Happy Birthday Suri!

The kids have been counting down this week waiting for Suri's 1st Birthday to arrive. I am not sure why all the excitement. There is no party, no presents and until this afternoon, there wasn't even a decoration. Leave it to Emma to design a quick party hat and for Noah to pull out the ingredients to make a treat. I guess we are having a party now. Too bad Suri can't eat her Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake.

Hawaiian Concert Day

It really wasn't a Hawaiian Concert Day, but Hawaiian Day and Emma's first orchestra performance at school! This year she has been playing the violin and the concert was also the same day as a Hawaiian dress up day. The 4th grade orchestra was great and I hope she wants to keep playing in the years to come.

Opening Day

We have been waiting for some consistent warm weather for weeks now. It seems that this spring has been full of extreme temperatures. A few days really warm and then a few days cold and wet. This is no good when the water in the pool needs regular sun and warming. So here it is, the 14th of May and finally we are back in business.

Daegan testing his skills for the first time in months. He was nervous to be without his life jacket. As soon as Todd spent a few minutes with him, the jacket was off and we couldn't get him out of the pool.

Noah and Natalie

Emma with friends Sara and Lauren

I know a lot of people who can't stand the summer and the heat in Folsom. I think for us, hot summer days are the favorite part of our year!

Birthday Boys

Daegan and Noah both celebrated their birthdays this month. I am struggling with the fact that my baby is now four and that Noah is headed to second grade in the blink of an eye. They are growing up way too fast! This photo brings out a lot of similarities in their looks, but their personalities could not be more different.

Noah is and has always been the quiet independent one. He could easily live without TV , computer or the Wii. He can entertain himself for hours with his creative little mind. The art area of our playroom houses all of his favorite items for creation. He uses many varieties of tape, yarn, paper, cardboard, hot glue, craft sticks etc. . His fine motor skills are impressive and from the time he was in preschool I haven't been able to tell the difference between his cutting and that of his teacher. On occasion I have taken a picture of our art table after he has left it hoping that when I look back someday it will all make sense. Most of what he creates is beyond my understanding. Lately he has been into special effects and he begged for a helium tank and dry ice for his birthday. We settled on letting him buy a fog machine with his birthday money, thinking that it will last longer and be less dangerous than the other items he requested. We actually have a fog machine that he has used, but allowing him have his own means that Dad won't be upset if something happens to it. At 7, Noah really loves to ride his bike, swim, Heely around the house and anyplace with a large cement floor. He's one of those kids who is lucky enough to just get things without trying really hard. He loves to cook, help out around the house and in the yard and has a smile that makes everyone love him.

Daegan is a different kind of Drybread boy. He and Noah could not be more opposite. Daegan is loud. Daegan is a media junky. Daegan loves sports. Most of all, Daegan wants to be entertained. If he is not busy or occupied with something or someone, he is following me around the house telling me how boring everything is and that he has nothing to do. This little personality of his emerged very quickly during his 3rd year. It feels like overnight her went from being my sweet baby to a mini teeneager. This year he learned how to log onto all his favorite websites and knows how to type 4 different user names and passwords. It got so bad I had to add an extra password when the computer is turned on so that he cannot go online with out my permission. There are so many things I wish I had written down because sometimes I cannot believe what comes out of his mouth. The other day Daegan and I are running around after preschool and in the car we are listening to Radio Disney. In the middle of some song I do not know he says, "Hey Mom, did you hear that guitar solo?" In another incident we were walking through Target and he says out of the blue, "Did you know Demi Lovato has a new CD?" That was before the girl even had her own show and I couldn't even picture who she was! Even though he thinks he is old and he can walk to Noah's soccer practice on his own because he knows how to get there, he is still my little baby. It makes me happy that Daegan still enjoys sitting on my lap and reading forever.

With all the personality differences I sometimes think it's really amazing that they are related! I do love and appreciate their individuality.  There is never a dull moment and I wouldn't have my boys any other way.  

More Chicks

Meet sisters Lulu and Lala.  Two more chicks to bring our bird count total to five.  We've been waiting for these girls for a few weeks.  Seems this special breed, newly named Ameraucana, is very popular.  They lay green and bluish colored eggs and grow up to be very pretty hens.  It's been fun to be back in the chicken business and the endless hours of entertainment for the kids is priceless. 

Chicken Run

We love chickens.  It's weird I know, but talk to anyone who has had them and you might hear them say the same thing.  Yesterday we made a trip out for some and discovered that a major hatchery in California recently went out of businesses.  I would never have guessed that our slow economy could kill a hatchery.  The low supply of birds sent us on more of a marathon than a run.  Two hours and four feed stores later we found the perfect chicks.  Emma, Noah and Daegan all chose a bird and named them according to looks or personality. Shine is our golden hen with fuzzy feet like she is wearing boots.  She sang the whole way home in the car.  Midnight is Noah's sleepy black hen with a calm disposition.  Daegan named his bird Happy, so it will be happy. The poor thing has already been over handled and I hope the name rubs off.  We plan to pick up one or two more next week when my favorite breed is back in stock.

We are all excited to have chickens except Suri. Our dog may need time to adjust, but she'll get over it.  I was just glad to finally convince Todd that we really could do it again.  When we moved into this house a few years ago we had to get rid of our chickens because Todd was not interested in building a new hen house and we were not quite sure we had the perfect spot for them.  The old chicken condo Todd built was a big project and not the kind of thing he has time for anymore, but as time goes on we've been missing our feathered friends.  They add something to our yard and our life that I can't explain. Over the last couple of weeks the kids and I have worked on renovating the garden space above our pool and it occurred to me we could have them up there. It's a space away from the dog, behind a fence in a place they can eat bugs and make compost out of our food scraps to feed the garden.  Emma solved the hen house dilemma with the idea we could use the abandoned Little Tykes playhouse that the kids never use.  It will take a few renovations and is much easier than building from scratch.  It won't be the lavish residence that was home to our old chickens but this batch will have a much nicer view.

Hill top garden location for the chicks.

Potential hen house.

Todd ~ A Man of Many Causes

Somehow, my self employed husband and father of 3 has become involved in some fundraising and cause educating events in and around town.  It started with the Turkey Trot and now we have added the Folsom Firecracker Fourth of July Run to the plate.  He has been hard at work the last few months putting together this event and working on choosing beneficiaries to support. Early on in the planning we decided it would be best to choose at least one organization that served the impoverished outside of the United States and chose to be advocates for the ONE Campaign.  They are an advocacy organization committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease particularly in Africa. Our local campaign for awareness began last week as we celebrated a new bridge opening here in town. Our kids were dawned with stickers and bracelets to pass out as we walked over a mile across the new bridge from our neighborhood. We passed out a lot of material about ONE and the upcoming race.  It was fun to watch our kids try to explain it to other kids. Daegan was concerned about the fact that these kids don't have clean water to drink.  He is a mass consumer of water and really saw this as a problem.  So cute! Our efforts were mentioned on the blog at ONE.org.

Love the bracelets up the arms!

Apparently one cause in a week is not enough for him.  The day before or I should say for weeks before he planned the Fox Trot, a Folsom Hills School fundraiser.  He actually held a preliminary race in February and then set a school goal and had the kids train for 6 weeks to improve the number of laps run.

Noah and his friends having a post race popsicle.

Noah finishing up.  Of course Daegan is just behind him having illegally jumped into the race. 

Emma and her friend Siena

Todd running the music and the microphone acting like he has all the time in the world for this. The students actaully surpassed the 720 mile goal for the school by running an extra 5 for a total of 725 miles.  Noah's first grade class won a pizza party for the most laps per student.  I am so glad my kids have a dad who is involved in their day to day stuff.  It is really stressful to have so much going on sometimes, but he really almost never misses a thing. 

Daegan's New Sport

Little D. showing off his newly acquired skill of some hula hooping to The Hoedown Throwdown. He was already worn out by the time he called me to the playroom to take this blurry video. The lighting wasn't great and I really did not think he could we go for more the 20 seconds. He really got into it and just wanted to be able to see himself hula hoop on the TV.

Open House at Folsom Hills

I cannot believe there are only 8 weeks left of this school year.  Time just flies!  I love, love, love summer and not having a busy schedule, but I really get sad as the year winds down and I start thinking about how the kids are growing up so fast.  Noah has had a great year with the lovely Mrs. Hedgpeth.  She is the warm and fuzzy kind of teacher every first grader should have. Noah has taken school very seriously this year and has taught himself how to write in cursive and is working on his times tables.  His reading has just taken off and Mrs. Hedgpeth told us that Noah has better handwriting than she does.

Noah standing in front of his diorama of the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, native to the Folsom Lake area.  Like Emma, he did most of the work himself.  He molded the bat out of some light weight clay and then drew the features on after it dried.

Emma and Ms. Chicca. The most shy teacher we have ever had has worked our great for Emma.  We were worried at the beginning of the year that fourth grade with the strict silent type might be tough, but she has proven us wrong.  Emma might be the only kid in the class who has not had her card pulled for anything. She is a letter of the law kind of girl, just like her teacher so it works for her.  Academically, Emma has stepped it up working harder than ever and her Spanish fluency is amazing.  I really love our kids teachers and appreciate the outstanding education they provide.  We are so lucky to live right next to the greatest school in town.

Mission Accomplished

A few cleaver words to describe Emma in fourth grade might be ~ busy beaver over achiever. She has spent more time at the homework this year than ever!  She is doing great and we couldn't be more proud of her perfect report card and the glowing compliments.  She works really hard and does not take the easy route when it comes to completing her assignments. When it came time to build her the Carmel Mission she literally built everything from scratch.  Not the kit from Michael's and not just the church like the other kids, but the whole dang mission!  Between writing, typing and editing her own report to building the structure she spent 3 months and countless hours.  It was sometimes tough to sit by and watch as she'd collect the rocks, wash them, lay out her landscaping, hot glue, paper mache the domes, write on the tombstones, texture the walls, etc..  We helped now and then, but really this is right up her ally and so we just let her go with it.

She also had a science report and project to do at the same time, and somehow, many Saturdays later it is all done!  I am so thankful for a playroom with a big art table that can take a beating and store all the junk for this kind of stuff.

Death by Dog

Our cute puppy seems to be challenged in the cooler weather months, when she doesn't always get a good walk or run.  On a quiet weekday afternoon I found her in our playroom innocently chomping down on not one, but four Barbie dolls!  Fortunately the dolls are on their way out of our house and Emma wasn't a bit disappointed.  I'm not sure why Suri chose the dolls that were stashed away in a cabinet and not one of the other million toys at her reach.  I wish I could get inside her head so I could prevent some of her nonsensical destruction.