San Diego, part 1

 Chuck had a conference in San Diego and I of course had to tag along.  I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to visit Amy and Brandon.  We spent the first part of the week at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.  We had a view of the Coronado bridge from out room.

 The bonus was that Angela came out at the same time.  We enjoyed hiking around the tide pools.

 It was chilly and very May gray while we were there.

 But the scenery was still beautiful

 Of course we ate out at some great restaurants and got some good shopping in too.

 Ang and I bummed around Coronado while Chuck and Amy worked. 

 Chuck was done by the afternoon.  We picked him up and headed over to Balboa park

 The craziest part of the trip was reuniting with a dear high school friend.  Her husband is finishing up fellowship and met Chuck because he will be interviewing for jobs this fall/winter!  Maybe, we can convince them to move to Peoria.

 Amy took us to this amazing dessert spot, Extraordinary desserts.  These desserts tasted as good as they looked.

 Angela's last morning there we went out to brunch in La Jolla.

 We walked around and saw the sea lions

It's crazy how close people get to them.

Muffins with mom, etc

In May I get to have breakfast at school with the kids.  They always do a nice job with the Muffins with Moms event.

This year they added a photo booth

 May also brings explore more day.  The kids get to spend the day exploring non traditional subjects.

 Evelyn taking care of Sasha for me.  She's giving her a lecture on how she needs her paws dried off before she can walk around the house.  Such a little mini boss.

 Carter's class took a wonderful field trip to Camp Big Sky.  They got to fish, boat and play lawn games.  It's a handicap accessible camp run by volunteers.

 The kids had a wonderful time.  I think it's fantastic the teachers found a field trip that all the students in the class could attend and have so much fun.

 Evelyn's friend, Sienna had a Minnie Mouse birthday party at Monkey Joes.  The kids had the place to themselves and had a blast.  I love this group of kiddos.

 Grandma and Grandpa came on Grandpa's birthday.  We took him to Alexander's steak house to celebrate.  Carter had fun helping Dad and Grandpa grill the steaks.

double digits

 May started out with a May day surprise from Evelyn's friend, Liv.  It the first time we have gotten a May day basket.  The kids had so much fun with it we may deliver some next year.

 We can't believe this guy has entered the double digit club!  He chose to go to Jonah's for his birthday dinner.  He wanted crab legs!

 They gave him a ginormous piece of chocolate cake.  He was only able to eat about half of it before calling it quits.

He opened some of his presents

 Including this ant farm from Tita Amy and Brandon

 All 3 kiddos found the ants quite interesting.

 The gel farm was neat and easy to maintain

 We didn't have to feed or water them because the ants got all they needed from the gel

 We let him keep it until they started to chew on the rubber on the lid. We didn't want those ants roaming the house!

 Carter didn't want a birthday party.  He did request a Harry Potter cake.

He loved it!

music program

 Audrey had her 1st grade music program, Dinostars!  She had to dress as an explorer.

 She had 2 speaking parts and did a great job with them.

 With a few of her friends

 My safari explorer had to pose with the dinosaur

 A couple of trees were donated to Dunlap Grade.  Carter was one of the few chosen to help plant them.

 It was the first thing he told me about that day when he got home.

Peoria Ballet celebrated their 50th anniversary.  We took the girls to the performance and then it was just adults at the dinner and reception.  It was a fun night out celebrating dance.

end of April

Evelyn doesn't have preschool on Fridays.  Those are our lazy morning days.

 I get to sip my coffee and Evelyn gets to eat cereal while watching cartoons.  Sasha gets snuggles and the occasional dropped cereal.

 Audrey's girl scout troop had a really cute tea party.

 They all got to keep their place setting.  The girls had a blast.

 Audrey's friend, Lily is moving at the end of the school year.  Lily had Audrey and Emily over for a slumber party themed play date.

 They wore their pajamas, brought their favorite stuffed animal, ate pizza, made ice cream sundaes and played a lot!

 The girls didn't want to go home at the end of the night!

 Carter enjoyed pizza and bowling with some of his friends from church

A's b-day party

Audrey kept asking for a birthday party at Elite gymnastics academy.  It's where she took tumbling at the time. We had to wait a few weeks after her birthday due to her birthday falling over spring break.

 The foam pit is her favorite spot in the gym

 I think it turned out to be everyone's favorite spot

 They were allowed to use all the equipment during the party

 The highlight was the zipline

 Carter even went backwards

 Evelyn didn't do the zipline but she had fun on the trampoline

 Audrey also requested to have her own personal cake.  She picked out cupcakes for everyone else.

 singing happy birthday

 It was a fun group of some of her friends.

 There's always a silly pose