Legoland

Today Kailani wanted to go to Legoland. We haven't been there in a while and they added a new section to the water park that we wanted to check out. We spent some time at the water park and then headed to the park. We went on a few rides, checked out the new octopus garden at the aquarium, looked at the new Star Wars exhibit at miniland, and headed home.

Got Spirit?

Today is Friday, which means spirit day at Kailani's school. I bought her a t-shirt last week so she could show off her school spirit. She was very excited to wear her shirt today.Today is the last day I was able to walk Kailani to school:( I will return to work on Monday, so she'll have to go to the YMCA before and after school. I hope Jason will get out of work early enough so she doesn't have to stay at the YMCA very long. She needs some time to relax at home before cheer practice.

Poms

Well, we made it through the first week of cheer. Four days of practice this week really pooped Kailani out! She'll be practicing four days per week until the end of August. She'll have her first pre-season game to cheer for on August 27 and then the official season starts the week after. When games start, she'll only practice three days per week. She'll have games every Saturday in September and October and then competition in November. This is a pretty serious league.
Tonight at practice she got her pom poms, socks, and bloomers. Hopefully she'll get her uniform soon. Although Kailani is tired from practice, she loves going. One of the little girls on her squad is in kindergarten at the same school as her. They've become buddies already.While Kailani was at cheer practice tonight, I went to a girl scout meeting. She wants to join a Daisy troop. There is one starting in the area and she can join. She won't be able to be too active until cheer is over. She's going to be one busy little girl. I haven't pushed her to do anything though...she's asked to do all of this:)

Gong!

Today we went to story time at the library on base. The Humane Society was there to read a book and show rats. Zachary sat well and listened to the story and then he got to pet one of the rats; T-Rex was her name. After the library, we had lunch at the Mongolian Grill. Zachary enjoyed hitting the gong. He kept saying "gong" after hitting it.

First Cheer Practice

Tonight Kailani had her first cheer practice. This week and next week are conditioning weeks, so she has practice Monday through Thursday from 5:30-7:30. After the conditioning weeks are over, she'll practice Tuesday through Thursday from 5:30-7:30 and have games on Saturday mornings. I'm not sure how we're going to manage this, school, work, Zachary's soccer, etc...Thank goodness Jason is here because I would go crazy doing this by myself. We had to have a really early dinner tonight so we could get out the door on time.
Kailani really enjoyed practice tonight. All of the girls practiced together tonight and they were split into different groups with all ages. The groups focused on different things and they switched every 15 minutes or so. I enjoyed sitting and watching her. It was actually time for me that I could just sit and really do nothing.Zachary did a good job sitting there for 2 hours tonight. He sat in his chair for a while (see below), played with his soccer ball for a little...he didn't really seem to get bored. However...Jason says he and Zachary will stay at home for the rest of the practices.

Kailani's Big Day

I can't believe how quickly time goes by. Today Kailani turned 5! Her party wasn't until 2pm, so it seemed like forever for her to wait. Her party was at Build-a-Bear in the mall. She invited her cousins, friends from KinderCare, and friends from the meetup group. She had a pretty big group; 17 kids total. They each got to pick an animal, stuff it, and dress it. The girls did a great job facilitating the party and playing games with the kids. Kailani had a blast!After the party, we went over to the food court in the mall to sing happy birthday and have cupcakes. Kailani played with a few friends for a while and then we stayed and had dinner. Kailani and Zachary ran in the water fountain. After dinner, we headed home and Kailani opened her presents. She had a wonderful day.

Big Boy Bed

Today we went to a birthday party for a little girl in our meetup group. It was a swimming party and Kailani and Zachary loved it. We haven't really spent much time at the pool because it's hard for me to take both kids by myself. A few weeks ago we went to the pool in our development and Zachary was a little nervous to be in the water. He was the opposite today...he didn't want to get out of the water. I think we'll have to visit the pool more often.
Tonight we "retired" the crib. Zachary now sleeps in a big boy bed.

First Day of School

Today was Kailani's first day of school. We got up bright and early to walk her to school. She was so excited to use her new backpack and lunch box.
When we got to the school, she picked out her nametag and we snapped a quick picture in front of her room; 402. Then, she lined up with her class at the front door of the classroom and we watched her go inside. She didn't hesitate to go inside at all. I think the orientation the night before was helpful in making her feel comfortable.
Today was a half day, so we picked her up at 12:45. She said she had fun at school today. She's even starting to learn some Spanish. I can't wait to see what else she picks up.

More Soccer

Zachary had soccer practice tonight and it was the first time Jason was able to watch him play. It was actually the first time he participated in the warm ups and did the running by himself.
He kicked the ball into the net and played goalie. The "coach" had them play a little soccer game with four kids on the field at a time. Zachary didn't get into it too much, but he did have a chance to kick the ball and he got a goal. After a few minutes he had enough. He started taking off his shirt and decided he was finished. At the end of practice, the kids all put their hands on the ball and yell "bumble bee" for the bumble bee sports program. Here's Zachary minus his shirt:)

Kindergarten Orientation

Today we went to Kailani's school for kindergarten orientation. She got to meet her teacher, Señora Roberto. Since she is in the Spanish immersion class, the teacher will only speak Spanish to the kids. She will tell them that she understands English if they have to speak to her in English, but that she can only speak Spanish. The room was decorated so nicely with all Spanish posters, etc. I think it is going to be a little overwhelming at first, but in the end will be really cool. I am hoping to learn a lot too, although I understand Spanish pretty well.
One of the boys from Kailani's class at KinderCare is in her class at Heritage. I think that will make the transition easier for her. We also ran into another little girl from KinderCare who will be in another kindergarten classroom.
There will be a back to school luau at the beginning of August that we signed up for. I am looking forward to getting involved and meeting other people in the area. I plan to join the PTO and volunteer when I can. Much of the volunteering will be during the school day, but I think I will be able to help out with selling snacks after school on Fridays. I only work until 12 on Fridays and Kailani will get out at 12:45. Fridays are minimum days at Heritage for staff development. It works out perfectly with my schedule.
Kailani will start school tomorrow at 7:45 am. The first day is only a 1/2 day, so she'll get out at 12:45. I am so glad that I have a few days to walk her to school and pick her up before I have to go back to work. At that point, she'll go to the YMCA afterschool program; unless Jason gets out of work early and can pick her up.
I still can't believe she's in kindergarten already!

Disneyland Trip

We're back from our mini vacation to Disneyland. We had a great time. We spent a lot of time at the parks and had dinner and breakfast with the characters. Kailani was really into pin trading this time. She got some pins from Nana and GrandPop during our PA trip and she's been in to pins ever since. We got her a pin trading starter set and she looked for Disney employees to trade pins with.
Zachary loved being able to go on the rides this time. He had an unfortunate fall after breakfast on Sunday morning. He ended up chipping his front tooth. We're heading to the dentist in the morning to have it checked out.
Here are some of the pictures from our weekend...

Wasting Time

We've been trying to waste time all day until it's time to go to the airport to pick up Jason. This morning we went to the model railroad museum in Balboa Park. We packed a lunch and ate in the park near the koi pond. The kids have really enjoyed getting together so often with the other kids in our playgroup. After today, we'll go back to doing things on weekends only since Kailani will be starting school next week and I'll be heading back to work shortly after that. Yesterday we had our first casualty from the "wall" in the back yard. Check out Zachary's scrapes from the fall. Both kids actually went down together, but Zachary got it the worst. We have to figure out what to do with that wall. Until then, it's going to be a climbing toy for the kids.

Kailani's Birthday Pictures

Today we spent the morning at Hilton Head Spray Park and then Kailani and I had a mommy-daughter afternoon at the nail salon. Kailani had her 5th birthday pictures taken tonight. She did a great job posing for the camera. Here's a sneak peak!

Biggest Herd?

At Chick-fil-A the other day, we had our picture taken as a group and we've been entered into the Facebook contest for "biggest herd." If we get the most "likes" we will win. I'm not sure what we'll win, but right now our group is winning. ** I found out the prize is FREE Chick-fil-A for a YEAR! We're still in first place:)

Olympians in Training

I organized a meetup for our group to the Olympic Training Center for today. I figured that a lot of people probably have never visited before. Like always, we started out with a group of 8 and that dwindled to 4 of us that actually ended up going...but the 4 of us had a great time. Instead of the self-guided tour, we went on a guided tour on a golf cart. We were able to go to places you don't get to see on the walking tour. We had a really nice time and got to see several Olympians practicing (running, rugby, BXM, javelin, shot put). We all went out for lunch afterward.

Another Beach Day

Today we spent the day at the beach again. The kids really enjoyed the beach the other day, so we thought we head there again. Kailani loves running in the water. They tested out the boogie board today:)

Insect Festival

Today we went to the San Diego Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. We have never gone there before and they were having an insect festival today so we thought it would be a good time to check it out. It turned out to be great timing because military families were free (it would have cost $12 for adults and $6 for kids). The kids got to do insect crafts and see/touch a lot of insects too. Zachary even ate a mealworm! None of the other kids wanted to try one, and he put his hand right out. They cooked them up and seasoned them with different seasonings. He took a small taste and then spit it out.

Cow Appreciation Day

Today is cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-A. We started our morning off at the Sports Arena Chick-fil-A for breakfast with our meetup group. We've never been to this Chick-fil-A and have never had breakfast at a Chick-fil-A before. It was pretty good.After breakfast, we headed to Sweetwater Regional Park, which is very close to our house. I didn't even know it existed until recently. They have an awesome spray park that the kids played in for a few hours.The kids worked up an appetite playing at the park, so we put on our cow gear again and headed to our normal Chick-fil-A for lunch. We took advantage of cow day! Everyone who dressed like a cow got a free meal.

Wild Wonders

This morning we headed to one of the Chula Vista libraries for a special Wild Wonders animal show as part of the summer reading program. The girl showed several animals and let the kids touch them. Kailani got to pet the hedgehog and Zachary got to pet the fox. All of the kids got to pet the snake at the end of the show.

This afternoon, we headed to the Bonita library for their summer reading program event, which happened to be an animal show too (a different one). We met up with one of the little girls from Kailani's class; her "best friend" as Kailani refers to her. It will be sad when the two of them are split up for kindergarten. I spent most of this show outside with Zachary. He wasn't being very cooperative. He probably would have much rather been running around at a park than sitting in a library. Kailani enjoyed the show with Katherine and got the pet an alligator at the end of the show.

Beach and Soccer

This morning we ran up to Del Mar to pick up artwork that my students had displayed at the fair. This is the second year in a row I organized this, which means that I have to pick up the artwork. Remind me not to do it again! It takes so long to navigate through the fairgrounds while everyone is trying to tear down and clean up. Meanwhile, everyone gives contradicting directions. This task took about 2 hours out of my day!

After picking up the artwork, we headed to Coronado to play at the beach. We hadn't been to the beach yet this summer, so it seemed like a good day to go. The kids had a blast. Zachary enjoyed digging in the sand and throwing the sand in the water. Kailani liked running in the water, although she wouldn't go too far in.

After the beach, we had just enough time to go home and change before Zachary's first soccer practice. This was a last minute change of plans. I had signed him up for the Thursday class, but while we were at the beach, they called and said the Thursday class was cancelled because not enough kids were signed up. Tuesday was the only other option. Since classes start this week, today was the first day. At first, Zachary was a little shy to participate and needed me to help him. After a little while, he was doing it on his own. He had a great time kicking the soccer ball. There were about 8-10 litle boys in the class. This class is actually little kickers/little dunkers, so I think next week he'll be doing basketball. He has been fascinated with both soccer and basketball lately, so I think he'll love it.

Watching the Fireworks

Tonight we went to Mountain Hawk Park to watch the fireworks. They do fireworks from the Olympic Training Center for Eastlake residents. Since we don't live in Eastlake, we couldn't watch from inside the Olympic Training Center, but Mountian Hawk Park is about as close as you can get. I think everyone else had the same idea...it was packed. We waited about 30 minutes to use the bathroom. Zachary was in awe watching the fireworks and Kailani thought they were neat. They only lasted about 5 minutes though. It was nice to get out and watch them. We've been at Legoland the past few years on July 4.

Happy 4th of July

Today we grilled out for lunch with Becky and family. After lunch we headed up to the pool in our neighborhood for the very first time. The kids had a good time playing in the baby pool. We went in the big pool for a little too. After about an hour, Kailani had enough and we headed home. We're all resting before heading out to the fireworks later.