Big Day for Pre-K

Ashlyn was beyond excited for her graduation. She had her dress picked out and hung on display days beforehand. On the morning of, she was completely dressed with tights, shoes and even necklace by 7:30a.m. Unfortunately, she had swim lessons at 10:00 and school doesn't even start until noon. Minor glitch.

She arrived and met up with her bff Caroline who happened to be practically matching. That's what bff's end up doing.

The procession walking in . . .

The program consisted of singing all the songs they learned throughout the year. Ashlyn introduced the song "You are My Sunshine"

And led the class in the actions . . .

"Thank You!"

She also had a solo in the song "I Like Me" where she sang:

I like my heart

It's my very finest part

It's the part that shares

It's the part that cares

So I like my heart!

After hugging the teacher, the children 'cross the bridge' and say the name of the school they'll be attending. "Maple Elementary!"

First day of school

Last day of school

She loved that little had and wore it all day long. She loved her beautiful dress and wanted to be the graduation princess all day long. This picture is taken during Christian's swimming lesson late in the afternoon.

Saturday night I took Christian to his Dodger Team party where they swam, ate, and celebrated like 7/8 year old boys.

Aren't You Wondering If There's Been Any Progress?

The shower and bathroom project has been moving right along, albeit at a snail's pace.

IT WILL BE WORTH THE WAIT.

It's looking pretty fantastic, isn't it? Even with just a cement floor.

Now we're talking! It's really coming together.

Just when one part is looking good and the dust is all cleaned up, it's time to create more mess.

John installed a pocket door, so had to move the door frame over to create room for the pocket which required knocking out part of the wall and building a whole new door frame.

We wish we could keep the nice, wide opening which grants a better view to the beautiful shower.

This is standing in the shower looking out. Hello mess.

Here's my shower head. It's installed! At my perfect height! John's side is at his perfect height!

One down, three to go.

In case there is doubt, the hole in the wall where my medicine cabinet is going to go was created a year and a half ago...

Yup, there's the date in close up so there's no doubt. This next week marks the TWO year anniversary when this project started. Don't be jealous.

The kids asked why dad wrote the Dodgers logo on the wall. Little do they know yet of abbreviations for things like True Love Always. And kids these days think they own the texting language - ha! Just check out our yearbooks...they're all in code. K.I.T!

Look, the wall's back.
And there is a door! It slides. It glides! It hides in a pocket!

On another front, the school and sports year is coming to a close (yeah!!!) and with that come all the festivities. We put on a end-of-season family track club picnic for the entire club so I got to go to Costco and buy 500 of their large cookies. Oh I got some comments alright. The entire basket was completely full of boxes of cookies with Ashlyn riding in the front. The bigger surprise was having 500 cookies in the trunk of the car which took up the entire trunk of Jon's car - the kids' eyes were bulging out of their sockets when I went to pick them up from school.
We also had 100 boxes of pizza delivered for the picnic. Glad I didn't have to pick those up, too! It's hard to gage exactly how much food to buy when you don't know if there will be 325 or 499 people attending, but we did it perfectly as there was only one slice of pizza left when everyone was gone and the stadium was cleaned up, and only about a dozen or so of the oatmeal raisin cookies. Phew!

My cute niece Domonique and her friend came to town from college for a quick little summer vacation visit so we all got to go out to lunch at the Islands. It's totally awesome that Grandma Carol is in town for it, too.

Ashlyn had her last dance class

and Christian had his last baseball game. They made it to game #5 in the playoffs before they lost. One more and it would have been for the Championship game. Go Dodgers!

Look at that teeny tiny cuteness.

Next up, preschool graduation (I mean Pre-K! She always corrects me).

6th Grade Awards Night

Our Middle School has an awards assembly at the end of the year where they recognize certain kids who have achieved academic excellence or other exemplary behavior. Lucky for us they have separate nights for each grade or we would have been there all night. Not only is each student presented, but a paragraph is read about them as well, which can make it quite lengthy. Luckily it only took 90 minutes. It was a pleasure to see so many kids that we know, many since preschool, how much they've grown, and the strides they have made.

Since John is out of the country, my parents came to be a part of this. We missed John's parents, too as Mom is still in the hospital. Lucky for us my lovely Grandma Carol just came in town so she was able to be a part of this night which I think is a special thing for a kid to have her great grandma present!

The school only gave each student 3 tickets which is certainly not enough for my family unless it was just going to be John and me attending. Since my grandma was in town, I needed another ticket and we tried twice with the front office to get one, finally talking to someone we know. Extra tickets were not available and there was a long waiting list at that! Lucky for us she gave me the lowdown and put me in contact with the event coordinator (who happens to be Madison's PE teacher). I gave my sob story: great grandma is visiting from out of town, is handicapped, needs to be with us, etc. Not only did she have an extra ticket delivered to Madison's 3rd period class, but she set up 4 reserved seats in the FRONT row for us. That's a big deal considering I arrived 30 minutes early and the line to get in snaked around the front of the school. There's no way we would have had a decent seat! What a great night!! I guess Madison's 'exceptional manners' are evident even in PE for her teacher to so graciously accommodate us.

Academic Achievement in Mathematics

and

Principal's Award for Educational Achievement

"Madison is an exemplary student.

She embodies everything that makes up the definition of success. She works hard and is always prepared. Maddy is also a very lovely young lady with exceptional manners and good friends.

The teachers appreciate all the effort she puts forth to be successful this year, especially in math. It is a pleasure being her teachers and inspiring her successes."

Happy Mother's Day and Track Highlights

Ashlyn's preschool always puts on a lovely Mother's Day lunch. I think this is my 6th time going to it! Ashlyn introduced the song, "You are my sunshine" and they sang so sweetly.

These pictures of her jumping off the jungle gym at the park crack her up so much I had to include them.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Yesterday was the JV Finals Track Meet in Moorpark.

It was a beautiful, cool day and the kids did great in all their events. I think this was Christian's first meet in which he was able to be there the whole day since his baseball game wasn't until later in the afternoon.

Madison got some serious air on her long jump

and Brooke did really well in the 200. I think it was the socks. :-)

Next week is the Varsity Finals and Brooke made a 4x100 team which should be very quick. Other than that, we are done with track! Now onto the Club Picnic.

Things are Moving Right Along This Week

We are loving the beautiful, warm spring weather. It's perfect for going for a walk to the park.

And also great to get out of the house where it doesn't smell like tar.

But that's not for long as things are moving quite nicely . . .

Monday and Tuesday:

The wall tiles are going up

Wednesday:

The deco border

Thursday:

The shampoo boxes and benches

It's getting closer! Andrew is getting quite the workout going up and down our stairs fifty thousand times a day to cut the tile with the wet saw that is on the front lawn. Randy is meticulous from the way he tarps the entire flooring from the shower all the way to to the front porch, to the way the very last tile is cut and placed with precision. And he leaves each day with everything neat and clean, only to get it all out and start over again in the morning.

On Thursday my friend Amanda invited several lovely ladies over for a super sewing day to make splendid summer skirts. She had a cute pattern for a flattering A-Line and we all went to Joann's to pick out some fabulistic fabric and got together with machines whizzing. I really wish I thought to take a picture of us 8 girls and our cute creations. I'm amazed that I actually pulled it off and made this darling skirt, complete with lining and zipper! I bought more fabric to make another (couldn't decide on just one!) so we'll definitely have to get together again. It was so much fun to be with talented and wonderful friends while the kids played.

Mine is a light and airy white with pin tucks and lace criss-crossing the linen-like fabric. Next up is a bold black and white floral and after that I want to get even more adventurous by choosing fun and bright colors.

Perhaps something like this:

That would be bold and courageous for me! (right mom?)

Stink! Stank! Stunk!

The bathroom project continues with some great progress this week. Now that it's framed and plumbed, it's ready to be prepped for tile. First and foremost is making sure everything is water tight. Nothing could be worse than having a leak underneath the gorgeous tile that was installed. The best way to go about this is to HOT MOP the basin with tar.

You've seen trucks like this before and know the potent fumes that surround it, usually for a roofing project. Just imagine confining said fumes in one little indoor space.

Stink!

Stank!

Stunk!

The fumes penetrate and permeate everything. The stink was in our hair. The stank was in our clothes. The house stunk for hours, and upstairs for days; so much so that John and I couldn't sleep in our room and had to sleep downstairs for two nights.

Travis was great, proficient, and frankly quite brave to be able to withstand the 500-degree tar and the malodorous air all day every day.
Fifteen gallons of hot tar, 160 square feet of tar paper, 200 pounds of mortar, and rolls of fiberglass tape were used to make this 100% leakproof.

These pictures may look a little blurry, but that is haze from the smoking tar.

Lastly, Travis fills the shower with water to ensure there are no leaks. This is also a great step to make sure the John's plumbing is holding up!

A glossy, reflective pool.

The bench looks so slick and shiny; if only it smelled as pretty as it looks.

Next Step: Insulation

We wanted more insulation to help with the noise since the kids' rooms are right across the hall from here so John insulated every nook and cranny possible. Hopefully that will help alleviate the blaring noise that turning on the water causes.

The shampoo boxes are sealed tight just in case a drop of moisture wanted to get in - not going to happen!

Up Next: Paper

On Wednesday, Randy and his helper Andrew lined the whole space with special paper

then covered it with superior moisture and mold protection backer board.

Then on Thursday, the next step is starting the tile!

Careful measuring, precise cutting, a lot of calculating is required.

Break for the weekend, but there is definitely some great progress being made!!!

Luckily we have other places to be to escape the stink and this is always a fun way to pass the time; little girls in tutus never go out of style. I will be very sad when I don't have any more little girls to dress up in tutus and take to dance class.