Yosemite

On Mother's Day weekend, Grandma, Uncle Mike, and I took the kids to Yosemite for the weekend.  

Uncle Mike, Tommy, and I drove up separately after work/school on Friday

We arrived after dark, so really started our adventure the next morning.

Grandma generously offers to take group photos for strangers...

Yes, we brought some technology with us.  It was a lot of time together and some of us get cranky!  So a few high tech diversions among the trees kept Mama sane (-ish)

Uncle Mike took the kids on a walk while Grandma and I impressively packed all this stuff to the car.

 

April in Review

Well obviously, I'm playing a bit of catch up here.  So here are some random highlights from April.

Lucy and Grandma visited with Aunt Marietta and some other cousins.  

Tommy does math for fun... I know, it's crazy to me too!  He asked to doodle on Tom's classroom white board and started drawing fractions. Note how he not only drew and labeled the fraction, but he's got that teacher point with the marker thing down!

Lucy wears her official Darren Criss sunglasses

Which I got at this event with my former student Darren

Tommy & Shen

Gopher watching has become a novelty in our front yard.  They are bold.

I found a couple more birthday pictures!

Birthday dinner at OG (Olive Garden), that's my boy!

I think sunglasses could be her thing

Sigh... off the shoulder shirt, tousled hair, and ketchup face.  That's our girl.

She makes herself comfortable anywhere

She walked into ballet with her hair pulled back and wearing a tutu.  Halfway through the hair was down and the tutu became a tunic.  A little Isadora Duncan, I suppose.

Lucy & Molly on a long drive to Gilroy

Chocolate cupcake

Snack Shack duty for T-ball.

Lucy & Nana picked Gemma up from school one day and took her to lunch.  Gemma just graduated from high school!

Lucy on Grandma's swing in Gilroy

Lucy & Jade in their matching shirts.

5th Birthday Party

For the first time ever, Tommy had a birthday party with friends from school and not at our house.  He had such a big and exciting year, and had dear friends in both Pre-K and Kindergarten that we wanted to celebrate with, so we needed a spot that could accommodate lots of little boys!

Off to the Daly City Party Playhouse, which was a great spot for a big fun party!  I'm not saying we'll be able to pull this off every year, but there was something special about turning 5 and something amazing about the year this boy has had.  I kept reminding myself that a year before, he was in the Panda class in preschool and now was a month away from Kindergarten graduation!  The boys in his class are all so sweet and nice, so it was a great party.  Throw in some delightful and silly cousins and we had quite a crowd!