Spring party

Later this afternoon, Casey and I helped with Brett's second grade spring party. Janette and I decided on a Cinco de Mayo theme.

We had nachos, sopapillas and frosty drinks for the snack and then had the kids make a Mexican flag with tissue paper.

It was a blast! As with everything, you plan for weeks, and the party only lasted about 45 minutes.

Pouring the "fake margaritas"

Enjoying the snacks


Brett and the flag he made


Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Field trip

Today I went with Casey's class on a field trip to Botanica. Luckily the rain held off enough for us to get to walk around the gardens for a little bit before heading inside for a puppet show.

The gardens were really pretty, but unfortunately all the tulips have died off.

Three buddies on the bus

Terrin, Casey and Kole


Making a wish at the fountain


Feeding the fish

On the bus ride back to school, I sat with Casey's classmates, Alison and Heather. They were a riot. Alison proudly showed me the three tubes of flavored lip gloss she had in her pocket. I guess girls are never too young to start liking makeup.

Alison and her yummy lip gloss

Flower find

I found a pretty cool new variety of geranium at Johnson's last week. I also found a great new trailing flower called bacopa that I will use in most of my pots this year. I have already bought white ones, but I've also seen some pink ones that I like too.

Let's just hope this lasts through a hail storm!

No more training wheels!

Brett has been working on one of the more important rights of passage--riding a bike without training wheels.

It's really come about pretty quickly. We were at our neighbor's house and they had him try it a few times on Thursday night. He seemed to pick it up pretty quickly.

On Saturday morning, Dan took Brett outside and they continued practicing on the sidewalk in front of our house.

The video below shows his progress. Sorry for the audio--it was really windy yesterday!

A proud boy without training wheels

As for Casey, after a few too many crashes, we've decided he's not ready yet. Oh well, we have the summer to practice!

Casey's kindergarten program

On Thursday, Casey's kindergarten had their program. It had a train theme--each child got to wear a conductor's cap.

He did a great job, but he seemed a little nervous. You'll notice him pulling on his shirt.






They did several songs, including "I've been working on the railroad."

They even made train "costumes" out of boxes


Having a snack after the program


Casey and his railroad cap

After the program, we went to McDonald's with Nana Harla, Papa Frank and our friends Janette and her son Caleb.

Casey has recently decided that he wants to eat the adult meals, not the Happy Meals. So to celebrate the great job he did, I bought him a chicken sandwich. I wasn't sure he'd be able to finish it, but he ate the whole thing.

Casey's first bite

(The sandwich is bigger than he is!)


The last bite

Birthday party

This afternoon, Casey went to a birthday party for his classmate, Abbey.

Her mom went all out...

A princess castle inflatable...


A snow cone machine...



and tiaras



Casey and his buddies had a blast

Second grade field trip

Today Brett and his class took a field trip to Klausmeyer dairy farm near Clearwater. They got to see the animals and even had a hot dog cookout for lunch. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate--it was pretty chilly and windy.

Thanks to my friend Janette for these photos.

Brett feeding a new calf


Ride 'em cowboy


Mmm. Lunch!