Catching Up

This post will be lengthy as I need to do some catching up since April! In May, Koen was chosen by the Friends of East County Arts as the winner of an art contest between all the Kindergarten children in his school, there are about 125 kids. His artwork was displayed for a weekend at Parkway Plaza with all the other grade winners of schools throughout the county. They held a special artist's welcome and awarded him a blue ribbon. His picture is his artistic take on a circus. I thought it was very cool.

May also brought us Koen's birthday. He turned 6! I just can't believe it. I don't think I'm ever going to get over how fast time flies by us and my children just keep getting bigger and bigger, which means I'm getting older and older. Ugh! We had a family party where just some of his cousins came. He loved smacking his pinata, opening presents, and enjoying his cake. Parties are always fun!

May meant more sunshine and our first trip to the beach for the year! Emi loves it and Zach hated the sand! He was all smiles when he was sitting on the towel and in the shade, but when I put him on the sand, he cried and cried until I held him again.

June came and school ended for Koen. Here are some pics of his last day at school with some of his buddies. They also had an end of year performance where they sang songs about how much they loved school. It was really cute.

July was full of fun events! We took the kids to the Del Mar Fair, we had an awesome time!

On the 4th of July I took Koen and Emi to the local Lake where they have fireworks.

Emi also turned 5 in July! We got her ears pierced right before her birthday. I swear she's part superhuman...she never cries or flinches when she gets poked...not for shots and not when her ears were pierced. She looks adorable with her little pink studs.

Emi had a mermaid-themed party and invited some of her girl friends. The party turned out to be a hit, the girls all dressed like mermaids, dug for seashells in the sand, danced in bubbles and I even attempted my first fondant cake.

Koen also lost another tooth, this time he pulled it out himself. He was so proud.

The first week of August the kids and I spent every day at the bay. The weather was perfect! The kids loved it, even Zach! He quickly adapted to the feel of the sand between his toes and it didn't phase him this time. Whew! We had an awesome week soaking up the sun before soccer and school started again the 2nd week of August.

This year, Emi and Koen are both playing soccer. Emi's team name is The Turquoise Dolphins. She is so excited to play and she looks so cute out on the field. Koen's team name this year is The Green Dragons. I hope they have a blast playing this year.

School started last week and Koen is now in 1st grade. My little Emi is now in Kindergarten! I can't put adequately into words how excited she was to start school. Here are pictures of their first day.

So now, life is back to "normal". Koen and Emi are at school everyday and I'm at home hanging with Zach. It's so fun watching him grow and learning new things. He's starting to say more things and tries so hard to repeat words and sounds. He's walking like crazy and loves his freedom. I love that kid.