Summer Festivities!!!

Here we are riding the golf cart cruiser around the Newport Dunes! It was a high light for the kids. Robyn and Dave came down to celebrate Coby's first birthday, and threw a really fun party at the Newport Dunes. 
Livi and daddy having a photo shoot ( you should see how many pictures they took!). 
Here is the darling birthday boy himself. We were lucky enough to have them stay at our house for a night so the kids could play and we went on one of the worlds biggest helium balloons! Up anyone?
Here is Jilli enjoying the wait.
Here are the kids and Rangi playing frisbee while we wait...Dave and Sydney played soccer (not pictured). 
waiting for the big moment...
All safely on the ground, it was not scary at all and the kids loved it! 
I know when it rains it pours. We have already had so much fun and we are only three days in! 

Summer kick off party!

This year we had a party on the last day of school to celebrate summer and for a chance to hang out with friends before everyones gone. The kids jumped on the trampoline...
Climbed the rockwall...ate hot dogs...
and jumped in the bouncer. The end of the year is so sad for me because it means my kids are growing up, next year Livi will be at school all day and I will miss having her home so much. The party was a good way for me to stay so busy getting ready that I couldn't feel too sad about the fact that another year has passed! 

Kindergarten Grad!

This is Livi at her kindergarten graduation. It was a beach theme and all the kids made their shirts. Livi had a little quartet, it was cute and she practiced it at home for weeks!
Livi with her best friends!
Every day when we picked up Livi they would hug!
It's over, it's done! but wasn't kindergarten FUN!  

Livi also had a great year and great teacher, and grew up so much.

Last Day of School

Rigdon had a great year in second grade, he learned A LOT!!!
Here is his fun friend Abbie enjoying the silly string that their teacher shot at all of them! 
I loved to hear the stories that Rig would tell me about Mrs. Hunt. She was a really fun teacher and you can tell that she really enjoys the kids. He told me that she would sing "you got the whole world in your hands..." everyday to them. I loved that! 
Here Rigdon is high 5-ing the leopard. CPL's rallies are a lot of fun. ( This is where they recognize the kids who get awards, it is brilliant because they play music and have all the kids come up together, so the parents aren't bored out of their minds!) 

The Girls Dance Recital

This is me and Jilli at the END of the recital. No I am not making a new fashion statement that was Livi's hat from her tap dance.
My parents came which was a real treat, the girls felt so special to have grandma and grandpa there to watch. 
These are bad pictures, but this is Livi's ballet dance to the little mermaid song. Livi was so cute because she made the cutest facial expressions. 
Caroline can be seen here wearing her dog ears for "who let the dogs out" . She got some stage fright and mostly stood there, she would do the bare minimum (as seen here) to fit into the dance. I was coaxing and begging and bribing and doing the dance moves, all to no avail... she doesn't like the spotlight. I was so sad because at class she was so cute and animated the whole year! 
Livi and her darling friend Sarah, I hope they are friends forever! 
These moves were nowhere to be seen on the stage!
...but these moves were. Livi did great in all of her dances and even blew kisses to the audience at the end. 
Dancing Queens!

Swim Lessons???

This is Caroline giving me a little wave, she is very proud of all her accomplishments in swim lessons no matter how small they may be. (I will give her credit though because she is almost swimming now).
The bathing beauty herself!
This is the view from our balcony, I have to admit I LOVE this weather. (not necessarily for swim lessons-this may have contributed to Carolines reluctance to swim) We have had thunder and lightning and awesome clouds and little rain storms. It has been cool and beautiful-nothing like the last few weeks of school should be but we are enjoying the change of pace. 

Rig the gymnast

Rigdon (and Livi) just finished their year at gymnastics. Rigdon loved it and he was the best in his class most of the time. His size lends himself to gymnastics. 

Memorial day

Well I had this really good post written about memorial day, but blogger went out and I lost the whole thing; So now I have lost my fire to re-write it. In essence I love this country. I am so grateful to all of the men who have served, when you get a chance...thank a veteran. They were young boys who grew up fast and served valiantly. On memorial day we went to a service, listened to the band, heard some speakers and my personal favorite was the 21 gun salute. I hope my kids will love America the way I do, even with all of it's flaws it is still the best country in the world! 

May...

In May I also tried to get a good picture of all four kids for which you can say..."better luck in June." 

May...

Our peach tree is ahead of the season so we have already had our harvest. This year I made a peach pie completely from scratch (Rangi claims the best peach pie ever, I think he just likes pie and wants to encourage more). I also made some peach jam, all in all I love having fruit trees and trying new things.  
This sweet little girl is already 4 months old (actually as of this post will be 5 months in 10 days). I can't believe how fast time really goes. She rolls over, LOVES her brother and sisters, and is a very smiley baby-I love getting her up from naps because she is so happy she can't maintain eye contact! 
After her bath and her favorite time of day!
Mother's Day... this post is so late that all I can say is that Rangi made a great dinner, treated me like a queen and makes me feel like a better mother than I probably am, that being said I love being a mom more than anything I have ever done before and hope my kids always know how much I love them. Tribute to my own mom... she is the reason I love to learn and value everything beautiful. I love you mom! (there is more to her than that but I want to save some things for the next 50 mother's day posts). 
Caroline and Jilli, twins and friends forever!