NEIGHBORHOOD EASTER CELEBRATION

On Saturday morning we went to an Easter celebration hosted by the homeowners association at the park in our neighborhood. They served breakfast, had some games, did some face painting, did some dancing, had an Easter bunny for pictures and had an Easter egg hunt (we called it an Easter egg scramble because there was NO "hunting" -- there were just a bunch of eggs on the lawn that the kids ran for).

Here's Jeff and the kids in a huddle planning their strategy for scooping up eggs.....

They've got their buckets and they are ready......

After the scramble checking out their eggs and what's inside -- they got lots of candy.....

OPEN HOUSE

La Costa Meadows Elementary School had their "open house" tonight for parents to come see the school and see some of what the kids have been working on.

We started our "tour" in the cafeteria where each class had a display of art work done by each student. Rena's bunny is right above her head.....

Cameron's "Spring Time" picture is right above his head also.....

After looking at the art work we went outside for ice cream sundae's before heading to the classrooms.....

Cameron's classroom was first. This was his "I AM" person and poem that he made.....

Then, on to Rena's room where she was our official "Open House Tour Guide". Her sentence under her school says "In school I like to do math."....

We toured Rena's classroom and then headed outside to see her play area and watch her do her favorite thing -- the monkey bars.....

It was a fun evening and the kids were very excited to be able to show us where and how they spend their days!

RENA'S 6 YEAR PICTURES

WILD ANIMAL PARK

Maleah and I got to join Cameron's class (and the other 4 first grade classes from LaCosta Meadows) at the Wild Animal Park for a field trip. Once we got to the park the moms were each assigned a couple of kids and then we were off on our own for the day. We spent the day with a couple of moms and several boys from Cameron's class.

Adam, Christian, Cameron & Matthew ready to go.....

Matthew, Brenndan and Maleah.....

Maleah and Cameron.....

Time for lunch! The boys in our group....

Matthew, Cameron, Christian, Brady, Adam, Maleah and Brenndan checking out the giraffe.....

Maleah and Rover.....(Rover is Maleah's pet-dog in her preschool class that she got to take care of for the week since she was the "star of the week" in her class -- Rover had a fun time with us at the Wild Animal Park and Maleah kept very good care of him!!)

We got to see lots of animals and even learned a little bit about them......

It's hard to tell, but there are 3 elephants here......one was a little baby and so cute!!!

Time to go home! Waiting for the bus -- Matthew, Christian, Brady, Cameron, Adam, Joshua, Sarah and Star.....

It was a fun day.....but all us mom's were definitely ready to go home by the time the buses arrived!!! :)

STAR OF THE WEEK

Maleah is the "star of the week" this week in her preschool class. She has been looking forward to this week since the beginning of the new year when they started having one star of the week each week. The fun started today with a poster all about Maleah.

The first section of the poster, "My Family", was full of family pictures. The next section, "I love to...", was full of pictures of Maleah doing things that she likes to do - helping mom in the kitchen, helping dad in the yard, riding her bike, rollerskating, playing in the snow, going to the beach & playing in the sand, swimming, playing babydolls, doing gymnastics, playing dress-up and playing on her fort in the backyard.

The last section of the poster, "Favorite things...", was a list of some of Maleah's favorite things. It was funny listening to her come up with her "favorites" to include. We ended up with......"rootbeer floats, noodles & cheese, fruit snacks, wheat thins, sun chips, nail polish, the color pink, playing with friends, SeaWorld & Disneyland, slumber parties, footed pj's, arts & crafts - drawing, coloring, painting, cutting, pasting, taping, making dolphins, Cameron & Rena, picking flowers for mom & dad, WordWorld & Super Why, honeydew, apples, grapes, cutie pies (cutie's), strawberries, McDonald french fries and karating my brother".

She did really good presenting her poster to her class today and she's looking forward to being the "star" again on Wednesday......not only does she get to be the star for the week, but she also gets to be the "line leader"!!! :)

RENA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Rena's birthday with a house full of kids! We had the party planned at an outdoor park with a blow-up bounce house, but unfortunately it rained.....(yes, it does rain here in San Diego on occasion) so we moved the party indoors.

Here she is with her friends from school:
Rena, Myah, Hadley and Olivia.....

We had a craft table where the kids could decorate buckets, crowns and swords.....

When it wasn't raining we went outside and threw water balloons into a bucket (and a few at Jeff).....

We played "put Cinderella in the castle window" game.....

We played musical chairs.....

And we moved the party into the garage for a Tiara Pinata.....

Of course, we had cake!
Rena, Cameron & Frank patiently waiting.....

And we finished off the afternoon with some gifts.....

Even though the party wasn't what we had originally planned Rena had a great day! She had 5 friends from school, 5 friends from the neighborhood, 1 family friend, 1 sister, 1 brother, 2 parents and lots of other moms & dads celebrating her 6th birthday with her!

(Oh.......and it was also a big day for her because she lost her front top tooth.....and the tooth fairy brought her $3 that night!)

Rena is definitely a big girl now! :)