June sure did sneak up on us!! Summer is right around the corner (literally 14 days away) and all of the school year activities have come to an end. We are looking forward to an amazing summer and while we finish out these last two weeks of school we had plenty of "summer like" fun to make it feel like summer really was upon us.
Rich ran the SD half marathon on June 3rd so the day prior we went downtown to pick up his race packet and roamed around Seaport Village area for lunch and the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, although this was the day when my eye really swelled up after being stung by a bee on the cheek on Thursday but as long as I kept my sunglasses on I was fine!!
We were swimming one Sunday afternoon and Uncle Bubba came over to cool off, too! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him with the kids but we did have the kids pose for us!
Since I stopped my Stroller Strides membership at the beginning of June, the little girls and I went to Miramar Lake one morning to run and feed the ducks. They love it!
Joseph and Julia have a complex relationship-they can be the best of friends at times but at other times he can really nag/pick on her and it really bothers her which normally means that it ends up with her in tears. Not sure why he acts like that to her (well, I mean we know they're siblings and all) but we've had conversations with him about that she is 4 years younger than him and that he just needs to let her be 4 years younger-he'll just kind of talk down to her and make comments with a tone that belittles her at times which just isn't fair or right to her. She can also be a little over emotional around him and let small things bother her so it can be a challenge at times with the two of them. So, when I see a moment like this, it just makes my heart so happy.
The girls and I just hanging out before picking up Joseph one afternoon.
We love the grassy area after school. Although some days it can get a little rough with a lot of elementary age kids who have been in school all day and need to get their energy out but overall it is such a nice stop on the way home from school-I enjoy catching up with friends and the kids love playing. Charlotte has been into piggy backs recently and "brah brah" is the best at giving the rides!!
Pool time has begun on a regular basis on the weekends as well as during the week now.
On June 7th Joseph's class put on a Reader's Theater performance. They read aloud 5 short stories-Joseph was in 3 out of the 5 and did an excellent job in each role he had. My favorite was his role as The Big Bad Wolf in "The Three Little Pigs"-he read clearly, loudly and with such enthusiasm that it was such a treat to listen to. We are so proud of how far he has come with his reading-he truly enjoys it and it shows.
I love watching these kids play together. They had a big box from Julia and Ava and the next thing I knew had this amazing set up and were all playing together so nicely!
On June 8th we had Jeremy spend the night for Joseph's first friend sleepover at our house. There was so much excitement and they had a great time; although, I think Charlotte might have scarred him a little bit running around naked all morning. Jer has only one brother so when he comes over to our house it is quite the eye opening experience!
On Saturday, June 9th we headed to Del Mar beach with friends from Westwood. One of our good family friends are moving to Arizona so a bunch of us got together before they left and had an awesome beach afternoon together. It was also a great way to kickoff the last week of school!
The Ozecks came up to swim on Sunday, June 10th. We had such a fun afternoon swimming, grilling and hanging out. Aunt Laura has always been so great about helping Julia swim and she is now moving onto Charlotte! Charlotte definitely wants to keep up with the big kids so have a feeling she'll be swimming sooner rather than later.
Charlotte looking mighty cute with her pigtails one day but when you ask her to smile now she gives you this big "Chhhheeeeeessssse" and always tilts her head back so the pictures aren't as cute as they should be!!
She is always trying to keep up with the big kids and one afternoon in the cul de sac she borrowed our neighbor, Julia's, scooter and was scooting around like she owned the place!
And then she's walking around naked in heels...oh Charlotte!!! She is doing a great job of going pee on the little potty which is why she's naked the majority of the time that we are home!
We kicked off the first official day of summer with a pool party at the Tirado's house with the Laugesen crew, too. We swam, played with water balloons, had lunch, and just had a great first day of summer together.
On Saturday, June 16th we went to our 2nd annual "Start of Summer" dinner at the Corvette Diner. This year the Laugesens, Vuongs and Tirados were able to make it and everyone had a great time!
I joined LA Fitness beginning this summer so I'd be able to get consistent workouts in. Charlotte cries when I drop them off but the older kids are so great with her carrying her in and distracting her and she always stops within a minute. Here she is hugging "brah brah" outside of the gym when I asked her why she was so sad when I dropped her off that day. So sweet.
We hit up the zoo the first week off summer with all of the cousins and had a great afternoon!!
Joseph lost his tooth at the zoo!!
SO much pool time already this summer!!! The girls have green hair so that is how much we are in it!
My dear friend Libby is expecting her third baby at the beginning of August so we got together to celebrate her on June 22nd. We had a private chef come to Adriana's house to prepare dinner and we had such a fun time catching up and laughing and just being together! Sot thankful for these sweet friends!!
Rich had to check on a project on the morning of Saturday, June 23rd, so I took the kiddos over to the club for a few hours to burn off some energy before the recital that afternoon. I just love these four.
And, I LOVE this picture of Ella. She has grown up so much over these past 6 months especially and we just love how confident she is especially when being active. She is strong and loves all things physical-to climb, run, ride, swing, swim, flip-all of it! (Her hair actually looks decent in this picture, too, which is a plus because normally even 10 minutes after brushing it I feel like it looks like a rat's nest! I love it long though so want to keep it long but it needs some help!!).
The girls' dance recital was held on June 23rd at Poway Community Performing Arts Center. There were two shows-one at 2:00 and one at 7:00 but thankfully Ella's class was only slotted to perform at the 2:00 show so we pulled Julia from the 7:00 show and just attended the 2:00 show. Personally, I think at this age one show is just fine and they could have arranged it better where the younger kids performed at the first show and the older kids at the second show instead of both shows being over 2 hours long but that's just my opinion! Ha. Anyways...they absolutely LOVED the recital and we LOVED supporting them. We left Charlotte home with Aunt Lindsay and Finn but Nani and Poppa were also able to join us. We were unable to get seats together and Poppa and Nani had seats in the third row and both girls saw them and waved to them during their dances which just made me smile from ear to ear. Neither seemed nervous at all and they left saying that they want to dance again next year and just raved all about it. Both dances brought tears to our eyes and we are just so proud of them for trying something new, for working hard and for supporting one another.
Flowers from Daddy and Joseph
Julia kept saying, "This is my first time that I got flowers from Daddy!"
We are so blessed to have Nani and Poppa in our lives!
Joseph was a great supporter and was so proud of the girls, too!
After the recital we dropped the kids off at my parent's and Rich and I headed out to celebrate his birthday. We went to Harrah's casino for dinner and to see Dane Cook. We had such a fun night, but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures. On Sunday we both got up early to go fro a run and then we were back at my parents by 10 a.m. to pick the kids up to take them to Sea World!! We had free tickets that expired by July 1st so we had to fit it in before we left for Georgia. We surprised the kids by meeting the Ozecks there which always means for even more fun and we just had the best day! The kids were awesome and loved it all!
We checked out the new rides!
And then did some of the favorites like feeding the sting rays, saw a few shows and other favorite exhibits such as the Arctic.
Such a fun day!!
Little Charlotte is growing up way too fast! She put on Ella's top all by herself and was prancing around wanting everyone to look at her. She has quite the personality for not even being 2 yet-seriously, sometimes I look at her and think she should be at least 4 by the things she does and ways that she acts. She's too funny!
The last week of June we met up with our RBCPC friends for a swim date at Dusty's pool. The kids had a blast as usual and it was so fun to catch up with my friends!
Chase was one of Joseph's very first friends when we moved to San Diego from RBCPC preschool. Although they go to different elementary schools we meet up with them every summer and during the school breaks and these two pick up just where they left off-its been so fun watching them grow up together!
Such a great group of kids!
We are full swing into swim lessons and Julia and Charlotte are making so much progress. They both really look forward to them and the hardest part is keeping Charlotte from jumping in the water while Julia swims. Thankfully Joseph and Ella will take turns taking her out so she is satisfied enough without me having to get in ;). Julia is getting really close to swimming on her own and Charlotte has no trouble at all with her face in or anything like that-she has no fear whatsoever so it is more just keeping her safe at this point!! I love that Ms. Tracy, our swim instructor, lets them all swim during the lessons because it makes it much more fun for everyone and is our Wednesday morning "activity"!
We had a great end of the school year and summer is off to an amazing start. I am so grateful that I get to spend my days, especially our summer days with wide open schedules, with these kids. We put a few rules into place (including a system to keep everyone's attitudes in check complete with a paper clip that can be moved up or down which affects technology time and that has worked amazingly well thus far!!) so hoping with some structure and a lot of fun, it will be an amazing summer!
