Vacation Bible School and Paris' first sleepover!!

Here is the VBS crew: Jennifer, Paris, Patrick, Mason and Alex. They have been attending VBS every year together since they were 3 yrs. old. The kids absolutely love the entire week and the activities and singing are so heartwarming and sweet.

Here is Alex, upper right, jumping with a huge smile while he was singing up at the alter.

And here is Paris, happy as a lark, in between Portia and Jennifer. We all were very sad to have the week come to an end!

Playing at the park after VBS.

Another day we met the kids friends, Megan and Connor, at their totally awesome pool.

Here is Alex shooting out of the slide

... and Mason, they were obsessed with this slide and how fast it went :)

For some more big news, Paris hosted her first sleepover. Here are Paris and Lily having a burger at the "The Habit"- a yummy, new burger joint in Walnut Creek.

and all cozied up on an air mattress watching a movie.

This week Paris made "fairy hats" out of one her special kid's cookbooks.

Alex's (with the hood) last time lining up as a kindergartener-

Last day of school.

Paris and one of her BFFs, Lily... and they have the necklaces to prove it. Lily brought Paris this matching necklace (you have to zoom in) on the last day of school... then they had a sleepover at Lily's to celebrate the end of 2nd grade... life is good :)

Signing yearbooks after school.

First night of summer we went created our "bucket list"

First Monday with no school, Paris set up an elaborate Barbie spread-

Here is our new backyard water slide!

Paris and Jennifer enjoying snow cones in our backyard.
Meanwhile, the men, Alex, Mason and Patrick, convened on the upper patio.

Our family is in the middle of a four square OBSESSION. This was on the last day of school playing at Buena Vista... we also play family four square at home for sometimes hours each day.

Throughout the summer I'm going to try to take Paris, Mason and Alex out on individual walks each morning before Paul leaves for work. Paris went first and chose the creek, where she showed me this awesome rope swing. Then we headed up the trail for a nice hike.

Alex, was the next morning and he lead the way to this cool bridge and then to a big rock pile.

Mason wanted to climb to the top of the HUGE hill up in the open space behind our house. We walked for a total of 1.5 hours and made it to the top. Here we are almost there (Moca is in the background). Each of the kids were so adorable and excited to be on these walks alone...so I'm hoping to continue them throughout the summer!

I could not resist posting this birthday card that Mason made for a friend, Analise, whose b-day party he just went to. He worked on this thing for an hour and was very proud of it. Those are post it-notes glued on the bottom and hearts across the top.

While on the topic of art projects- here is another Mason masterpiece. Hard to tell, but he worked on this for days. It is a sponge bob empty lego box taped (this project alone went thru two whole tape rolls) to an empty carton. The large piece of tape going down is a "zipline" with an empty m&m tube taped to it. Their are many other treasure taped or otherwise attached. Enjoy :)

Celebrating the arrival of Summer with Roman at PF Changs.

End of school year updates-

Alex's and Mason's last baseball game a few weeks ago... I had to post this picture b/c this might be the only ball that Mason caught the whole year... and you can actually see it in his glove (notice closed eyes). I screamed out in excitement... even though this was during warm-ups :)

Baseball metals!

Here is Mason in the middle doing one of his final preschool performances.

... and here he is on graduation day with his best friend, Collin. Kindergarten here he comes!

A very wet kindergarten outing to the Oakland zoo... Alex and Mason are to the left of the sign.

Alex (in orange) and his buddies at the final kindergarten party at Larkey Park.

Our first visit to Daddy's work place in Castro Valley.

The kids loved his very nice office, which had not a single decoration on the wall or picture on the desk. His boss came by and asked me to help him decorate asap.

Here is the reason we went by Paul's work ... to pick up 3 tiny dwarf hamsters, named, Mac, Kintaro and piccolini, our new pets. One of his bosses had extras and we were happy to take them (sorry,mom :) )

Here is their fancy cage. Not sure who is enjoying them more, Paul and I, or the kids.

... and here is Laura Bush (Paris had to dress up as her and give an autobiographical speech in front of the class.) She looked like a 25 year old lady and, she did a great job.

Modeling their new summer outfits from Omi.

... and Paris'

Mason became obsessed with learning to jump rope a while ago. Within a day he taught himself to jump indefinitely... seriously, he can go forever. He was very proud.

One of our new favorite family outings... bike riding.