The Grass Family Chronicles

All the boys have taken great strides with swimming this year. Check it out!

Posted in: on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at at 6:15 PM 2 comments  

Posted in: on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at at 9:00 AM 2 comments  

Andy's last day of school was last week. They go out with a huge play day bang! Again, I got to join in some fun and go around with Andy to all the fun activities they had planned. First there was a really entertaining juggling show. Andy kept saying, "My grandpa can do that!", but fortunately the juggler didn't notice. To his credit, he was pretty good and very funny.



Then they went to the gym for lots of bounce house fun; there was also a huge inflatable slide and stomp rockets. I would have taken more pictures, but it was pretty dark in there. Andy had recently become good friends with a boy in his class named Tyler; of course, he is half-Korean as well!



After that, it was fun games and activities in another room; for the first time, Andy consented to let someone paint on him. He got a Batman symbol on his arm. Crazy! Then we went back to his room for snack: worms in dirt, aka crushed oreos and gummy worms in chocolate pudding. He sure loved that!



Then it was time to say goodbye. Mrs. Burton called each child up to give them a hug and goodbye. It was so sweet. Now it's time for summer vacation!

Posted in: on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at at 9:31 PM 1 comments  

A couple weeks ago, Grandpa brought out the chessboard, just to see if Caleb was interested. I don't think he really expected anything to come out of it, but boy, was Caleb interested! He loves chess and is actually getting pretty good at it. He called Grandpa over the other day to come play with him.

Posted in: on at at 9:29 PM 1 comments  

Caleb and I went on his big kindergarten field trip to Camp Tilikum recently. Mindy commented that it was cool that I was a field trip mom, and I thought about how lucky I am that I can do that, even though I have two other kids and a job! It really takes a village. Or, in our case, really good babysitters! But I digress. Back to Camp Tilikum. So, we got on the bus and went on our way to Newberg. It was a good 45 minute ride, and let me tell you, a bus full of excited kindergarteners is CRAZY! Fortunately, we all got there in one piece. It was so organized; they set up different stations around the whole camp that we went to at certain times, and fortunately, we traveled by class, because Caleb would have been crushed to be without his best friend, Julien.



Our first activity, was tug of war. First it was boys against girls (girls won). Then they had the parents against kids. Caleb and I were at the front, and I laid down the smack talk pretty thick but I am slightly embarrassed to say the kids beat us! I guess we got to show them what good sportsmanship looks like. :)



After that, it was off to the tree house and rope bridge. I was so amazed at how eagerly Caleb was willing to try something new! I guess forcing him into new situations is finally paying off. He loved the rope bridge and went across it several times.



Then we went to the Fawver Center to do a craft. Caleb wasn't too excited about it, but he and Julien found some entertainment amongst the bead keychain making.



A hike was next. We hiked across a bridge and around the lake to get to the fishing dock. Caleb really liked fishing. Unfortunately, he didn't catch a fish, but he really wants to go again, so I suppose a fishing trip will be made this sometime summer.



Our last activity was canoeing. The had all the kids line up to explain some safety rules, and it was so cute that Caleb and Julien started holding hands. They knew that we had to split up into groups and wanted to make sure they would stay together. How cute is that?!




It was a great field trip. You would think that after all that the bus ride would be quiet, but of course it was crazier than before! I was ready for a nap when I got home!

Posted in: on at at 8:57 PM 4 comments  

Okay, I wanted to do some detailed vacation posting, but I've got other things to tell you about, so I'm just going to do a highlights version. Legoland was awesome, of course. The boys loved seeing all the Lego creations, from Darth Vader and Thomas the Tank Engine, to elephants and boats. They really loved the miniture cities. They had Washington DC, complete with the Obama inaguration, the Las Vegas Strip, New York City, etc. We spent a long time there. Then there were the rides. Lots of fun, and more so because Grandpa was there to help out!




The next day was Disneyland. We met Paul, Peggy and Zachary there (he was only six weeks old!). Zachary even got to go on his first ride, It's a Small World.

It was so evident that the boys are older, as they were more into the rides. The Buzz Lightyear ride was the overwhelming favorite yet again. We did that one over, and over, and over. Jakey was obsessed with it! Then we actually saw Buzz Lightyear outside the ride. Wow. He's still talking about it.

Another highlight for Jakey was meeting Minnie Mouse. He loves Minnie. She is hands-down his favorite Disney character. He kept talking about going to Minnie Mouse's house, so finally I left everyone else to take him there. Luckily, she just came out to take pictures when we got there! When it was his turn, he ran right up to her and hugged her. And hugged her. And kept hugging her until I finally had to pry him loose! He almost cried when we left. Miss Minnie was quite charmed by him!

We convinced the boys to try different rides, like the Teacups, but mostly we stayed by the Buzz Lightyear ride. Maybe next time we'll venture out a bit more!


On our final day, we spend our time with everyone at the beach. Michael and Becky flew down for the weekend as well, so we had lots of fun! The boys really enjoyed burying Uncle Michael and playing in the water.

Posted in: on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at at 3:03 PM 0 comments  

I am still planning on chronicling the rest of our recent vacation, but I wanted to post this while the memory of Caleb's tooth loss is still fresh. There's a lost tooth journal for his class and he is supposed to draw a picture and tell the story of how he lost his tooth. Here it is:



It is very hard for me not to correct his phonetic writing, but they say that's the best way for kids to learn how to write, so I bite my tongue. He wrote: "I was wiggling my tooth and it came out. The tooth fairy brought me a Naboo fighter and 2 dollars." The picture is Caleb looking at his tooth in the bathroom. You can see that he drew the hallway and his room with his bed.

Posted in: on Monday, May 18, 2009 at at 6:13 PM 3 comments