For Your Entertainment . . .

Drew will showcase his harmonica AND dancing skills:

And another one:

Bike Rider and a Hike up Camel's Back

At the beginning of the school year Isla set a goal for herself - to ride her bike to school by the end of the year.  With the help of Papa and Papa Randy (we have found that Isla is not a good student with her parents as teachers), Isla reached her goal with a month left of school to go!

So with this new found skill, we have been on many bike rides to start off the summer.

Last weekend we rode our bikes to Camel's Back park. I can't tell you how nice it is to finally ride my bike with my kids!:

Our goal is to try and get Drew off of training wheels this summer.

In this week's edition of things my kids do that surprise me, Isla convinced Drew to climb up Camel's Back while we were playing at the park.  I followed behind him, waiting for him to tell me he was tired and he didn't want to climb anymore:

But, he made it (okay I may have had to push his booty up the last steep part, but I didn't have to carry him!).  So proud of these two:

Kindergarten Graduation - Isla

Well she is an official first grader!  Longfellow had their graduation ceremony on the last day of school and they did a great job.  Isla was so excited:

This girl has made such leaps and bounds this year.  Even her teacher commented that she really came out of her shell the last couple months of school.  Her voice was one of the loudest during the songs:

I also learned something new - Isla wants to be a vet instead of a teacher:

We will really miss Ms. Cain.  Isla cried the morning after school let out for summer because she missed her teacher already:

It was fun to visit with the kids and families after the graduation.  I'm so excited to see what next year brings:

Longfellow Carnival - 2015

Last week we attended our first Longfellow carnival, which I'm pretty sure was Drew's idea of heaven - five different bounce houses with slides.  Once we got there this kid took off running and never looked back:

The biggest hit of the carnival was the dunk tank.  I sat with Isla and watched kid after kid get dunked when she turned to me and said "Mom, I want to go in the dunk tank".  After I removed my jaw from the floor I made sure she knew what she was getting herself into (going under water, wet clothes) and she still seemed determined so I went and waited in line with her knowing that once we got to the front of the line she would bow out.

Well thirty minutes later (I told you it was a big hit) she got right up on the dunk seat and three tosses later she was in the water:

I still can't believe that she did it! I was so proud of her!  There are a couple of cracks in that shy exterior.

Drew did stand in line for the dunk tank as well.  You should have heard the kids talking about him ("oh look at the cute baby", "can he even swim?"), but he ignored them all and got to the front of the line.  He climbed up on to the seat and then promptly told Ryan to take him down:

 Good effort buddy!  There is always next year.

Lake Las Vegas 2015

For the third year in a row, Ryan and I joined our friends down on Lake Las Vegas for a weekend getaway.  We decided to avoid the strip this year and just stay close to the house.

Priorities people - the cooler full of drinks gets shotgun down to the pool:

This didn't suck:

We went to the #1 rated restaurant in Henderson.  While the food was fantastic, the decor was really confusing.  You had a fake river captain by a grand piano with a lighted Eiffel tower topiary and numerous other decorations that I can't remember - sensory overload, just like the rest of Vegas:

On our way to the Fiesta after dinner (I don't even know what is going on this picture - all I know is that it is fantastic):

The Fiesta!!:

We definitely were at the lower end of the age range at the Fiesta.  We had some ladies school us in line dancing:

We just rolled with it and made our own fun:

Last night we took it easy and rented a boat for a cruise around Lake Las Vegas.  No Ryan and I are not back in Italy, just the classy harbor at Lake Las Vegas:

The crew:

The captains:

The view:

As always, we had so much fun and feel so lucky to have a great group of friends that we can let loose with and laugh our faces off! It was nice to refill our parent buckets and miss our kids.  How could you not miss a face like this:

Thanks to Papa and GiGi for watching the kids while we were gone and for buying Drew his new helmet.