Zander graduates kindergarten

Zander is now a kindergarten graduate! He learned so much this year. He is a great reader and picked up in it very quick. He is good at math, although he says he does not enjoy it. He has many friends and ends the year with some great memories. He has grown so much from a little boy to a big guy in no time at all!

Zaiden turns 4

Zaiden turns 4! Zaiden is so sweet and smart and we love watching him grow. His smile and infectious laugh are enjoyed by everyone he meets. He is certainly a charmer! At Disney land, he was in a room full of people watching a classic Mickey movie and his laugh was so cute, the entire room was laughing with him! So sweet? Zaiden continues to love books and puzzles. His new favorite after visiting Sea World are Whales and he has a toy whale, Corky that is now his best friend and goes everywhere with him. He continues to love dolphins and rhinos and zoo trips are his favorites. He has been making so much progress at school and we are excited about all that is to come. For his Birthday this year, he wanted to spend it with some of his best friends. We celebrated with a party at home with friends and had some friends and family to our house for a special birthday party. We also took a trip to the train restaurant for a birthday cupcake as trains continue to be a favorite. Of course, trains may be second to his very favorite monster trucks that he brings at least once a week for show and tell at school at the request of all of his friend! We really love this special little boy!

Zaiden with his best friends, Luca and Colleen and the families 

Birthday lunch at the choo choo 

He got a scooter for his (big) birthday present. With a little more practice, he will be keeping up with his big brother

Family Vacation 2019

This may have been the best vacation EVER! We had been looking forward to taking this trip for over a year. We decided we were ready to make a trip to Disney as the boys are bigger and more independent and are really into Mickey and all things Disney. We decided California would be a better fit than Florida so decided to take advantage of the other things Southern California had to offer. Zander loves Legos and both boys enjoy going to Legoland here so we definitely wanted to check out Legoland. We also love zoos and the aquarium so we added the San Diego zoo and Sea World to our trip as well. We also squeezed in a night game at Angels stadium for Angels/Dodgers. We took advantage of an early spring break and a healthy Zaiden (he had his second ear tube surgery and had his adenoids removed 2 weeks prior). We were lucky to also have Jazzie's parents join us for part of the trip. Zander and Zaiden loved having grandma and grandpa to share the trip with them. We ended up having a blast and we have a hard time picking our favorite thing as we loved it all. All of our travels went really well and the boys were troopers. We only had one afternoon of rain and otherwise enjoyed the sunshine. We even had a few warm days which allowed us to enjoy the waterpark hotel near Disney. We have so many pictures and so many memories from this trip. We already cannot wait for our next vacation!

Zaiden recovering from his surgery

San Diego Zoo - we had so much fun looking at all of the animals. It was so much fun having Grandma and Grandpa with us

checking out the ocean in San Diego Seaport Village

The boys were chasing bubbles and enjoying the ocean view

Sea World was amazing and a highlight of the trip. We loved all of the rides and the fist

The dolphin show and whale show were so much fun and are memories that will last a lifetime

We had so much fun at Disneyland from checking out all the areas, meeting characters and of course enjoying the rides. Both boys are daredevils and loved all of the rollercoasters and the rides. Zander's favorite was Splash Mountain and Zaiden loved Thundermountain

Zaiden was terrified, but equally excited to meet Mickey Mouse!

Disney Adventure park was also a ton of fun and Zander enjoyed the rollercoasters including one ride on the incredible coaster and many rides on goofy's fly school. Zaiden loved The Little Mermaid ride and the Cars park  

Zander is 6!

Zander is now 6 years old! He is a really cool, sweet and very smart boy. He continues to impress us with his language ability and his humor. He learned to read this year very easily and is now excelling as one of the top readers in his class. He also continues to be a natural with numbers and math, although he says he does not like math. He really enjoys art and continues to love to create crafts and projects at home. We were also very proud of him this year when he was the only kindergartener from his class to have his art chosen to be on display. Putting together Legos continues to be one of his favorite hobbies. He also mastered riding a bike last fall and is now doing great going on longer bike rides this spring. He can tie his shoes (although does not like to do this!). He has taken an interest in music and we got a piano he likes to play and we plan to start lessons soon. Zander is very social and has a lot of friends at school, through his after care program and lots of family/neighborhood friends and was really excited to plan his first big birthday party this year. He hosted several friends at the Children's Museum and he and all of his friends had a blast. We also went to a movie as a family and visited the train restaurant. We also hosted family over for dinner and cake. He is sure a special guy!

 

 

Christmas 2018

We love Christmas! It has been so fun over the last few years to establish some of our own family traditions and we all look forward to many activities to celebrate the coming of Christmas all year long. Right after Thanksgiving, we begin by putting up our tree and decorations. We spend most weekends finding fun Christmas activities to enjoy together. This year we went to zoo lights, Rudolph play, watched Polar Express and other Christmas movies, and went on a Santa train ride. The boys also had school activities and a church pageant this year. We celebrated Christmas  with Jazzie's family In Wisconsin the weekend before Christmas then stayed at home to await Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve. We were joined Christmas day by Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Maggie. We then headed to Iowa for the following weekend. The boys were very lucky and spoiled by everyone including Santa this year.

zoo lights

after school concert

Christmas eve

Christmas Eve

our Elf came to visit and caused a lot of trouble

Our Iowa trip also included an ER trip for a busted lip (luckily no stitches!)

Gingerbread houses at school

Presents!

Leaving cookies and beer for Santa

Santa train

Botanical Gardens train