Memory Book Sharing Day

School wrapped up on Thursday of last week, but on Wednesday the parents were invited to the Library at school so Drew's class could share their memory books.
When the kids arrived they first started by singing a few songs.

(Drew is sitting on the floor bottom right in the beige shirt)

Then there were a few presentations to some of the moms who helped man the room and organize all the events.  Once that was done, Drew's teacher passed out the books she scrapbooked of each individual child's year in TK.

It's a beautiful book that we'll cherish forever, just like we'll cherish the year with Mrs. Ferren.

Here's one of the great things that was in the book that I loved - the poem made me tear up when Drew read it to us:


I've worked with your flower,
And helped it grow.
I'm returning it now,
But I want you to know,
This flower is precious.
As dear as can be.
Love, take care of it,
And you will see,
a bright new bloom with
Every day.
It grew and blossomed
In such a wonderful way -
In September, just a bud,
January, a bloom.
Now a lovely blossom -
I'm returning to you in June.
Remember, this flower,
As dear as can be -
Though rightfully yours,
Part will always belong to me
With love Ms Ferren

Memorial Day Memories

Yet another Memorial Weekend camping trip in the books.  We went to Jellystone Park again at Cobb Mountain - we were there last year for the first time for Labor Day.

This time the kids had a great time catching tadpoles!  I think Drew caught something else, but we'll get to that later.

We had a new camper this year... Miss Avery went for her first camping trip at just shy of 3 months.

The campsite is near Clearlake, and on Saturday we went out and did a little sight seeing on the lake.  (Photo is from Lakeport)

Miss Avery was too sleepy to do the sightseeing.

But she woke up for the family photo - that's my brother Matt, Rana, Adrina and Avery

We were lucky GrampC wasn't napping.

Of course our real mission on that Saturday was to hit some new wineries.  We went to the lake after hitting the first one up.

Here the kids are keeping busy at a new winery in the area - Mt. Konacti.  We bought several bottles from there.

Our last stop of the day was at Loujour Estate Winery - which opened it's doors only 2 days earlier.  Spectacular views and their wines were pretty good.  We managed to chat it up with the owner who grew up in Antioch, lived in Walnut Creek and then moved to the Clearlake area to open the winery with his wife.

Chatting it up with them lead to some lovely pours too!  No discounts unfortunately.

After wine tasting we went back to the campsite where the kids were promised a round of mini golf.

The next day we did some mining for "gold" while the guys were off playing some mini-golf.

Grammy came with us too I promise.

Turns out the boys were playing mini-golf for a prize.  Loser had to shotgun a beer.  GrampC lost and shotgunned his first ever beer.  It wasn't pretty.

Uncle Matt had to show GrampC how easy it really is...

Later that night Drew was getting ready by the campfire.

So back to the story about what else Drew caught in addition to tadpoles...
On Sunday Drew woke up with a stomach ache that lead to sharting twice and then explosive you know whats the rest of the morning.  We were considering  having to pack it up and head home, but then he caught his second wind.

It plagued him a bit more that evening and it dawned on me that it could be because he had his hands in the murky water and since he'd just lost his tooth, he constantly put his hands in his mouth. I figured some bacteria was the culprit.

The next morning much the same.  Which was rough since we had to wake-up and hurry up to close camp - rains were coming.  We had to make a couple of pit stops in Napa on the way home for Drew, but he did get home and was OK.  Turns out he had the bug for another two days (2 days of missed school) and then everything was fine.  The good news is no one else got it, so my suspicion about the bacteria from the water still stands...

Otherwise it was a great trip!  Looking forward to our next camping adventure of the year.

Something's Missing....

On May 23rd Drew woke up missing something...


Yep his first tooth!

Of course he was so upset when he realized he swallowed that tooth and didn't have anything to give to the Tooth Fairy.  So we came up with a Plan B.  A letter.



In case you can't make it out, it reads: Dear Tooth Fairy, I must have lost my tooth.  But will you still leave me some money.  Love Drew

Lucky for Drew the Tooth Fairy left him $5 for the first tooth.  Let's hope he doesn't eat the next tooth...

Kindergarten Sings

Another overdue post... but it's fitting to share this with you today on Drew's last day of Transitional Kindergarten.

On May 22nd, parents were invited to see the TKers play the flute (recorder) and sing.  On Wednesdays the kids from AM and PM come together so this is both classes.

Drew is in the center, 2nd row kind of below the "I" in Sing

Here's a closer shot.

 

The concert began with the kids playing the flute.  I wasn't sure what to expect - I remember not playing the recorder until I was in about 3rd grade.  Turns out the kids play one note per song - they learned a total of 3 notes (B-A-G).  Here are a couple of videos of them playing the recorder/flute:

This was the first song they did:

 And another song where the sing in Spanish (this is for you Abuela!!)

After they were done singing and playing the flute a lot of parents thought the concert was over, but oh no, they did several more songs just singing.  Here's one final video for you.

They finished up with the pledge of allegiance (they still say "One Nation Under God") and walked back to their room where there were refreshments for the kids and parents.

Our little star.... Dave and I had to head back to work so we didn't stay.  The concert lasted about an hour!

End Of Season Party

What's a Tball season without team pizza party?

Following the last game the team headed out to Pavlo's Pizza for the celebration.

And of course the trophy presentation!  As Dave presented the trophies he said something special about all of the kids.  He got choked up a few times.

Here is a video of Dave presenting Drew his trophy (sorry about the background noise)


The kids pretty much had reign of the house - it was pretty empty.  When they weren't eating they were in another room playing video games.

One of the families tried to get a picture of the three coaches with their son, but soon several kids wanted in on the action...

L-R (Coaches) Asst. Coach Dan, Asst. Coach Steve, and Manager Dave.  Drew is in the bottom row next to last on the right, the other coaches' sons are on either side of Drew.

After this party we followed up with two after-parties with one of the coaches which lasted late into the night.  We had a blast and can't wait to do it again next year.  We hope to keep in touch with several of the families on the team - in fact several have requested to have Dave as their manager again.

Final Game of the Season

Our final Tball game was back on May 18th and boy did these boys play their hearts out!  Here's one last shot of the boys in their uniforms as a team.

That photo came from one of the other parents on the team (I was a little late to the punch).

The Nationals got the first two outs of the game (they played the Blue Jays and what were probably the youngest collective group).  Drew did pretty well throughout the game.

That's Drew with Coach Dan getting ready for his 2nd at bat.

And here he is for his second at bat.

He was pretty proud of himself - once he got to third base.

For his final at bat, I captured it on my phone camera. While Drew writes right handed, he's a natural left handed batter.  Dave convinced him to try batting righty for his last at-bat.

Here is the video:



He was so excited about crushing the ball he forgot to drop the bat!   All the coaches gave Dave props for switch hitting Drew.

And then one final team cheer! 

Every Saturday since the final game Drew has said how much he misses playing ball and all his Tball friends.  It's really quite sweet.