Kaitlyn's Dance Recital

On the same Saturday, June 25th, Kaitlyn had her final dance recital. She did great! She is so beautiful and graceful when she dances. While she was rehearsing, the rest of the family went to a farmer's market and got a bargain on her fresh cut flowers. Ella was so sweet, she recorded all the events and happenings of the day and of the performance for Kaitlyn to read after the recital. She had all of us write Kaitlyn a little note on how well she did and gave it to her after the performance. Kaitlyn has been obsessed with the show "So you think you can dance." She loves to watch all the dancers and it never gets old for her.

T-Ball

June 25th was a busy day, it started out early with Andrew having pictures for T-Ball and a game following right after. Here he is hitting off the T and the other picture is of him running from third base to home, James is on third base. James gets to help assist the coach, so it's a lot of fun.

Basket Weaving

June 24th the La Verne library had a basket weaving class. I took Kaitlyn and Ella to it and they spent an hour or so making their very own basket. They turned out really cute! It sure brought back memories when I actually took a class in college (even had the credits count towards my design major!).

Chin Injury

Ella tripped and fell and split her chin open on Thursday, June 23rd. She was a trooper about the whole thing. This is our biggest injury anyone has had in our family! The first picture was taken at our friends house, who is a nurse, before she cleaned it and used derma-bond stuff to make the skin go back together. The second picture is after the wound was glued shut. The right side is mostly a scrape. The pictures don't really do it justice. Hopefully by next week, when she is baptized, it will look a lot better. Poor Ella, she didn't laugh or smile for a few days, it was really strange to have her so serious and sedate. It was a good sign to see her make jokes and goof off with her siblings after a couple of days.

Staying Cool!

Our neighbor, Camila had a slip n' slide set up one afternoon and it sure helped beat the heat. We are always trying to find ways of keeping cool and this did just that!

Big Bear Mini-Family Reunion

We went up to Big Bear for a few days and stayed in a cabin with my sister Erin and her kids and my parents. The first day we went to the lake and the kids learned how to skip rocks on the water.


We went to this historical museum place where the kids got to pan for "gold." They each collected enough to fill a little container to take home. It was actually really addicting, to pick through the pebbles and rocks.
Here at the museum there was this old car that turned into a cute photo with the kids.
The last evening the kids played grandma's bingo game with their own roll of pennies to use for markers and when they won, they picked a special prize from the "prize room." This sure was a highlight for the kids!

Swim Fun!

The kids were invited to swim at their friends house. Emma Lawes was in Kaitlyn's school class. Her younger sister was born on the same day and is the same age as Ella. They all enjoyed the swim and would have stayed in there all night!

Tow Truck Assistant

James had to have his car towed to a shop since it stopped working right before his finals. After he finished with school tests, we found out all it really needed was new spark plugs. We also found out that there are some more major repairs in our future with this car we got for super cheap. It has helped save him more precious studying time being able to drive to school himself instead of relying on me and the kids and our schedule. It's nice when the car runs too :) Andrew got to work the tow truck levers to pull the car onto the tow truck, he was thrilled!

Andrew Preschool Graduation/Field Day

June 3rd, Kaitlyn had a fourth grade field day party. The first girl is Emma and she is the same age as Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn is so excited to have a friend who is even smaller than her (because it's never happened before!) The other girl's name is Delanie.
Andrew with his friends, Louis, and Andrew. They sure had so much fun in preschool together. It wasn't until almost the end of school, when Louis and Andrew (his friend) were both absent for a week, that Andrew realized there were other kids in his preschool. He came home one day and said he made a new friend and his name was Lucas!
Andrew prefers not to wear the graduation hat for this picture. I was surprised he wore it at all!

Shaking the hand of his preschool teachers. He is so excited to be starting kindergarten in August!

Memorial Day Weekend

The ride in the car-so exhausting! Andrew is actually faking being asleep in this picture! :) Baby Apollo and baby Juliet. Juliet looks a lot like Ella did at her age.
Of course there is always games being played. James and Kaitlyn discovered a new game called Dominion that they enjoy playing.
Andrew and his cousin Luke sure hit it off. They played the wii a lot and had a blast!
We drove to Utah to be a part of the DeHart's and Lund's baby blessings. This picture is of baby Temperance with Kaitlyn and Ella.

Ella had "ancestor day" at school. They had a potluck luncheon and were able to invite their grandparents. My parents happened to be coming down to that weekend and came by for the afternoon. It was a nice surprise for Ella, she didn't know until they walked in!

Ella's Actual Birthdate

On May 24th Ella had a trip to the doctor to get on antibiotics. Kaitlyn had her end of the school year choir performance. (She is second from the left on the bottom row). It was a crazy day! She got a kick board for practicing her karate kicks and her very own watermelon.

Ella's Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for Ella on May 21st for her 8th birthday. She wanted a water balloon fight and a bar-be-que. Luckily it turned out to be the only sunny day of the week (which had been rainy and overcast). She sure had fun playing with her friends and in the water.