Goodbye Second Grade! Hellloooo Summer!

First day of second grade.


Last day of second grade.


If you squint your eyes, this really is in focus. Can't BELIEVE I forgot to take a decent picture of him by himself on the last day. Maybe I'll sneak a picture in a bit later if I can get him to put on his school uniform again. Don't bet on it, though. But what a difference a school year makes, no? The changes are always subtle and seemingly non-existent, but when you put the before and after pictures together like this, they become pretty obvious.

Where Did the Time Go?

How did we go from this:

to this so quickly?

Lydia is now a toddler and moving out of the baby stage. *sniff* Tuesday she officially turned a year and a half. I am constantly amazed at the amount of growth and progress a human baby goes through in just a year. Truly an incredible process to witness first hand. I'm lucky to have gone through it twice! I only wish it didn't seem to go by so quickly.

{And it was pure coincidence that she had on her giraffe pants while riding the rocking giraffe when I took this picture. Didn't occur to me until I went through the pictures this morning!}

Field Day '09

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Field Day at Mater Dei

Last week, Cade's school had it's field day at Crestview Park. It could not have been a more perfect and gorgeous day for it either. I drove up and was literally in awe because of the scene before me. Kids EVERYWHERE, running, laughing, and just really enjoying themselves and the beautiful day. They couldn't have planned it any better. The stations or games, whatever you want to call them, were awesome. Miss V, the PE teacher, really outdid herself this year. I thought last year's was fun, but this one was amazing. Below (or above, depending on how this thing gets uploaded) you'll find a slide show of just a few pictures I took of the action.

This was SSSOOO much cooler than the field days I used to have growing up. Raise your hand if your field day consisted of about 5 different races with pop and snacks afterwards on the black top or field behind your school. Lame, lame, lame, lame, LAME!!!! And let's not forget the little ribbons we got if we placed in the top 3 of each race, right? Oh yeah. I had all kinds. But for whatever reason, we all got totally psyched up for it and couldn't WAIT for field day. WTH? Was school that boring or our lives that deprived that this was the event of the year? Wow. Man, kids these days have it so good. Did I just say that? Aaww man, I'm getting old.

Miss Hollywood

I purchased some incredibly cheap sunglasses for Lydia the other day because, to date, she has broken two pairs of my incredibly cheap (thank goodness!) sunglasses and rather enjoys trying to put mine on and playing with them. The moment she saw these and realized they were her very own pair, she was in HEAVEN! She loves her "gasses" (Lydia speak for glasses, not what some of you might be thinking) and totes them around just about everywhere. Here are some pictures of her playing with and modeling her "gasses".

Coming over to greet her fans.

What are you looking at? I don't tell you how to wear
your sunglasses, do I?

This is her "trying not to look like I'm a celebrity
posing for the paparazzi" pose.

Giving her adoring fans what they want.

Yes, it's hard work being this cute, really.
But I try. *sigh* I try.

Almost looks like they're messing with her depth perception.

Spring Concert

Last Monday, Mater Dei had their spring concert. I am always amazed by the talent we have in the kids at school. The music teacher, Mrs. Cruz, has a real knack for bringing out the absolute best in the gifts that these kids have. There were soloists in almost every grade, including kindergarten, and they all were very good and brave and blew us all away. And we are especially blessed as a school to have a bell choir and a drum line. I mean, how many schools do you know of that have that? And the drum line totally rocks!

Our talented bell choir.


Here are the kindergarteners and our pal, Riley B., front and center. Well, maybe not so much front, but definitely center.

Right before the concert. Wonder what he's thinking about...

Trying to get used to the spotlight. Remember when I complained about the pictures from the Christmas concert? Well...this time they had lights on the stage. Coincidence? You decide.

No, he's not saluting. He's shielding his eyes from the glare of the spotlight.

Heeeeeeeeere's Lydiaaaa!!!

Next thing you know, shorty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low...

So put your hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care!
Now somebody SCREAM!!!!

You can da-hance, you can ji-hive, having the time of your li-i-hife.
Ooooh. See that girl...
You know the rest.

This is the totally awesome drum line. And yes, there are girls. And they ROCK!

I could listen to these kids all night.

This Week in Baseball

Yes, I know I haven't posted many pictures of Cade's games. Honestly, right now I can't even remember if I've posted any.

Anyways.

I actually had you, the reader, in mind, really. Do you know how many games are left that I can post pictures from? Plenty. Just glance over to the right of your screen. Don't worry. They're coming. I still have pictures from a Spring Concert and a couple of other things to post. These are pictures from Cade's latest game that was played just last night. They beat the Mavericks, who, until last night, were undefeated. Yay Giants!!!!


Pregame shenanigans.

Batter up!

This was right after he got hit by a pitch. On the back. Ouch.
Left a small red mark.

Good game boys!

Go Giants!!!!

Final score.

What I Did for Mother's Day

I've been wanting to take the kids out and get some pictures of them for quite a while now. But between the crazy weather, baseball, cub scouts, naps and life in general, it never happened. I was lucky enough today to get to do WHATEVER I wanted because it was Mother's Day. So, off to get some great photos we went! I was all excited and determined and more importantly, convinced that this was going to be the best photo session. EVER. I even had a game plan. Poses. Venues. Lighting. All worked out ahead of time. Yeah. No. Somewhere in my haste to take advantage of my opportunity, I COMPLETELY forgot that Lydia has the attention span of about a half second. I didn't get all the wonderful pictures I was so hoping for, but I did walk away with a couple of good ones. At least I think so.

This has to be one of my favorites ever.

Another moment when Lydia was still long enough for me to get off a shot.

Awwwww! She loves her "brugga".

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Yeah, they're smiling a little bit, but more importantly, they're BOTH in this picture!

She's trying to push the pillar over.

This is classic Cade. He kept asking me to do a "crazy" pose. This is what he had in mind.

I made him smile with his mouth open. I wanted to remember his jack-o-lantern grin at this age.

My handsome little man.

Happy Mother's Day!

Spring Fling

Last Saturday, Mater Dei had it's annual Spring Fling at the school. There were all kinds of rides, bounce houses and other activities, as well as food, snacks and an interesting new addition: fried oreos. And yes, they were as gross as they sound. Oh, and just so you know, Cade was there too. Didn't get any pictures of him because he was having so much fun and wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get the camera out and take a picture.

This is Lydia's imitation of Napoleon Dynamite.

If you scroll up and down really fast through this pic and the next two, you can almost see how Lydia was dancing.

There were quite a few different activities going on, but Lydia and I spent a majority of our time right here. It's a very small "hill" of sorts and Lydia LOVES to walk up and down it every time we are here. And Saturday was no exception.

"I'm gonna crank this baby up and make the kids feel like they're gonna puke!
Bwah-ha-ha!"

The boy in blue (above right) didn't know what was coming...


"Dude. We've got a puker."
"What? Seriously? Awww, man!"
True story. Mostly.