Exciting news! Katelyn has been in her Pre-1 class at school for 2 full weeks now, and she is doing WONDERFULLY at potty training! She's had only a couple of accidents, and the majority of them involved #2 in her underwear. For some reason she hasn't gotten the hang of that yet, which is totally opposite from Tyler who learned to #2 first in the potty. I'm not complaining though, it's so exciting to see her Diaper chart at school and see the "UP" for Used Potty. She's the only one new in that class that's even shown any interest. The rest of the UPs on the list are all kids that are a year older that are about to transition into the next class! I'm so proud of her! It helps that the teachers are super supportive and were actually the ones encouraging us to go forward since they could tell she was ready. Go Katelyn!
Thursday was Pre-1's Father's Day Pizza party. Meant for the kids and their dads. I went early with Will to get Katelyn changed into some clean clothes (she gets so dirty from playing all day!). Before the event started at 3:30pm, Katelyn decided to come over and play with Tyler and his friends in the Pre-4 classroom. She loves these kids, they are all her friends. I think she probably prefers playing with them since they are older.
It was almost time to head back to her classroom but she wanted to paint. She wasn't very happy about not being able to paint...Vanessa tells me (and I witnessed it it too this week!) that Katelyn likes to use a pen to draw on the easel first and then paint over it. There's some brain tinkering going on there I guess instead of random drawing.
Instead she did a little spelling puzzle. How cute is her hair? Courtesy of her awesome Pre-1 teacher Jennifer. Jennifer, by the way, also has had the unfortunate duty of changing Katelyn out of her #2 underwears. Apparently they've started cutting the underwear off to avoid getting her legs dirty. Yuck. They've caught on though, they now put her in a pullup during lunch and naps since that seems to be the time when she does her thing. Not always though... keeping them on their toes!
Back to Father's Day Pizza Day! Tyler and I stayed in his classroom so that Will and Katelyn could get in their father-daughter time. She was excited to eat pizza.. yum...
... and her juice!
About an hour later, Tyler and I joined them and Tyler grabbed a quick bite to eat too. We had been practicing his taekwondo form (in preparation for his graduation/testing that night) and he had worked up an appetite.
Doesn't Katelyn look like such a big girl now?
Some family photos! Katelyn had a mouth full of juice in this photo, but the other ones she was actually sucking in her cheeks like a fish!
Off to the next stop. Taekwondo testing! It was a very exciting night for Tyler. Tyler has been really into practicing his form, and this was the first testing that he was going to be doing it memorized and on his own. The form has two parts and I practiced it with him, and (unfortunately) taught him the wrong ending to the first half. Because of this, he has always had a hard time putting the two halves together. It's totally my fault and I feel SO GUILTY because he got confused at that exact place that night too. I'm guilt ridden. He had been practicing so hard too! Anyway... here are the kids in his group getting ready for their testing...
All the soon-to-be camouflage belts are going to be starting Black Belt Club! I was hesitant about this since 1) the gear is super expensive 2) the monthly price goes up and 3) it's 3x a week instead of 2! But Mr. Do, the owner, is awesome and gave us a great deal. He knows that things are a little tight since I'm not working and has been really great at working with us. Plus it would be so unfair to pull Tyler out now, now that he is really starting to like and be excited about Taekwondo! Here's Tyler excited about his new big bag of sparring gear.
And they got to put on the gear immediately! Woah, unexpected! I love how excited Tyler is, you can see his giant grin even behind the big helmet.
The kids are all ready to spar.
There they go! Hmm.. Tyler's opponent seems a bit bigger, don't you think? It was ADORABLE watching them. There was no contact though, thank goodness, since they're all new at it. Tyler got in some good kicks in too!
Video of Tyler in TKD sparring:
Whew, that was tiring and fun! I can tell Tyler is going to love Black Belt Club. He's so cute, isn't he? And so big now.
The kids all had to wait patiently for their turn to test. Finally it was Tyler's turn! He did a great job! Look at his kick and focus! I still feel so guilty. After getting confused during the transition and finishing his form, I could tell Tyler was upset and felt bad about messing up. He sat down and covered his hands in his face! WAAHH! Mr. Do told him that he did a great job and that made him feel better.
Here he is smiling when Mr. Do had him tell everyone how old he was. Only 4! I don't think there were any other kids that young doing the whole form. So proud of him! I think from now on he's going to want to memorize it every time so that he can skip the half belt/tiger patches!
Then more waiting...
Katelyn was quite well behaved through all this too. We had debated whether or not we should bring her, based on past experiences where she couldn't sit through the whole thing (they were pretty bad experiences) but this time she did great!
Time to get his new belt!
Yay!
Katelyn wants in on the action too. She's so silly sometimes.
What? No belt for me?
Hmph.
Proud mommy and Tyler with his new belt. We're going to make sure we practice correctly for the next belt testing! Green Belt!
Afterward we grabbed dinner in the same plaza at Sushilicious (we were so hungry). While we were waiting, Katelyn and Tyler did some taekwondo together outside. It is so cute watching Katelyn copy Tyler! Here's a video. Of course Tyler started doing his form perfectly:
Friday! Big day again! Tyler had his graduation ceremony that night. Very bittersweet. Tyler's been at ICDC since he was 6 months old and now he's almost 5 and about to leave and start kindergarten! The friendships we have made these last 4 years are so wonderful, and the teachers have been amazing too. I can't believe he'll be leaving soon. Good thing Katelyn is still there and I still have a little 'baby'... Katelyn was all ready for the activities of the night. She kept saying "guh-guh graduation!".
She liked the speakers set up.
She was really interested in the speakers and following around one of the Pre-4 teachers Karen. Katelyn is so darn friendly. At one point she had wandered off by herself and I found her sitting with one of the teacher's husbands off to the side reading a book. He told me that she had come up with a book and asked, "read?" and he read to her! Keep in mind this is a big guy with a beard/goatee and tattoos. He is a really nice guy but it still made me uneasy that she was so open and willing to interact with a stranger.
Tyler's all ready for graduation! Will and I actually had a quick date afternoon to ourselves beforehand. We caught an early afternoon showing of "Snow White and the Huntsman" and then met up with a few other parents for some drinks before heading over to ICDC. :)
Here is a collection of questions/answer posters they had hanging up around the yard.
Have you been to the Dentist? Answer: Don't know but my mom had a cavity.
What I got for Christmas? Answer: My mom bought me Ninja Legos and a sword from Santa.
What happens in Spring? Answer: You get to do Easter.
What I did for Mother's Day: I went to a restaurant at the Spectrum.
What I did this Weekend? Answer: We went to Kaden's party and saw the Haunted House there. (I have no idea what haunted house he is referring to..)
What I did over the Holiday Break.. Answer: I went to Mid-Evil Times. (weird spelling for medieval!)
Pre-4 Caterpillar Hunting. This was really cool, every Spring there are a ton of caterpillars in the trees outside the school. The kids bring them back and watch them make their cocoons and then get excited as they start to emerge as moths/butterflies!
What I Did for Easter? Answer: I went to Lego Land.
What I Loved about Stone Soup. Answer: The Cookies. (Stone soup is where each child brought in an ingredient to make a soup.)
The next few are from their Friendship board where the child picks a friend to write about. Tyler wrote "I like to build ships and blocks with Zane". He drew a picture of Zane, who has light hair. :) Awwwww.
Zane drew a picture of himself and Tyler and wrote "I like to play Legos with Tyler". Double Awwww!
Kaden wrote: "I like to find treasure with Tyler". Awwww. Interesting art though, eh?
Next was a photo of each of the kids with their paper figure. They had actually traced the kid on the paper lying down on it. The kids got to pick everything themselves, drawing their hair and the color of everything. Tyler chose a super light skin color!
How do you feel? Answer: Happy!
Dinner was going on (the parents all brought in different items) and the kids were happily eating it. It was great seeing all of Tyler's friends and their parents and siblings.
Cutie pie Katelyn loved her juice.
... and then she ran off to play. The blue chairs are for the graduates to sit in later. She wanted to graduate too!
Hanging out with Miss Karen.
Then she joined Tyler and his friends playing ball. She kept pointing at something on the other side of the fence. She must have been trying to distract them because...
... then she got the ball! Haha!
Tyler and his friends Kaden and Zane took a breather and hung out for a bit to chat.
Tyler's girlfriend Arden! They have such a cute relationship, there's kissing going on between them on the cheeks and hair! Haha!
Tyler looks embarrassed and giggling about something maybe Arden said. He's so mature here. :)
Graduation is about to begin!
The kids all walked out in a line from their classroom. So cute! They all had buckets with their names on them to put in gifts from the teachers. And how cute are their little leis?
Video of Tyler's Pre-4 Graduation:
My big boy, ready for kindergarten!
... and he's off!
Of course he's sitting next to Arden. Love his real smile here.
And then his silly side comes out.
Big group shot!
And then a family shot!
Tyler and Katelyn with the Pre-4 teachers.
And then one with just Tyler. Vanessa is the one with the long hair, second from the left. She is by far Tyler's favorite teacher, and we absolutely L O V E her. She is our #1 go to for babysitting, and if she is not available then we just give up. She's so wonderful with the kids and Katelyn loves her too!
Tyler and his BFF Zane. Taking this picture is when my emotions started to set in. Zane lives in South OC and will not be going to the same school as Tyler, not even in Irvine. They have been good friends for so long now, but we've never really made that jump from playing-at-school to playdates outside of school. Zane's mom is really nice and I'm really going to have to make sure these two get to hang out more. Zane is a day older than Tyler but a good few inches taller! It helps that his mom is 6'...
Zane, Tyler and Dylan. I'm not too worried about the other kids that Tyler plays with since we all hang out often. We are actually going with Dylan's family to Hawaii in December. SO EXCITED!
Silly faces!
Katelyn and her favorite Uncle, Uncle Stacy! OMG she loves Kaden's dad!!
We tried to get a photo of our core group of kids on the climber but they were too short to see over the bars...
Then we tried in front of the C/O 2012 sign, but we kept getting stragglers. Haha!
Katelyn, meanwhile, was busy playing with bubbles. The graduating kids had bubbles in their buckets and Tyler wasn't so easy to part with his to give to Katelyn! She got pretty grumpy.
But then Tyler relented..
..and how quickly her mood changed!
Here she is happy with her bubbles and dancing to the music. It was a dance party by now!
Katelyn and Chrystal!
Whew, most of the families had left and we were finally able to get a photo of the 6 of our kids. This is our core group that we have grown up with over the years!
Darn.. a straggler. But I love how Tyler has his arms around his friends!
The moms!
Then the dads. We have never taken a photo of the dads together before! Haha!
... Katelyn looks quick concerned about Uncle Larry...
Whew, what a night. Afterward most of our group headed over to Red Robin at the Marketplace to hang out. The wait was ridiculous. We were told 30 minutes but it ended up to be an hour! The kids kept themselves occupied with various electronics and it gave the adults time to chat (which is what we love to do anyway!). At least appetizers were free! We ended up staying out quite late...
Saturday! Pre Father's Day! While the kids were napping, I had a wonderful spur-of-the-moment idea of doing a date night with Will that night to celebrate Father's Day early. I texted Vanessa and she was available? It was meant to be! She came over by 6:30pm and then Will and I headed out for our night out.
First stop: Intro to Tango dance lessons at Atomic Ballroom in Irvine! We had a Groupon here (that expired, wahhh) so used the amount we paid for the class. It was SO fun! Totally different from anything we have ever done, but I loved every moment of it and can't wait to do it again.
Meanwhile Vanessa sent us a picture of Tyler. Haha! He was really excited to show her his new sparring equipment! He even convinced Vanessa to let him sleep with his nunchucks! LOL!
After the dance lesson, we headed over to Houston's for a delicious prime rib dinner. YUM. Then we watched Rock of Ages before heading home. We had a great time, and I'm so glad we were able to do it so spontaneously! Thank goodness for Vanessa!
Sunday morning. How is that I am late for everything? I had planned to be at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center by noon, but instead didn't leave the house until 11:47am. I hate being late. Thank goodness the pre-show for the Sesame Street Live wasn't that great and we didn't miss much. Basically it's just an area for the kids to run around, press buttons, and take pictures with cardboard cut outs of the Sesame Street characters. No real life characters! Here's Katelyn and my friend's daughter Audrey. Audrey is 8 months younger than Katelyn, but a lot smaller. I swear, Katelyn isn't even that huge though!
Cookie monster!
Visiting Sesame Street!
Playing Elmo's piano!
With my friend Yoko and her daughter Harmony! It's difficult doing playdates with Katelyn's friends. She is used to playing with older kids that like to interact with her, whereas kids her age usually just do their own thing most of the time. Plus a lot of these kids are the older siblings/only child of their family, and they have very different personalities. I'm trying though!
The show is about to start!
Video of Katelyn at Sesame Street Live. The show was OK, not as exciting as I thought it would be, and didn't do such a great job at keeping the kids' attention. But we got it at a discounted price so it was still enjoyable:
Afterward we hung out outside for a bit. Katelyn can pout on demand! I asked for a grumpy face for the photo and she gave me one quick!
With her friends Harmony and Kayla.
Meanwhile, Will and Tyler were having their own father-son day at the driving range. I LOVE these photos. Tyler is adorable and so big, and he looks like he actually knows what he's doing, or at least he's showing interest! I can't wait until he is old enough to go play with Will! Maybe I should learn too and then we can all do it together!
Love this picture of Will and Tyler.
Photographer Tyler.
Can't forget the putting green!
Back at home, the kids had gifts for Will. Katelyn had made a picture that had been put into a cup and Tyler had made these cool coasters with drawings. Must remember to add pictures of the coasters later. They're pretty legitimate! He drew one of the 4 of us, one of him doing taekwondo, one of Will and him watching Cars 2 in the movie theater, and one of Will taking a picture of him (with a camera with a flash and everything!). Loved them!
In the evening my parents and Will's parents came over for dinner. Katelyn was in a picture mood!
Whew, finished! Happy Father's Day to every dad out there, hope you guys all had a great one. I am so lucky that Will is such an awesome father, we love him! :)
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