Daddy's Father's Day Book

I HAVE to post these pictures the kids did for the book we gave Josh on Father's Day telling him about our planned weekend in Colorado.  I gave them a bunch of props and told them to pose how they wanted and had them hold signs with the words explaining the plan.  Here are the pictures, in order:

Father's Day!

We had a fantastic Father's Day this year full of family time and fun surprises!  After the kids went into the bedroom and jumped on Daddy until he got up, they were excited to give him all of his presents.

First, Alex gave him what he had made at school.  I thought it was pretty cute!

Then they gave him one of his big gifts.  Daddy thought it was a guitar, but it was actually the electric hedge trimmer he's been wanting!

Finally came the BIG gift that we've been planning for a long time!  Several months ago I got a deal on tickets to the American Dreams Racing Carnival at Pikes Peak International Raceway.  Daddy will be able to use the tickets to drive and race some cool cars that he has always wanted to!  I then planned a four day weekend to Colorado around one of the carnival dates.  The family will drive up to Colorado Springs, spend a day at the raceway, another day at the Denver Aquarium and do some shopping, and then drive back.

I wanted to do something cool to tell him about since the trip was several weeks away.  So I came up with the idea to have the kids dress up and do silly poses while holding signs explaining what the plans were.  I took pictures and then created a picture book for Daddy to open on Father's Day.  He loved it!  He got a kick out of the book and he is super excited about the trip and the driving he gets to do!  The kids were very proud of themselves.

After we got cleaned up and dressed, we headed out for breakfast.  The kids convinced him to go to Krispy Kreme, or as Alex calls it, the "Donut Factory."  They hung out watching the donuts being made while we ate a few yummy ones.

Daddy wanted to go to the Natural History Museum, so we headed there next.  It's a family favorite!  The kids enjoyed the dinosaurs and various other exhibits.  It was a fun family day!

End of the School Year Recap

The kids finished the school year in May.  Aurora completed the first grade and finished strong!  Her report was really good.  She brought up a few subjects that we were concerned about and kept her her good grades in all of the others. 

She reads really well and has an amazing talent for art and drawing. 

My friend Alida is a graphics designer and she is a good mentor for her.  She drew this picture of Aurora and Freddie!

Aurora is spending the summer at the city's community center summer program where she plays games, swims, and goes on various field trips before moving on to second grade!

Alex is still in preschool but he's been doing a great job too.  He can identify and write his letters and he can write and spell his full name.  He can also count to ten in Spanish.  He also draws really well and loves to sing and dance. 

He's spending the summer in the same school doing fun summer stuff like water play, pajama days, and trips to the park.  Since he doesn't turn five until October, he'll be continue there for another year.

Both kids have had some behavior problems though.  Aurora just can't stop talking and intterupting.  Alex has temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way at school.  The marble jars were not working well to curb these school behaviors so we implemented a sticker chart.  Every day that they don't get in trouble at school they get a sticker.  We tend to do a lot of fun things on the weekends, so they now have to get at least 4 stickers out of the 5 days, or we don't get to do anything that weekend.  It's been working really well!  We only had a week or two each that they haven't gotten enough stickets.  They definitely don't want to miss out on any plans we have!

Explora!

After swimming lessons this weekend, we took the kids to the children's museum, Explora.  We don't go very often, but I love it because I can see how much more they can do and how their interests have changed since the last time we went.  This visit was the longest we have ever been there at around three hours.  The kids definitely have longer attention spans and spent a lot of time doing experiments, playing musical instruments, and building things.

Funny mirrors

Water Table

Forced air and balls experiment

Digger, the resident bull snake

Digger really liked Aurora

Bubbles!

Water experiment

Swimming Lessons!

The kids started swimming lessons yesterday!  It was Aurora's second time and Alex's first time doing a class by himself, as last year I wasn't able to get them into classes and the year before we did the Parent/Tot class.

We go every Saturday morning for 8 sessions.  Alex is in the tadpole class and Aurora is a sea horse.  Both kids did great!  They listened to the instructors and had lots of fun.  Alex even put his face under the water!



Listening to the pool rules



Practicing kicking

Learning to use kickboards

For the last five minutes of class the kids were allowed to take turns on the frog slide.  They had a blast!