Happy 10th Birthday!

There's nothing better than bringing cupcakes and having free dress on your 10th birthday! These two were so excited that they kept reminding me to make certain to wake them up by banging the pots and pans. I did it and it was awesome!

Pre-birthday celebrations included lunch at the Spaghetti Factory with Nana!  Lucas got his garlic shrimp fettuccine and Gracie got spaghetti with mizithra cheese and brown butter.

Gracie and Lucas also graduated to washing all of the dishes, not just putting them away. ;)

Gracie is officially taller than Lucas!  Remember when she was two inches shorter? 

Almost 10

Lucas loves chess and soccer

Who knew Lukie would love two things that seem so different!

Gracie and gymnastics

Gracie has found her passion: gymnastics.

Father's Day is for

Father's Day is for Daddy to teach his girl how to take care of her wheels.

Kindergarten Graduation Take 2

Finally, we are done with Kindergarten!  These two are officially first graders, and boy, are they ready!

click to view larger

We have been learning a huge lesson about fairness and how life is not fair.  Gracie earned a medal for citizenship and Lucas earned two medals, one for academic excellence and one for leadership. Gracie is having a hard time because Lucas is so confident about what he knows and Gracie is terrified to be wrong.  She hesitates and, as a result, people think she does not know as much as she actually does. Lucas is super speedy and can read with confidence.  He is really fast at math and can add and subtract in his head like nobody's business.  Gracie loves to draw, read, and write.  She especially loves to pretend she is a teacher and "grade" all of the books in her room.

This should be our last year in a classroom together! Hello, grade school!

Happy Easter 2014!

We celebrated Easter 2014 at Aunt Bec's house.  Of course, we took our annual picture (minus Nathan and Emmy who were at Knott's Berry Farm).

Left to right: Hailey, Brandon, Bianca, Gracie, and Lucas

100th Day of School 2014

This year, Gracie and Lukie's Kindergarten teacher is super high achieving. She doesn't mess around. She has high expectations, and she let us know from the beginning that our 100th Day of School project what have to be big. It would have to be awesome.

From time to time, she would send reminders to us, gently nudging us to get to work. Gracie and Lucas weren't sure what they wanted to make, so we have them a list of ideas and we came up with projects that totally fit Gracie and Lukie's personalities.

Meet 100 Teeth by Lucas

Meet 100 Spots by Gracie

Kicked out of karate

Gracie and Lukie have been taking karate for the last five months. It's been a really great thing for them, they've been learning about self-discipline and focus and following directions. Gracie has slowly been gaining confidence and Lucas has been working on following directions and keeping focused on the task at hand.

Lucas has so much energy that he sometimes forgets what he supposed to be doing. Today in class he was dangerous and went underneath the balance beam while two of the kids were trying to move it back out of the way. Master Jason asked Lucas to leave class 20 minutes early. Lukie was devastated and embarrassed, as he should be.

 

The problem is, that Lukie is harder on himself than anyone else is. He told me that he wasn't allowed to have any treats for the rest of the day or go any special places for the rest of the day because he has been kicked out of class. I'm not sure where Lucas has developed this feeling that he should be punished for every single thing he does wrong, but I'm hoping that in the next few months I can help him see that a mistake or one bad choice does not mean that he has failed or that he is a bad child.

 

Glasses for two

Other than her eyes, Gracie does not resemble me one bit. And to be honest, her eye color is very much her Daddy's so even those don't look like me. One thing we both have in common is that we are now both the proud owners of glasses.

Apparently, we both read a lot.

Mommy and Twinjas