our weekend in photos

let's start with friday. the kids had their student showcase at school. cha is currently a candidate school for the international baccalaureate program. for the last six weeks they have been studying units of inquiry and on friday they presented their findings to the parents and other school mates.

andrew did a presentation on redesigning one of the classrooms to function as an idea lab for the middle school. they had to meet with the head of middle school and the head master to determine the needs and budget of the space.  then the group researched learning environments, furniture, technology and ergonomics to come up with their proposals. they created the space using minecraft.

he also did a presentation on the renaissance period, which i heard was amazing and a music presentation where they asked the question, is there any bad music?

sofia's class created a mini society. they came up with a pledge of allegiance, their own currency, laws and jobs for each member of the society.  sofia was elected mayor of the society and had to govern and take a leadership role - she loved it.

then they stimulated their economy by opening the market where each student "sold" a good or service.

sofia taught yoga lessons. she came up with her concept, had business cards made and gave out mint brownies to her customers.

i love the ib concept and appreciate that this was student driven, takes a lot of the pressure off the parents. i'm looking forward to attending the graduation next week. the 8th grade students got to design the graduation themselves.

and of course on friday we went to tgifridays.

and had queso dip.

saturday bobby took andrew and sofia to the school camp out. they went to castaic with other families from school and had fun climbing trees, playing with bottle rockets and roasting s'mores.

jordan and i slept in our comfy beds and celebrated my brother's birthday. on sunday we went to breakfast and church with my parents.

andrew had a game in the afternoon while jordan and i went to his swim banquet. so much good food.

and these gorgeous cupcakes.

they handed out awards to the league winners, academic athletes and individual awards to some students.

jordan won the most inspirational swimmer award for the boys' jv team. the coach talked about how he always came to practice ready to work and with a good attitude. he wanted to train with the varsity boys to push himself. he did well in the races and was always looking for ways to improve his time. and even after the season was over he continued to come to the pool with his friend eddie who was training for cif finals. eddie won most inspirational swimmer for the boys' varsity team. he is an outstanding young man and has been a good mentor and friend to jordan. and he's almost 7 feet tall!

jordan with the coaches and one of our friends - she won the coach's award for the girls' varsity team.

sunday night we settled into bed to watch game of thrones, o.m.g! what an episode. no spoilers here but there is one scene that i can't stop thinking about.

it was a great end to a really good month.

our weekend in (food) photos

enjoyed reading this over the weekend.  drool.

on friday, while our kids were at a middle school dance, a few of the parents went to the yard house for dinner and drinks.  i had my most favorite crunchy tuna salad. we sampled the beer and laughed for 3 hours.  no worries, we had a designated driver picking up the kids.  in fact, they beat us home.

saturday, bobby made pancakes for breakfast from our school's new cookbook.  i love these fundraisers that help share recipes.  the pancakes were delicious and devoured.

we did some things around the house and then bobby and i went back to yard house for lunch.  we are just discovering how good the food is here.  i had the turkey burger for lunch.

we hung out with my parents - no food was consumed - and then went home to hang out and watch lost.

sunday morning bobby made crepes from the cookbook, another excellent recipe from one of our excellent teachers.  we went to church and to andrew's baseball game. (forgot to take a picture of the nachos.)

then we went to my sister's house to see the updates.  she had a nice spread to munch on while we visited.

for dinner... menchie's.

monday was a nice, quiet day.

bobby and i went to target and trader joe's to get a few things for a bbq.

i made a pineapple pico de gallo for our hawaiian dogs (minus the macadamia nuts).

then we went to the park to meet up with my family.  we grilled our turkey dogs, bacon wrapped hot dogs and 3 different kinds of sausages.  never a lack of choices for us.

my dog was heavy on the salsa, light on the turkey dog.  a nice salad and some chips to round off the plate.

and after all that, when we got home on sunday evening, sofia says "i'm hungry." never fails.  so her wish came true and bobby took her to mcdonald's (gasp).  not something we do very often.  but hey, the girl gotta to eat, right?

maybe not the healthiest weekend but we enjoyed every bite.

beach day

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

-Kurt Vonnegut

rainbows

what a better way to celebrate the first day of summer than with color.  lots of color.

over the last week i have noticed a lot of rainbows.  i grab my camera, snap a picture and end up with a nice collection.

i think the idea got in my head when i made the rainbow fruit salad for the kindergarten end of the year party.  then i collected colorful things to put into the kids' "happy summer vacation" bags.  and another rainbow salad for our bbq in kernville.

once you are thinking about it, you see it everywhere.

it makes me happy!

for those of you keeping track, the marlins won their first playoff game last night 4-13.  they move on to the next round on sunday.  go marlins!

a {leap} day in the life

wow.  i had fun with this project.  i ended up using mostly my iphone to capture pictures throughout the day.  it was in my back pocket most of the day and ready to go.

nothing extra ordinary about this "bonus" day of the year.  but it's cool to have a snaphot (or 118 snapshots) of what this day looked like.  i especially loved any shot that had the date on it.

here we go:

wake up time.

breakfast

getting lunches ready

school meeting at the bagel shop

2 - 35 minute runs.  i cheated and did my run on the treadmill.  but it was a great workout and i ran almost 6 miles.

a loving text, with the date.

after workout snack.

my blog post for the day.

showered, combed and ready for anything.

like doing dishes.

lunch.

pick up time and things to drop off in the school office.  it's a busy time.

a cool surprise when we got home.  grandpa bob came by with sofia's new "pinked out" quad.

after school relaxing.

grandma sue was here today too. (we love that she helps us with the laundry when she's here.)

then homework time.

reading.  she read this whole book to grandma.  we've read it about 578 times in the last few days so it's hard to tell if she's reading or just has it memorized.  either way it's cool to see her reading a book from cover to cover.

feed the fish.

sign up for a class.

check twitter and facebook.

dinner.

bath time.

full metal jousting time.

and laundry time.

reading and snuggling.

kids in bed.  time for snack and modern family.  the leap day episode was hilarious!!

ipad and knitting.

still working on that scarf.  don't judge. it's a very long scarf.

i asked bobby to capture a few things throughout his day.  love what he sent me.

his desk.

his workout.

a business meeting with his boss.

and batting cages with andrew.

i have to say that doing this with the iphone is what made it so easy.  i wasn't lugging my big camera around all day.  the pictures aren't perfect but i kinda love that.

i also kept a record of our day on paper.

i'm not sure what i will do with the images yet.   i am hoping to order some of these page protectors when they become available again.

i could pick out the best photos and include them here with the daily record sheets.  they would go straight into my project life album.

so glad i did this.  it will be cool to look at it over time.  a record of a {leap} day.

have a wonderful weekend.  we have the father and daughter dance, opening day for baseball, a get together with some friends and a picnic for sofia's class.  lots of happiness happening here.