Coloring Eggs - March 31st

It is Conference weekend and we spent the time watching it at home. It was raining so we stayed inside and colored eggs for Easter. Here are some of the kids favorite eggs. Then there is Andrew who has too much energy, making a soft area to practice his front flips. My camera isn't too quick to catch him in the air, but it's pretty cool when he does a flip, you will have to take my word for it! :)

Spring Parties - March 30th

Andrew and his kindergarten class.

Kaitlyn and her teacher, Mrs. Dunville.

Kaitlyn eating her rainbow cupcake.

Kaitlyn and her friends Michelle, and Thanh.

Ella with some of her friends, Jordan and Emily.

Today was the last day of school before Spring Break. Andrew's class had a little Spring party and I helped with one of the stations doing bingo. Then Kaitlyn and her friend Isabella celebrated their bdays (since both are during Spring Break) in class with a pizza party, fruit smoothies (thanks to Isabella's mom) and cupcakes (I made my rainbow ones) for lunch. And then Ella had a Bunny Hop party with all the third graders followed by cookies at the end of school. It was a busy, busy day. Isabella had a bday party that evening that the girls went to. James, Andrew and I went to a BBQ to meet a new family that will be going to Western. Then we went back to our friends house, the Alva's, where the party was and helped take the girls around to TP some houses in the neighborhood! The two Andrews had a blast as well! It's funny that Karen, my friend, just got inducted to be on the board of the home owner's association this month and she was the instigator of the TP activity! I don't have any pictures of the party because it would have been too dark to have them turn out very well. :(

Walk-thru-California - March 21st

Since Kaitlyn is in a combo class they got to help the 4th graders with their Walk-Thru-California program. She already did it last year, and she also already did the 5th grade Walk-Thru-the-Revolution. They are amazing extra programs that our PTA provides for the students each year. They are super interesting and the kids love to participate and they end up learning a whole lot. Kaitlyn had a part of being an "expert" on Plateau's. She has in her lap during the video, her handmade 3D version of a plateau. All the kids dress up as something that pertains to their character, their "expert" card or that goes a long with the history of California. She is wearing Ella's first dance costume (an Indian dress) which is now, not quite a shirt for Kaitlyn.

Army Themed Bday Party - March 16th

Andrew's friend Luke had an Army themed birthday party. There were a bunch of boys from Kindergarten that he plays with at the park after school each day, that were invited.

Here is Andrew in all of his Army gear!

They had a water balloon (grenade) toss where they were aiming at a target.

One of the activities was an obstacle course. At the end they got to kick over a "brick wall."

The boys got to assemble these little planes and have contests on whose plane went the farthest or the highest.

This is the "MRE" meal they were eating. The green Gatorade was their "fuel." I have to hand it to Luke's mom, she pulled off an amazing party. The boys loved every minute of it. At the very end, they had a Nerf gun war. It sure was a great day for Andrew!

Crazy Hair Day! - March 16th

The kids were really excited to have crazy hair day at school. It was too bad that Ella, along with the whole 3rd grade were already scheduled to go on a field trip to the Mt. Sac Planetarium, so they were unable to participate. But Ella had a really fun time, making a star chart and a rocket that she got to launch. She was gone most of the school day, so hopefully the next time they do a crazy hair day, she will be able to do it too.

Kaitlyn had previously made these tissue paper flowers and she wound them into two buns in her hair and then we sprayed glitter all over. Andrew went with half blue and half green. They were also supposed to wear green for a pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration at school. If I would have planned better, I would have held off on Andrew's buzz cut for another week and shaved the sides short and left the top long for a mow-hawk and colored it a bunch of colors. So I will have to be better prepared for next time! It was hard to do something crazy with not a lot of hair!

Knott's Berry Farm Field Trip - March 13

The G.A.T.E students in 4th and 5th grade had a special after school physics lesson a few weeks ago. Then they all got to go on a special tour of some of Knott's Berry Farms rides and learn how physics can be applied to the rides. Then of course, they got to ride them! What an all day, fun experience! Kaitlyn is sure braver than me to go on some of those rides! (Kaitlyn is wearing the blue shirt).

Kill'n Time - March 12th

Ella and I were waiting for Kaitlyn to finish her dance class in Glendora, so we went to McDonald's to hang out. Andrew was already at Sean's house so that he could get a ride to baseball practice. Here is a picture of her up in the play area. I didn't notice that she coordinated her shirt for this experience :)

First Baseball Game of the Season - March 10th

The 3 Amigos!

Andrew started baseball already. He is on the Red Sox team with some of his good friends from church and school (Gage, Sean, Evan, and Andrew Alva). He has his last name on his shirt and he picked the number 99 since it was the highest/biggest number you could have on the jerseys. :) They play almost every Saturday til the first part of June, as well as some weeknight games. The La Verne City league is some serious business! He sure looks so cute in his uniform though! He plays a really good short stop! I wonder after all the different sports, which he will end up liking the best?

Awards Assembly / Friends Over - March 8th

Kaitlyn received her classic AR certificate and medal.

Kaitlyn receiving her Math Olympiad medal

Ella sitting on her carpet pad at the assembly.

Andrew going back to class.

There was an end of the second trimester awards assembly at school. Kaitlyn was recognized for the awards I just mentioned. Ella was the only kiddo of ours with perfect attendance this trimester and Andrew was just so excited to be taking AR tests all by himself!

James spent an evening at home with the kiddos and their friends.  They sure look like had a whole lot of fun!  I love this last one, with Andrew's friend holding Andrew on his lap.  :)

5th Grade Panoramic Photo - March 7th

Kaitlyn's 5th grade class took their group panoramic photo with their 5th grade Oak Mesa shirts on. Kaitlyn is 9th from the left in the front row. My friend at school had the photographer use her camera to take this photo and then she shared it with me via email. I opened it and it brought tears to my eyes. I can't believe that Kaitlyn will be headed to middle school next year. Her elementary days are almost over and it's gone by too fast! In two more years, Ella will be in this same type of a picture, it's so scary how fast our kiddos are growing up!

Honor Choir Field Trip to Disney Concert Hall - March 6th

Kaitlyn went with Honor Choir to the Disney Concert Hall to listen to a symphony. They were gone for an entire school day! She did have so much fun and said that there was a guy on stage acting out what the music was trying to portray about the planets. She has been able to do some fun field trips these past 2 years.

Math Olympiad - March 3rd

Such School Support and Spirit!

Kaitlyn was selected to be on the school's Math Olympiad team. There are 5 kids for 4th grade and 5 for 5th grade from each school. There were about 600 in the district that took a skills test to determine who would be able to be on the team. Kaitlyn made the team last year and again this year! She competed all morning on Saturday, March 3rd, after two months of after school practices. The 4th graders at Oak Mesa won first place, and the 5th graders won 4th place! It was a fun day to celebrate with Kaitlyn and her teammates. We are sure happy she loves math! Even I have to google some of the terms and vocabulary she is learning to be able to "help" her with her homework. Mom, it's true, they don't teach math the way I was taught back in the day! I remember you saying that to me when I was a kid!

Classroom Help - March 2nd

I go in about every other Friday to help out in Andrew's classroom with their little groups. On this particular day we were outside making words with magnetic letters. It's so fun to get to know the kids in Andrew's class and see who his friends are and how he interacts with others! I wouldn't trade being able to volunteer at my kids' school for anything!

Park Buddies - Feb 29th

Andrew plays with a bunch of boys at the park adjacent to the elementary school each day while we are waiting for his sisters to get out of school. So he has two hours of fun physical activity each day. That doesn't include his baseball practices in the evenings either! He has such a great time and enjoys playing football, soccer, baseball, tag, or wrestling etc. with these and any other boy that happens to want to join in on any given day.