A proud parent moment

So my kids have always been pretty good at making new friends, and this year has been no different. Especially for my middle son Dalin who has always had a knack for finding and becoming fast friends with people. This year Dalin has found quite a few boys, and even one little girl that he would call very good friends I think, but the proud mommy moment on this post comes in when for the second time (I don't have a picture of the first one) Dalin was invited to a child's birthday party as the sole invitee from his class. In the case of this picture this boy gets picked on in class quite a bit by some of the other children for just not being quite as sports related or just doesn't always fit in with the "in crowd" but when asked what one person he could invite from his class he begged his mom for it to be Dalin. I think the boys had a good time.

Another example of trying

So since all these blog posts publish backwards this is part two of why I think Kyle and Dalin's school really try to make the education fun for the children here. This past Friday Dalin's school held a movie night with free popcorn and pizza and drinks. Lots of families' gathered and sat on blankets and pretended it was a drive-in theater... It was truly a fun night as evidenced by Chris's big smile (Can you tell it is a slightly fake smile?) :)

My Student of the Month

So despite the problems that any school has, including the ones here, I really feel that Kyle and Dalin's school try to make things fun as evidenced by this post. Each month a teacher nominates a student of the month, which I know I have heard done in other schools. However this one is different because there is so much more emphasis put on their accomplishment. The teacher writes a little paragraph each time about why she picked that particular student, and then they receive a gift card for a local frozen yogurt shop and a laminated certificate, and a lollipop!! It's the fact that each one of these certificates each month is given to the children in a ceremony held by the principal for all the parents gathered in the cafeteria, and I feel he truly makes each student feel very special

Memorial Day weekend fun

So for memorial day we took a big chance and loaded up the car and headed for Sequoia National Park some 3 1/2 hours away, not knowing whether we would even be able to get a site or not because all their campsites are first come first serve. When we arrived early afternoon on Friday Chris was very surprised to find that we had our pick of sites and so we could take our time and find the perfect one!! And I think the kids would agree that we definitely did find the perfect one with huge rocks to climb on and beautiful trees around. These trees for anyone who has never seen them are truly a wonder of nature and I would encourage anyone to see them if they can!! :)

End of year concert

So, citing "budget problems" my two boys' schools have not had music or art as a regular class which makes me quite sad, and apparently at least one other mother sad as well as she became the "volunteer" music teacher for 150+ kindergarten and first grade students and they recently put on a show worthy of all their time and effort....Kyles holding the hog sign!!

Talent show?

I say that with a question mark because it could be debated how much "talent" was being shown BUT I applaud Destinees school for trying to put this on so some ladies (no boys even participated) could have the experience of being in front of others and performing. Destinee and her friend from church Marley actually were some of the highlights with their rendition of Taylor Swifts song "Our Song."

Proud of myself

So last week Tuesday-Thursday at the kids' schools was "Bike to school week" (gotta love hippie environment lovin' Californians!!) and I was VERY proud of myself for biking two of the three days with all my kiddos...which added up to 10 miles in the two days!! :)

For my Dad!!

Seen at the artichoke festival and thought it very perfect for my politics lovin' Dad!! (Not really!!)

Anybody know the California state veggie?

No....well it's the Artichoke, and to celebrate its goodness Castroville, CA holds the annual Artichoke festival to put it as an ingredient in many things it probably doesn't belong it but are quite good nonetheless!! Such as cupcakes!! Really pretty good though, and one man you can see REALLY got into the color scheme and dyed his dog green!!