Little Da Vinci

We are back at Little Da Vinci, at least for the summer.  The girls love it and we have more time on our hands now that school is out.  They just finished their peacocks in time to give them to Dad for Father's Day.  I just picked them up from class yesterday and they told me they are starting a new painting that no one has done before.  They were so excited and told me that it's a mountain scene with a rainbow sky.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

Hey, batter batter!

Ryder is loving baseball right now and it's pretty darn cute.  He's been hitting the ball consistently off the tee for awhile now but recently he started hitting in the air when Cory pitches and he's so proud every time.  We love cheering him on and I know Cory thinks it's so much fun playing in the front yard with him.  I think he's ready to sign up for Tball next spring and I can't wait to see his cute little fanny in those white baseball pants :)

Best coach ever!

The girls have played soccer for 3 seasons now and Cory has coached every time.  They are pretty lucky to have such a great dad who is an awesome coach.  This spring season has been fun because the weather hasn't gotten obnoxiously hot yet and we have lots of friends on our team including: Barrett, Avery, Dylan, and Bryce from last season.  They are having a blast together.

Parade of Lights

We walked in the Parade of Lights in downtown Chandler and had a blast with our girl scout troop.  They are such a sweet group of girls and it's so cute seeing them all dressed up in their GS vests with their patches.  What a fun night!!

Last soccer game

Our soccer season has come to an end.  The girls had so much fun with Daddy & Andy as the coach.  

They loved being on the team with Avery too.  Such cute little girls with toothless grins!

Girl Scout Investiture

Reese & Ryan joined Girl Scouts at the beginning of the school year and it's been such a fun experience for all of us.  There was a meeting at the beginning of the year and all the moms were trying to figure out how to start our troop and who was going to lead.  I knew that I couldn't lead the entire troop but I stepped up to be a co-leader (we all know I have a problem saying no to volunteering :)

There are 4 of us leading a group of 12 girls and it's been a blast so far.  The girls had their investiture ceremony today where they received their patches and petals and are now official Daisy Girl Scouts.  SO so cute.

Here is Reese saying her part of the promise and posting her daisy petal on the board.

 Ryan was reciting her line to "Be a sister to every girl scout".

 Then it was time to put the vests on inside the circle of daisies.  Reese went first...

 then it was Ryan's turn.

 I love that sweet, sweet smile on my Reesey girl.

 Reese, Rylan, & Ryan.  

 Ryan was so excited to get some fresh flowers as a parting gift.  Love this spunky little girl.

The latest from Little Da Vinci

We are in love with Reese & Ryan's art class at Little Da Vinci.  They have brought home some pretty amazing masterpieces since we started.  This is the latest artwork they are working on and we are so excited to see the finished products.

They have also been asking to take music lessons.  Reese wants to take violin and Ryan wants to play the guitar (ukulele) for the smaller kids.  We haven't committed to that yet but we're seriously considering it.

Another zoo trip

We are getting lots of use out of our zoo membership lately.  

The weather has been so awesome and the kids love running around outside.  

We're taking a break from gymnastics right now so we've got Fridays wide open.  

A zoo trip on Friday morning with Karen & her kids was the perfect way to kick of the weekend.

Dance recital

The girls' dance recital was so stinkin' cute.  They bumped up a level this past time and it's more of their age group.  They danced to "I love the rainy nights".  We walked around downtown after and visited the farmer's market and Paletas by Betty to get some yummy popsicles. What a fun night!

The girls have been taking the dance

The zoo

We went to the zoo the other day and had a great time.  I have been feeling guilty because we have a yearly membership that hasn't been used this year to its full potential.  Now that the weather will be warming up soon I'm hoping we can get there a few more times.  I took all 3 kids and we met up with our Baby signs play group.  I'm the only one in the group that has more than one kid, and I think when they watch my fumbling with my double stroller and all the gear it's a great prescription for birth control.  We got there right when they opened but had to leave around 11:45 to get the girls to school.  All 3 kids fell asleep in the car and had a nice nap as we drove to Risen Savior.  I'm hoping next time we go it's on a Friday so we don't have to race out to get to school.

Let it go to voicemail

When a random phone number calls me I am constantly torn between answering my phone or letting it go to voicemail.  Because of our business I usually choose the first option of answering, but there are those moments when I pick up the phone and think to myself, "Man, I should've let it go to voicemail".  Yesterday was one of those moments.

Friday is our only day off from school right now and we've gone back and forth with doing the gymnastic sessions on Fridays at 10am.  The girls really like it and we just got off an 8 week hiatus over the holidays  They've been happy to be back, but yesterday morning was a day that just wasn't working for us.  Ryder had a fever, I had a funeral for my dear friend's father I was trying to get to at 11:30, Cory was trying to save one of our short sale listings from going to auction at 10am, and to top it off the girls were so content at home and said, "We don't want to go to gymnastics today".  DONE, we're staying home.  I usually don't let them skip because the makeup policy is not the best, but I felt a sigh of relief when they said they didn't want to go.  We went about our day and I returned home around 2pm.  We were all happily playing outside when my phone rang.  I answered it and it was their coach from gymnastics.  This has never happened before.

Coach: "Hi Lisa, This is Coach from gymnastics.  Where were Reese & Ryan today?"
Me: "Well we had a really crazy day today and there was no one that could take them to gym class.  Maybe we'll do a makeup with open gym soon."
Coach: "I think they should do a make up with a class." (This is not their policy)
Me: "OK.  What are you thinking?"
Coach: "How about my Monday morning 9am class."
Me: (with hesitation) "Um sure, I think that will work."

Now most parents would be thrilled if they got a personal phone call from the gym coach inviting them to a different class to make-up.  I'm grateful that he took time out of his day to reach out and see if everything was okay, but now I've added an entire level of stress to my day on Monday and it's all because I answered my phone and then didn't have enough juevos to say no to a make-up class that day.

We have Bogusia come on Mondays and it's always my work and catch up on life day.  The girls wanted to do dance and their current session is on Mondays because we thought it would be great if B could stay home with Ryder.  SO, now I will be running out the door at 8:30 on Monday morning with the girls to get to gymnastics, and then change into dance clothes for our 10:30 dance class, then an hour to kill before school starts at 12:30.  Goodbye, productive morning and hello to chaos and running all over town.

I should've let his call to voicemail.

Art show

Little DaVinci had an open house/art show on Saturday and Reese & Ryan got to show off all their artwork they've been working on.  The two paintings they've done so far turned out so good and the girls were so proud to show us.  They had the dance room set up like an art gallery and it was so fun to see their paintings on display.  They were so cute dressed up in their fancy duds, showing off their lovely canvases.

Little Ree with her most recent painting.

 Here's sassy Ryan with her beautiful painting.

 These were the first paintings they finished a few weeks ago.  I love the clouds and seagrass.

Our last swim lessons

The girls finished their last swim lesson for the summer and Ms. Mary took some fun underwater shots.  She has a great scuba camera and the pictures turned out so good.  I am in love with the one of them holding hands.  So sweet :)

1st Soccer game

We had our first soccer game and the kids were SO cute.  There's something so sweet and funny about a bunch of four year olds running up and down the field trying to figure out what to do and where to kick the ball.  I don't think they keep score for this age group but we got creamed by the other team.  They still had so much fun playing and every day they are asking when their next soccer game is.  Here are some highlight photos from the big day.

Cory is the sweet and patient coach. 

He's got a knack for it even though it seems coaching four year olds is a lot like herding cats.

Reese did a lot of running and seemed to really enjoy it.

I think this is the point of the game where they were sick of the other team scoring so Reese and Zackary decided to guard the goal even though they don't actually have goalies.

 Time for a snack!  Ryan played really well.  I was expecting her to chase butterflies out there and look cute but she showed some real competitiveness and had some great moves.

Our attempt at a family photo.