Preschool Graduation and Last Day of 1st Grade!

Will graduated from Pre-K!  He really grew up a lot this year.  He was the youngest (and smallest) in his class, but his personality never showed it!  He is such a loving little boy with a big heart and a HUGE personality.  I can't believe he's done with preschool!

At his graduation from Grace Preschool he got to wear this cute little visor.  I think I'll pull this hat out again at his highschool graduation.

Later the same week he had a graduation ceremony at his daycare.  Will has been going to Children's Garden since he was 4 months old!   Children's Garden is located at the rehab facility that I work part time at.  Therefore, even though he attends the program, I never feel like I am leaving him since my office is right up the stairs from him. I get to drop in and see him throughout the day.  I think I'm going to have some major separation anxiety when he goes to 1/2 day kindergarten this fall.

Here's Will with all his little buddies!

Blowing bubbles to celebrate.

Love my Preschool graduate!

All smiles and excitement!

I absolutely Love this pic of Will and his class.  Will's the 1 in orange on his teacher Cortez's lap!  This group of kids grew up together since they were babies.  Next year they all go their separate ways to kindergarten.  I'm tearful just thinking about it!

On June 5th,  Kate had her last day of 1st grade!  She loved the year for the most part, but it was a challenge at times.  She was in a class of some really crazy boys this year that made some days a challenge for my little learner.  But she was able to pull through and ignore the distraction to continue on with her learning to have a really successful year!
 WAY to GO KATE!

We celebrated each of the kiddos last days.  Kate picked Mexican of course.

Will picked Orange Leaf,  which is THE BEST ICE CREAM SHOP EVER!!!

Congratulations Kate and Will!!! We are so proud of everything you have acomplished this year!

Memorial Day Surprise!

A few hours before I boarded to fly to Scottsdale my hubby found out that he passed his final architecture exam!  There are 7 board exams that each architect has to take to become an official liscensed architect (which means he has his own STAMP!)  I had in my mind for a long time that I wanted to throw Brett a surprise party for all his hardwork.  So I got it all planned out for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  I ordered this wonderful cake and my wonder mother and
mother-in-law provided the food.  Then the suprise happened...... at 5am that morning, my sister in law Lindsay called me and said they were headed to the hospital to have......

My new nephew Ethan!!!!!!   What a wonderful surprise!   And Lindsay is so awesome....between the contractions every 5 minutes, she remembered to drop off the fruit salad for the surprise party that she was in charge of when she dropped off my neice Lauren.  The funny thing was,  Brett didn't suspect a thing when she handed him a huge bowl of fruit "that she just had in her frig" before they sped down the freeway to the hospital!  

Brett's surprise party went great!  He had no idea it was coming.   My parents and Gene & Carla pulled into the driveway honking their horns and carrying balloons.  He was SHOCKED!!!  After the fun party, we headed up to the hospital where I got to hold my new adorable nephew.   On a funny note, when we went up to check in at the maternity center, Will introduced himself as "the big brother" to all the nurses!  And to this day, he continues to claim he is the big brother and not the big cousin. 

Big sister Lauren spent some time at our house while Lindsay & Shane were in the hospital.  She loved playing with Kate & Will.

Will showed her all of his toys, including his fish "Clover"  that she is now obsessed with!  I think I have a birthday gift idea!

Somehow we made time to go to Goode's Greenhouse and get our flowers for the year.  This year I let Kate & Will pick out their own flowers for their very own pot.  Will spotted these orange beauties a mile away and carried them around the greenhouse until we left.

Kate loved helping with the planting.  Each year gets easier as they get older.  We had a lot of fun this year making our yard beautiful!

Scottsdale Fun.......Continued

SO SORRY!  We've had a few glitches with our Internet with the recent thunderstorms in Des Moines, so I had to break my Scottsdale blog into 2 posts.   Anyway,  back to the train ride through the Verde Canyon.  My parents were wonderful and reserved the Caboose for us.  We had the entire car to ourselves with this fabulous private back deck for viewing. 

We definitely felt like 1st Class passengers during the 4 hour ride.  The caboose was absolutely beautiful inside with very comfortable seating and a lot of food and drinks.

Josh and Dad were probably the most excited about the trip.  They spent most of their time on the back viewing deck listening to our guide Fermin tell them all the history of the canyon.

We saw many caves and bald eagles along the ride.

The 2 upper viewing decks were fun too!  Mom and Cindy climbed the ladders several time to take a peek.

Here's a pic of the train going around a big curve.  It was 20 cars long!

Like I mentioned before,  the food was much more than we expected.  We munched all afternoon.

There was 1 cave that the train went through on the ride.  That was fun.

At the halfway point, the engine came around and actually hooked up to the caboose to take us back.  We didn't think we would like that at first, but it turned out to be pretty cool.

I really didn't know what to expect from the ride.  I'm not the train enthusiast like my Dad and brother. In the end, I really learned a lot and had a great time. 

Our attendant Fermin was so knowledgable, nice and kind.  He grew up very close to the canyon and has never left.  He was full of great info and also knows how to make a great mixed drink!

We had so many laughs along the way!

I think Dad gets the award for best pig nose!

I think everyone would agree that the train ride was a blast! We had a great time together!

Thanks again Mom and Dad!

The rest of our days in Arizona were mostly spent at my brothers' pool.

My mom, Cindy and I have taken quite a few  trips together since I started college 14 years ago.  All we need is the sun and a pool and we are set!  The conversation never seems to stop.

6 adults in a tiny 2 bedroom house for 5 nights........ and we're still smiling on the last day!

Until next time!  

Bday Party in Scottsdale!

This year, my baby brother Josh turned the big 30!!  My mom and aunt flew down to Scotsdale to celebrate with him and my other brother Johnny.  What Josh didn't know is that my dad and I would fly down a few days later to surprise him for his special bday!  He was so surprised when he opened the front door and saw me standing there SCREAMING Happy Birthday!

We always have a blast when we all get together, no matter where we are. 

A large portion of our trip was spent picking lemons from Johnny & Josh's lemon tree to make yummy martinis and laying by the pool sipping all day long.  The best part about Arizona is you know you can always count on good sunny weather to lay at the pool.

My Mom was in her glory having all 3 of her kids together.  She was the happy homemaker the whole trip making yummy meals for everyone.  (That's who I get my cooking skills from for sure!!)

2 years ago when I visited I was in the heat of training for my first half marathon.  I was running 10 and 11 mile runs in the Arizona heat.  This year I was not training for any race.  Therefore, most mornings I took a nice jog through the golf course behind my brother's house.  WOW  what an awesome view!

It's always so much fun getting together with Johnny & Josh.  When you don't get to see each other very often, it makes the few times are together SO much fun!

We tried out a few fun places to eat in the Scotsdale area.  We just loved dining outside for every meal.

Josh wanted to go on a dinner train for his bday, so my parents made it happen.  they booked the caboose for our private party to ride in for a 4 hour train ride through the Verde Canyon. 

Star Student and Baker

I'm a bit behind in my posts.  Back in May Kate was the Star Student for a Week.  The class went in alphabetical order, so poor Kate had to wait 24 weeks before it reached her turn.  Boy was she excited to get on the bus the 1st day of her star week.

The same week,  Will's preschool class hosted a bakery day at school.  Will was chosen to be one of the servers for the event.  He did a great job and got really excited when I walked in the door. 

Kate got a special chair to sit in all week, along with other fun privledges.  On Friday she gave her presentation about herself.  Brett, Will and I attended.  She did a great job explaining her pictures, sharing her favorite books and memorable items.

At the end of the presentation, there was time for Kate to take questions.  I couldn't believe the number of questions the children had for her to share more about herself.  She just loved being the center of attention.  At the end, we all completed a page explaining what we like about Kate Van Zee.  Then Ms. Burger put all the sheets into a book for her to take home.  I thought that was a cute idea.  Some of Kate's classmates remarks included......I like Kate because......"she is so smart."  "she is a good reader," and "she is a nice friend."  WAY TO GO KATE!

On another note,  we planted some beans along 1 of our fences this year.  The kids were so excited to plant the seeds. 

Kate & Will were convinced that we would have a beanstock to climb very soon.  The beans are growing pretty quickly, but I don't see a future beanstock quite yet.

Finally,  Kate finished up her Young Beginners gymnastics class at Chows.  On her last day she climbed the rope 1 last time (much easier than the last time I must add).   She starts her summer class in the Beginner Girls level soon.  She loves gymnastics and it's great exercise for her.