Playing Catch-Up...

We had another full week of activities, so one big post it is! 

Last Friday Tyler came home like this from preschool:

 They were talking about their upcoming field trip to the community center to watch a clown show.  You never know what that can mean, but it turned out great.  Memo the Clown was great with the kids, very funny, had puppets, and did some funny magic tricks.  The kids loved her! 

 Thursday we had Tyler's gymnastics class.  Another fun day, new things and new courses to go along. 

 Our only complaint being that she still called him a girl the whole class.  I would have corrected her after class, but this was her last time as she's back to school, so he'll have a new instructor this week and we can make sure she gets it right.  I mean really?  A girl?  I know his hair is long, but the rest of him just doesn't scream girl to me at all.  ????

Anyway, moving along...

Saturday, Cody had his first basketball class.  He had a great time and was moving the whole hour.  Their coach is strict with them to follow along and do things correctly, but in a good way. 

Warming up....

 Learning to jump stop so they have control over themselves when running up and down the court.

 Working on dribbling with right, then left, then both hands....

 Passing drills...

 Defense moves...

 Ending with a few shots....

Hoping next week they will get a bit of time to scrimmage. 

This week will bring us much of the same, minus field trips.  We are loving our active schedule! 

A bunny to call our own....

I'm not sure who's more excited about Miss Bun Bun's arrival, me or the kids!  We were able to take her from a friend and she seams to be getting along great in her new yard and home. 

 Tyler is really in love.  He's been very patient, for a 4 year old, and letting her come to him.  

He loves feeding her and was happy to give her a new toy this morning. 

Yay! It's very calming to go in the yard, sitting with a book and reading with her hopping around. 

Tyler does Gymnastics....

Thursday marked the start of a 6 week gymnastics class for Tyler.  (Thanks Grandma & Grandpa S!)

He had such a great time and I loved that he was in motion for 45 minutes. 

 They started with a round of follow the leader to warm up their bodies, followed by some stretching.

 Next they did a circuit  around the tumble track.

 Balance beam was a challenge for him, starting on the low one...

 After going through front, side and backwards on the low one, they moved to the higher one for the same.  He wasn't very sure and pretty much refused to go backwards until his instructor came to lend her hand. 

 Next they moved to the bars where the learned to hop off and land, as well as holding themselves up.

 They also learned to do a forward flip, then did some hanging with their feet on the bar and sideways like a possum.

 Next was swinging, straight legged and then with bended legs with knees up. 

 They did another circuit...

Finally they ended with a few minutes of bubble fun, because they are only 4 year olds and bubbles are still pretty awesome! 

As I said, he loved it!  Hoping to find a gym we can call home once this program ends.

Gearing up for the spring PTA season...

Here we go! 

Are you ready to be sick of me talking about PTA? 

You've been warned.....


As we start January, I started looking through the calendar and realizing that it's less than 4 months until carnival time, which for me means auction time!  I hit the ground running last year and was able to gather quite a bit of cool stuff from local companies.  This year I'm hoping to gather from local and national, which means I have to start now. 

So the call is out.  Do you have a product that we can auction off?  Do you have a service that we can use?  What about your brother's friend's second cousin? 


As we move into the next year, the schools are going to need all the help we can give them.  Numbers have been thrown down and the last thing we heard was that our district has to cut $30 million from their budget.  This is where PTA can step in and help our teachers with the things they need to help our kids succeed. 

We are also going to be selling car magnets so everyone can show their Pershing Panther Pride!  Tentatively, this will start in February and they will be $5 each.  Full color, made for an outdoor life of 5+ years, and printed and packed in the USA.  More to come on that soon....

Christmas...

With clear roads and sunshine we traveled up to Boise this year for Christmas. We were all ready to get away for a bit!

On Christmas Eve my brother and his family came over for fun, pizza and a few presents.

The kids played inside and out; riding bikes, playing cars, finding Waldo and games....

 Then we brought out the gingerbread to decorate, we needed a treat for Santa!

 After dinner we opened up a few presents as we wouldn't see the kids on Christmas day...

After reading "The Night Before Christmas" the boys snuggled into bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. 

All the elves went to work and before we knew it, our job was done!

 Stockings that were hung...

 Christmas exploded around the tree...

 That Christmas tree glow I love to see....

Tyler slept pretty well, Cody was up somewhere around 3am and never really went back to sleep. They were under strict orders that we were not to be woken up until 6am. So they did, right on the dot!

Santa came!

 Wonder....

 Everything he opened was "just what I wanted for Christmas!"

 Thanks to new Leapsters, we lost them (well, mostly Cody) for the rest of the day.

We had a wonderful turkey dinner with all our favorites and ended the night with some pumpkin pie and apple crisp. I'm pretty sure we stayed full all week!

 

 Once we made our way home to CA, we had Christmas with Keith's side of the family.

The boys made out like bandits, as they usually do!  Games galore!  We definitely had a Merry Christmas.

Winter Break...

We had a two week winter break from school over Christmas and we did our best to keep busy! 

Taking advantage of the break in the rain, we headed over the the skate park.  The boys have been asking to go with their scooters, finally today it wasn't full of big kids. 

They were trying to get up the ramps, but were lacking speed.  Finally convinced them to go half way and flip around...

They liked this box because they could get over both sides without stopping...

Tyler is the braver one and figured out how to ride down the ramps once he climbed to the top...

Next time they want to take their bikes, I haven't decided how I feel about this yet! 

While still at home we also fit in time to go to Wacky Tacky for some indoor play and to the roller rink.  We would be thrilled with a season pass to either, if they ever did such a thing! 

The day after Christmas we headed to the bowling alley in Meridian.  Things have changed since we've been!  Everything was super clean and the computers worked great the first time.  This alley also has mechanical bumpers, so when adding your name to the board, you can select whether you will use bumpers or not.  This was awesome because the boys had them and Keith and I didn't.

Aww, cute boys in bowling shoes! 

Keith took the first game, but Cody stomped all of us the 2nd one!

We set out another morning for the snow.  It probably wasn't the best day to go as the roads were pretty snowy and slick, but it was then or never.  Once we finally found the hill in Idaho City we were excited to try out the new sleds that Santa had brought. 

Unfortunately for us, there was too much snow, or at least too much powder for sledding.  We did our best to make a run and some older kids had found a nice shoot that the boys used as well.  Tubes are in order for next time! 

Cody did a lot of this...

We also took a trip to Wahooz!  in Meridian to play on the indoor structure and get in a few video games. 

Once we were home, we had one more day to sneak in a little fun; a Birthday party at Sky High...

I mean come on!  How can you not love that face?!?

We also made our way over to the stunt tramps where you can dive into the foam pit.  

Cody was doing a head first dive by the end...

"And then..."

Tyler was the king of the cannon ball...

 

And with that, we were back to school on Monday!  

(insert Mommy's happy dance)