Happy 4th of July!

What a wonderful 4th of July we had!  It was full of family, friends, fun, traditions, and of course fireworks!  In the morning, we walked again in the annual Push 'em Pull 'em Parade in Ventura.  Every year I am amazed - not at the number of people walking in the parade, but by those who line the streets to watch the mass march down Main Street!

 

Going along with our tradition, for the fourth year in a row we walked with our friends the Fortunati Family!  It's amazing how big the kids have grown over the year.  And for what ever reason, all of the kids like to wear costumes too!  Such a funny yet fun tradition!

 

Last year Olivia slept in the Ergo, and this year she did better than I expected with sitting in the wagon!  It helped that 3/4 of the way into the parade, just the time when I figured she would start trying to climb out!, she figured out how to unwrap a lollipop and enjoyed that for the remainder of the parade!  Since it kept her in the wagon and happy, the rest of us were happy too!

 

Steve and I and the masses!

 

Julie and I!  The hat ladies!

 

In the afternoon, we ventured over to our church for a BBQ!  It was a fun-filled afternoon with great food, fun games, and of course friends!  The kids had a blast just running around, riding in a bike parade (Faith was the leader - marching out in front since she is not able to ride a bike or scooter!), having their faces painted, and doing the three-legged race!  Faith is getting ready for the race in the picture above with her friend Jaylee!  I participated in the horseshoe tournament with my friend Cindy!  We made it all the way to the semi-finals!  Not too bad for two ladies who had never played before that day!

 

Spidey Shane!

 

Faith had the little mermaid painted on her face!  Both kids ended up having multiple things painted on them (arms, hands, other side of the face!), but these were the first things chosen!  After the BBQ we went home to watch the fireworks from our backyard!  It's so great to be able to do that, especially since Olivia really needed to get into bed!  This was the first time Faith really had seen Fireworks!  In the past years, she has always fallen asleep too early!  Then last year, they did not have any in Ventura!  Watching with her was such a joy as the excitement of seeing them radiated out of her! 

 

This isn't from the 4th, but just had to be included!  She is having popcorn on the couch this past Saturday night, watching Batman (70's style!) on TV with the big kids!  She is really growing up quickly!

Ballet Recital

This past Saturday Faith danced in her second ever ballet recital with the Ventura Ballet Company!  She had so much fun that she shared with us that she is already looking forward to next year's recital!

 

Here she is ready to head out the door to the recital!  Of course Olivia needed a picture with the ballerina!

 

This picture was taken by a friend who also has a daughter in Faith's class!  Faith is on the far left in the second row! 

 

In this one she is on the left again!  The recital is so well done and organized, and it is such a positive experience for the dancers!  And given how many performers and dances there are, it's amazing that they do it all in about an hour and a half!  The next big performance is the Nutcracker this coming November!!

First T-Ball Game of the Year!

We are officially fans of the A's, at least when it comes to t-ball teams!  Shane made his debut as a member of the YMCA A's this past Saturday.  He had a fun time playing once again, and he did well too!

 

Olivia had a good time at the game too, as long as she had some gold fish to eat or was playing on the nearby playground!

 

The Y league is all about learning and having fun, and as a parent of a young child just learning the game, I really appreciate that approach. 

 

Shane also has a fun and encouraging coach who in the final team huddle after the game went around and mentioned something good each player did to help the team during the game.  So go A's, as painful as that is to say! 

Blueberry Picking

To celebrate the end of the school year, the kids wanted to go blueberry picking! While it is always really fun, I think their motivation was the blueberry pie that always seems to follow berry picking!

 

Olivia had the best time!  She did not get the concept of picking and placing the berries in a container to take home. But the idea of picking and eating was right up her alley!

 

Shane was a great berry picker!  Faith was held back a bit with the arm, and ended up mostly being on Olivia duty!  He was so motivated by "mom's world famous blueberry pie"!! It was hot and we ran out of time, but that just means that we need to go back again before the season ends!

Update on Faith

I thought I would give a quick update on Faith and how she is fairing with her broken arm!  Overall she is doing really well!  Last week Monday (day after the infamous fall!) we went to see the Orthopedic doctor who took more x-rays, and he told us that contrary to what the urgent care doctor said, both bones in the arm were broken - radius and ulna.  The radius was an obvious bone break, while the ulna break is called a green stick, which means that it is bent.  That was what made the arm appear broken as it was bent up. 

 

So before getting the pretty pink cast on her arm, the doctor had to set Faith's arm bones back in their proper place!  It was as terrible as it sounds!  He did numb her arm first, but with her fear of needles, I thought that was going to be the worst part!  She did really well and was very brave, and thankfully the whole receiving the shots minutes were not too bad!  The doctor warned me about the setting process saying that I may want to leave the room!  Since I knew it would be better for Faith if I stayed, I did, holding her hand with my head turned so that I could not see what was happening!  What I know now is that I should have covered my ears too! 

 

As mentioned before she is doing really well!  Faith attempts to do as much as possible on her own using her left hand, and the things she needs help for, such as getting dressed, she asks for help.  Her attitude has also be great, and the sad moments where she is down about missing out on things are really few and far between.  This week Monday we went back to the doctor for a brief checkup and follow up x-ray, and we received the great news that everything is healing well and as it should! Her next appointment is next Wednesday for a new cast!

End of the school year!

Shane had his final day of preschool last week Tuesday!

And Faith had her final day of second grade on Thursday!  We are so proud of each of the kids and the strides they made over the course of this past school year!

 

Shane's class sang a few songs for the parents in the end of the year chapel. In this picture they are holding up felt candles and singing "This Little Light of Mine." 

 

After the chapel, there was a very mini "graduation" ceremony in Shane's class.  Most of the time was spent playing one last time in their outdoor classroom!

 

Olivia was thrilled that popcorn and watermelon was served as the snack!  Eating was how she spent most of her morning at preschool!  While it will be strange to not have someone at CPC Preschool next year for the first time in five years, we are looking forward to what lies ahead for September!

 

 

Piano Recital

Yesterday Faith performed in her very first piano recital!  It has been just under a year that she began taking lessons, so it was a fitting celebration of her first year of playing the piano!  Hearing the different students of her teacher (especially some of the older students!), makes me excited about what Faith too can learn musically! 

She did very well with the two short pieces that she played.  As she played the last notes and walked back down towards Steve and I, a huge smile adorned her face.  And she shared with us, "I didn't miss a single note!"  Even though she refused to admit it, she was nervous and thankful to be finished!

 

And it was a very good thing that the recital was yesterday because today...

she ended up in the Urgent Care center with a broken arm!  We were preparing to leave for the beach, and she and Shane were playing in the backyard with their boogie boards.  Apparently she fell of the board Shane was pulling, and she must have braced herself with her arm!  So the beach was out and onto the urgent care.  Thankfully Steve was home and could stay with the younger two kids while I took her in for x-rays. 

 

She thought that a little chocolate ice cream would help her arm feel better!  And I'm sure it did!  Tomorrow we go to see and orthopedic doctor to have the arm further examined.  From what I was told, it's a clean break that should heal up very well!  While it's not exactly how we would want summer to begin, we are also thankful that it was not any worse!