I'm a proud aunt

Here she is, my beautiful niece Mary Cate. She's just a little over two months old. I've seen a few pictures of her, heard lots of stories about her, and have yet to hold her. But that's all about to change in a few weeks and I cannot wait.

And my two superhero nephews. Love them.
Jay turned five on the 25th. I can't believe he is that old. When Erin first had him it felt like wow, are we really getting to the parenting age? And now it feels like, are we really getting to the parenting kids that are in school age? It's kind of making me feel old. Plus I'm kind of scared of those school years because I've heard they go even faster than the previous ones.

We are off to a Memorial Day celebration tonight. Water slides, bouncy houses, music, food, and fireworks. And the best thing about it, I'm going with my two favorite guys.

My new school

I feel so fortunate to be part of the staff for Stuckey ES next year (yes, I know Stuckey is not such a great name because it can easily become Yucky Stuckey or Suckey). The school is named after Evelyn Stuckey, a former Las Vegas high school teacher. All CCSD schools are named after people from Las Vegas. I've worked at Tony Alamo ES, Glen C. Taylor ES, and now Evelyn Stuckey ES. Our staff met together on April 24th and one of the highlights of my day was touring the new building. Here's my new classroom!!! That doorway leads to the hall.

This classroom is a big deal because it is almost double the size of my current classroom AND it has windows!!! I know it must seem strange to have a classroom with no windows, but Vegas is full of them. The particular model of school that I've taught in for the past 7 years is designed with limited views outside. I have NEVER had windows. Yea, it sucks. But not anymore! Check out those beauties! And, the new lighting system automatically dims based on how much natural light is coming in from the windows. Sweet!
And here I am showing off my new room. I really need to stop buying stripes, but I have an addiction to them despite their unflattering qualities.
Here's the outside view. My school will 2-story. So, not only am I thrilled to be working with some amazing people, but this building is also amazing with tons of bells and whistles AND it's 3 whole minutes from my house! I feel like I've won the lottery!

CCSD is looking for a new building model so the four new schools being built this year are all different in design. Whichever model is the best wins! That means big bucks for the architect, especially since they keep the same model for many years. So each school is decked out with really cool features (a first grade garden, 3 computer labs, and a science lab hello!) in hopes that they win. I have no idea where the money is coming from to build these schools, but I do know that this school is one of the largest elementary schools in CCSD and size matters. Woohoo! Plus this will be Brendan's school in two more years. Awesome.
Oh, and I forgot to mention we are all 9 month next year. Next year is going to be a good one.

Making some planets

I'm not really sure what sparked Brendan's interest in planets, but he is really into them! And by that I mean he just likes to talk about "planet Earth" and we've watched a few planet related movies like Planet 51 and Muppets in Space. He's not identifying Mars or Venus and their properties yet ;-) Brendan loves to do projects although I'm not so good at actually doing them. I think it's because much of my day revolves around projects, plus we dig out all the crafty stuff and Brendan is done with our "project" after 10 minutes!!! All that work for 10 minutes! Anyway, since he would not stop talking about making some planets, I finally took him to Michaels where we bought this great planet kit. I love easy and this was! Paint, assemble, admire. I can do this.

Justin helped arrange the planets in the correct order. I was willing just to stick them any old place around the sun, but I guess that wouldn't be teaching Brendan the right thing. Apparently there is an acronym for remembering the order of the planets, but I never learned it.
And just so you know, Brendan does wear complete, matching outfits everyday. It's just safer to be clothes-less when using paint at the age of 3!

Grams and JJ visit

We were lucky enough to have my mom and J.J. come visit during Spring Break. Since Erin had just given birth to Mary Cate, we thought it would be fun for J.J. to fly out with Grams and give my sister a little break from at least one child. Thanks Erin for letting him come! Brendan and J.J. are two peas in a pod. They did everything together and were best buds. Case in point, Brendan insisted on sitting RIGHT NEXT to J.J. even during dinner. See those Scooby people Brendan is holding? Those were J.J.'s, but guess who has their very own set now thanks to Grams and the Easter Bunny.

Movie night!!!
We went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. They offer a deal for teachers where you and one guest can get in free. Plus kids under age 5 are free. That meant free admission for all. Woohoo!!!
J.J. was really excited about seeing the sharks, so we breezed through most of the exhibit to get to the end which were the sharks. There are a ton of really cool ones, but my photos didn't turn out so great and these are the best I got. Those blurry pink things are jellyfish...very cool and just like the ones in Finding Nemo. That's what I think every time I see them here. Good job Disney!
This tank also had a really cool octopus in addition to these starfish. Ewww...is all I can say about seeing those tentacles up close and stuck to the glass. I didn't get any photos of the octopus, but I can say that image has not left my mind since and has probably damaged my ability to eat calamari. I guess since calamari is nothing but fried batter that may not be such a bad thing.
One day while J.J. was here my friends had organized our annual Easter Egg Hunt. Here we are filling up 48 plastic eggs with candy. Marley was a big help ;-)
The day of the hunt. Notice those matching Scooby baskets. Like I said, two peas in a pod.


And to end the fun few days together, we made some Easter sugar cookies. I was supposed to send some home on the plane with J.J., but that didn't happen. So Erin, here are the sugar cookies J.J. was telling you about. Sorry you never got to eat them!
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we went took the boys to the Lied Children's Museum. I left my camera in the car so mom has all those pictures. Yes, it was a lot of go, go, go while J.J. was here but we certainly had a lot of fun!

Touch a Truck

Every March Family to Family Connection puts on an event called Touch-a-Truck. This was our second year to go and it was just as fun this year as last. We met some friends there and Brendan spent a lot of time climbing in and out of trucks, cars, etc. The boys could honk the horns, but Brendan was too scared. This U-Haul truck was a lot of fun plus they were giving out these fun cardboard piggy bank trucks. Brendan has now become a money collector so he could fill up his truck.

Breaker, breaker...
The fireman wanted me to hop up on the truck and sit next to Brendan. Yeah right!
See that kid in the yellow shirt. He was so nice and he and Brendan became fast friends running around to each truck. The little boy was there with an Asian woman who I believe was his nanny. She spent most of her time texting and trailing us as I ran after the boys who raced off to each truck. Apparently she thought I would start watching her little boy too! I have never experienced something so absurd. Eventually Brendan and I went off without the little boy and she wasn't watching. She ran up to me asking if I knew where he was and then got frustrated when I didn't know. The nerve! I feel really bad for that little boy, and he was soooo nice. She did find him because we ran into them again later. That was very awkward!

Easter Pics

I'm almost caught up! Here are some pictures from Easter. Brendan had a lot of fun dying Easter eggs. I think you can tell by his colored fingers that he did most of dipping and dying. It was really hard to be patient and not take the eggs out right away. We're still working on colors so this was a fun way to practice. For some reason, Brendan CANNOT seem to remember the names of the colors. We've got black and white but that's about it.

Does anyone have a matching set of mugs in the world?

Puttin' on some stickers.
This kit also had some rub-on tatoos. They weren't so easy to put on!
Notice the concentration.
Easter morning Brendan woke up to this! Oh yes, the Easter bunny was good to him.
I think I went a little overboard on the candy this year. Trader Joes had some really cute Easter candy and I couldn't resist. I think the packaging was actually better than some of the candy. But their malted balls were waaaay better than any I've had before. Yes, I helped Brendan eat all his Easter candy. You're welcome son ;-) Brendan also got these fabulous Scooby people and van. After playing with J.J.'s the entire time he was here, it was time Brendan got some of this own.
After checking out the basket, we went outside to hunt for eggs. When I was a kid, the Easter bunny hid all the eggs we had dyed outside. I remember many Easter mornings looking for eggs outside in my pajamas and coat. It was also so cold in the morning and the grass was really wet. Poor Brendan can't hunt for eggs in grass. He's got to look in rocks! That's still so strange to me to have a yard full of rocks. As a sidenote, we're hoping to get some grass put in sooner rather than later. I think Marley and Brendan will both appreciate that!

Marley was not such a big help. It was more like a race to see if Brendan could find the eggs and put them safely in his basket before Marley ate them!
Before church, Brendan helped me make peach cobbler. I made my mom's recipe and it was delicious! And not hard at all!!!
All dressed up and ready for church. I thought he looked pretty sharp in this polo with his hair all fixed. And so grownup!!!

When we got to church Justin and I checked Brendan into the children's area. He DID NOT want to go. Brendan clung to my leg and cried. I really thought he would be fine once I left. It's not like Brendan doesn't socialize or stays home with me all day. Well, about 10 minutes into the church service we got paged. Brendan was such a sad sight to see. He was still crying with the same intensity as when I left him. He was sitting in the middle of the group crying while all the other kids were waiting for their program to start. So we took him with us into "big church". Thankfully it was a very large church with loud music. He did very well and sat quietly through most of the service. Justin's iPhone was a big help too! That's not exactly the way I had envisioned Brendan learning about Jesus and the Resurrection.

SWAGGER WAGON Official Toyota Music Video HD

Get ready to laugh!

Happy Birthday to Nana

Happy St. Patrick's Day in May

Yes, I admit to dressing my child up for the holidays. Target's dollar spot really makes it easy. Happy St. Patrick's Day a little late!

I'm back!!!

It's been so long since I've blogged I'm going to post some pictures from way back in February. My goal when I started this blog was to keep it up-to-date, but obviously that plan didn't work out. So here I am again trying to be a better blogger ;-) I'm hoping to update the blog once a week, especially since this is sort of a scrapbook of memories for me and my family. So on to February!

We made another trip to Rachel's house. Hope flew to our house and then we all (Brendan, Hope, Justin, and me) drove to Newport Beach. Let me just say that not only is Newport Beach beautiful, but Rachel is a fantastic hostess so going there is a real treat! Brendan loves to play with the girls and it's so nice to spend time with family. We feel so fortunate to have family so close by after all these years.

Rachel got Brendan the coolest scooter. It's called a plasma car and it was a BIG hit! Brendan still rides it daily. Now if we just tile the downstairs of our house Brendan could ride that thing all over the place! While we were in Newport, we took all the kids to the Discovery Science Museum in Santa Ana. It was a really cool science museum!
Lots of hands on the giant pinwall.
And here's the other side.
Gracie and Brendan had fun going over this bridge. You could take it apart and put it back together.

We spent a lot of time outside at the Dino Quest. There were lots of dinosaur activities to do like this slide and puzzle. This is where we spent most of our time.
Dino Quest had scavenger hunts you could sign up to do. Justin and the older girls spent FOREVER trying to complete their "tasks" so that they could get their reward at the end of the mission. Apparently your reward for all that hard work is a small wooden coin. Lame. I think some cool dinosaur teeth or something would have been better!
Back inside Justin helped Brendan rock climb.
Brendan and Grace playing with a huge sand and water table. Lots of fun!!!
We ended the day with Brendan and Gracie playing the little kids area while the big girls tried out some more stuff. They loved this play area.

The next day we went down to Balboa Island to visit Olive Oil and Beyond. Rachel introduced us to some of their fabulous vinegars and we had to get some to take home. I'm really bummed I can't get their website to work because I really want to order more! It's that good!!! While we there we stopped for frozen chocolate covered bananas. Too bad I don't do bananas, but I was really tempted to get one just to pick the chocolate off and eat. So I wrote that and then I noticed I am totally taking a bite here! Well, I admit I took one bite but I think I got mostly chocolate ;-)
Here's a picture of what Balboa Island looks like. Row after row of cute houses, cute little shops, restaurants just a block away, and the beach at the end of the street. Could you imagine living here? Awww, what a life...
I know this was a lot of pics, but more are to come!