Fun, Fun, Fun - Wrapping up June

We've had a busy week - we've kept busy and had so much fun along the way!  

Let's start with more fun on our water slide.  This thing really does give us hours of fun.

Here's Sam flying down the slide.

And here I go.

We even got going with the brother train.  

And just for fun - mom added in a video of us racing down the slides.  What a way to keep cool!

Then began the week of Mason . . . it was my birthday week and I made the most of it.

First up - an early birthday dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  

Martha is the owner and she has become our good friend.  She knew I was coming in to celebrate my birthday and she was waiting and ready.

 Then my actual birthday day arrived - complete with decorations, balloons, and presents.  Can you believe I'm 9 years old?

The first thing I got to do was open my present from Sam.  He was very kind to me!

Then I begged mom for some breakfast in bed.  I had already gotten dressed, but I hopped back in bed and ate my breakfast there.  It was fabulous!

Then we headed out on an adventure - to the local Aquarium.  We hadn't been to the new location before and it was very nice.

We enjoyed the rainforest and seeing the exotic birds.

We climbed across the forest.

We rode the whales.

We went on the huge research ship - see us over there on the right at the edge.

Then we found the sting ray petting pool.  We were a little nervous at first, but we finally got our hands and fingers in there and fell in love with these super soft, super friendly rays.  They were like little puppies following us around, splashing us, and just being cute.

Here I am with the rays.

Then, after dad got home from his conference, I got to open the rest of my presents.

I got my very own Harry Potter wand.

I selected an ice cream cake this year and it was delicious.

No birthday is complete without the traditional "Mason sandwich" picture.  

I sure do love my birthdays!

Another one of my birthday presents was this cool new scooter.  I officially LOVE my scooter!  And I'm good at riding it too.

Sam also got a new scooter so we could ride together.  He wins the most improved scooter rider this week and is rocking his scooter.

Enjoy this video of us riding around the neighborhood on our scooters.  

Then we headed out to our local historic railroad on Friday afternoon for their Dinosaur Days on the train.  

It was a short train ride, but just enough to remind us how much we still love trains!

Look at these smiles - I think we'll always love riding trains!

We got some toy dinosaurs during our ride - definitely the highlight of the ride!

And here we are with dad under the giant dino at the end of the ride.

And just to prove how much we love riding our scooters, here is another picture.  We've been riding every evening after it cools down enough that we can stand being outside.

And finally . . . . just to document how much I really, really, really love riding my scooter - I had to get my piano practicing in today before I could go out riding.  I insisted on practicing with my helmet on.  In fact, I ate dinner with the helmet on tonight too.  That's some dedication!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  I came up with a new way of riding our friendly whales at the aquarium.  

And if you look closely, you can see a penguin on top of my head.  The penguins were pretty sleepy when we were there.  This guy was the only one out swimming around.

We enjoyed our afternoon at the train.  This little dino came out to visit just as we were leaving.  

OK - Sam out.  Have a great week everyone!

Farming, Mermaids, & a Happy Father's Day

We've had a great week!  

We started out setting our summer goals - a little reading, school work, piano practice, house jobs, etc. every week.  

Finding me reading a book isn't hard to do - I'm always reading.

Then we went to Farm Camp this week.  A local farmer near our house runs a farm camp - 4 fun packed days of learning what it is like to run a farm.

On the last day, our parents got to come over and take a tour.  

We had sooooo much fun!!!

There were tractors and farm machines.

There were animals - this is Peanut Butter, the goat.  She is so friendly and nice.

There were chickens - - lots and lots of chickens.  At first we weren't all that excited about the chickens, but we learned to like them.

We did some planting - pumpkins.  

And we get to go back in the fall and harvest our pumpkins.  We can't wait.  

It was a great week at Farm Camp - we're begging to go back!

Then we got to go see The Little Mermaid.  It was an excellent production!

Here we are "under the sea".

And we did a lot of playing around this week.  We talked dad into building a huge train play set for us.  And he came through in a huge way!

We've spent a lot of time this weekend playing with the trains.

He used nearly all of our train stations and our tracks.  This makes for hours and hours and hours of endless fun!

And then it was Father's Day.  We sure do love our dad - we love that he loves to play with us and that he teaches us how to fix things.  

Happy Father's Day daddy!

Sam Alert:  Hey everybody - Sam here.  Mason and I decided to each pick a weekend breakfast and be in charge of cooking that meal for the summer.  I picked Sunday mornings.  I love to watch cooking shows with mom and I chose this morning's menu of Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs and Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits.  

It turned out to be one of the very best breakfasts we've ever had!  In fact, I loved the parfaits so much, I literally licked my cup clean!

I sort of love this cooking thing!  I've been researching recipes and have quite a few lined up for the next weeks.  Stay tuned!

Ok - Sam out.  Have a great week!

The End and the Beginning

This week we had both an ending and a beginning.

Our ending was the end of school.  Most kids love it when school ends - and don't get us wrong, we love the thought of a few days off from school.  But we already miss our friends and our teachers.  

To wrap up our last week of school - we had our Merit Assembly.  

Sam won two awards this year - one for Exceptional Academic Performance.  That means straight As all year long. He also earned a scholarship for Academic Achievement and Good Comportment.  

Yay Sam!

He was one very proud boy!

I earned three awards this year - I took the Bronze medal for my Young Author Book Project, and I got a Certificate of Achievement for Physical Fitness.  I also got an award for Exceptional Academic Performance - that same straight As all year long.

Here I am with the other award winners from my class.

Some individual pictures - here's Sam.

And me.

And then it was the last day of school.  The last day of school is pretty much the only day we don't wear our uniforms - so our last day of school pictures this year are in casual clothes.

Me - the end of third grade.

Here's Sam - the end of first grade.

And the brothers - last day of school, 2015.

And then we got to say hello to the beginning of summer! 

We've started up our summer lessons . . . golf, swimming, and piano.  

We're both taking piano lessons.  Here's Sam getting in a daily practice.  We have a great teacher this year!

Tip your heads to the side - here's Sam at his golf lesson.  (He's in the white t-shirt).  He's is actually quite a good little golfer!

He's working on his short game.

And to ensure that summer had really started, mom and dad brought out a new "activity" for us for the summer.  A blow-up water slide.  

We literally can spend the entire day playing on this thing.  And I think that was the idea!  Up and down and splashing around.  We are exhausted by the end of each day after playing on this thing.

Here are a couple of pictures of us playing for you - look at our big smiles.

We can race - we can climb - we can splash.

The smiles just never ended! 

And look at the air Sam got - go Sam, go!

One more race to the bottom.  We've been sleeping really, really well!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone, Sam here.  Summer has gotten off to a great start.

We've gotten in some "play around the house" time - which is always good.

And again, tilt your heads to the side (sorry, cell phone pictures).  You'll see my and my "little" banana split.  And the answer is NO, I couldn't finish it all - but I gave it a good try!

And here I am with some Banana Nutella Crepes - breakfast out.  Delicious, Delightful, and Delectable!

Sam out - have a great week!