I have seen Ryan blush so much in one day and Charlie do "the princess wave" and "the pose" so much in my life! I got a huge kick out of it!
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Since we were having such an easy day, I decided to try to make reservations at Ariel's Grotto at California Adventure! So awesome! Very fancy meal (mojitos too!) and the girls got to meet 5 different princesses that came to our table throughout the meal to talk to the girls! They were in such awe!

All guest meet Ariel first (because it's her restaurant of course). Charlie asked her, "You remember coming to my birthday party don't you?"

And then she showed Ariel where Ryan lost a tooth! Priceless!

Posing with Ariel... Charlie favorite princess by far!

Here is Belle! Ryan's favorite princess came next! (Beauty in the Beast)

Next came the princess of 3 names... Princess Aurora, Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty!
If you can remember back a couple of years, Ryan was Aurora for Halloween (check the old blog posts. It's cute to compare!)

And Cinderella... an old favorite (Also, a Halloween costume from the same year for Charlie!)

Just look at the dessert sampler that came with our meal! We were in heaven! Chocolate Hot Lava Cake, mini lemon bars, brownies with caramel and brownies, chocolate chip cookie bars, and a giant white chocolate shell! (I so fell off the diet wagon that day!)

Oh ya, and a white chocolate Ariel! Charlie ate her right up!

Charlie never misses a Chocolate Hot Lava cake!

The Grand Finale princess was Minnie Mouse! The girls were so very excited! I would suggest this restaurant to just about anybody! It was so fun to watch the reactions of all the kids in the room!

Back at Disneyland...
I'm calling this "The Day of the Character!" In addition to the princesses at the restaurant, we got to meet Goofy, Alice in Wonderland, TinkerBell and other fairies in Pixie Hollow (normally a 2 hr wait... ONLY a 15 min wait on this day!)

This is the Buzz Lightyear ride. So fun. We also loved the Monsters Inc. ride in California Adventure, we rode it twice.

Driving the cars is ALWAYS a favorite!

LOL... trying to get mommy in a picture so the girls will know in the future that it was ACTUALLY me that took them to Disneyland!

"It's a Small World" still had up their Christmas decorations and songs playing on the ride. I've never been on with the Christmas decor! It was incredible!

Our last ride of the day... The Winnie the Pooh ride! Charlie's absolute fave! (Even though it is completely and utterly the furthest ride possible from the front of the park...geez!)

Best Day at Disneyland EVER!! Love you girls!

A New Generation

Never in a million years would I have imagined such a scene! My 5 year old and 4 year old completely capable of working a laptop and navigating their options all by themselves! Kids in this day and age are so tech savvy... oh how this world will continue to change at such a fast pace!

Charlie has been passed down the Barbie computer since Ryan received the laptop for Christmas!

Look at Ryan how she is able to coordinate both hands utilizing all parts of the keyboard! I love watching her. She amazes me every day as she learns new things.

A Day at Kidspace

Over Christmas vacation, the girls and I kept very busy! On this fun day, we met Michelle, Erin, and the kids at Kidspace in Pasadena! It was awesome because it was also a few days before New Years and this is where all the floats were being worked on! There was a great energy all around! A few pictures of the day...

Carson and Ryan

Wyatt and Sydney

Carson and Charlie

Wyatt and Erin

Hey there Charlie!!

Christmas Day 2009

Oh no, ladies and gentlemen... the Christmas fun is not over just yet! After the Christmas morning crew headed on their way to their next functions, the rest of The Kudron family rolled in for Christmas Day dinner. Wheewww... what a day! But we loved every minute of it! I have to apologize though, I didn't get very many good pictures! I think I was too exhausted from all that late night elf work to focus!

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The cooks in the kitchen... Nonna, Grandpa, and me!

Uncle Mike is always good at keeping the kids entertained. I think Santa was maybe thinking of Uncle Mike when he brought this gift!

Rip and tear session #326 of the year it seems like! It never gets old those does it Char?

Not a great picture of Katie but you can certainly see her TWO missing teeth! She lost the second one earlier this same morning.

One of the best gifts of the year... the $$$ jars from Nonna and Grandpa! What a hit!

Cameron is never quite sure what to do with all these GIRLS around!

As always, a classic Charlie pose!

Ryan and Katie experimenting with Ryan's big present of the year!

Loved our Christmas Everyone! Thanks for taking part!

Christmas Morning 2009

Ahhh, Christmas morning... such a special time for the girls. They were so excited to get up that we couldn't hold them back. We had the troops come over at 6:30 because we thought it would be a safe time for the guests (Nonna, Grandpa, Gigi, Papa, Marzie and Jeff and Julie were already here) to arrive and see the morning excitement. Bad luck... the kiddos woke up just a wee bit earlier than that so everyone missed the initial reaction. They didn't miss anything else though. We just let the girls look around while we waited. 6:30 on the dot the troops showed up and girls got started on the "rip and tear" session.

Ahhh, the dollhouse. The girl elves that put this together were very blissful and happy! With only a few screws left off of the final masterpiece.

Santa left presents that were wrapped in blue as well. We knew they had to be from Santa because Mommy's tree and decorations are all cardinal and gold (interesting color choice? No, USC of course)

The stockings were a hit. We took a break from the tree to head in to see if Santa ate his goodies. He did.

Ahhhh, the beloved kitchen... the boy elves that worked on this project were not quite as blissful and happy as the dollhouse elves. I wonder where Santa's elves learn that kind of language... certainly not from the North Pole!

So many presents to open...

One of the faves... the blender! I am still getting smoothies from Charlie 2 weeks later! Now that is a present that wonderful!

Julie, our newest member to the Christmas morning tradition! She was a rockstar... putting toys together, putting in batteries, figuring out how to work things. She is by far the handiest person in this family. Thanks Julie!

Thanks for being part of our tradition everyone! We would love to do it again!