Rockies

I was just clearing out some random pics on my phone and found some pictures from last month.

The day before Mark's crew went available we decided to go to our first Major League Baseball game as a family. The Rockies beat the Giants. It was a beautiful day and the boys did great. They did get a little antsy in their seats but we cured that with walks around the stadium. I didn't mind that at all because of the great people watching---my favorite part of baseball games.

Towards the end, we bribed the boys to sit still with an emergency stash of suckers I found in my purse. Cruz may have had more than one but they were small ;)

We made it to the seventh inning stretch and then called it. We were out of suckers......

Camp!

It's camp time! Summer camp started this week. This program is amazing and wears the boys out. Yep, that's right...I said "boys". Cruz is trying camp this year too!

The camp director made an exception for Cruz since the minimum age is 3 and he doesn't turn 3 until August. This wasn't even something I was going to pursue nor did I think it was an option. Coop's preschool teacher approached me about it. Once the idea was planted, I was all over it.

Cruz is only going one morning a week. We decided that would be plenty to get him started. This means I have 3 hrs to myself once a week which will be perfect to help me survive fire season.

Cruz knows several of the kiddos in his class and did great his first morning. I thought he'd be hesitant about me leaving at drop off but he put his little back pack in his cubby, gave me a hug good bye and starting playing with his buddies like it was no big deal. We will see how the rest of the summer goes but for now, Cruz is a fan of camp. And I'm not going to lie, selfishly, I'm a fan too.

Cruz brought home his first camp craft; a "silly monster" and when I asked what his favorite part of camp was, he said "putting the pieces together"---a giant outdoor puzzle.

Coop loves camp too. He's moved up and is hanging with the big kids and comes home a muddy mess. Mud = fun!!!













Mud tattoos!

The Graduate

Big C graduated from preschool nearly 11 days ago. Summer has officially begun. Next step; FULL DAY kindergarten!

Although his preschool career was rather short, Coop has changed so much since last fall. His teachers really emphasized with us how much more confident, self assured and outgoing he has become amongst his school peers and teachers.

Now we need to enjoy the summer and help prepare him for kindergarten. Unfortunately, most of his best buddies still have another year of preschool ahead of them. Cooper has figured this out and has been concerned that he won't have any friends in kindergarten. We're hoping summer camp will take care of that. He moved up to the Kindergarten/1st grade group at camp as well so he'll have all summer to make some new buddies. We assured him all of his younger buddies will still be his buddies. He just gets to test things out before they do and can show them the way.

Coop's school did an awesome job of making his graduation special. The kids put on quite a show, the teachers compiled an awesome video montage of the school year and then they made a big deal about those going on to Kindergarten. The ceremony was followed by a potluck dinner with all the families and lots of good-bye/thank-you hugs with his amazing teachers. Of course, a few tears were shed by Mama.

Unfortunately, Mark left the day before on his first fire assignment of the season so he didn't get to partake in the celebration. Have no fear though, I took lots of pics and video so he didn't miss out completely.
Here's a little video edit.......(pay no attention to Coop flippin' the bird at the audience at the end of his first song. I promise it is innocent and wasn't a skill he learned in preschool).

We are so proud of you, buddy!! Congrats!!

Coop's Graduation from A Mendonca on Vimeo.