Second Grade!

Katie started second grade on Monday.  Before going to Open House on Friday she wasn't excited about going back to school.  After Open House she said she was excited.
Here is she before heading to school. It is our family tradition to bring flowers to the teacher on the first day of school.

Ready for 2nd grade!

Of course, once we got to school she was excited to see her friends. Here she is with her friends from first grade, Kaia and Hailey.

Friends!

Once the music played it was time to head to their new lines and head to the new classroom. 

Katie and her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Blomquist

I was excited to hear about her first day of second grade when we picked her up from school.  She didn't have anything good to report.  She was disappointed in her day.  It pretty much broke my heart. She said the best part of her day was seeing her friend, Kaia. She complained that recess and lunch were too short, the kids in her class were annoying, and the day was boring. That night before bed she said she was going to call in sick to school in the morning.  The next morning she hid in her closet and said she wasn't going to school.  Heartbreaking!

However, we talked about things and she asked me to talk to her teacher.  She was concerned because in order to have "Fun Friday" the class has to earn it. She didn't think it was fair that even if she was good, ("because, I'm ALWAYS good") she might not get to have Fun Friday and she really loves Fun Friday.  One of her first lessons that life isn't always "fair."  We got to school and I did have a little chat with her teacher. I left hoping she had a better day.

Day two turned out MUCH better than day one! :)  Yippee! She even told me she made friends with the girl who was bugging her the day before. This morning, for day 3 of second grade, she had no complaints about going.  Yea!   I guess that first grade was so great that there was no way second grade could live up to it. She was spoiled in Mrs. Payer's class. I know she will adjust and have another great year at Gilbert!

A Cousin Visit

It's been awhile since the McCrady's came to Vegas to visit the Oppenheims.  We had a busy week and it was fun to get the cousins together.  Just about a week before their arrival, Jonathan broke his arm.  That changed our plans a bit, but we still managed to have some fun outings.

They arrived Monday afternoon/evening. After picking them up at the airport, we headed to Cafe Rio for a yummy dinner. When we arrived at home the kids had fun showing thier cousins around the house, playing for a bit and the it was off to bed.

Cousins playing with the Iphone!

Tuesday brought a trip to the outlet mall for school clothes shopping for the McCrady boys.  There was also lots of swimming.

Wednesday included a trip to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.  The kids had a great time. Here are some shots from the visit.

Katie & Nathaniel checking out some of the fish.

Alex is dressed like a Marine Biologist!

They found the dinosaurs!

Thursday brought a trip to Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. It was HOT!!! The kids LOVED seeing the brand new baby white tigers. They also enjoyed watching the dolphins. Here's the best shot of the four cousins in front of a lion.

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Watching the dophin training.

Friday morning was spent swimming at a friends' house with our playgroup. I didn't think I'd ever get Nathaniel out of the water.  He had a blast. I felt bad for Jonathan since he couldn't swim, but he managed to pull it together.  Friday night, Don took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and I took Kristina with me to play BUNCO. 

Do you know how hard it is to get 4 kids to sit together nicely for a picture.  Here is the best shot we got of Grandpa's grandkids. Those boys are crazy!

It was a fun week with our family visiting. It's nice that the kids get to know each other a bit more. We are glad the McCrady's came to visit. Maybe next summer we'll be able to visit them in WA.

It's my birthday, I'll cry if I want to!

Well, I'm not really sad. Growing up I always had a countdown to my birthday.  I was known for loving my birthday.  Maybe it's the Leo in me, we love to be the center of attention.  5 years ago my birthday got overshadowed for a great reason, Alex was born the day before my birthday.  Now, this was kind of my own fault, since he was a c-section, my doctor had suggested my birthday and I politely declined that date.  I chose the day before, rather than the day after so that he would always have his birthday first.  Good move....I think.  But, it does mean that we will always have lots of dessert around our house this time of year, because I insist on having my own cake.  This year I made Alex an ice cream cake and I stayed up late last night baking a cheesecake for me.  The trouble is, there will be another cake for Alex's party on Saturday.  Oh well, gives us a good reason to have friends over for dessert, right?

Today I am the same age my parents were when I was born. Kind of weird and cool.  Made me realize that if I live as long as my mom, my life is more than 1/2 over.  I don't want to think like that, but those thought occur. It actually puts a fire under my butt to make sure I live a long life.  I mean, as much as I can control that! I really want to be around to see my kids have families of their own and be a fun grandma!

I spent yesterday afternoon stuffing about 100 homemade raviolis for Alex's birthday dinner.  Next time he requests ravioli for his birthday, I'm using the store bought frozen kind! Tonight's dinner will be grilled shrimp and steelhead trout.  Yummy!  Which reminds me that I'd better go get the shrimp marinating.

Growing up birthdays were always a big deal at our house.  I've tried to keep that tradition going with my little family.  I think I'm succeeding, now just hoping that translates to my family spoiling me on my birthday too. Maybe in a few years the kids will be making my birthday cake.

I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of adventures I can have in my 34th year!

Future Rock Stars

A few weeks ago Katie and Alex attended a Rock Star birthday party.  They had a blast.  Every kid dressed in rock star clothing and had their hair and makeup done. Alex decided to have his hair sprayed red. Next they all had a photo shoot/fashion show, then recorded a song with a group, made a music video, ate pizza and cake, then did some music trivia.  Although it was really hot in the venue, all of the kids had a blast. Katie really like seeing so many of her friends from Gilbert.  Happy Birthday, Makalia!

Rock Star Alex!

Rock Star Katie

Katie and her good friend, Kaia

Playing Guitar Hero

A great quote

A little while ago I came across a great quote.  It really resonated with me. 

"If a child is given love, he becomes loving...
If he's helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful.  And if he has been truly valued at home...he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others."
                                          ~Dr. Joyce Brothers, 1974
When I read this I thought how true it is.  I certainly hope that my parenting reflects this in my children. I believe that we are succeeding in this quest.

Maybe you are inspired too?  What is your favorite quote?

Summer time fun!

Don and the kids are at a birthday party so I have some nice quiet time to catch my readers up on our summer so far.  Do I really have readers to catch up?

The summer has been HOT.  So hot that Jerry started climbing into the bathtub to cool off.  It's funny because he never goes in the tub when we've tried to give him a bath!

The kids have spent a ton of time just playing together.  Sometimes I've been a little bored because they are so busy playing with each other that I'm ignored! We've also put together a lot of puzzles. Somehow I have ended up putting together many of the 100 piece ones that we've started.  Katie is becoming pretty good at putting together the 100 piece puzzles.  We've spent a lot of evenings playing Uno as a family before bed.

It's always fun to play with freshly made "kool" dough!

It's so nice that they can play board games together now.

We had a big evening out to see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay.  We all really liked it. It's a pretty long show and  Alex got a little restless, but the kids both really enjoyed it.  There has been lots of talk about the show around here.  After the show we went out to dinner at one of our favortie places, Strings.  We don't go out to eat very often and both kids got to pick a dessert.  They thought it was great!

He ate the WHOLE thing!

Our next adventure was our annual trip to San Diego. This time we had a nice visit with my cousin Theresa and her girls. The kids love swimming in their pool and Alex especially loves the slide. They also got to play some games with Leah and Rachel. It's always nice to get to spend time with family.  The weather was amazing, it was actually a little chilly in the evenings, but we weren't complaining!  We had a great day at La Jolla beach where the kids built and detroyed a great sandcastle. We took a drive up the road and spent a day at Wild Rivers water park. The kids had a blast! We spent a day at the fair where we met up with another one of my cousins, Andrea and her son Logan. The kids road the rides for close to 7 hours. We did manage to sneak in some time at the commercial building and checking out the animals.

Playing a game of Sequence with Leah and Rachel.

The kids and their sandcastle.

I think the tube slide was their favorite!

Imagine Alex's excitement when he saw this monster truck parked outside the fair entrance!

Alex and Logan, their birthdays are a day apart. Logan on August 2nd and Alex on the 3rd.

We've enjoyed lots of swimming this summer. We've been fortunate to go swimming at lots of friends houses and finally got our own pool open for business. We love our above ground pool, but it's not exactly ideal for swim parties! Someday we'll have an inground pool.....

The kids had two weeks of swim lessons.  It was sure hot watching from the sidelines.  Fortunately Grammy lives close to the pool and the kids got to stay with Grammy while the other had lessons. They both had a great time hanging out with Grammy, and sometimes Uncle Peter and Grampy. Grammy and Alex played lots of Go Fish.

Katie at swim lessons.

Katie and Don swimming at Chucks over the 4th of July. We had a great time and had the perfect view of the North Las Vegas Fireworks.

The Oppenheim pool open for business.  It's been great to jump in and cool off. Both kids are great swimmers.

Our next few weeks will be busy with summer camps.  Next week the kids have KidShine camp each afternoon and on Friday they will have their performace. The week after that Alex will be spending three mornings at the Co-op for Camp Co-op. The following week Katie will participate in the Co-op Alumni Art camp.  Whew! 

I love summer!

Random Thoughts

I keep coming to my blog thinking I should post something, and am never really motivated to upload pictures and gather my thoughts. So, here are some of my thoughts!

1. I can't believe the school year is almost over! Alex had his last day of preschool yesterday and Katie only has a couple days of first grade left.

2. I've been loving this weather and am not looking forward to the HOT days of summer.

3. We really need to get the garage organized so I can park the car in there again.

4. I am excited to get really working on my Lemongrass business. I need to book some parties for July. The new hostess program is pretty amazing!

5. Katie and Alex were awesome at the KidShine performances. It's always so cute. I love that every kid has a solo and a speaking part.

6. Katie's matinee was great.

7. Katie's got a piano recital next Saturday. Man, we've been busy!

8. Alex really, really, really wants to play tackle football in the fall and I think we might let him.

9. We are all excited to go see the Lion King in a couple of weeks. I love it when shows have Local deals. Buy one get one free is pretty good.

10. We are going to have a great week in San Diego in June.