First Week of School and Family Fun

Cal started kindergarten this week! Look how excited he is.

Our good friend Emily visited from Salt Lake for the week. We got all of the kids together for a little reunion.

Elliot had another check up. He was really happy before he got his three shots :( Poor baby.

I went with some friends to a local farmer's market. We got a lot of delicious food, including some cheese blintzes for Reed.

We finished off the week at the San Jose Giants game. Cal had a lot of fun in the kids area outside of the stadium. They had inflatable slides, and lots of baseballs to throw and hit.

After the game, they had a great fireworks show. Elliot was terrified/intrigued by the whole thing. Every time another firework went off, he would squeeze Reed's thumb tighter and tighter.

Last (Official) Week of Summer

This week was spent getting ready for kindergarten! (And squeezing in some final summer break fun before school starts on Monday.) 

 Swimming with Sammy, Cal's wonderful friend from our ward:

Kinder orientation was so fun! We got to meet Cal's teacher, as well as many of the other kindergarten parents. There was a buzz of excitement and fun in the room.

 After the main orientation, we got to check out Cal's new classroom. He was interested in everything, and made himself right at home.

 We spent our final Saturday of summer break taking care of some last minute prep, like braving Ikea for a new game cabinet...

 ...and getting a haircut (which Cal himself requested) for the first day of school.

 Looks like we're ready for Monday!

Lego Camp!

Two weeks before school started, Cal and I were at the park when he stumbled upon a community center classroom group right in the midst of enjoying lego camp. It was all I could do to drag him away from the windows. He begged and begged to go in and join them, which was not possible. However, we did get a flyer from a camp counselor, and looked it up online once we got home. 

It was pretty difficult to find an opening, and I ended up signing up for a time in November by mistake! Cal was heartbroken as we drove home. I got back online (and on the phone, and went into the community center downtown), and we were able to snag the last lego camp spot in a neighboring town. I was so relieved. It was definitely worth the extra drive to get this kid to his beloved Lego camp! :)

 Cal loved the "free build" portions of the day, but I was impressed with how structured the activities were. The whole goal of the camp is to teach engineering concepts and vocabulary to the kids.  They had a specific project to work on when they arrived each day, with the instructor guiding them through the various stages of development.

 Some times the project was a plane, or a truck, or a conveyor belt, or a crane. Each time, they would go through the specific parts of the project so the kids were learning engineering vocabulary. I thought it was awesome!

Even daily cleanup was cool. The kids had to sort the pieces into various groups depending on type, and deliver them to the correctly labelled bin. It was actually quite amazing to watch.

 The last 15 minutes, the instructor would go over the different parts they had learned about, with the kids answering with terms like, "chassis," "42-tooth gear," "axle," "holding rod," and "fuselage."

We will definitely be back next year!

The Week in Pictures

Elliot is a very happy baby. We can always make him squeal/giggle, and he often returns a smile with a big, bashful grin before hiding his face in my shoulder.

 Hie is also pretty interested in being held nonstop. Thankfully, I can usually get some things done by wearing him around in the carrier. My back is sure getting strong!

 Emergency trip to the laundromat this week. We misplaced the key to the laundry room at our apartment complex, so Cal helped me take everything to a laundromat when we ran our of clean clothes.

 Bowling with friends. The worker was so nice and brought the kids two special bowling balls that only weighed 6 pounds. It was still a struggle for either of the kids to lift them, but each of them did manage a spare -- all on their own!

A cooking class with good friends at Sur la Table this week. The theme was "Summer Fiesta." It was so fun spending time with these two girls. (And I even smuggled some pork home to my husband!)

 Dinner and swimming with friends. They made us pizza on their grill (fantastic!), and the kids ran around changing in and out of swimsuits.

 Reed got to try out their new drum set. Look at that smile!

 The kids had a dancing contest while Reed was drumming.

 And finally, ending the week with a splash in the pool with Dad and friends.

 Just a cross section of our summer. :)