First day of school

Ninja and Gambit were very excited for school to start a few months ago. Gambit especially because he's finally old enough to ride the bus and go to school with big brother. I really love Gambit's kindy teacher (the same one that Ninja had) and so far, Ninja's 2nd grade teacher seems to be really good for him. Both of the boys are very academically bright and enjoy the challenge of school.

Ninja - 2nd grade

 

Gambit - kindergarten

 

We've managed to get a good routine in the mornings. Now that I'm working I'm forced to get myself up and dressed along with the boys. No more heading to the bus stop in my pajamas! The big boys love riding the bus and I love that it stops right in front of our house. Rocket loves when the bus pulls up, but is disappoints every time it pulls away and he's not on it.

 

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Improptu Camping Trip

I went out to lunch with my mom, mother-in-law, and sisters for my birthday.  It was great fun with yummy food.  While eating (on a wednesday), we decided we should go camping that weekend and enjoy the hot weather coming in.  So we did!  Let me mention that I *hate* camping.  It's dirty, the toilets are communal (puke), and I'm terrified that a bear is going to come slash through my tent while I'm sleeping.  However, I actually had a wonderful time and more importantly, the boys did too!

Vanity

Before my sister left me and went back to school....we were bored one day and decided to get ourselves all dolled up and take pictures.  I hadn't done that since high school (because let's face it, it's kind of a lame and immature thing to do), but I had fun laughing and acting a little crazy for an afternoon!  I'm not posting these pictures because I think they are particularly noteworthy, I'm posting them so that when I'm 45 and complaining that I have too many wrinkles I can look back fondly at these and think, "Ah...the good ol' days!".  And because I'm never in pictures since I'm usually taking them. Oh, and photo editing is a marvelous thing and can make you look far better than you do in real life.  I think I will simply wear a box over my head with a wonderfully edited picture of myself to save me the hassle of actually doing this makeup/hair stuff everyday.

Fun at the Park

A local park has free concerts during the summer.  I decided to take the boys (and Ninja's friend) to one and it was so fun!  It was really hot, but there was a great water feature for the boys to run and splash in.

 

 

Gambit got to make 'gak' at the science table. 

Belated Summer Happenings

Things we did over the summer....

Rocket enjoyed his new "momo-eycle"

 

 

 

Trips to the zoo

 

 

Birthday lunches 

 

 

 

And free lunches at the school 

 

 

 

Yummy dinners in Mammie's backyard

 

Beaches

This post was started and never finished.  A few months late, but it was a fun trip I don't want to forget.

We spent Memorial Day (2012) weekend up in Long Beach with Antonio's family.  It's our little "last hurrah" before Uncle Camby leaves on his mission.  The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still had fun.  The best part was when Gambit lost Uncle Camby's frisbee.

Camby:  Gambit, have you seen my frisbee?
Gambit:  Oh, yeah.  I buried it in the sand.
Camby:  Um...do you know where?
Gambit:  No. (said with a cheeky little grin on his face)

Thus started the search for the frisbee in the sand.  We followed him aimlessly trying to find where he had buried it, to no avail.  We eventually gave up and went back to the beach house.  Antonio's aunt, who was visiting from California, enjoys photography and spent most of her time documenting the trip behind the camera.  While looking through the photos the next day she came across this one of Gambit.  Pure glee on his face.

We never found the lost frisbee.  Nolan even said a prayer in hopes of being guided to it.  That turned into a lesson on "Sometimes we don't find things that we lose even when we pray, so we can learn how to take care of things better."  Nonetheless, it was a fabulous trip.

 

The whole crew.

 



Melting

Antonio has been working very hard at losing some extra weight he'd put on over the years.  His office participated in a weight loss challenge and the competition was just enough motivation to get himself moving!  Over the past year, he has really gotten into the world of road biking and really enjoys his time riding.  When the weather is nice enough he rides his bike to work.  Here are the before and after photos of his weight loss that were posted within the company.  They haven't announced the official winners yet, but we are fairly certain that he got 1st place!  (and yay that there is a cash prize for that)  He lost 47lbs.