last day of 1st and 2nd grade june 6 2012

today was the last day of school for Zakary and laurel. I had the day off to spend with them,theywere each having bbq's with their classes at school. Stan and i ran up and down the hill to be with each child at one point or another,it was alot of fun. Zak is really not looking forward to being out of school,he asked about summer school,we live in Vallejo where we are Bankrupt,there is no such thing as summer school anymore except for special ed. Neither of my kids fit that bill. laurel is ready for vacation.

So now dad has them full time,each still will attend their sport as regulary scheduled just no rush in the am anymore and for me???? no more lunch pails to pack except mine until August!!

Big Weekend June 2012

So June is here and we bring it in with the annual gymnastics "Spring Fling". Unfortunatly the pics of actual action for laurel are too dark so i have posted the cute Grand Finale with all the kids in he gym from littl to big who do a routin(its usually kinda Chaotic). This year was dedicated to "American Bandstand". It was a wonderful performance all in all...wish i could sahre it all with you in person.

Today the kids had been invited to a birthday party for a little girl who Laurel does Gymnastics with. This was amazing. It was a western theme....there was a mechanicl Bull,a Taco cart,right there a jumpy house and then the Petting Zoo showed up. It was just amazing....not to mention alot of fun for us all. Two Pinata's and all the mexican fixings. YUMMMMMMMM. It was by the ar the most amazing party ive been to in a VERY long time. lol

end of year school conferences and field trips. Hero project May 2012

So we are in the last full week of school. Yesterday was ak's last field trip of the 1st grade. They went to the Bouvrie Wdlife preserve. I have no idea where it is located,You will have to ask Stan. He drov on this trip,he lovs the class filed trips and for the most part all gos well each time,this time,just one little one in his car got car sick. Yes...all over the back door. Fortunatly mostly water as she had only hd Chocolate milk for breakfast(HUH?) and her mom had told her she needed something in her tummy to keep from feeling bad,so why not saltines?a piece of toast for breakfast?? just sayin. So poor kid,after all,she is 1st grade and shouldnt be expected to know for sure how to handle her tummy in a car. So she kept drinking water.....more and more till......yaaaa whooooooo ...it ws everywhere.oh well,only water,poor kid though was imbarressed and felt like hell.
The trip its self was great,the class saw all sorts of wildlife,Zak was so honoredmhe saw a newt,no one else did. He saw real snakes....ate lunch by the creek and romped through poison oak. The weather was perfect and they had a great time.
This mornig was Laurels 2nd grade "Hero" project,she had choosen Martin Luther King and did just a graet job. They did a board,a biography and then had to dress as that person and present as if they were the hero. She did perfectly. She has a shy little voice,she is only shy outside the house but i guess she spoke loudly and clearly so all could hear. Her teacher was very happy with her work.

At he Charter school where the kids attend,we have what are called "Student led conferences" the student along wth their teacher report on themselves and their work. They explain and show the parents how they have done and some of their work. Both kids have haad a great year and have done very well. Laurel is a super reader and Zakary the mathamatician. Cant believe that 1st and 2nd grade are over next week.

Still May and the world is still moving awfully fast! 2012

It seems there wer field trips going on last post...well ther are still field trips going on. Zaks class had 3 field trips out ofthe 4 weeks in May. Laurel has a major hero project and then there is the open house for the school and the enxt week the Celebration of the arts whre the kids school all did dance related to their years expeditional learning, Zak's was family traditions and culture,laurel the civil rights movement. Hero's. laurels project is on martin Luther King,its been quite the project for a 2nd grader(and i refuse to do it all). She will do a presentation and dress as MLK next week,will post pics after that is done.Ahead still,one more field trip, a gymnastics spring program and all the fun end of the year class/school activities including self led student/parent conferences!
I dont know how i forgot to mention but we also celebrated Zakary's "special Day" his 5th annversary of being a Raymond. May 25 was adoption day,5 short years ago....on a greay and rainy hot and humid day in China......Zakary joined our crazy family...........The pics of Zak sitting on dads lap and one on my lap....we do that each year,to see the growth since that day 5 yrs ago where we have pics of that same pose. WOW>>>>he has come a long ways!!!
Also,just this morning we took a drive out to brentwood,early in the am,before the crownds and the heat to Cherry pick. WE also were able to pick some berries,white peaches and apricots!!! YUMMMMM

Over my birthday,we took the motor home to my older Brother,Bruce's home,his wife,aunt julie has a bday the same weekend as mine so we had quite the time and learned how to use th motor home all at the same time. The kids thought that rideing in the back while driving and eating at the table was truly awesome. I will post some pics of the last several weeks...and then will try ot keep them going as the school yer comes to an end! We have all been healthy and hope this finds you and your families happy buy and healthy as well.

all behind again May 2012

May 2012

I am all behind again. So much goes on aqnd it all goes sooooooooooooooooo fast. last i reported we were back east in Feb,since then, Stan had a seriouis Prostititus and was home a week with a Foley catheter,that was fun!! Now he is waiting for the large Kidney stone to pass or be broken up to pass,which ever one comes first,yes...more fun. Seems the school year is coming to an end very quickly and all sorts of things are happeningfiled trips,activities at the gym and so on. Discovey Kingdon is open  now ad the kids and i took our first trip together today. We are going to take our new,well old but new to us Campr on a wekend jaunt to my brother bruces house for my birthday weekend,the 17th,mine is the 1th and his wife julie is the 19th,yes................. she is younger tham i m,by about 48 hrs. i will just post a bunch of pictures now to try to get somewhat caught up and try to do better from here on out. I will be sure to post from moms day and Zakarys 5th anniversary of being a  RAYMOND  coming up May 21. And I am sure that the weekend in the camper will prove to b interesting and alot of fun!!

Annual NASCAR weekend back East///Feb 2012

we went on our annual NASCAR weekend this year,as we usually do. We travelled to Wilmington Delaware where we stay with Stans sister and brother in law. They have their annual NASCAR Daytona 500 party at their home on race day,we have gone to this event for many years now. This year we had a few more days so we travelled on to Easton,PI to meet up with our friends the Schulte's who adopted their daughter at the same time and from the same orphanage as laurel. We see them each year that we are back east and its so fun to watch these kids grow. This year,we travelled to Easton,got a motel with an indoor pool,which the kids loved and then visited the Crayola factory. WE had a nice time and the kids love the motel and the pool. After that,we travelled to Connecticut where our exchange student,Sherry is this year with another host family. We visited her,went to lunch and had a nice time,the kids loved seeing her and her host family is VERY nice and she seems very happy. The unfortunate part of this trip this year was that i was misreably sick the entire time...io coughed and hacked and was really quite misreable. Then to make it all worse,the party took place and the race was rained out. Sooooooooooooooooo we travelled home the next day while the race was being run. lol ohhh well,never can tell whats going to happen. Stans daughter Deirdre and her husband and daughter were there at the inlaws for the race so the kids got to meet their newest niece. They enjoyed playing with her.

Zakarys 7th birthday party

So i told you all that we were not so sure that Zak was gonna be real thrilled about his birthday party. Well......... when he showed up with his blind fold on,and came into the gym where we were waiting,took his blindfold off and looked around,seeing who all was there. He looked a bit shocked and disapointed,he must hve been thinking "ohh not a gym party" he sp ends a tremendous amount of time at the gym with Laurel. Then the male parkour coaches showed him his t shirts and got them all started......He loveed it,had a ball,rolled and tumbled,climbed and learn to fall. It was quite a work out. They then also had some free gym time to play as well,swinging ropes,trampoline etc. Cake and Pizza...all in all a very fun day.