I'm going to try to keep up on blogging the event of this week.
Yesterday we attended a Family Graduation Celebration. It was a celebration for student-parents. This was the first time the University has done one hosted by the R'Kids and Student-Parent Action Committee.
When we arrived and checked it all the kids received hats and stoles. James refused to wear his. :( Then all the graduates and their families did a dance in. We then got fed breakfast. A delicious meal of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit and biscuits. They also had some short speeches. The speeches were good. Mostly talking about the challenges of being a parent and a student and the great accomplishments they all have made to be graduating. After the speeches they presented all the graduates and their families certificates and the graduates were given 30 sec to give a shout-out/thank you to those who have helped them get to where they are. Everyone cheered everyone on. It was neat. Afterwards all the kids were given gift bags.
It was such a fun experience. I hope that this becomes regular celebration for future student-parents.
I forgot my camera, but people hosting were taking lots of pictures. So maybe we'll get copies of those. I did take this picture once we got home.
1. I tried my hand at making a Stir Fry for the first time ever. I usually don't like Stir Fry, but I like the one I made. However Tracy didn't like it. So I guess I'm on the search for one we both will like.
Here's the recipe I made if you want to try it out: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/10/sweet-and-sour-chicken-stir-fry/
2. James has started pairing his cars up as friends. Each car usually has the same friend each time he pairs them up. It is really cute to seeing him play.
3. We've been soaking up a lot of sun this week before the days get too hot to go out. One day we spent time playing on the patio with cars and bubbles. He even stopped for a bit to watch cars go by.
We also met Tracy one evening for frozen yogurt. James actually got really wet at the splash pad.
4. Today we had a fun splash and lunch play date as a good bye party to friends from our ward who are moving soon. It was a ton of fun. James had a blast playing with all the kids. I definitely have a social butterfly on my hands.
5. Tracy only has a week till graduation. He worked late all week long on his thesis. We've been staying up way too late while he's been busy working on it, but he got it completed and now it is in the hands of his committee. Now he'll do his defense on Tuesday, then make any corrections his committee gives him and then he'll officially be done with his master's degree. So proud of him. (You'll hear more of that in the next week.)
Let's back track a bit to May. I've done a good job keeping up on our weekday posts. So now here's a post about some of our weekends in May. I've already blogged about a couple of them. The first weekend was mine and James' trip to Utah and the second one was Tracy's Birthday and Mother's day.
So now the 3rd weekend in May, the Saturday we spent the day shopping. I was able to pick up some much needed shorts, Tracy got a pair of jeans and James got some new shirts. Old Navy had some baseball shirts for little boys for $4. We got 2. James picked out his favorite and I picked out my favorite. Now we wished we had bought more. We also came across this dress and Tracy insisted I try it on. I loved it and can't wait to wear it for his graduation.
Tracy stopped by the Verizon store to check out phone options and he ended up walking away with a new phone. We decided to wait a bit before getting me one too. After a day of shopping we enjoyed dinner at Yard House. Seriously, everyone needs to go to Yard House. One of the best restaurants I've been to.
At the restaurant. Tracy testing out the camera on his new phone.
It was a great day spent with my little family just doing our shopping together.
The 4th Saturday we took a trip to the beach. It was a perfect day. The beach was a little busy being that it was a 3 day weekend, but not so busy that it was over crowded. On our way to the beach we bought some new beach chairs from REI.
James soon decided that one of them was really for him and not for me.
At the beach James did lots of sand digging and castle building. We also enjoyed playing in the water. Usually in the early evenings you can see dolphins playing in the waves and it wasn't any different this day. I think we spent a good 6 hours at the beach that day.
Watching for dolphins.
Of course any beach day is a great day.
Memorial Day we just relaxed. Tracy worked hard on his thesis. But he did sneak out in the morning and came back home with a new phone for me. I totally thought we were going to wait another month to get me one so it was a nice surprise. James and I spent a lot of time on the patio blowing bubbles. We have several different types of bubble blowers, so it makes it lots of fun.
At one point that day James laid on the floor upset about something.
Sometimes it is rough being 4 years old.
We had a pretty good weekend over all.
May was a lucky month with 5 weekends. The 5th weekend started with Tracy and James heading out for father and sons camp-out. The camp-out was just in the park behind our church so not too far away. It was a nice to have a night to myself. I did have plans for cleaning but ended up being lazy. Oops. Oh, well.
My boys had a ton of fun. James slept really well. He had so much fun that he came home crying because he wanted to stay and play with all the kids. Poor guy loves being social with other kids and he doesn't get a whole lot of that being an only child.
Enjoying the campfire.
Tracy took this before he woke up. Such an angel sleeping.
That Saturday evening we went to our ward party. It was a nice evening visiting with ward members and good food. James enjoyed playing with all the kids again.
Sunday (really this is during June, June 1st, not May), James gave his first primary talk. We didn't receive the reminder message till late Saturday evening, so he didn't get any practice time in. Tracy thought we should do it on temples. The theme for the month is Priesthood Ordinances and Temple Work Bless My Family. So Sunday morning I sat down with James and talked about what he wanted to say. He was having a rough morning and didn't want to talk or do anything so I decided on his the content of his talk and didn't have much hope he'd even give it.
When the time came for James to do his talk he got right up to the podium and gave his talk. Of course with my help telling him what to say since he can't read. I'll admit he made me a bit teary eyed by doing so well. Tracy luckily thought of taking a video of it. Love modern technology allowing us to capture this moment.
