Bridal Shower and GINGER!

Updates!

It has been a while since we have blogged, busy here in Martinez I guess!!! In June, Kara and I flew back to McHenry for my sister Kelly's wedding shower. I was VERY nervous about the flight, but Kara was a champ! Kara did not cry at all, and she was just amazing! I was so proud of her!!!! The unfortunate part of our trip was that Kara was sick the entire time :( Before we left she had a fever, but she was not running a fever the day we left, which was good. However, she just never got back to 100%. Overall, the trip was nice. Grandma and Papa watched Kara while Kelly and I drove to Indiana to finalize some wedding stuff, I just wish she was feeling better for them. Kelly's shower was amazing, the food was wonderful, the venue was beautiful, and the company was fantastic! Kelly got a lot of great gifts, including some beautiful bedside carafes - hahaha! We are all looking forward to the wedding on July 31st! We are all lucky enough to be in the wedding and stand up for Kelly and Marc on their special day!!!!!

On a different note, summer has been super. Kara and I have been having lots of play dates with our friends. We go to Gymboree on Tuesday's, Waterworld on Monday's and all sorts of other things throughout the week. We have made some really fabulous friends through Gymboree! I have been doing Jazzercise 4-5 times a week, I am HOOKED! Brian has been very busy in the yard, and building things for the new patio!!!! I will be posting pictures of our new patio soon. We have really been enjoying the space, and Kara loves it. We have a little pool out there for Kara, along with a water table, courtesy of our friends the Van Akens. I have also been enjoying being able to bake, and cook more now that I am off of work. Kara even helped me to make some banana chocolate chip bread and it was yummy! Enjoy some of the pictures I am posting. I will try not to be so late with blogging in the future.....

Growing....

Kara is growing up TOO fast! I cannot believe how time flies by when your having fun, and we are having a BLAST! Today Kara is not feeling too well, so I have a moment to sit and blog some stuff for all to read. Kara is really becoming little miss independent, and I am slowly starting to call her my little Sassyfrass! She says so many words now, and is slowly starting to put them together. We are going to Chicago in a couple of days, and I am looking forward to her seeing my family and friends. She is such a sweet little girl, and so polite! She says "Bless you" when you sneeze, and if she sneezes and you are not quick enough to say it to her, she will say it for you. She says "Please, Thank YOu, and Welcome" I just love hearing her sweet little voice! Here are some pictures of our growing little girl :)

Cutest Video EVER!!!

SO sweet and innocent, I LOVE this video!

Beach

Picnic/Beach Day

The weather has finally decided to cooperate, and we were able to enjoy the beautiful day as a family. We drove into the city, and started at the Marina Green where we had a nice picnic. It was a really windy day, and there were lots of kites out. Kara had a BLAST spinning in circles, and screaming out in shear happiness. It was so much fun to watch her in the wind spinning! We then headed over to the beach by Crissy Fields. Kara actually touched the sand. She buried her feet, buried my feet, and shoveled it in the bucket. It was such a relaxing day with our family!!!! I cherish these days!!!

Living Wax Museum

Classroom

It is slowly starting to sink in that I will not be teaching next year at Carmen Dragon, or teaching at all for that matter. As the year comes to an end, I am feeling a little sad. I had the BEST class that I have ever had this year! My students, and parents for that matter, were amazing, and I am really going to miss them. For our open house we created a "Living Wax Museum" and it was a blast. The students researched a famous Californian, wrote a report, and then came up with a monologue to present to parents. They had to be "activated" in order to hear their monologue. For example; one of my students chose to be Steve Jobs. He stood quietly and held an apple and wore a sign around his neck that said "To activate and hear monologue pretend to take a bite out of my apple" When people would do this, he would come to life, give his monologue and then go back to his starting position to wait for the next person. Meghan, my good friend, gave me this idea. I was so proud of my students and how well they did.

I am really going to miss the fourth grade, but I am excited to stay with Kara for a year! I am also excited for a change, I suppose. Carmen Dragon has been a great school, and I have the best colleagues, but I suppose everyone makes changes in their teaching career some time or another. I wanted to post some pictures of my classroom and some of my students in their costumes for open house. I really am going to miss teaching!!!

Gymboree

Kara and I meet her friend Dylan and his mom for breakfast before Gymboree on Saturday's. Kara and Dylan are SO adorable together, they hold hands, hug, and sometimes even kiss, it is REALLY cute! Here are some pictures of Kara and Dylan at Gymboree.

Funny Nose!

I Love You!

Swim Lessons

Kara had her first swim lesson today!!! The weather has been terrible, and so strange for this time of year. I THINK it's May, but the weather has me feeling like it just might be March! Anyway, we took the Mommy and Me class at Heather Farms Park in Walnut Creek, and today of all days it was raining, and only 56 degrees outside! I called to see if they still have lessons and was told that they only cancel them if it is lightening outside. I felt so bad for our little fish. She was shivering sooo badly! Kara was pretty scared of the pool, but eventually got a little more comfortable. I did have to take her out a little bit early because she was shivering so badly, and I was cold as well. I truly hope that tomorrow brings the sun and warmer weather. Our little Kara was very brave for her first lesson, and we are SO proud of her!

Garden update

OK, the first phase of the new patio is complete. The new concrete has been poured. The job came out as good if not better than we had imagined. The transition to the old concrete slab is seamless and we are happy with the extra large landing step that was created leading to the brick steps. We knew we would have to have some sort of step added due to the slope of the old dirt we had.

Phase two is scheduled to start the second week of June. They will come back and apply a 3/8"(or so) thick overlay of this fancy cement stuff???
It will be a grey color and them stamped to look like slate.

Also the new dry creek bed and accompanying plant project is finally complete with a nice water conserving drip irrigation system I put in.

Kara is already enjoying the new patio in her new ride!

Garden happening 2010

After somewhat neglecting the backyard last year due to other obligations(think small, adorable little munchkin), I've been really busy getting the yard back to its old glory and then some.

We have added a nice patio dining set to the upper deck, rocked in the upper area, and are in the process of redoing the middle section. We decided to go with a dry creek bed with surrounding grasses and perennials.

Our biggest project we are looking forward to will be extending the current patio and overlaying the whole(new and old) cement patio with a decorative stamped and stained finish.
Everything up to the steps and rose garden retaining wall will be covered
The new entire patio should be about 920 sq ft, so Kara should have plenty of room to have fun

Here are a few early shots in progress

Bubbles

Today we went to Aidan's 3rd birthday party. The bubbles were a lot of fun, but Kara kept putting the soapy water in her mouth trying to blow them. So darn cute!