First day of school.

These kids were so excited to go back to school!  They all got the teachers they wanted.  The anticipation of going back to be with friends, new clothes, backpacks, etc... 

Ivy started a day earlier than everyone else. She was so excited and sad at the same time.

She's a momma's girl.

Ivy~ Pre K

Boston ~ 8th Grade 

Hayes & Olivia ~ 3rd Grade

Have i mentioned how much i love having twins!!  especially love that they have each 

other at school and in the same class!

Talent Show...

These cute girls performed a duo at their school talent show!  They did AWESOME!

it was seriously the cutest dance, one they had learned from their dance recital.  They danced

to "one direction" song.  They said afterwards everyone came up to them and said they

were so awesome!  it was seriously that cute! 

love these little girls...

pre school graduation...

Pretty sure i witnessed the cutest pre school graduation EVER!!  Ivy graduated from 

"sweet pea's" at Kid's Village and now goes again next year to "tater tot's" 

they sang some songs that they learned all year, watched a darling slideshow 

of pictures from the year  and then got their diploma's.  

At the end they all threw their hats in the air!

 She loved showing me the different classrooms of Art work, her Kitchen recipes and the 

Science stuff.  She is so proud of all she learned this year and can't wait to go 

back next year to learn how to read.

cutest teacher, Mrs. Farrah!

Ivy with her bestie Mckelle!

spirit week...

I must document these guys during their spirit week at school.  

SO MUCH FUN!!!

'Crazy Hair Day'

tessa/hayes/olivia

 one day they were supposed to dress up as their role models/hero  so let me introduce you to 

"Witney Carson & Michael Phelps!"  {their own idea}

i die at their cuteness!!

back to school.

We enjoyed one last week of summer break in California!  It's always sad to say

 goodbye to summer, but i always look forward to a real schedule and my

 kids were so excited to start school and meet their teacher.

this is a big year for us!  Boston started a real Junior High. 7th Grade! ha!  

he was so excited to wear normal clothes. FINALLY!  

he loves Junior high and has some fun classes!

hayes and livi are 2nd graders and Adore their teacher.  She is fabulous.  I have been so 

lucky to get the best teachers for them every year! 

LOVE their school.

Little miss ivy started Pre school too!  She started out a little nervous but LOVES having 

a couple of her bff's in her class!  It is possibly the cutest preschool EVER! 

i absolutely love that they sit next to each other! 

Ivy with Miss Farrah.

School Christmas program.

We had our annual school Christmas program this last week & every class had their own song to sing.  

I loved at the end of the Program that they {my twins} sang their guts out to the 

"polar express"  it was awesome!!!  

they love their music teacher at school, and it's Boston's ultimate favorite teacher!  

she put my kids up front so i could see them! finally!!

{she's also our piano teacher too ::wink::}

olivia with her bestest friends from school.

 hayes with his favorite friend  anderson... unfortunately they were separated 

within the first 10 min. haha

"star students"

  These two loved having their very own week of being "Star Student" 

Hayes was first and got to be hall monitor & special helper all week! 

they loved taking a show n tell every week and talk just about themselves.  

this made birthday week more like "birthday Month" haha

they both now love to talk about how they were the size of a dollar bill.  

{their idea to display on their board} 

SO cute!

back to school!!

these little cuties were so excited to go to school!   how could i be sad for them 

when they are so super excited!  

Boston started 6th grade, which is middle school at our school!  he loved getting a locker

and having 6 periods of classes.   he loves his locker!  Our middle school 

has their own "houses" {like harry potter}

and his is "pegasus"  and his homeroom teacher is the best!

Hayes and Olivia started 1st grade. {all day}  and they love it!  they come home and
have so much to tell me every day.  i overheard hayes tell our neighbor "your going
to LOVE first grade, mrs. powell is the best teacher ever!"  so that was good!

it would be a lie if i said i didn't cry when i dropped these two off to their class.
i wanted so bad to spy on them all day at lunch and recess.
 so instead i volunteered to help out at the "snack shack"  you know, just to make
 sure their eating lunch!! ~wink

so now it's just me and miss 'bossy pants' {ivy} hee hee
 unpacking boxes, going to lunch,
swimming, running, biking, oh and of course car shopping!
you would think i could get a lot of stuff done with one child at home.  nope!
the twins are easier than one child because they have someone to entertain them. haha

i do however love my time with my baby, and we are enjoying every day!
her favorite time of the day is when we are picking the kids up from school.

after school is now very scheduled! ugh...

football practice, gymnastics, dance, homework, reading time, dinner, etc, etc.  

we are now back to school and a schedule!  boo.

graduates!!

these two little cuties graduated from kindergarten! woot woot!
their class had a darling presentation and the kids sang lots of songs, said the
pledge of allegiance, and showed us the alphabet in sign language.
 my favorite part was all the poems that they memorized and then they sang
"god bless america".  so so precious.

they also did sign language to 'chicka chicka boom boom" and it was so cute!

we have LOVED their kindergarten teacher and the whole fabulous kindergarten program.
yahoo for SUMMER!

Boston, Massachusetts

 my boston is having a year of "Boston" and he is loving it!

i never imagined when we named him almost 12 years ago that it would become
such a popular name and that it would ultimately be his favorite sports teams of all time!!   

We have always been Boston fans so of course our boy would too.  but he is learning more 

than just the sports teams.

this year not only is he playing baseball  on the "Boston Red Sox" team,
but he also picked {out of a bowl} the state of Massachusetts to do his state report on!

  how cool is that??  

 so we've been busy researching what has been like a 6 week project.  

they had to work hard on learning famous people from their state, write a report,
bibliography, learn about tourism, draw the state flag, license plate, bird etc, etc..  There is tons
of history in Boston.  we have loved watching him learn so much about the
wonderful state of Massachusetts!

when his school had the "state fair" last week,  you could dress up, make a float, bring 

food samples and more for extra credit.

so we made "Boston's famous Clam Chowder"

i think it turned out AWESOME!!  now my Boston can't wait to go to Boston...

 {recipe below}

recipe~

{So delicious}

Boston's Famous Clam Chowder

1 cup onions, finely chopped

1 cup finely diced celery

2 cups diced potatoes ( i use quite a bit more)

2 cans minced clams and juice

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

1 quart half & half cream

1 1/2 teas. salt

Pepper

2 Table. Red Wine vinegar

Drain juice from clams and pour over vegetables in saucepan; add enough water to barely cover and simmer, covered, over med heat til barely tender.

In meantime melt butter; add flour and blend; stirring constantly (in larger pot).

Add undrained vegetables, clams and vinegar and heat through.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Leadership day...

Every year people from all over come and spend the day 

observing the students and learning all about the "leader in me"  program at my kids school.   

WE LOVE IT! 

I feel so lucky to be able to have my kids learning all these awesome principles and it
 starts with my kindergarteners!
 We  have fabulous teachers! 

voted the #1 Leader in Me 'lighthouse' school  in the western united states. 

awesome!

this is part of Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people.

anyway the best part is Boston's class was interviewed and his 

teacher, so he is was on the news and was so excited.  look for him in

 the background of his classroom.

{press pause on shannon's tunes on the right}

First Day of "2nd" Grade!

He was so Excited/nervous this morning! I made him his Favorite Breakfast of "Crepes" and we walked him out to the School Bus! I am excited to see how his first Day went.
Right when he gets home we are off to his First Outdoor Soccer game.

Look at my Handsome little Boys!!

FIRST GRADE

Today was Boston's first day of the First Grade! How Exciting for him. He was so excited to go this morning. He looked like a little Hottie! He had his hair all Fouhawked, His striped Polo, with his Brown Pumas and little messenger bag. He Looks so big! I am tempted to go see him at lunch today, but cory said to Leave him alone! so Maybe tomorrow. Here is his teacher Mrs. Whitaker with him. He did not want his picture taken, he was a little embarressed. That's OK
I just bought the cutest "Olivia the Pig" Material and so now I am off to Start my Quilt! I have the Quilting Fever