Summer's First Swim

I couldn't be more in a summer state of mind after the 5 hours we spent at Phil and Jetta's yesterday!  Peter and Cora turned 4 and some of their family, as well as some other 3-4 year olds from our church (and their families), got together to celebrate.  There were a LOT of kids and we all had a LOT of fun.

The kids spent a long time swimming.  I was happy to see how quickly Ella and Delia felt comfortable in the water after so many months off.  Ella's new thing was the diving board.  She'd run off the edge then hop out and repeat over and over.

Delia, Brittany and Cora kicked and bobbed around all the parts of the pool, holding hands and demanding their moms watch how they swim like fish.

The pool was super fun, but when the kids started shivering, we moved onto other things.  Bunnies were held, bikes and scooters we ridden, sand cakes were made, dress up was worn, volleyball was played and a game of tag was held in the dirt.

I know it's wrong to have favorites, but Peter and Cora do have my heart.  They share a lot with my youngest-- an age and similar spunky personalities.  I just love them and feel so thankful that Delia has had such good little buddies since birth.

After a BBQ dinner and ice cream cake, the presents were opened.  I laugh at these pictures I caught of hugs for the birthday twins.  Phil built us a giant bonfire to warm up, so our night ended with some laughs around the fire.  I got to take home worn out girls and that wonderful, summery, smokey scent.

Happy summer to us and happy birthday to Peter and Cora!

Goodbye Sunshine

Though Ella has been out of school for a week now, just tonight Delia completed her first year of preschool.  And this girl, who tolerates school, but doesn't love it, is READY for summer!

The end of the year program was just as cute and amazing as always.  I think because I had a squirmier daughter, whose dress came dangerously close to going over her head several times, it seemed to drag a bit more than usual.  But, Delia was super proud to show off the songs she's been belting out for the past few weeks.  After all the songs, the Sunshine (3 year old) Class was awarded certificates of completion.  Next year, Delia is excited to be a Star and enjoy all the big-kid perks that go with being a 4 year old-- a move to a new classroom, sitting on the bench instead of the rug and being allowed to use the monkey bars.

Though the Sunshines aren't given solos, there's a bit of time where the Stars change into their caps and gowns and the 3 year olds must entertain the waiting audience.  Miss Jenny always asks who wants to try singing in the microphone.  Delia was the first to charge at it and could hardly be dragged away from it!  Maybe Delia didn't stand as perfectly still as we know her teachers like, but she was still just Delia and she still made us smile and feel proud!

Delia's favorite part of preschool this year was playing with her best friend Brittany.  I'd love picking her up and seeing these two girls hug goodbye.  When she'd talk about other kids, I'd ask, "Oh is Lauren...or Lucas...or Trent your friend?" She'd always say, "No, Brittany is my friend."  I guess she's only allowed to have one. :)

As is tradition for us after a preschool program well done, we had to celebrate with some ice cream.  Beautiful breezes, an outside table and a shared banana split were a perfect way to officially start our whole family's summer!
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On Her Way...to the FIRST Grade!

So, we officially have a first grader in the house.  Today Ella had her kindergarten celebration, which was totally adorable.  The 3 classes of kindergarten stood on stage at church in their matching shirts.  They performed a program of songs and poems and showed us a slide show of fun pictures.  Songs like "Kindergarten Holla!" or "Kindergarten Days" (to the tune of Greace's "Summer Nights") had us cracking up.  Ella had a short speaking part and she did great.  

 

The kids put on these sunglasses to sing, "We're on our way...to the first grade!", but Ella's didn't stay on her little face.  Here they scream, "We learned reading, we learned writing, kindergarten was EXCITING!"

After the program, there was some good fellowship.  Ella and I have been secretly collecting letters from each student in her class to put together in a book for their wonderful teacher.  The kids did a great job writing sentences about the things they loved about Mrs. H. and kindergarten and she was happy when we presented her with this gift from all her students.

Gramma Jean was kind enough to come and see Ella!  She was too sweet listing Ella among her other grandchildren graduating this week.  We're constantly blessed to be included in her family!

Though Ella has a hard time with goodbyes, she did great when it was time to give each of her classmates a hug goodbye for the summer.  I have tons of cute pictures of her with each friend (which Dave told me to hang on to for future high school graduation and wedding slide shows!), but I'll share just this one with two of her best friends from the
year-- Chloe and David. 

As this school year comes to a close, I reflect on how we've been tremendously blessed! 
Thank you, Lord, for all that Ella learned this year.  For her loving teacher and for sweet little friends.  Thank you that she came home most days happy, singing and repeating her silly teacher's jokes.  Thank you for drawing her closer to you through Bible memory work and passionate and creative Bible lessons.  Thank you for safety every single day as we made the  journey to her school.  Thank you, God, that even in the little details of the everyday school schedule, you were with us and smiling on us!

The Friends Who Made the Trip Extra Special

One of the best parts of a vacation in Southern California is that we drive right past so many of our favorite people on the way there and back.  We tacked extra days onto our vacation schedule and really treasured the time we got to spend with these dear friends.

On our drive down to Disneyland, we met Anna in LA for dinner.  She picked out a cool restaurant called Fred 62, where we tried to blend in with the hipsters while enjoying delicious food and good conversation.  This visit was short, but kicked off our vacation with some smiles.

We were so blessed to have a stop over at Phil and Teri's house on our way home.  We actually planned this one to be an overnight so we could spend more time with them.  After several exhausting days in the parks and probably over 20 miles walked, we basked in their hospitality!  I'll forever remember the Disneyland vacation concluding with long conversations while sitting in the sun on their patio furniture and Phil's amazing grilled tri-tip for dinner and monkey bread for breakfast.  As always, the kids played together wonderfully.  It was so good to just be still for a while and let our good friends spoil us!

Our last stop was another quick, but lovely, one.  Dorina and Ericlee move out of their house and to Haiti in just a few days.  We had a couple hours to sit down with them and share the good food and conversation that we always find in their company.  Granted, the kids were very worn out and tired of saying goodbye to good things at this point, but they love Meilani and Giada, so there was some serious wailing as we drove away. 

We love you, Anna, Teri and Dorina!  All the love and good food and conversation you showed us made an already awesome vacation that much better!

Disney, Day Three

Our final day at the Disneyland Resort was a Saturday, which was waaaay busier than the previous two days we'd spent in the park.  Lines were much longer, so we did much less.  But, it worked perfectly since our plan was to take things slow on this last day, go back and revisit our favorites and even spend some time off park property enjoying lunch and taking afternoon naps.

At park open we visited Toon Town and saw a short program featuring all the classic characters.  Then we got to meet Minnie Mouse and tour her house.

This was the day Ella had her "Disney Birthday", but it was also the day Dave and I got married 12 years ago!  There was no better way to celebrate an anniversary than being in such a magical place, having a blast with the family we made together.  Ella was kind enough to take a few pictures of her parents, the old married couple.

We caught the incredible parade for the second time, this time with a better view.  Another favorite memory of mine is looking up at the girls, riding high on our shoulders to see, and watching them excitedly wave to the characters and sing their little hearts out to the songs they know so well from their favorite movies.  Of course, the Rapunzel tower float with all the princesses riding on it was a hit with the girls.  I loved the Mary Poppins float, complete with a whole street of dancing chimney sweeps.

I was so happy that Ella was excited to try all the big rides with us. Favorites on her list were Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Each time she'd try a new ride, we'd worry that it was too much for her, but when we exited our vehicle she'd yell, "THAT WAS AWESOME!" and hop right back on with whoever was waiting to switch off.
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I feel I've barely scratched the surface in recapping the 3 fantastic days we spent at Disneyland, but this will serve to record our best and most favorite memories. If you aren't totally Disney-ed out at this point, be sure to click on our slide show for more fun pictures!

Princess Lunch

This memory is so special, it needs its own post!  We were really looking forward to using the vouchers to a character meal of our choice that were included in the vacation package we booked.  There are several options when it comes to character meals, all depending on what you want to eat, who you want to meet and where you want to do it.  We quickly realized the elegant, 3 course meal, featuring the princesses, at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure Park was the meal for us!

We entered down a glass-encased spiral staircase and immediately met Ariel.  (Please note the smiles on my girls' faces in the following pictures, they were sooo delighted to do this!)

Our family was seated on the outside patio, which had a nice view of Paradise Pier and was not very crowded.  The girls were given crowns to decorate with stickers.  Then we were served a tower of appetizers-- salad, veggies, cheeses, fruit.  After several meals of trail mix, apples and peanut butter crackers, this was wonderful!

All the little princes and princesses were invited to the front by Prince Charming to learn how to curtsy, give a royal wave and do a short dance.  Snow White was there to help teach too.

Then it was time to eat our entrees (seafood cioppino for Dave and tri-tip for me) while the 5 princesses wandered around and visited.

Each princess asked the girls' names, held brief conversation, took a picture and left with a hug.  We know the girls were just dying because they'd knock their chairs down to rush at approaching princesses, then get awestruck and just a little shy when it came to talking with them.

This may be one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  Look how Ella and Cinderella mirror each other!  I just love that they're discussing the similarity of their names too!

Delia spent most of the hour and a half turned around in her seat, scoping the place out for princesses.  She ate almost nothing...which was fine because when the $130 (!!) bill arrived, we didn't pay for any of it!

A decadent dessert platter ended our fancy meal at Ariel's Grotto.  What a total indulgence!  Something sooo special we would have never done if it wasn't free!

California Adventure, Day Two

Dave and I were super excited to see this Disney California Adventure Park for the first time.  It's a sister park to Disneyland, separated by just a small promenade.  From the park's name, you can guess that this is a California themed amusement park.  It's divided into the different sections of California (Boardwalks, Hollywood, Redwood Forests, Central Valley, Bay Area...) with rides and attractions that match each section's theme.  We strolled under the Golden Gate Bridge to get in the park...

Then we raced across the bay to the Paradise Pier area to immediately board the park's super-headliner attraction: the mind-blowing 4-D Toy Story Mania ride. In this ride, you spin around in a vehicle, wearing 3-D glasses and using a "gun" to shoot virtual eggs, darts, rings, balls, etc. at changing targets. The Toy Story characters are there in 3-D, cheering you on.  A computer on your vehicle keeps track of your score and accuracy. And fun effects, like a burst of air in your face, hit or swing at you when you hit targets. This was THE BEST RIDE and Delia love, love, loved it! We ended up playing/riding it 4 times and chose an at-home Wii version of this game/ride as our family's Disney souvenir.

 

There were so many great memories at the California Adventure Park.  Another one was the opportunity to totally interact with Crush, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo!  At the Turtle Talk exhibit, an auditorium is filled with people watching Crush give a presentation on a big screen.  Then, Crush starts picking people from the audience to ask him real questions!  Even I couldn't figure out the magic behind this one.  Ella was chosen when Crush said, "There's a little dudette with a sleeveless shell and an extra pair of ears..."  Ella was given the nickname "Epic Ella" by Crush.  Then he answered her question and had a short conversation with her!  Of course, she thinks she spoke with the actual Crush from the movie.  I may actually believe that too!

A favorite ride of the girls was King Triton's beautiful under-the-sea carousel.  We were allowed to just stay on and ride it as many times as we wanted, so we had to try out each of the ocean animals.

In the Hollywood section of the park, we watched this spectacular Broadway-style show of Aladdin.  Based on the movie, the story was familiar, but the wise-guy genie kept cracking a bunch of jokes at the expense of people like Charlie Sheen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The special effects were great in this show-- actual flying carpets, huge elephants, the genie disappearing and reappearing.  It was another thing at the top of our favorite list!

For years, this park has been building this grand and glorious Little Mermaid ride.  It was scheduled to have its grand opening on June 3, but we walked by and noticed they had just opened it up for the very first time for us to have a sneak peek that day!  The ride was beautiful and made you feel like you were in the movie, but even cooler was that we made Disney history in saying we were one of the first ones to experience this gonna-be-a-classic ride!

We spent the afternoon in the shady Redwood Creek area, letting the kids run around another neat play area.  This was a ropes challenge course and Delia was at the highest level in no time.  I was feeling a little unnerved chasing after her on those shaky ropes above the trees.

It was exhausting to have this much fun! We started seeing a little more fatigue from the girls on this second day, but over all, they were still doing great! So we still pushed for another 12 hour day in the park.

Woody and the army men were some of our favorite characters to bump into at CA Adventure.

We took a brief class at the Animation Academy that walked us through the drawing of Dopey the Dwarf, step by step.  Ella just loved this!  I got a real kick out of Delia's attempt-- you can see all the shapes!

As the sun set, we enjoyed cooling off and watching the whole place light up.  The pier was especially beautiful and we had super seats for their nighttime show, the World of Color.  This was a program of lighted and dancing fountains with images of movie characters projected on the spray.  It's hard to describe, but like everything else Disney, it was fantastic!