Fireworks on July 3

On July 3 we go down to watch fireworks from Mission Bay. It is an amazing show and it is less crowded than the Fourth. So, here are some photos from it. We went down with one of my friends from the kid's school and Jared's sister Anna and her son came down too. It was a lot of fun. We went on a bike ride, played in the water, and watched an amazing, 25 minute long, firework show.

Andes Mint cupcakes

 

Alyssa made these cupcakes earlier in the month. They took her four hours, loads of frustration, and they didn't look as pretty as she wanted them to when she was done, but they tasted amazing! Four kinds of chocolate, creamy white chocolate center, and Andes mints on top. YUM!

Don't want to meet these guys

 

Congrats to my hard working guys who do taekwondo. They just earned their green belts; most of them passed with Excellent! I wouldn't want to meet them in a dark ally!

Beach day

On Saturday my sister came down from Phelan (Victorville area) and spent the day with us. We went to the beach and then came home and visited. It was a ton of fun in the sun! Arya won't go too close to the water unless she is carried. She loves to sit on the sand and eat it. Weird. Alyssa, Nathan, and Savannah were all out riding the waves. Alanna thought she could 'surf,' but left it to the older kids when a wave knocked her off of her boggie board.

Sneaky kids

On Saturday Jared and I had a little disagreement. Well, it was actually a big disagreement, a little fight. :) We don't have big disagreements that often. Normally there is some miscommunication, apologies, and it is all better. Our kids aren't use to little fights that we have about twice a year. They kind of band together and plan how to help us resolve it. It is actually pretty cute. Well, Saturday at lunch time we were in the middle of a little rift. The kids all left the table after lunch, meet in their secret meeting place (I think it is Alyssa's room, but I'm not sure), and they came up with this note writing plan. I didn't find out all of the pieces of this puzzle until Sunday night. But later on Saturday Savannah came and told me that Jared left me a note on my desk. Nathan had told Jared that I left him a note on his desk. So, I got the note Sunday night, and this was it:

Isn't that the funniest thing! The part I like best is that the kids wrote Jared taking the blame for the disagreement. Hmmmm. Is that because it was his fault or because they think I can do no wrong???

Ballet Recital-Alanna

This was Alanna's second little recital. The first one was in December and she did one dance with her class. She did a great job. The photos above are her with her make up and her with her best friend Analeah.

This recital they did two dances. The first one was about "When I grow up, I'll be happy as can be, like a birdie in a tree," and Alanna sang the song over and over for the past few weeks. She did a great job at this dance, smiled, danced, had a great time! She is the one on the left side in this first photo and in the second photo she is second from left.

Isn't this the cutest! Look at those pigtails fly! Alanna is second from the left. Analeah is the one jumping the highest!

The second dance they did was to the Jungle Book and they all dressed like jungle animals. It was a cute tap dance and this is the dance they did at the December recital. Alanna wore her lion Halloween costume from two years ago! She loved getting the make up on, but when it was time to go out and preform, she stood there the whole time! My friend Amy has the practice videos posted on her blog at: http://familiaayala.blogspot.com/ It is really cute and you can hear the teacher trying to get Alanna to dance. In the blue skirt dance Alanna has curlers in her hair, but she is the third from the right. In the second dance she is the second from the left, the one who stands through most of it! Now this was the practice, but for the real one, she was as pictured in the photo below for the entire dance!

Ballet Recital-Alyssa

Alyssa has been in ballet for about 5 years now. She loves it and loves to preform. In the group photo above, she is the standing girl on the far right.

In this photo on the left, she is the furthest on the left side. In the photo below, she is right in the middle.

This was her first Spring recital when she had barely turned four years old, 6 years ago. (she is kneeling in the center of the photo.) I can't believe how fast time has gone. I love looking back at the photos from her first experiences of something, such as ballet, up to now.