Easter Treats - March 24

Top of the package.

4 little cupcakes with cocnut "grass" and jelly bean "eggs"

Kaitlyn's 12th Birthday Party - March 23

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Eating dinner

Everyone seeing if they could fit in the trunk of our car.

All the party-goers up a tree!

Strawberry painted nails

Kaitlyn has been planning her birthday party for awhile now.  She found out many of her friends wouldn't be in town on her birthday due to Spring Break, so we had a party with her friends early.  She decided to play some games and have a pasta and garlic bread dinner.  We had strawberry shortcake for dessert and went to see the new Oz movie.  It was super fun.  I think she had a great party.  We made cute little favors with peeps and made homemade lip gloss for each of the girls too.

The note says, "Thanks for coming!  You are one of my favorite "peeps."

Container the "peep" was in and a photo of the lip gloss we made.

Baseball - March 20

Andrew is getting ready to run to the next base.

Hitting a ball out into the outfield!

Coming up to third base!

Baseball is underway and Andrew is having fun.  He is improving so much as he practices with his team twice a week and almost every day after school for an hour while he waits for Ella to get out of school.  He just loves sports so much. 

Walk Thru CA - March 20

Ella participated in the Walk Thru California experience with her 4th grade class today.  She was an "expert" on the key terms of Governor, Altitude and Elevation.  She chose to dress up as a governor and drew a picture prop of altitude and elevation.  She did really well remembering her parts too!  It's such a fun little adventure and the kids always look forward to this interactive and informative learning experience.  Way to go, Ella!

Ramona Middle School Spring Choir Concert - March 19th

Michelle and Kaitlyn

Thanh and Kaitlyn

Thanh, Emma and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn had her spring choir concert tonight.  It was really amazing to see how professional they sound.  They sure have a fun time in choir.  Their teacher is also in our ward and she is in Young Women's too, so Kaitlyn will have her as a school and church teacher.  Plus the pianist is also in our ward and serves in Young Women's too!  So nice to have such positive role models at church AND at school!

St. Patrick's Day - March 17 "Pie" Day - March 14

Nessa sent these cute shirts for the girls to wear!

All three kiddos in their green - can't get pinched at church!

The kids made and set out their leprechaun traps last night.  They were pretty imaginative.  Well, there was a trace of a leprechaun that visited in the night, but it only left 4-leaf clover confetti all over and ate the fishie crackers and lucky charms that were supposed to entice the little guy into the traps.  I guess he was too smart for that.  He did leave some rainbow lollipops and starburst candy.

Andrew's trap, there were skittles inside.

Ella's trap had a smaller decoy too.

Here is a closer, side view of Ella's with a ladder.

Kaitlyn's trap - it had marshmallow lucky charms that were eaten.

Kaitlyn's trap from the front.

Kaitlyn had a fun math day on March 14th ("Pie" day).  They had an art project designing a picture that used the numbers of pie, a pie eating contest and a pie bee.  Kaitlyn made it to second place in the pie bee!  She actually knew more of the numbers in the correct order, but got tripped up over a few.  She sure has a gift for memorization!  

Little League Baseball Opening Day - March 16th

Andrew and Sean

Both are on the Rookie - Dodger team

Lining up for the parade up the street to the ball park

Andrew is on the Rookie Dodger team this year.  He has one of his good friends, Sean on his team.  I am the team mom, which I have learned is pretty time consuming in the very beginning of the season.  Saturday was the opening day.  They have a little parade where all the teams walk up the street to the ball park.  It was a fun day, with perfect weather.  Andrew had his first real game of the season against the Cardinals, which has many of his friends from school on that team.  Andrew made some really good plays and doesn't let the ball go past him when he's out in the field.  I think he likes playing first base, short stop and "pitcher" the best. 

Rancho Days - Feb 28th

The kids helped prepare the carne asada tacos they ate for lunch as one of the stations they rotated through

Dancing after lunch

Dancing at the fiesta after lunch

Ella and Ava

The pot of melted wax they were dipping to make candles

Making her candle

Mixing up the straw and dirt and water

Getting ready to jump in the mud pit to made adobe bricks

This is trickier than it seems

A bunch of candles the kids made

Learning to laso a "horse"

Fourth grade has three awesome hands on history type field trips they do-Indian Camp, Rancho Days and Gold Rush Days.  They have a neat historic ranch they go to for Rancho Days and they have little stations that the groups go through.  One is making candles and mixing mud and straw to make bricks (this was the station I worked at), making wool bracelets and tissue paper flowers, helping prepare the lunch food and making tortillas, lassoing and horse shoes, learning a dance that they perform after lunch,and a tour of the ranch itself and learning of it's place in history.  The establishment used to contain all the land of what today is San Dimas, Claremont, La Verne and Pomona cities.  I got to participate in the dance with Ella at the very end.  It was a pretty awesome day and such beautiful weather too!

Frindle Book Club - Feb 27th

Oak Mesa had a school wide book club and they read the book Frindle by Andrew Clements.  They had an after school party to celebrate and talk about the book.  Of course student council had treats to purchase as well.  I think Andrew was more excited to buy a brownie with his money than anything else.  He did answer a question right about the book and earned a candy necklace as a prize.  I didn't even know he had read the book, but he had all by himself.  It's a fourth/fifth grade level book!  Ella had read it and he must have been sneaking and reading it while she was. 

Basketball - Feb 23rd

Coach and Andrew

Doughnuts and juice after the last basketball game

Andrew with the ball

The basketball season has come and gone.  Their last game was today.  They had a little party afterwards and passed out the trophies.  James even got a gift card to Olive Garden for helping assist with the team!  Yeah for a free date night!  Andrew is already gearing up for baseball which is just starting now.

Doughnut Fridays - Feb 22nd

The middle school starts about 1 hour after the elementary school does.  I take Kaitlyn and her friend Emma to school, but after dropping off the younger siblings, we have some time to kill most days.  We have a tradition of getting doughnuts at Vons on Fridays.  This is their rendition of how people on commercials eat food. :) 

Andrew's Birthday - Feb 20th

Our home teacher came over and brought a balloon, birthday card and a bag of Dove chocolates for Andrew.  We invited him to have brownies and ice-cream with us.  Andrew is spreading out his birthday celebration!