Baptism Anniversary Day...

Today is the anniversary of Zoe's Baptism. Although it was another crazy, busy day in our household, we managed to squeeze in a little celebration with cake after school and ballet class.
Cooper sure enjoyed his cake!
We love you Zoe...you help make our family complete!

Garage Sale!

We've been planning this garage sale for about six months. It was supposed to happen before Christmas, but due to a lot of rain this year, and our busy schedule, this was the first free and clear Saturday! My guest room was completely filled with lots of "junk" that we had slowly been accumulating. I couldn't wait to get rid of it all, and hopefully make a little money in the process! We were up at 5:30am pulling things out of the garage and by 6:00 we had people buying. By the time we got around to taking a picture, we had already sold quite a bit.
After it was all over, we were exhausted! It was a lot of work. Zoe was a great salesgirl and finally took a little "down" time to relax while we counted our money. $355 was our grand total! Not bad for a few hours!

Game Ball!

Cooper has been working really hard at baseball this season! It has been so much fun watching him improve each week. At last night's game he earned the "game ball"! He had some great, hard hits and made a fantastic play to get a 3rd out. We are so proud of him!

Dinner Date!

For the silent auction at our school carnival last month Cooper won a dinner date with his teacher, Mrs. Falciano. He's been looking forward to it for weeks and was happy the night had finally come. After a long day at the aquarium, they were ready to meet up at IHOP (Cooper's favorite place for dinner!) Along with Cooper, it was Abby from his class and Mrs. Falciano's adorable daughter Makenna. They enjoyed great conversation while eating their "breakfast" dinner. Cooper had french toast, scrambled eggs, and 2 servings of bacon. It was the perfect meal, according to Cooper!
Thanks Grandma for bidding on the date! Thanks Mrs. Falciano for taking Cooper out!

2nd Grade Aquarium Trip

The 2nd graders had a field trip to the SeaLife Aquarium at Legoland today. They loaded up on the bus, while us chaperones drove separately.
They started off taking a "class" on sharks. They learned about different types of sharks, what shark skin feels like, their teeth, and how sharks have babies. I think they learned a lot, and really liked getting to be a little "hands on".

After the class it was time to head into the aquarium. I was responsible for Cooper, Allison, Max and Trevon.
They saw many varieties of fish, sharks, stingrays, jellyfish, and an octopus. They enjoyed running to and from each display. They even got to feel some starfish.
It is a pretty small aquarium, so they were able to get through it in an hour. After a picnic lunch on the grass, it was time for a potty break and class photo before getting back on the bus.
Here's to another class field trip!

Kids weekend

Well, while I was away this weekend, the kids had a great time too. Joe took them to Cooper's baseball game Friday night and then out to pizza with the team. They had a great time hanging out and playing arcade games while enjoying some more team bonding.
On Saturday they got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They couldn't wait! Joe was looking forward to a quiet house. :) He did get started on a few house projects though, so he was a busy guy.
The kids had a good time and stayed busy by going bowling and swimming. Zoe also spent a lot of time holding Tink, the hamster. She loves her!
Off to bowl...

Loving the night swimming! Cooper was doing tricks into the pool, while Zoe was showing off her splits...

Thanks for the great visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Girls getaway!

My high school girlfriends and I have trying to plan a get together for the last year. Nori had her twins last May and we haven't all been together since her almost 3 year old was born. Our yearly reunions have spread out too far. We (me, Shloe, Christy, and Kim) were all looking forward to heading up North to stay at her house for a quick weekend visit. Unfortunately, Shloe had a last minute medical complication and couldn't make it. We were all very disappointed, but made sure to at least have a group phone call when we were there.
We all got in Friday evening and spent the night just visiting, eating some delicious ice cream, and staying up late talking. Saturday we got up early to head to San Francisco with the whole family to walk around the Farmers Market. It was a gorgeous day, and of course no one had their camera (mine had broken during our Hawaii trip), so we didn't get any pictures. After stopping for lunch in Berkeley, we went back to Nori's house and took Willa for a walk around the neighborhood. The babies are definitely at the "stranger anxiety" phase, so they really didn't like having us all around!
We were ready for a girls night out dinner in Walnut Creek. We had a great Mexican meal, along with some delicious strawberry margaritas...
After dinner, Christy really wanted to go dancing. Seriously, when was the last time we went to a club dancing! We found some little dive club, with no parking, and we started laughing when we saw the "dress code" sign. No flip-flops, and no sweatshirts! I happened to have on both...
The place really was a dive, so not sure they would've really turned us away if we had actually wanted to go in. Only in the suburbs...we got quite the laugh!

Anyway, it was a great little get together, but went way too fast! It was nice to visit though and catch up in person. Hopefully next time, all 5 of us can be together...

Firefighter Graduate!

We headed up to Camarillo today to watch Martin graduate from the Oxnard College Fire Academy.He has worked so hard to complete this academy and we were thrilled to watch him graduate.
They started the afternoon off doing different demonstrations of what they have had to learn over the past few months. Each group of cadets were responsible for different areas. First they showed us how quickly they had to get their gear on and be ready to take off on the truck...
We saw ladder drills, building repelling, and then they moved on to automobile excavations, using tools to break the windows and the "jaws of life" to pry open different parts of the car...
They put out a car fire...
Martin's group was responsible for a wood fire...



After the demos were done he came over to give Zoe and Cooper some big hugs. They were so happy to see him and very impressed with everything they had just seen!

Along with many of Martin's friends, Uncle Mike and McCabe came to watch. The kids hadn't seen their cousin McCabe in quite some time and couldn't believe that he is now 6'6" tall! They loved checking out this old fire engine, and even got to ride around the block with the Fire Captain after the ceremony.
The official graduation began. After a few speeches from the local officials, Battalion 33 was ready to graduate. They each got called on stage, set down their named fire helmets, and received their certificate from one of their captains.



Cadets receiving their final dismissal...
Proud Dad...
Joe, Martin, Uncle Mike...
The group (Uncle Mike, McCabe, Zoe, Martin, Cooper, me, Joe):
After the graduation and clean-up we went over to a great Italian restaurant with a few of Martin's friends to celebrate.
Time to say goodbye...
It was such a great day of celebration. Martin has worked so hard to get where he is today. He hasn't always made the best choices, but he has really turned things around and made a commitment to be successful and take pride in his achievements. We couldn't be more proud of him and look forward to seeing him continue to work hard and be a success at everything he does!