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.

Zoo

Last week we went to the Denver Zoo with our Estes Park posse. It was a huge group. What set this trip apart from our trip last year was a couple of things;

1). We rode in the same vehicle with some of our friends. The boys thought that it was beyond cool to get to ride with their buddies and 3 moms all in one car.

2). We went stroller free! We rented wagons to haul our stuff around since we didn't have much trunk space with all of us in one car. We walked and walked and walked. It was soooooo liberating to be stroller free in such a huge place.

3). Cruz decided spontaneously to make the zoo his first public place to attempt going peepee on the potty. Yes we've dabbled (read: dribbled ha, ha, ha) at home with the notion but never out in public. Good for him, but the zoo! Ewwwww! I don't want to jinx things but Cruz likes to practice. A lot. This made for a lot of stops and a lot of hand sanitizer. We aren't out of the woods just yet and probably have a long road ahead of us but I see the diaper-free light at the end of the tunnel and it is glorious.













I love this next pic of Cruz. The polar bear was totally hamming it up for the crowd and Cruz loved him. I wanted so badly to get a pic of Cruz AND the bear but was afraid I might drop him in the pit in the process. So I had to just take a pic at hands length so I could keep my grip.

This is his view at the zoo @ two.

Swim

Coop has swim lessons at school every Monday. We have gone swimming as a family a couple of times over the winter but it had been awhile. Last week, the school invited family members to come watch the kid's progress. Coop was very excited when Cruz and I walked into the pool area to see his swimming skills. I couldn't believe how much he had improved!

Way to go Coop!

Mother's Day, a Gem

We celebrated Mother's Day this year with a family hike. We took the Gem Lake Trail which is mostly uphill. We knew that we wouldn't make it all the way to the lake but were still quite impressed with the scenery and our little hikers.

Cruz was very proud of himself and Coop could have kept going. Maybe next summer we'll actually make it to the lake.

40!

It happened. I hit 40! I had a great day enjoying some sunshine. We met some friends that morning for coffee and duck feeding at a nearby coffee shop. Later that night the boys took me to a fancy shmansy restaurant for a nice meal. Mark enlisted Cooper to help keep Cruz in line at the restaurant and it actually worked! Coop took his job very seriously and Cruz was actually pretty tame.

Later in the week I went out to dinner and drinks with some friends. A muuuuuch tamer celebration than my 30th birthday but I liked it. Good food, drinks, conversation and I didn't wake up hungover the following morning. Score!

The best birthday dates ever!







It took awhile for the thought of turning 40 not to sting so much. It started sinking in a couple of months ago so I had time to prep myself. By the time the day actually came around, I was pretty okay with it. No jumping up and down or anything but accepting. It is what it is......

Neglect

Not my children....this here blog. It's been awhile. I told myself that I should just start fresh from today and not worry about what I haven't posted. But the whole point of the blog is to document. So here we go........

Duck Race. We did it again this year. Last year we hung out at the launch site and called it a day after the ducks sailed off but this year we watched the ducks drop and then followed them down the river for quite awhile. We didn't wait to see the finish line because Cruz's nap needed to happen. We had a date that evening for our friend's 3rd birthday pary. It was a Monster Truck party and fun was had by all.