Cub Scout Camp

This week Reggie has had cub scout camp everyday from 9:30-3:30.  It is quite the production and all parents have to volunteer.  So, Monday and Tuesday I helped with swimming and crafts with the kids.  They had a group for siblings, so Ainsley was there for those 2 days.  Thankfully, the weather was pretty mild because just being outside and in the sun/wind wiped us out.  We got home and just sat in the car in the garage, gathering enough energy to go inside!  Today he was just a mess when we picked him up.  Part of it is hunger, but it was so bad, we almost said no for tomorrow.
Some of their activities have been shooting/target practice with rubberband guns and squirt guns, frisbee, cooking, scout education, skills, crafts and sports.  They also had a wittling station where the kids carved soap with a pocket knife.  You can guess what Reggie wants now!  We don't have a pocket knife, so he hasn't been able to finish his bear.  Scouts is fun because they learn such a variety of things and it teaches them a lot about community and being responsible (they got silly bands for picking up garbage!).
We are very glad tomorrow is the last day and I'm hoping he is in a better place when we pick him up since we are heading straight to San Jose for the gymnastics Olympic Trials!!!

 Writing a secret code....

Brave kids

We took a trip to Six Flags on Sunday.  The kids earned free tickets through school for reading.  We did all the usual stuff, but went to a new animal show that had some fun creatures like a sloth, porcupine and flying bat.
The weather has been mild here, mid 70's, but the forecast was wrong and it ended up being much warmer.  they have a water ride that we've always wanted to go on, but Reggie and Ainsley were a bit hesitant.  Ainsley agreed and was rather surprised when we dropped like we did.  It was fast and lots of fun!  When we circled back, we finally got Reggie on board.  He and Ryan are in the very top, right, Reggie burying his head.  I think the kids were glad they did it, but had no desire to do it again!

Drama

Last Friday Ainsley lost her first tooth!  The tooth started coming through the skin well before the baby tooth was ready to come out (it is set back a little and unless all her teeth are set back, I see braces in her future).  She wiggled that thing for a few weeks and toward the end didn't want to eat and would cry about her loose tooth.  I don't remember any of the drama with Reggie and I'm hoping it was just because it was the first one.  We are all very glad to have it out!

Summer Fun

This week is our only free week before we head back to Washington and we are making it count!  We went to the water slides in Antioch on Tuesday and I'm glad we went this year because Reggie would have been bored next year.  They had 3 water slides and they were pretty small, but it was nice because he was going down them by himself!  Ainsley was happy just to swim in the 2 1/2 foot pool.  She was underwater and practicing her strokes for a couple of hours!  We did get her to go down a couple of slides, but it wasn't her favorite, "they were really fast".  We all tried the lilly pad obstacle course and Reg and I completed it, but Ryan wasn't so lucky.  I still smile when I think about it!

Game Over 

 We left the water park and picked up K since he lives just a couple miles from the park.  The kids have been having so much fun playing, getting soaked in the yard with the hose, playing pretend and coloring.  This morning, I decided to take the kids to the Alameda County Fair.  It has been a couple of years since we've gone and I thought K would enjoy the animals/rides.  The kids were great and we had fun looking at the enormous model train station and I made the mistake of going into one of the buildings to get cooled off and now Ainsley wants finger nail paint pens and Reggie wants his picture on a stuffed animal!  Luckily, I had no money :o).  The hit of the day was the petting zoo.  I have never been in one quite like it....so many animals and lots of chaos.  They had the cutest pot-bellied pigs and it was good Ainsley could pet one and find out they aren't soft after all.  She has been wanting a pet pig for a few years.  K got nipped by the ducks (ducks in a petting zoo?), but he went back to pet them again :o).  The funniest animals were the deer (deer in a petting zoo?) that wanted to chew all of our clothing.  We were a bit surprised when it happened the first time and poor Reggie was trying to escape the deer that was chowing on his shirt!  I had goats coming right up and nearly licking my face when I was down on my knees taking pictures.  We couldn't stop laughing and then we watched a pig take a dump on a girls foot and that was when I got them out of there!  We washed hands in the funniest hand washing station, singing songs and talking to us.  Then we dried our hands underneath a pretend hen.  We were pushing K's nap, so we hit a few rides and then headed home!  I still laugh thinking about that crazy petting zoo......

 

Vacation Bible School

The kids had VBS last week and we organized to go with several school friends.  I'm not sure if that was why they liked it so much, but they had such a fun week!  Reggie tried all kinds of new foods, including a bean and cheese burrito and liked them all :o).  Ainsley found us a new babysitter.  She fell in love with her group leader and I heard about her everyday, so I asked her if she babysat...BINGO!  They burned a soundtrack of all the songs they learned and we've listened to it multiple times a day.  Ainsley does all her movements and thinks she's a rock star.  Reggie even moved his body during the songs.  I was on the other side of the room, but found him and saw that he was dancing, so I had to get a video (I'll try to get that uploaded tomorrow...they take forever):

They both seemed a bit disappointed the week was over!  We will go to Cedar Grove for sure again next year!!!

Happy Father's Day Ryan!

We are happy to have Ryan home after a long stretch of travel, nearly every week for the past 6 weeks, for 2-3 nights :o(.  Thankfully, he will be grounded and with us for a few weeks.  The kids can enjoy him daily!  We had a fabulous day today, starting with breakfast in bed for dad.  The kids and I headed to Starbucks bright and early to bring him a coffee to go along with breakfast.  Ryan opened his gifts;  thanks to Groupon, he will enjoy and 3 hour flight lesson and plane ride at our local airport.

Ryan had requested a gift from Ainsley that she try to ride her bike without training wheels.  She was up for it, so we headed to the park at 8:30 (had to beat the heat because it was 105 yesterday and 95 today!).  It didn't go quite as Ryan was hoping.  She was all over the place and didn't want him to let go of her.  By the end, she didn't even want to do it.  So, the training wheels are going back on and we are going to see if she can learn like Reggie did and just keep raising the training wheels.  Ryan got a great work-out and was sweating like crazy because it was already pushing 85 degrees!

We headed straight to church and then came home and had some down time.  Ryan went to the gym and then played some monopoly with the kids.

Yesterday we did science experiments from a kit Reggie got at the thrift store for $1!  He made light from water and powered a clock using a lemon and fork.  He is very excited about science and I was just happy that the experiments worked!

We finished the day with dinner and Uncle Yu's and then ice cream at the Nestle Tollhouse Cafe:

I hope he felt how much we all love and appreciate him!!!  The kids wrote some great things on his cards and I saved some notes they wrote to him while he was on one of his trips:

We obviously have some spelling work to do, but you can sound out most of it.  He is a great provider, loves us all and shows us his love, is generous, fun to be around, makes us laugh and has a huge heart!  Thanks for being such an awesome dad!!

Mama is a BAD ASS!!
It is Father's Day weekend but we're all very proud of our mama this weekend.  Trina decided that she was going to enter the Pleasanton sprint triathlon this weekend.  If you could have seen her physical state last weekend you would have thought, hmmm probably not going to happen as her back pain was acting up.  She had a little limp going last weekend and had some facial expressions that would tell you she was in some pain.  By last Tuesday she had started to come out of it and by Wednesday into Thursday was back to normal.  I was traveling pretty much all week last week so she had the kids and activities all to manage on her own.  I got home Friday night at 11:00PM and Saturday morning Trina had to be out of the house by 6:15AM to register for the event.  She went on her own, checked in her bike got her war paint on (sharpie number written on her arm and leg) and came back to get us at 6:45AM as her heat started at 7:20AM.  The event consisted of 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and a 3 mile run to finish it off.  I was clocking her and he finish time was right around 1 hr and 10 minutes.  Very few folks finished under 1 hr so I told her next year she should enter in the competitive round as she would kick some ass.  Ainsley and Reggie cheered mom on during every transition and we we're all proud of her and excited to watch her do so well.  At the finish she had a big smile on her face in which the announcer called out her name and shared with everyone over the loud speaker how happy Trina Wade seemed due to her big smile.  Here are some pic's from yesterday at the event..  Good Job Trina, we love you!!

Trina, prior to the start of the triathlon

Finishing the swim and heading to the bike

Heading out for the 10 mile bike!

Coming in from the bike and heading to the run!

Taking off for the 3 mile run!

To the finish line with a big smile!!  Go 1360..

HOT!!

It was only 95 degrees today!  The kids had a blast playing in the blow up jumping water slide.  Knock on wood but they've been getting along so well lately, it's been great.  Check out these crazy kids in a water fight..

OMG!!!!
As they're playing outside I decide I'm going to go inside where is cool and take a short snooze.  As I'm in a deep sleep I hear the fire engines going by our house but didn't think anything of it.  As a matter of fact I almost used that as a soothing sound to keep me in my deep sleep.  All of the sudden my wife bless her heart yells out Oh My Gosh!!  There was a brush fire right across the street and down from us.  Smoke was bellowing out and the flames were probably 6 feet high and starting to climb the very tall and large trees.  Let's just put it this way, the fire department ended up using our fire hydrant that was in our yard to put the flames out so it was kind of scary but also cool at the same time.  Check out the during, and aftermath of our little excitement for today.  BTW I almost had a heart attack..

SUMMER FUN!!

Well this past week sure has felt like summer for us. The weather has been fantastic...school is now out and our activities have been summer like. The last day of school was Thursday and I must say the kids were sad?   They like their teachers and their friends and most of all they like being active throughout the day and Mom and Dad are not active enough. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I'm bored" from Mr. Reggie. And let me tell you we haven't been just laying around the house.  We've been busy, but I guess not busy enough. Olympic Day was the official last day of school. The kids were put into groups and then they rotated from station to station doing different activities. It was truly chaos and very difficult to find each one of them as they we're bouncing from activity to activity.  Here are a couple of shots of Ainsly and Reggie on their last day of school.

Ainsley holding the ball with her hands instead of holding it between her legs and bouncing.  She was creating her own activity!








Reggie on the roller scooter with his buddies

Reggie hangin out with his buddy Colin in between stations.  It was a warm day!

Ainsley and her friends doing the potato on a spoon walk.  Look at that concentration








After school was finished some of the parents wanted to extend the fun that day so a group went to the park nearby.  We enjoyed a pizza lunch and had some time to reflect on the school year and to wonder which teachers all of the kids would have next year.  I can't believe my baby is going to be in the 1st grade next year and my big boy will be a 3rd grader..  Man time flies and they grow up so fast..  Here is a pic of Ainsley at the after school party holding a Guinea pig.  How cute is she, I mean Ainsley..

Livermore Rodeo & Parade

That Thursday night after we got home from a fun filled day of last day of school activities it was time to hit the Livermore Rodeo.  We met up with some friends and watched the rodeo with them.  Cow ropin', cow milkin', and a whole lot of fun.  It wasn't cool enough for Reggie however as he was bored and ready to go after an hour.  Check out Cowboy Reggie and Ainsley with her gymnastic friend.

Saturday morning Reggie had to be down town Livermore at 9:30 to hop on the cub scout float as his troop was riding in the parade.  Ainsley, Mommy, and I sat on the street and watched the parade as Reggie came through.  There was lots to see but the coolest thing was Uncle Sam on stilts.  This guy had done this since he was a teenager and he was in his 50's.

Fun times!

We picked up K on Friday and everyone was so excited! K was so excited, he was awake in bed for over an hour trying to take a nap....hmmm. The kids had lots of fun playing all sorts of things, cars, play kitchen, play dough, coloring, building forts and playing take-out with Ryan.  I try to stay out of the take-out mess, but occasionally, I have become a target.  The kids are my allies thank goodness :o). 
K had a visit with his parents on Sat., so we went to the zoo which is just a few miles from where we drop him.  We got to see the alligator's feeding for the first time and that was a bit of a shock.  Didn't realize they eat several huge, white rats.  Ainsley is the question girl and that provoked a lot :o).  Reggie rode the sky tram for the first time (he isn't big on heights) and saw the roller coaster in the distance and decided it looked like fun.  So, Ryan and Ainsley went first and then the two of us went.  Ainsley couldn't stop talking about how fun it was.  When we were finished, Reggie said, "That wasn't a good idea."  He didn't like it at all! 

Ainsley had her end of the year performance last night and she did fabulous!  She has really come out of her shell and loves singing the songs and doing the sign language.  We heard these over and over for the past few weeks.  She got a little choked up at the end because she saw a few people crying.  What a sweet girl :o).  Here's a video (you'll have to go to arrtwade.blogspot.com to view):

She chose her hairdo and picked out her outfit, high heels and all.  Not to bad!

Here's a clip of her teacher giving her pictures and artwork from the year.  It is always nice to hear great things about your children :o).  We are very proud of  her.  Ainsley has come a long way this year and she is such a good girl!

Reggie and Ainsley comparing kindergarten books.  I think they both agreed Ainsley's Penguin was better :).