Gone but never forgotten -Remembering on Father's Day

June 2011
Father's Day

This year, we spent father's day taking the kids to honor their grandfathers that have passed on. We visited the grave of "Papa Booth". Mr B's grandfather and Great Grandpa to JT and Hea Bug. He was very important in our lives and I'm grateful for the time that we were able to spend with him. I'm grateful that my children knew and loved him well.

We also took them to see "Grandpa Jack" for whom JT is named. It was their first visit and we try to come often enough that they will remember to honor those that are no longer with us and what they gave us. I never got the opportunity to meet Grandpa Jack since he died when Mr. B was only 10. I feel like I know the man that he was through stories though and us B's try to pass that on to our own children.

I worried that Mr. B might feel left out considering we weren't making a huge deal about him. But he enjoyed talking to the kids about their Grandfathers, the men that they were and the things that they did for him and taught him. It's not always an easy thing to pop up and say, "let's go to the grave site today" but I think he was glad that we got to do that for them and for the kids.

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

June 16, 2011

So proud of our little man! He has finished Kindergarten! What an amazing year of growth, learning, and accomplishments! At the last award's assembly, JT was given the "Most Improved"award for the leaps and bounds he made with his penmanship. We were there celebrate his achievements!

The last day of school was spent with all the other Kinder Classes as we walked to El Dorado Park for a fun day of play. There were bubbles, games, relays and face painting. Each class rotated stations, they had such a fun time even though we were experiencing June Gloom weather.

Kinderbration was hosted by 2 classrooms at a time. So smart to have only the families of 50 students in the auditorium as opposed to all 100 kindergarteners at the same time! 

We were treated to super cute songs and we got to cheer for our kids as they were presented with awards (JT got a Math Super Star award!) and then their Certificates of Completion. The wonderful Mrs. S choked up a little when offering sweet words of kindness about our children. I know that JT will remember how much he loved and learned from her for his whole life!

At the end of the day, we went back to class and collected all the projects, books, tests, and memories of kindergarten. Can't wait to come back and experience 1st grade!

"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. " -George F Will

June 10, 2011

The 2011 Spring Baseball season has ended for us. JT had an awesome time playing on the Twins and we met a lot of really cool families. Coaches were awesome, Parents were great, Kids had fun, can't really ask for much more than that.

I team-mom'd this year. We had a pretty great bunch. After our last game, we went straight to Cirvellos for pizza! We handed out special "Slugger Awards" to each of the players and then gave thank you gifts to the assistant coaches (who doesn't love Sunflower Seeds and Big League Chew and a framed photo of The Guys on Family Fun Day?). For Coach Freddy, I found a wood grained baseball that had the Twin's logo stamped on it. Over the last few games and practices we got all the boys to sign it and that was our special gift to him.

The boys all learned so much and had a great time in the process. Super proud of JT and looking forward to our Baseball Filled Lives in the future! Go Twins!

"Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going" -Jim Ryun

June 5, 2011

In December of last year, I crazily decided that I wanted to become a runner. Did I EVER like it? No. I have dreaded running the mile since like 6th grade! Over Christmas I'd listened to my sister tell a story about a friend of hers that had run the San Francisco Marathon and uncontrollably... it popped up there on my bucket list. I started a program called C25K and downloaded an app called Get Running. After 2 "attempted starts" and a crappy calf injury, I finally buckled down and got serious. In February, I started by running for 1 minute and walking for 1.5 minutes at a time. Three runs a week, 9 weeks later, on April 30th I completed C25K and ran for 30 minutes strait, without stopping, for the third time in a row! It was just under 3 miles.

Having completed the program, I wanted to test myself and signed up to run the Wrigley River Run. We got caught up with work and I stopped training for about a month. Since I'd already signed up, I decided to do the run regardless. When I went to pick up my information packet, Mr. B. spontaneously decided to do the run with me! I was skeptical but sure enough, after a pre race stop at 7-11 for some Red Bull, we showed up to the starting line and ran that race! We finished the 5K (3.2 miles) at (me 36:28 and him 37:50), pretty decent considering we hadn't been running for so long beforehand.

We felt great afterward and I've signed up for the Long Beach Half Marathon (13.1 miles). I've faltered on my training plan but have no intention of being a no show come Race Day, October 9th! JT is signed up to do the Long Beach Aquarium Kids 1 mile fun run the day before. He's pretty excited.

pirate fest carnival and day with grandma gg

Our Awesome charter school hosted a Pirate Festival for our annual carnival fundraiser. There were games, music, food, entertainment, rides and good times to be had by all!

 The whole playground was transformed and each class hosted a game booth. Ours was the Ducky Pond. It was monitored by volunteers from our classroom and they did a wonderful job. HeaBug had to make sure everything was in working order and spent a lot of her tickets here!

I made a banner for our class utilizing an old banner that we had printed for a pirate themed birthday for JT a few years ago. I snapped pictures of all of his classmates and teacher and used apps on my iphone to transform them into cute pirate pictures!

Silly string was the big winner of the day. Kids were running around spraying each other, their parents, teachers and anyone else in a good mood. Our playground looked like it had confetti all over by the end of the day.

There were aerial acrobat performers, chinese dragon dancers, huge carnival rides and lots of food and fun. What made it even cooler was that GG (Great Grandma Booth) was visiting with us for the whole day. She joined us for JT's baseball game early that morning and got to stay the whole day with us. Maga and Tutu also hung out with us and the other older Booths came for a little while.

The kiddos enjoyed the day so much and were wiped out by the time GG had to head home.

Mr. B took off after the carnival to hop in a Penske with our brother in law Craig and drive straight through to Atlanta, Georgia. Our company built some scenic element for the Katy Perry tour and due to delays, we weren't able to make the deadline for the shipping company. Our stuff had to be on site by Monday morning so Mr. B and Craig drove it there, taking route 40 the whole way through and dropped off the pieces Monday just outside Atlanta. Then they hopped on a plane and were home by Monday night! Keeps us on our toes!

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust

The week before school let out for the summer, I got to go with JT's kindergarten class to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was a wonderful free day as each parent volunteer was given 4 children in their group and we were at liberty to explore the exhibits and the grounds at our own leisure! We had  a great time!

"Sun is Shining, Weather is Sweet" -Bob Marley

It was River trip time for us again. Annually we take our boat out with our Imbach ohana to Laughlin. We’ve camped before but this trip was one where we take the boat out all day and come back to shower and sleep in the hotel at night. 

We left for our trip on Memorial Day, going the opposite way of all the coming home traffic (NICE!!) JT took the days off of school and we took the days off (sort of) from Rock Steady. Breeze came with us and The Imbachs had two of their boys, Dev and Bird and another boy from their ward, Kyle. 

We found a great little beach up by the dam and set up camp. Lots of yummy food, tons of gatorade (thank you electrolytes), wake boards, knee boards, skis, and tubes… there was NO shortage of cool stuff to keep us entertained!

JT and HeaBaby love being on the boat and in the water. It was her third year going, funny as how she’s only two… yes, we had her out there when she was 4 months old the first year. My little aquarius/daredevil. They both love to “drive” and Mr. B lets them when there aren’t other boats around. 

The inevitable wind kicked up but didn’t knock us out. We still enjoyed tooling around on our Maxum that we’ve named “The Holo-Holo”. It must run on air, or water, we’ve decided because we only filled up once and towed it home with the tank half full!

It was the perfect kick off to our summer trips, we’re looking forward to coming out to Lake Mohave again. Can’t wait to try out a few other lakes too!

argh

Frustrated at how behind I am with keeping up our blog. JT keeps asking if I put "this" or put "that" on our "Internet Family Journal".
Next week, we are in Tucson. I have no baseball, room parent, team parent, gymnastics, jiujitsu, anything. I plan to get some posts up. Before I forget lol...