Last Day of Preschool

Ben's last day of preschool was Thursday, May 26th. It was such a sad day because it was a fun, productive year! He had fantastic teachers and learned so much over the school year. Mrs. Mindy, his teacher, wrote the curriculum and it was awesome! All the students had a "job" in the classroom. Ben explained that his job was to water the green bean plants that they planted. They did a Zoo Phonics lesson that included directed drawing and this is where they practiced writing their letters better. The letter of the week always went with a book they were reading and share (an item they brought from home). And they sang a song to go with the letter as well. The curriculum also incoporated math into it all -- there was a "math sentence" for whatever letter they were learning that week. So they learned both at the same time! The kids all learned days of the week, months of the year, and seasons. I remember one moment in particular and it is a true testiment of how wonderful this program is. One day Ben and I were talking and he started to list all the continents....I couldn't believe it! There were other moments like that, but I couldn't believe that, at 3, he had learned SO much! So in appreciation, I made a cake for the teachers and Ben wrote them both cards, one to Mr. Sam and one to Mrs. Mindy. The one to Mr. Sam made me laugh. We worked on the card together and Ben wrote, "thank you Mr. Sam for opening the snacks" - and "thank you for teaching me" "Love, Ben"

It turned out MUCH better than I thought it would!!

Easter 2011

Ooooops.....I forgot that Easter comes before Mother's Day. I am a little behind on blogging, so forgive me! See below for Mother's Day!!

Holidays ALWAYS sneak up on me....but I usually manage to pull it together somehow! We made Easter cookies, filled the kids' Easter baskets each with a new cool bath towel and new swim trunks and flip flops for Ben and a new swimsuit and hat for Emma (not that she even knew what it was!) Getting pictures was challenging and some are a bit blurry. It's hard to get a picture of two moving subjects!!

Checking out her basket
Hmmmm, what's this little bauble?
My little man in his suit. He's growing too fast!
Being lovey and doing good so far...
Still going....

And.....GONE!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year we decided to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. Mario and I used to go there as kids -- so it was fun to be able to take our kids to a place we used to go. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day and we had such a great time. We met Mario's mom there so the kids were able to see Grandma too :)

Isn't this a spectacular view?
Emma feeding the birds - she LOVED it!
Ben and Emma both love animals so this was so much fun for them
Beautiful peacock that sort of meandered around My sweet angel
Are they going kayaking?!

Someone was making her giggle!!