Miles' last days of school

Miles had a very busy time towards the end of the school year. His class participated in their first spirit day. They recited a poem, sang several songs including "I'm a nut", and they squared danced for their fellow students and their families.
Next came family fun day, although we didn't get to have our picnic outside, something to do with a freak June rain storm.
Finally it was time for his graduation from Kindergarten. The students showed us all they had learned over the year. They recited nursery rhymes, sang songs, danced, used several different languages to speak, including sign language.
Miles received a special reading award for having read 13 books to his teacher by the end of the school year. All in all it was a very fun evening.
Now it is on to first grade with even more learning and fun to come.

Stay tuned for some 4th of July pictures in the next couple of days.

Help us feed our daughter....

It seems that during these tough economic times, the only food to feed our daughter must come from the mud pies in the back yard. Please help us feed our daughter some real food.

On the other hand, if she would only put the food in her mouth instead of mushing the plums all over her legs maybe she wouldn't be starving.

Deadeye Miles

Young Miles went to the range with Dad and Uncle David recently. He's pretty good with a BB gun at garage distance, and has good understanding of the basic safety rules.

After orienting him to the operation of a .22, we let him try his luck at a 100-yard 8-inch metal plate, figuring he'd shoot in the general area.

The little bugger went 14 for 15 shots before a miss.

David let him try his .17 HMR, which is a zippy shooter out to 200 yards.

Miles hit the plate first time at 200 yards.

Dad shot many years before he could reliably hit at 200 yards. Miles did it first shot.

And second shot...

And third, etc.

He then started playing 'golf' with David. Rifle Golf is where you take turns shooting at golf balls laying on the ground between 50 and 100 yards. He was pretty good, staying close with David. No handicap for this kid!

(For the non-shooters out there, a golf ball at 100 yards is a damn hard target)

So now he NEEDS his own, Miles-size rifle.

Fun with Nana and Grandpa

The great prognosticator

On June 1st, just a few days ago, Sara posted:


Looks like summer is here in CA. Yeah!!!!

It's all her fault:

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA.

.DAY ONE... TODAY
AN UPPER LEVEL LOW WILL CONTINUE TO SCATTERED SHOWERS THROUGH
TONIGHT.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY
SCATTERED SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY. GUSTY WINDS WILL
CONTINUE AS WELL THROUGH AT LEAST SUNDAY.

Now, keep in mind that out here, "scattered showers" really means, "blue sky" followed by "knock-you-over gullywashers"

Yes, for a very rare occurrence, we have rain in June.

Lessons

While Nana and Grandpa were here, several lessons were taught. Helen had her first lesson in riding a tricycle, Miles got in some more batting practice with Grandpa, Helen learned to walk on the dirt and crawl through a tunnel.
I will post more photos later this weekend. Until then have a great one.

Summer is here

For those of you still waiting to plant the garden or just planted, we out here in Southern CA are already enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Yesterday I picked two summer squashes from our very first garden. They were very yummy. Tomorrow we will be having blt sandwiches for dinner with fresh lettuce from the garden.
Looks like summer is here in CA. Yeah!!!!
Stay tuned for more pics of Sara's Mom and Dad's visit, plus pics from Miles' graduation from kindergarten.

More birthday celebrating

Helen enjoyed her second birthday celebration as well as the first.

Happy 1st Birthday Helen!!!

Today May 19, 2009 we celebrated Helen's first birthday. We went down to the beach for a little bit and then came back and had some ice cream cake. She loved the taste of the ice crem, but wasn't too sure about touching it. She would take a big bite of ice cream cake, but then she would get brain freeze and cry, all the while wanting more ice cream to put into her mouth.
We will be doing a big barbeque on Saturday for her.
Mom and Dad are having a great time, and really enjoying their visit.

A week of firsts part 1

Ok, so Helen started out on one side of the room, and then crawled over to the couch and started walking back to the side she had just come from. Like I said, getting pictures of your baby walking is not easy. I hope the pictures explain what her first steps looked like.