Confessions of a bad blogger

I confess.  I have been a very, very bad blogger lately.  There is no excuse, except maybe that there was so much to blog about that it became overwhelming.  I am back though, and will be a better blogger than ever!!  Here is a recap of our summer.  More to come.

Mason had his last day of preschool.  Kindergarten here he comes!!!  He loved his teachers, this was taken on the last day with Mrs. Dansie, and Mrs. Carlson.  We sure appreciated all their hard work, Mason loves school and is excited everyday.  
I'm going back to work.  After lots of thinking, and even more interviewing I will be going back to my profession of teaching after 4 years of part-time teaching and one year off completely.  The school is right near our house, and I am excited although a bit nervous.  

Matt has perfected the art of Mojitos.  With fresh mint from the yard.  Yummmm..
Lots of time hanging with the family outside.  Many s'mores have been made, lots of jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler on underneath.  Summertime relaxed fun.
The kids both took swim lessons again this summer.  Mason loved his class, and is getting pretty good with his swimming skills.  Goggles have helped this greatly :)  
Sophia and I took the "parent/tot" class again.  She has no fear and loves the water!

Matt and I took a relaxing and wonderful trip to Las Vegas right before the 4th.  Many, many, many thanks to my mother-in-law Nati for staying with the kids.  We had a great time!

Mason's Preschool Program

Here's the video we promised of Mason's end of the year program.  

He is still doing the sign language and teaching Sophia.  Super cute!!

Mason's preschool Art Show

Mason had his end of the year program and preschool art show this week.  Here are some highlights from the art portion- we will have the video on the blog soon with his songs from the program.  He has had such a great year, we are so proud.  

Here's the 'M' page from his class book.

Mason showing off his page in the love class book.  Mason loves his mom...what a sweetie!

Class kite book, Mason flies his kite in the driveway.

Leprechaun wishes book, Mason would wish for butterflies.

Mason's handprint flower.

Standing by his worm picture and worm painting.

Pointing to his self portrait.  What a great year!

Mason's first soccer game '09 Spring season

What a difference a year makes!  Mason had fun last year on his team with his friends, but didn't get too involved in actually kicking the ball.  We had his first game of the season this past Saturday and he was all over the field.  He really had a fun time!   He scored a few goals, one of which was for the other team... watching 4 and 5 year olds play soccer is very funny for the spectators!

Going for the ball.  

Mason and his good buddy Gibson who were on the same team last year too.

Sophia cheered for her brother the whole game, and only ate two of the treats I brought for the team after the game :)

Teammates and friends.

What a handsome little soccer star.  Go yellow team!!!  

Pedicure time!

It rained ALL weekend this past weekend.  We were a little stir crazy by the end of the weekend.  I gave myself a home-spa-pedicure and then gave Sophie her first taste of spa treatments.  She picked pink polish.  She liked kicking her toesies in the water.  The fun of having a little girl!!

The foot scrub tickled!!

So cute!

A trip to the garden

We had a great time at Red Butte Gardens this past week.  The daffodils were gorgeous, the company was grand, and a good time was had by all.  Well, except by Sophia the last ten minutes we were there... :)

They have this great sand pit the kids just love in the children's garden section.  The tub was full of red sand that night!  

Here's Ella and Alexandra walking the garden hand in hand.  So sweet!

This is how two year olds play.  Chase me, chase me!  Avery and Sophia loved this snake trail.

Mason and Gibson, handsome guys!

The one picture I got of the kids with the pretty flowers in the background.  We love spring!

Painting with worms

**** Disclaimer- no worms were harmed in this project****

Mason has been studying bugs this week at school.  Monday was butterflies, today worms.  He made a worm painting at school with his class- it was so rainy we decided to do it again with our own worm.  Such slimy fun!

Mason's worm coming out of his blue paint.

Sophia doing a worm dance.

Wormie making a fabulous painting.

Pretty close to the finished painting.

Sophie's worm wasn't quite as active... maybe it didn't like purple?

Here's the worm all cleaned off and ready to be released.  The kids wanted to keep the worm as a pet- so now I have a container of dirt with worms on my kitchen counter.  I guess that's the least I can do for making such great artwork for us :)

Hopping down the bunny trail!

Just some pictures from the Easter weekend.  We weren't too great at taking pictures of egg hunts this year- so here's just some from the weekend.  

Mason flying his Optimus Prime kite from the bunny.

Sophia LOVES her Hello Kitty "sunbrella" as she calls it.  

Blowing bubbles!

Mommy and Sophie.

Mommy and Mase.

Glittery pink egg by Sophia.

Mason's technique with the blue.

Sophie getting help from Grandma Nati.  Happy Easter everyone!

Salad Spinner artwork by Mason

Mason has been off pre-school all week for his Spring Break.  I think it has snowed every day.  We've been having fun doing inside things, going swimming earlier today, and yesterday meeting some friends to ride the carousel and play at the local mall.  Today we did some fun art projects with the salad spinner :)  

Mason choosing what color to use:

Deciding on orange this time.

Before.

Spin it as hard as you can, push, push, push!

After- we added blue too.  Isn't that groovy?

Here's another one.

So much for "Spring Break" huh?  Oh well, we'll make the best of it!

First S'mores of Spring

We broke out the fire pit on Friday for some family fun and yummy s'mores.  Mason was a big helper to Matt finding little kindling around the yard and learning the ways of fire-starting.  It was all the fun of camping- and then jumping straight in the tub afterwards :)  Welcome spring!

The boys with their fire ready to be started:

Sophia and Daddy.

Here's toady playing around.

Yummmmmmm..

First bite of s'more- check out Cosmo looking for anything that's been dropped below.

First bite or s'more for Mason.  We are gonna have a great summer!!!