Pirate & Princess Party

Tonight we went to the Pirate and Princess party at Chick-fil-A.

Pirrrate Party Arrgh!

Today we had Zachary's birthday party at Heritage Park. It turned out to be a bad weekend for a party because of the holiday, but it was the only one that worked out for us. A few of my friends came with their kids and one little boy from Zachary's school. We had a bucket full of sand for the kids to dig for treasure. Jason made a plank for the kids to walk. Becky and George brought a lot of bread and the kids had fun feeding the ducks and turtles. They all had a good time playing together and Zachary enjoyed the party.

Daisy/Brownie Encampment

This weekend was Girl Scout camp for our service unit. We decided to only do the day camp since none of our girls have been camping before. We got up bright and early and drove to the Girl Scout camp in Econdido. The girls ended up seeing some girls they knew from school. We felt a little like we "didn't get the memo" for many things. Every troop had planned a craft activity for the day. We did not know anything about that. We also didn't know we were supposed to bring out own plates, cups, and utensils for lunch and dinner. We finished most of the activities there were before lunch, so we left shortly after lunch and did not stay until dinner. The girls had a good time, but it wasn't good enough that I would go back. Maybe a camp organized by a different group would be better.
 Ready to leave for camp...

 Flag ceremony...

Home-made bonnet...

 

 Making butter...

Heritage Chalk Festival

Today was the annual chalk festival at Kailani's school. She did not get to participate last year because it was only open to 6th graders. I wanted to volunteer to help when the school first asked for parents, but I had a meeting at work and wasn't able to. I was worried when I noticed last week that Kailani's classroom did not have a parent volunteer (classes without a parent volunteer could not participate).  I found out over the weekend that we did have a parent volunteer. Luckily, my Monday meeting was cancelled. I contacted the parent volunteer and she was more than happy to have additional help.
I am so glad I was able to help. What an amazing experience! The other parent and I prepared an outline of a picture from the book Frog and Toad (Sapo y Sepo). I went to Kailani's classroom and took 4 kids at a time to color in a portion of the drawing. Each classroom did the same with other books. The drawings turned out so nice.I included pictures of my favorites below:)
I am really looking forward to volunteering at Kailani's school more next year. Our new school policy is that each person will get one day per month to volunteer in the community; this includes your own child's school!

Bridging to Brownies and Pirate Days

This morning was our service unit's bridging ceremony for girls who were moving up a level in Girl Scouts. Kailani has been a Daisy for two years, so she bridged from a Daisy to a Brownie. There was a nice ceremony at the park and as each girl walked across the bridge, she took off her Daisy apron and put on the new Brownie vest.

After the bridging ceremony, we headed down to the harbor for Pirate Days at the Maritime Museum. There was a treasure hunt between all of the ships and submarines that ended at the mermaids. The kids enjoyed walking through each of the ships. At first, Zachary was afraid to go down into the submarine, but changed his mind when we go to the second one.

Baby Ducks

Today we walked to the Mexican restaurant for dinner and made a stop at Heritage Park on the way home. The kids spent a few minutes watching the 10 baby ducks in the pond. A few weeks ago at he park we saw the babies for the first time. They've grown so much in the past few weeks.

Soon-to-be Brownie

Kailani will soon be a Brownie! One of the requirements to bridge to the next level in Girl Scouts is to "look ahead." Our Daisy troop had a special meeting with a local Brownie troop to see what it's like to be a Brownie. The Brownie troop taught them all about swaps (they make these at camping events) and they got to make a few. We ended up running into two girls in the Brownie troop we know; one we see at Chick-fil-A every week, and one is the older sister of twin girls who are in 1st grade with Kailani. Kailani's troop will be bridging to Brownies on Saturday. The following Saturday is our encampment event. I will be going along as a chaperone. The girls made 20 swaps each in preparation for trading with other girls at the event. Kailani is excited!

The swaps she made...

Happy Mother's Day!

I couldn't ask for better gifts! The loves of my life!

Chula Vista Fun Run

This morning we ran the Chula Vista Fun Run 5K. This was the first time we did a race without the stroller. Zachary did okay for a little while and then hitched a ride on my back for a while.

This afternoon, Kailani had a birthday party to go to. We all went along and enjoyed the food and games at John's Incredible Pizza Place.

Anniversary Dinner

Tonight we were able to celebrate our anniversary a day early. We went for dinner at Roy's like we do every year. My mom called the restaurant (like she does every year) to wish us a Happy Anniversary from PA.

Operation Thin Mint Sendoff

This morning we went to the Operation Thin Mint sendoff on board the USS Midway. There was a ceremony to celebrate all of the Girl Scout cookies that will be send to deployed military. All of the girls who sold at least 2013 boxes of cookies got to ride in on helicopters. The girl who sold the most sold 4500 boxes. I don't know how they do it! We had a hard enough time selling 250 boxes.

 Kailani and I went to a Royal Princess Party at church. There was a princess to take pictures with, mother's day crafts, face painting, lunch from Chick-fil-A, and a princess movie. We had a nice time. The church really does some neat activities.

For our third event of the day, we attended a pirate birthday party for two boys whose mom I work with. The kids loved it! They had a board on the ground so the kids could "walk the plank." Since we are having a pirate party for Zachary in a few weeks, we were able to get some ideas.