Big Girl Ponytail

Last Day of School

I am two for two so far. I am attempting to take a picture of the kids on the first and the last days of school. I'm hoping to take the pictures in the same place each year, so that I can see how much they have grown.

Here is Isabella on the first day of school - excited, but a little nervious.Isabella on the last day of school - confident and sassy
Orion on the first day of school
Orion on the last day of school - just annoyed to have to have his picture taken

Kokopelli Kids Trail Running Series

The kids participated in the Kokopelli Kids Trail Running Series. The weather for the races this year was pretty yucky. We skipped the first race because it was raining. The second race was okay. The third race is was raining lightly, but we went anyway.

Before the start of the raceHunter ran all over the place prior to the race, but during the actual race he cried. I'm not sure why. He didn't run the third race at all.

Isabella started off fast and finished strong. She finished her half mile race in 8th place.
Orion ran strong for the whole race; also finishing in 8th place.

Uncle Mike was visitng from Chicago for the second race.

Big brother reading

Orion was reading Hunter his bedtime stories. Orion likes to doing the reading, but Hunter would really prefer to have Mom or Dad read to him. It worked this night.

These days the only way I get a pictures with good smiles is if I let them make silly faces for a picture also. They are good at silly faces.

Sabrina was SO thrilled to be sitting there with her brothers - to be included like a "big" kid.

Don't they look like they like each other ;-)

Lucky Kids

I realize I had something to do with this choice, but ... my kids are so lucky because they have the best dad.

This past six weeks Brett has been coaching a 3 & 4 year old soccer team. He didn't sign up to coach; I signed him up to coach. Have you ever coached 3 & 4 year old soccer? It is very crazy and challenging!! Brett has a huge amount of patience with these little kids.
Thursday afternoon Isabella fell off a scooter and crashed her eye into one of our cars. (I didn't see the crash, so I'm not really sure what actually happened. This is just what Isabella told us.) Thankfully Isabella had her helmet on, so the injury was minimal - a little cut on her eyelid and a scrape on her face. It is a good thing she has Brett for a dad because he was very calm and soothing. I almost fainted.
Brett took this picture of the first catch of the season. I included this picture because this fish was caught on a Daddy-only fishing trip. I was working last Sunday and Brett took all four kids fishing for the whole day. They all had a blast.
Don't they look so cute? I'm not sure who is reading to who.

Sabrina turns two years old

I am not going to comment or reflect in this post about my mixed emotions. I'm just going to talk about the beautiful independent toddler that Sabrina is turning into. SABRINA IS TWO YEARS OLD!!
Sabrina playing with one of her birthday presents - some beads that she has been wearing constantly since her birthday.

Sabrina's mean face. She didn't eat a single bite of that food.

Sabrina loved her birthday candles and having us sing to her.

Sabrina blew her candles out and then asked me to relight them so she could blow them out again. I lit the candles at least six times.

Our kids with our good friends' two kids - all making funny faces for the camera

Opening presents. I specifically included this picture because the beautiful quilt was made by my Grandma and Aunt.

Sabrina was imitating me blowing bubbles :-)
Grandma Linda sent all of the kids new outfits in Sabrina's birthday present. Don't they look good?