Axel's 4th grade class went to Coloma California, to "gold country" to learn about 1849 and the gold rush. They had to be at school by 6:30 am on Wednesday April 24th and arrived home at 5 pm on Friday the 26th. Axel was so excited to be away on his own with his entire 4th grade class and several teachers, along with the principal, Mrs. Giammona. It was a wonderful experience for him and he loved every minute of the trip.
While Axel was on his trip, Phoenix had her Kindergarten show, "It's a Jungle Out There". She was one of the three cheetah's.
I was extremely impressed with how well the kids did. The memorized 5 songs. "dance" routines, and 4 or 5 lines. The stage set up was pretty spectacular as well for a Kindergarten show.
I was so grateful that I cancelled my day at Stanford and went to the show. I would have been so sad to have missed it. When I found out about the costumes and set, I knew it was more than a quick show and that I needed to be there.
Our little Cheetah and two of her friends that were elephants.
Here she is saying a couple of her lines.
We have been so busy and I have been working or volunteering on Fridays that Rubix and I hardly have had any days together. The couple of Fridays we have had together we makes sure to get to the library. He loves books like the other kids. It is so much fun to see how much he loves books, cars, planes, trains and monster trucks.
We also make sure to get to the park. He typically picks El Quito park. He was really cute here and said, "Mommy take a picture of me!"
The last weekend in April we went to one of my patient's house to look at her Fairy Garden. The fairy garden was not done so we went to her local neighborhood park.
The kids had so much fun exploring this new park.
I am not sure what was so funny, but I love the moments where the kids get along and love being together. It sure makes up for the time when they are at each other's throats.
We had a couple of weeks of amazing warm weather. We spent the weekends at the pool, when the kids were not at birthday parties. We had 3 weeks of birthday parties and BBQ's that also filled our days.
Rubix really wants to learn how to swim. He is loving the water just as much as the other two love it.
On May 3rd I had the privilege of going to the Oakland Zoo with Phoenix and her class.
They had over 32 Chaperones. I got lucky and was one of a handful of parents who was responsible for only 2 children instead of 3. It made the day super fun because we were able to see the entire zoo at our own pace and had lots of fun playing. Leah and Phoenix got along very well.
Phoenix and Axel go to swim practice 3 to 4 times per week. Rubix is a real trooper and plays well by himself or with the other younger siblings. He is becoming quite the daredevil.
You can see it is not easy task for him to climb up, but he does manage.
Axel had his Spring concert on May 2nd. Here he is playing a solo. I am a little sad that this will be his last concert for awhile. He decided he rather do the dance team then the jazz ensemble next year. I am hopeful that he will play again in the future, but regardless of what the future holds it is amazing at how quickly he learned how to play.
Phoenix is becoming quite the reader. It is really impressive to hear how well she reads, but even more impressive at how much she enjoys it. I feel so very blessed that all of the kids have found the love of reading.
On May 9th, Phoenix's kindergarten class hosted a Mother's Day tea party. I did not plan on going, but I asked her and she said that I had to go.
Boy, I was so happy that I went. Every mom was there. I would have been the only one if I did not make a big effort to get there. Luckily, my Stanford mentor has been really understanding and I was able to leave early in order to attend this hour "lunch" event.
Phoenix and her class did a great job of showering all of the mom's with love.
Last Saturday Keith and I finally got to ride up to the very top of Mt. Umunhum. They opened the very top in September of last year, but with the fires and long rain season, and lack of fitness we just now got around to riding it.
It was spectacular. They did a fabulous job of making it a beautiful park to hike up to and through. We enjoyed the 4000+ feet of climbing and the perfect 70 degrees weather.
The kids and Keith spoiled me for Mother's Day. I received 4 home made owl cards that said, I am wise, I am a hoot, I am an airplane and I am an owl. It is an inside joke between Axel and Daddy from a Late Night show episode about cards.
Phoenix and Rubix also made cards at school and daycare, which are always nice to have. The kids also picked me a nice bouquet of flowers from our yard.
We enjoyed bagels from Noah's bagels for breakfast and sushi for dinner. Keith took Phoenix to a birthday party and Axel for a bike ride and then he took all of the kids to the pool for an hour so that I could work on my presentation. Getting the 3+ hours of work done was icing on the cake.
Phoenix finally learned how to do a cartwheel. She is so excited!!! Rubix does somersault now. I will have to get a video of that next.
I am sorry for the delay in posts. It has been beyond busy with the kids schedule, Keith's and my work schedule and trying to finish up my Felllowship work. Next time I post I will have completed my last 3 days in St. Louis and may be done with the Fellowship (depending on how long the final takes me to complete). Looking forward to school ending, as well as being done with all of my extra work in the next month! See you in June!
