Basketball Season 2014-Claire

This is Claire's first year doing basketball and I have to say we were all impressed with her "go get 'em" spirit.  The girl runs fast, works hard, and plays aggressively!

We weren't surprised when she earned the "Hustle" award in her third week of playing!!  So, so proud of this girl!!

Aruba - Part Three

When we found out we were going to go to this beautiful place I of course did a little Pinterest research.  While I found amazing photos of beautiful Caribbean beaches, what intrigued me most were these Dutch inspired buildings in the bright colors.  It became my mission to find these buildings!  Thankfully, they weren't too tough to track down and we were able to spend a few hours exploring the shopping and city of Oranjestad while I snapped a few photos for myself.  

Aruba - Part Two

As I mentioned in my previous post, John and I are not world travelers.  Really, I feel as though California offers so many awesome places to go, I rarely feel the itch to get away.  After this trip, I can honestly say I feel differently... not about California (I love it here)...but about my opinion on travel.  There are so many interesting things out there, and I am excited to make plans to explore a bit more.

Aruba is most definitely designed for tourists, but we did manage to get away and explore some really wonderful places both on and off the resort.  

This right here was my view for the first few hours of our first day... we spent the morning relaxing out under a hut umbrella.

Then we moved to the pool area (we stayed at the Aruba Marriott: Stellaris Casino for the first few days of our stay) where we sampled a few beverages from the swim-up pool bar.

We also had several encounters with some reptilian friends... This guy was pretty small compared to some of the others, but he wanted to bug us during breakfast so I had to take his photo.

We decided to rent a car and explore a little on our second day...

We headed all the way to the south end of the island to Baby Beach... so, so beautiful!

John stacked some rocks :-)

Aruba 2013 - Part One

Now that we are all back to life, back to reality... and it has been a month since our trip... this all seems very surreal.  We really aren't big travelers.  Ok, scratch that... I am not a big traveler.  (John seems to be traveling for work every few weeks and has been on more plane rides in the past few months than he can even count.)  And forget traveling without the kids... that has happened twice (maybe) since we have had them.  So when John earned "Toppers" at work, to say we were looking forward to this would be an understatement!  We even extended the trip by a few days so we could really relax and enjoy ourselves.

The slightly ironic thing is that the only other stamp in my passport was from our honeymoon to Jamaica... another Caribbean island!  I will say, it is not even a question of if we will ever go back to Aruba, but when... it was Amazing, and (in my opinion) a much better place than Jamaica.

Aruba: small island (20 miles x 8 miles) way down off the coast of Venezuela.  It took us three, three hour flights to get there from Fresno.  The island is still owned/run by the Dutch, and they speak a mixture of Dutch, English, Spanish, and Portuguese... and some call the language Papaiemento.  If you are traveling there for vacation, you will most likely stay in 'the High Rise' area: a strip of about 10 high rise hotels.  From there, you can rent a car, ATV, Jeep, or scooter and really explore the island... which is what we did twice!  Since we stayed on main roads and traveled to touristy places, I felt very safe being there.  While there is one high-profile kidnapping story based out of Aruba, it seems to be very clear that the people of Aruba do NOT want that to be the stigma of their island and they are extremely friendly and helpful to the tourists.  Their main industry is tourism, and they definitely want you to come back and visit again and again.

The temperature there seems to be about 90 degrees year-round with an almost constant 20-25 mile an hour wind.  It is definitely hot and humid but the wind makes it pretty bearable.  Because they get very little rain, and are out of the main hurricane path the terrain is very unusual: dry, dry land covered in cactus plants... set right next to this tropical ocean.

Stay tuned for more from our trip!  I have lots of photos to share ;-)

Claire's Last Day of Kindergarten

 Kindergarten is over.  First Grade here we come!!

Claire and her BFF Julia

A great friend this year, Madilyn

And a final photo with her teacher, Mrs. Jennings

Claire, we are so, so proud of how much you have learned and grown in Kindergarten.  We are so excited for the coming years of school!  You are a sweet, bright, and imaginative girl who follows the rules and you are a good friend.  Congratulations on a great year!!

Schooooooooooools OUT for SUMMER!!

For me, this is my absolute FAVORITE time of the year... I LOVE summer!   Fewer obligations, fewer responsibilities, pool time, usually a trip or two... I love having the girls home!

Even so, the last day/week of school can bring on a few tears... only from me mind you... and a bit of a nostalgia and the fear that my kids are growing up way too fast!

Here we have the first day of school and then the last day of school:

Hannah: First day of second grade... (No teeth!)

 Hannah: Last day of second grade

Claire: First day of Kindergarten

Claire: Last day of Kindergarten

Claire's Kindergarten Awards

Kindergarten is winding down, and it is such a bittersweet feeling as a parent.  I LOVE that my kids are growing and changing, yet it is sad to say good-bye to certain seasons of life.  

Claire worked very hard this year!  She has grown academically by leaps and bounds.  She has become a reader and writer, learned how to write all of her numbers, and count to 100+. She earned a "sustained mastery" rating on all the categories they grade in Kindergarten... and we are so proud of her!

Kindergartners at our school can earn four awards.  

1. ABC award: Write, read, and recognize all ABC's

2. 123 award: Write and recognize to 30 and count to 100

3. Spelling Bee award: Know how to read and spell correctly their 35 sight words

4. Principal's Reading Award: Read a (certain level) book to the principal.

Claire earned all four awards, and was recognized in a ceremony with the principal...

They sang a few songs...

And took a few pictures with their family and teacher :-)

 Nanny and Poppy were able to come and see Claire's ceremony...

We were sad that Daddy was out of town and couldn't celebrate, but so so proud of Claire and excited to be moving up to the big First Grade!!

Hannah's Academic Awards

Hannah had a great school year!  I can't believe we are almost done, but I have to share her accomplishments for a moment :-)

I feel like every school does awards differently.  Our school basically treats first and second grades differently than the rest of the school when it comes to academics.  They have one blanket "Academic Award" for first and second grade that has a somewhat vague description... but essentially they can earn it for having high grades all four quarters.  Hannah received all A's throughout the year, so she was awarded the Academic Award!

Hannah also worked incredibly hard throughout the year and in the fourth quarter had passed all four (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division) Math Fact timed tests with 100% accuracy!!  This was a major accomplishment for her, and is really the school goal for 4th-6th grade students.  She earned it as a second grader!

So VERY proud of our girl and how hard she works in school.  She takes it all very seriously and has stated already that her goal for the third grade is to pass all the Math Facts in the first quarter and earn all A's again for every quarter of the school year.  I have no doubts that she can do ANYTHING she sets her mind to do!

  Daddy wasn't able to be at the awards ceremony, but Nanny and Poppy came to cheer her on!

And Hannah's biggest cheerleader at school, her amazing teacher, Ms. Schwan!