Click on each of the images below to view larger photos. |
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| Playing "Where's Gina?" at the park |
Enjoying a cupcake at Emme & Ella's birthday party |
Gina with a mouthful of frosting |
Being silly after breakfast |
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| Getting the hang of the computer |
Enjoying some pizza | Doing Pilates | Making brownies
for Teacher Appreciation |
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| Showing off his funny glasses |
Just finished
singing Happy Birthday to Pop-Pop |
Doing something funny he learned at school |
Listening to some music on his new "ear phones" |
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| Working on a puzzle | At the Cubs / Padres game with Mandy |
The kindergarten class of 2009 - 2010 |
Checking out his new classroom |
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| Meeting his teacher for next year |
The first time doing a 100 piece puzzle all by himself |
In the middle of a really good laugh |
Having a race |
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| Winning the race | "Helping" Mommy in the kitchen |
Playing the piano before bed |
Playing Batman |
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| Proud
because
she did a lot of this puzzle without help |
Got this lollipop after finding the monkey at Trader Joe's |
Gina got one too | These are yummy |
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| Jumping after his lollipop |
Reading with Daddy | She loves her "Dumb Dumb Guy." |
Alex's last day of school |
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| Saying good-bye to his friends |
Saying good-bye to Mrs. Larkins |
Saying good-bye to Ms. Read |
A Phillies Fan helps with the dusting |
In May we had a visit from our friend Mandy who was in town for the Cubs / Padres series. Debbie got to enjoy a much needed girls night out with Mandy for the Saturday night game and then the whole family attended the Sunday game. This was Gina's first time playing at the "beach" and although she liked it, she wanted to spend more time just going up and down the stairs. Alex was proud of himself because for the first time he didn't lose any sand toys at a Padres game.
In May we also registered Gina for preschool and Alex for kindergarten. Gina will be in school part time, three days a week starting next week and will be attending the same school Alex went to. She has already visited her classroom several times and has met her teachers a few times as well. She is still very shy around them but we hope that she warms up to them quickly. Alex will be in a special two year program for kindergarten starting in August. He'll do half days the first year and full days the second year. He'll be at a different school for the first year of this program and then move back to our neighborhood school for his second year.
He was able to attend an open house at the end of May and meet his teacher and some of the kids in his class. He is really excited about going to big boy school.
The kids continue to have a great time playing together, although now that Gina is older and expressing herself more, they seem to fight more than they used to. Alex likes to include Gina in many of the games he makes up but sometimes his imagination is above Gina's head and he gets frustrated when she doesn't want to do things exactly like he does. They both really like to do puzzles a lot (although not always together) and they have fun racing each other and "shopping" around the house. Alex is really into scavenger hunts these days, so Debbie has to keep coming up with creative things he can go look for around the house.
A few weeks ago we took the kids to see Night at the Museum 2, as Alex was a big fan of the first one. We went mostly for him and expected Gina to sleep through it as we were at an 8:30 showing at the drive in. Instead, Gina did not sleep and ended up watching quite a bit of the movie. She really enjoyed the end with the talking Easter Island head has now become obsessed with the "Dumb Dumb Guy." She quotes "Hey dumb-dumb, you bring me gum-gum?" all of the time and asks to see the original movie on DVD almost every day (although we don't let her watch it that often). She's also become a huge fan of Ben Stiller's character Larry and even has his picture hanging above her bed. She will frequently grab Mommy's hand or Daddy's hand and say "Let's go look at Larry!" Then when looking at the photo she'll say "I really like that guy!" Who needs Dora?!
In June we celebrated Gina's 2nd birthday as Debbie tried to figure out how these last two years went by so quickly. Alex had a great time wrapping the presents and making a card for Gina and Gina really loved her gifts, card and cake. She was even able to blow out her candle by herself. We celebrated her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's where Gina's favorite part was putting tokens into machines and tearing off tickets. Alex and Gina have been having lots of fun playing with all of her new toys and they especially like playing with the Dora Legos, Dora backpack and her new coloring books and sticker books.
Alex's last day of preschool was this past week and he seemed pretty happy about it. Although he liked his teachers and his school a lot, he seems pretty happy about the prospect of not going anywhere for a while. He will do a few weeks of camp in July and will be doing a few outings with Mommy that Gina is too young to do, so he's looking forward to that as well. Alex and Gina are also looking forward to visits with their Grandpa & Uncle Tommy and Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop in August. Greg and Debbie are looking forward to TWO weekends away in August and are very thankful for Grandparents willing to travel cross-country to watch the kids for a few days.
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