The time has past

I can't believe it has been a year since I took these pictures as I dropped each child off on their first first day of school o8-09. It was a great year. Tyler loved his teacher Mrs. Rockey. It was her first year at Sunset Hills so we knew nothing of her and were very pleased to have her this year. I hope she is still around when Courtney is in first grade. We got through the year with only 3 phone calls home to mom and dad and only getting on red a few more than that. Tyler was a great student and did great on his school work. He had the privilege of
having after school reading help and benefited from it.
He made some great new friends and again had lots of fun playing football at recess.
Courtney had a great year at preschool, but I already talked about her in the previous post.
Casey loved third grade. He had some great friends in his class and was excited to have one of our favorite kindergarten teachers from years past teaching her fist year of third grade. He was admitted in to the resource

program this year and we saw a vast improvement in his reading. Good job Casey for all your hard work. Casey got a taste of book reports this year and did well on each of them. Both Casey and Tyler did well in math and Casey discovered a great interest in Science. I'm sad to see the year end. I fear the months a head and wonder how I'm going to get through it with out the children killing each other and keep my sanity intact. I'm excited to not have any homework for a few months as are they. I'm even more excited at the idea that I may get to sleep in a few times.

Our preschool graduate

Courtney... first she turns five now she graduates from preschool. She is on her way to kindergarten and let me tell you she is so excited!

Her class top L to R Courtney, Liam, Mia

Bottom L to R Noel, Senica, Kaden, Mrs Candace, Noah

It was quite embarrassing to listen to her boss everyone around. She was constantly telling the other kids where to stand and what they should be doing. She is such a little mother and control freak, I simple don't know where she gets it from...:). Thanks to Mrs Candace for such a great year and to you and her class mates for putting up with her bossiness. Court had such fun at preschool and made some really great friends. She is the only from this class moving on to kindergarten next year and hope her friendships last the separation.

The new form of punishment at the Kitchen house

Get to work I tell you!! And no bread and water for you till you clear at least 5 squares!!

Well it would make a great punishment if the kids didn't love it so much. We had tile delivered yesterday and the kids were so excited that they wanted to immediately start pulling up the linoleum. Never mind that we have no idea when Chad will be able to get around to laying the tile. They want to have it ready when the time comes. Casey was even working on it this morning when I came down stairs, forget cartoons! I wonder how long it will last? Tomorrow is that last day of school, so they have plenty to do to keep themselves busy.

Our first harvest

The big one a zucchini. My sister said that some are just a different color and I should just pick it when it is the size I want. I have not cut it open yet, so we will see.

A BEE!!!

Aiden and the boys were out in the back yard one morning. Casey and Tyler were playing ball and Aiden was playing by the zucchini plants. He likes to play with the zucchini blossoms. Well on this particular morning just minutes before we have to leave for school Aiden starts crying and Casey and Tyler start yelling that he got stung. In comes Aiden crying hysterically and rubbing his ear into mt shoulder I started to wonder if a bee had flown into his ear. When he finally lets me see his ear it does indeed have a mark where a bee stung him, poor guy. By the time it was time to leave for school his ear was swollen. I tried to get a picture to show it well enough.

notice how it sticks out from his head much more than his other ear. Well it soon started to go down again. Tonight a fly was flying around downstairs and the kids had to bring Aiden to me because he was scared of "the bee". Great.

My hat off to the balloon guy

Sorry for the bad picture. In a family full of avid scrapbookers you would think that someone would have remembered a camera! This picture was taken on a camera phone.

A couple weeks ago Chad and I went to Texas Road House for his dad's birthday dinner. They had a guy going around making balloons for people so I said "we should get one for your dad"....then we saw he made a cowboy hat for the table next to us and it was on from there. We told the balloon guy to make a crazy hat, to go all out. The picture above is what he came up with. As I was trying to figure out how much of a tip such a hat was worth I was counting how many balloons he used and I think I counted around 18 balloons. It was great and Terry even wore it the whole rest of night. What a great sport!

Princess for a day

I figured out that I can add more pictures to one post. so this one is one post and not four :).
Court had her birthday and turned 5 on May 8th. Off we went on our second birthday trip to Disneyland. On our way to CA Court asked if we could get a stroller at Disneyland because her legs were probably going to get tired. I told her we would see. I was just imagining her sitting in her carriage and being push around by her servants like the princess that she is.

Here is princess Courtney in her very own bed. I forgot to get Tyler his own bed when we went with him, so she was very excited that she got her own. I ended up sleeping with her because she had a bad dream.

The park opened at 9:00 so we headed over to get Court's ticket and while we were in line I realised I had left Chad's and my annual passes at home in Arizona! Oh heck! Luckily Disney will give you a one time complimentary pass for just such an occasion. If I forget them again it will be a $25.00 fee for another pass. I don't think Chad will let me forget again :)

As soon as we got into the park we headed straight for Pixie hollow to see Tinkerbell. Right as we got their a cast member was opening the line. We were the very first!!
We got to see Silvermist who happens to be Court's second favorite fairy

I of course had to get in the picture. I think I was more excited than she was. I was so excited when we rounded the corner and Tink was standing there, I know, I'm a loser.

After seeing Tinkerbell we headed toward Toon Town and the Princess Pavilion. On our way there we passed The storybook canal boats and there was no line so after convincing Court that it was not scary ride and the whale was not real and assuring her that daddy would hold her we went on the ride. We even got our own boat, there was no one else in line yet. This was especially great when we passed it later in the day and the line was huge. Court liked the ride and seeing all the tiny houses.

We went on it's a small world while we waited for the Princess pavilion to open and Court loved looking for all the Disney characters in their respective lands. She kept looking for Ariel and Chad realised how much she loves Ariel. We waited for an hour to visit the princesses and got to see...

Jasmine and Belle

And lucky us Ariel! Ariel got down and talked to her for a few minutes. I think this is one the best parts of the day for her.
After the princesses we headed to Toon Town and Court got to go on her first roller coaster. I decide to start her off small and we took her on Gadgets Go Coaster. She was very nervous but she went on it. She did not want to go again.

One ride she did really like, but didn't want to go on again was soaring over California. after the ride started she kept saying "This is awesome!"

She loved Minnie's house and wanted to stay and look at all the cute stuff much longer than Chad and I wanted to hang around. Luckily we reminded her that we had to get over to California Adventure for lunch.

We went to a Disney art class and got to draw Winnie the pooh. I thought she did a great job, especially since last time we did this she wanted to give up half way through when it didn't look exactly like the artist's

all of us with our pictures

Last time when we came as a family we were going to go to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. At the time I didn't know you need a reservation so I promised her we would come back for her birthday.

She was so excited to have lunch with Ariel so she was a little disappointed to find out that we only got to see Ariel when we got their but she wouldn't be sitting with us.

During our meal other princess came to the table to see you, so she loved that. We got to see Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella

Here is picture of our dessert tray. This is definitely a more expensive place to eat. I would say it is more a fine dining experience at the park. Just like at a restaurant the waiters brought her a brownie with a candle in it and sang happy birthday to her. It was expensive, but worth it when we got to see her face light up so much.

She just had to see Play House Disney much to Chad's disappointment. Chad did not like this picture of him, but I had to use it because you can see how excited and happy she is.

I've noticed that kids usually choose Chad to ride with. I don't know why, but they do. Chad asked if it bothers me and I assured him it doesn't. I just find it interesting. I guess he is the more fun parent.

Last time she was too small for the bumper cars. This time she had fun bumping into mommy. The picture below is a ride she remembered from last time and was so excited to go on again.

We got to see two parades. In CA adventure we watched the Pixar parade and in Disneyland we saw the Celebration parade.

We were kind of on a corner while watching the Pixar parade and Chad and I were behind Court but we could always tell when a villain was coming because Court would get up and come back to us till the villain passed and then she would got take her seat again.

I finally got to ride with her, but only out of default because the Tea Cups makes Chad sick.

We of course had to do the carousel and we were the first in line for the next ride so she scoped out her horse and pointed it out to us so that we could make sure and get the one she wanted.

We had dinner at Pinocchio's and were finishing up 10 min before the fireworks started. We at once realised we were stuck in Fantasyland since they cut off most of the through ways till after the fire works so we sat down by the carousel to wait it out. Court was already starting to dose but we had no choice.

She fell asleep two minutes before the fireworks started. They set them off right behind Toon Town so we were really close and they were very loud!

We were also practically right behind the castle where they also set some off, so we were surrounded. It was pretty cool and again loud.

But fear not they did not disturb her sleep. She slept right through the whole show.We had so much fun with Court. She had a great time and got to see lots of princesses. I think this is the first time I ever went to Disneyland and only went to Main st., Fantasyland, and Toon town. We never even entered Tomorrowland, Adventureland, New Orleans or Fonteerland.

In Disneyland we went on

• Disneyland Railroad
• Gadget's Go Coaster
• King Aurthor's Carousel
• Mad Tea Party
• "It a Small World"
• Storybook Canal Boats
  
  
  We got to see
• The Celebration Parade
• Belle
• Jasmine
• Ariel
• Minnie
• Tinkerbell
• Silvermist
  

In California Adventure....

We went on

• Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue!
• Flick's Flyers
• Heimlich's Chew Chew Train
• Tuck and Rolls Drive 'Em Buggies
• Toy Story Midway Mania
• Soaring Over California

We Saw

• Turtle Talk with Crush
• Play House Disney
• Sorcerers Work shop
• Character Close up

Book worm

I walked by and Aiden was very intently looking at this book. I jusat had to snap a picture.

our garden is growing

Our zucchini. I took this a week ago so it bigger now.

Peppers. Yes and weeds, I've busy this week and not been getting out to weed.

Tomato plants

Sugar peas. I looked at them this morning and there are a few that are ready to pick.

Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Art Show

Casey got another piece of art shown at the district art show.
His art teacher was their and told me how much she really loved this piece. She thought it was just great and told me it was a collaboration of characters from different stories she has told them throughout the year.

Cuteness at the park

We were at the park with friends after school one day and court borrowed someones bike. Next thing I knew she was circling the playground giving Aiden a ride. This is not the best picture of it, but it was super cute. He had his little feet perched up on the bar and holding on the handles with her.

As we walked to the car he was meandering along his merry way with his hands in his pockets. To CUTE!