Gymnastics Update

Just some quick shots of Brynne in gymnastics this week!

Each time she goes for practice I see more and more confidence emerge. And her coordination is improving. 

 

It always amazes me how much she can do as a 3 year old. Most of the times I watch from the sidelines with a weird mix of emotion. Pride, fear, nervousness, elation. I am so proud of her, and so proud of the life-lessons she is learning. She works so hard in gym and it is paying off. She never complains, or says she is too tired to go. 

She LOVES gymnastics, and I LOVE that after a few years of watching Landon play soccer, play tball, ride his dirtbike, etc. that we finally have something that Brynne is interested in!

SO proud of my little gymnast!

Halloween 2011

4 years of Halloween celebrations, and each and every year gets better!

This was the first year that I did not get to choose (and match) the kids' Halloween costumes. Brynne wanted to be "Tangled" from very early on and Landon changed his mind every few days leading up to October, before he finally settled on being a hunter "like daddy and poppy."

We had a great time trick-or-treating with our friends and really enjoyed Halloween this year! True to their personalities Brynne was the first one to approach each door while Landon was cautious and held back a bit until he saw it was safe, too funny. Can't wait to see what the kids come up with for 2012!

Landon starts Preschool

Travis and I both struggled with the decision to keep Landon out of Kindergarten until next year. He turned 5 in July and was "age eligible" to attend, however the school district where we lives prefers Kindergartners to be at least 5 and a half when the school year starts. Landon was pretty close to that age so the school left the decision up to us. Let me tell ya, I wrestled with this decision for DAYS. I didn't want to put him in Kindergarten this year only to have his struggle and need to be held back. I also didn't want to wait a year and have him end up being one of the oldest in his grade next year (he will now be 6 when he starts). Ultimately we did what we felt was best for Landon and our family and today he started his official year of preschool!

Both Landon and Brynne were attending a preschool that we really loved, but we were beginning to feel like they had reached their maximum learning potential at that particular school. So we decided to enroll Landon in a private Christian preschool that is much closer to our house. We also decided that being only 3 and a half Brynne should really just stay home with me for another year.

Landon was pretty excited to start school today, and I was cautiously optimistic! He has had a tendency in the past to have anxiety when thrown into new social situations. He woke up in a great mood and was genuinely happy to meet his new classmates.

He even asked me if I wanted to take some pictures this morning! OF COURSE I did! Here he is telling Brynne how much he is going to miss not having her at school.

Landon 5yr 1mo and Brynne 3yr 8mo

Landon wrote his entire name on the concrete out back, so cute.

Landon standing in front of his "cubby" on his first day of preschool

Landon has to take a car with his name on it and "park" it by his picture each day so everyone can see who is there each day.

Landon's parked car behind his picture

Warming up by playing with some colorful dominoes

Sweet Preschooler!

One last picture before Mommy leaves...

...but then Brynne and I were halfway out the door and she said "wait Mom, I gotta go give Lan a hug and tell him to have a good time." Ugh, melted this Mama's heart.

Landon did great in school and was well behaved. He came home raving about his kind teachers Miss Kathy and Miss Shirley and said he had such a fun day. What a relief! On one hand I am so sad he is growing up so quickly, on the other I am so thankful he has found his confidence and there were no tears today! I can't wait to see everything Landon learns in this new program, I know this year will fly by!

Aquarium of the Pacific

Back in May we took the kids, and met up with some friends, at The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Ca. We picked a great day to go as the weather was perfect! Not too hot, or humid and mostly cloudy. The kids had the BEST time. The aquarium isn't the biggest place so we couldn't have spent more than a few hours there, not to mention a few of the major exhibits were closed. We ended up staying about 2 hours and then walked along the water and had a nice lunch. I took a ton of pictures, here are some of our favorites.

Landon and Brynne watching the wave fountain~

Running off a little energy as we were waiting for the aquarium to open~

Time out for a picture...barely~

The kids loved looking for "Nemo" and "Dory" in this huge fish tank~

Love this picture of Landon~

He was amazed at all of the fish and sea creatures~

Checking out the sting rays~

During feeding time you can watch a brief informative show about the sea lions. It was great and the kids LOVED to watch the sea lions playing in the water and catching the fish in their mouths. Definitely the hit of the day for them!

Landon was pretty nervous at first~

It was so cool how the sea lions swam right up to the glass. Our little animal lover was in Heaven!

Next we went to check out the sharks~

Then we made our way over to "feed" the lorikeet birds. This actually turned out to be a big fat waste of $4 because the birds were not hungry at all and it was nearly impossible to get them to land on us. Luckily Daddy managed to attract one and the kids got to see one close up!~

Daddy and Landon~

Brynne and our friends' daughter Lillie~

Landon doing a little climbing before lunch~

I Heart Faces ~ Props

I Heart Faces ~ Photo Challenge

PROPS

My sweet baby niece Morgan in a vintage suitcase.

Landon turns 5!

I think it's safe to say that Landon had a GREAT 5th birthday. His birthday is July 6th, so because of the 4th of July we always have to do a little juggling to plan his party around the Holiday. This year was extra special because Landon's Nana and Poppy were here visiting from Florida. Travis' parents recently bought a house in our neighborhood so they can visit more often and always have a place to stay when they feel like coming to California. On July 4th we made plans to watch the local fireworks from the patio of their new house. When we got there they had the cutest little mini party set up for Landon.

Nana even took special care to arrange the cupcakes...
Landon loves his Nana and Poppy and was so excited to have cupcakes just for his birthday in their new house!

Opening his present

Poppy was pretty excited to give Landon his birthday present. He is an avid hunter and to be able to buy Landon his first set of hunting clothes was a pretty neat deal around here.

The next day was Tuesday the 5th and the actual day we celebrated Landon's birthday. We told him he could spend the day doing whatever he wanted.

This outdoor lovin' boy wanted to have dinner at Roadhouse with Auntie Amy and Uncle Nate and the go to the park, all before we headed to see Cars 2 at the movie theater!

Landon loves sports and spent some time watching baseball at the park.

Then we let the kids play for a while

Love this BIG 5 year old!

Me and my best girl

Travis and his mini

Landon was so excited to go see Cars 2. He'd been asking for months. Because his birthday is during the summer it seems there is always an animated kids movie out. So it's turned into an expected tradition for him to see a movie on his birthday.

He doesn't seem at all excited...LOL

He loved the movie, we all did, it was really cute.

For his "friends party" Landon decided he wanted to have a sleepover party. I was so nervous to have so many 4 and 5 year olds stay the night, but Landon and all his friends had so much fun so it was worth it! We asked all the boys to bring their bikes and scooters so they could all ride together.

(L to R) Landon, Ethan, Matthew, Trenton, Jake, Brady, and Aiden

7 boys total!

We sent little sister to Cammi's house for her very first sleepover. She had a great time and didn't miss Landon and his friends at all, LOL!
Ethan, Brady and Landon playing

Trenton, Ethan, Matt, and Landon ready to ride!

While I was making dinner Travis kept the boys entertained in the backyard. They played games and had relay races.

Matt, Landon, Jake, and Aiden read to race.

Jake and Trenton

Matt and Landon

Dinner time! Landon requested chicken nuggets, french fries and juice. Easy peasy!

Ethan, Brady, and Trenton

Landon, Matt, Jake and Aiden

I've always felt so blessed at the amount of good friends that Landon has. These sweet 6 boys have always been great friends to Landon and I hope they will always be friends.

EthanBrady

Trenton

Aiden

Matty, Landon's BFF

Jake

Present time!

First Lego's!!

More lego's!

7 boys, all tucked in and ready for bed!

Landon's sleepover was so fun, and all the boys did great! Nobody woke up in the middle of the night crying, which is what I was afraid of. I'll admit, it was a ton of work and I don't know how soon we'll do a sleepover with this many kids again! But I'm happy that my sweet boy had such a great time, and his party was exactly what he wanted. I still can't believe my BABY boy is FIVE years old!