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! 

Andrew's Birthday Party at Laser Island - Feb 18th

All the party kiddos in the pirate ship

There was a round of mini golf included in the b-day package too!

We told the kids that they had to line up like this to play their second game of laser tag, so we actually got a decent shot of the whole party gang!

Silly smiles

Blowing out the candles

A new bat for baseball

Andrew turned 7 this year.  He sure had a fun birthday party at laser island.  He invited some boys from school and Isabella to play with the girls.  The party was all planned out and prepared.  Basically all we had to do was make the reservation and show up with our cupcakes.  All the adults had time to visit while the kids played 2 rounds of laser tag and a round of mini golf.  Tokens were included so they played arcade games too.  Pizza and drinks for lunch was served there.  When it was over, we just left, no clean-up!  Pretty much the best party ever.  And all the kids were entertained and had a ton of fun!

Andrew has started wrestling this year.  James and I did a lot of searching to find these wrestling shoes in Andrew's size.  He was so excited to be able to wear them the next day to class. 

Basketball Season - Feb 16th

Basketball season is almost over!  I haven't taken many pictures this year.  Andrew has sure come a long way.  Last year he could hardly get the ball up to the 8 foot net.  But now he is shooting baskets from all over, even making some three point shots!

Valentine's Party - Feb 14th

Ella, Ava and Bisha

Going through all their Valentine candy

Making his Valentine "Bug" bag

Andrew and Rebecca

Kaitlyn was sick this week, she forced herself to go to school on Valentine's day because she had made some handmade, personalized Valentine's for each of her friends.  She wanted to be able to pass them out.  But the next day she stayed home.  Middle school is different when it comes to holiday parties, there is none.  I think Kaitlyn misses some of that from elementary school.  Ella and Andrew of course had their parties where they brought home a lot of goodies.  I wonder if we will finish them all before Easter!  :)

Field trip to a Play - Feb. 11th

Andrew's first grade class went to see a play entitled "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," at Citrus College.  The play was 5 college drama students reenacting parts of their favorite children's books.  All of them had a little lesson that could be learned from them.  It was cute.  I couldn't take pictures inside, so this is the only one I got of Andrew and Sean riding the school bus. 

Science Fair - Feb 6th

Ella did a neat science project on the effects of an egg shell when it is exposed to vinegar.  She covered each of the shells in toothpaste first, all with different percentages of fluoride.  It was neat to see that the toothpaste with the most fluoride kept the egg shell the hardest.  The control egg with out any toothpaste was really mushy and the whole shell pretty much deteriorated.  Way to go Ella!

Post Spelling Bee Dinner - Feb 1st

Kaitlyn and two of her friends, Thanh and Emma, participated in the Ramona Middle School spelling bee.  Kaitlyn made it through about 5 rounds, and then got out on the word "ugliness."  Someone behind us whispered to someone else saying, "why the word ugliness for such a cute girl."  It's ironic that she had just finished reading the book Uglies.  But true to the school's three year tradition - a 6th grader won out of all 6-8th grades - even over the last year's reining champion.  So we all went out for pizza afterwards and had a fun evening.