Flashback Friday - Max

In an attempt to 'catch up' with the blog I will designate Friday's as my Flashback Friday!! Today we are going to focus on MAX!!!

Here are some highlights from this spring.

Max turned 5 and had his first 'friend' birthday party at Bounce U! He was so excited...
...can you tell?!
The little ladies table in the corner. Cute Hannah, Claire, and Charlotte.
One table with his friend Blaine, and sister Ella with cousins Ashley and Lauren.
Two table with Friends Ethan, Andrew, Drew, brother Jack, sister Nora, and Nora's friend Natalie.
Blowing out the candles!
Opening the presents on the throne while Paul is talking to the dad of one of the kids. They were like this the whole time. A few weeks later Max was even talking about his party and saying Dad wasn't there...I had to set him straight that he was there...in body.
A birthday picture with Mom. Doesn't this kid have the best smile ever?!
Max shares a birthday with none other than Dr. Seuss so here is a picture on his very birthday at school!Before school Max got to spend the morning of his birthday with Grammy making his cake. He loved it! They then went to get Max his birthday present at Payless. He wanted his first pair of 'Tie shoes' as he calls them. Yes, I am a lazy mom and bought slip on Vans, Converse, or better yet...flip flops and/or Crocs!!! He was thrilled and I began my journey of tying shoes daily.

Last (for now) but definitely not least, I got this letter in the mail about Max......and of course cried.Here he is receiving his award.Grammy came over to congratulate him.She sure was proud.And so was he!

That smile....

Because private blogs are a pain...

I have set up a blog purely to notify you when I post on this blog!! All of you who read blogs via Google Reader or some other RSS feed system will thank me. Not that my blog is the highest priority in you life, but I know that I forget to check the private blogs for weeks/months at a time. So, click HERE and it will take you to the new blog. You can then add it to your reader/feed! Every time I post something new here I will put a little reminder there that will have a link back here! Get it? I think you'll have to read the last few sentences a few times really slow. Oh well...at least I've tried to make your blog surfing a little easier!

Field Trip Catch Up!

At the end of last school year (so this past spring) I was able to go on field trips with each of the kids classes. I had a blast each time.

With Jack's first grade class we were able to go to the new Phoenix Children's Museum. It was AWESOME!!! It had so many fun and innovative things. I loved that the kids were encouraged to touch and play with everything.
They had a art/craft room where there were bins and bins of random 'recycling' that the kids could put together to create anything they wanted. Jack made this adorable robot and all the other kids were quite impressed.
They had this really fun set of tubes where the kids could put colored scarves in various opening and watch the vacuum action pull them all around the tubes and shoot them out the top. This was a hit and had the kids squealing, running and jumping to catch the scarves.
The pretend ice cream stand was very popular and was completely surrounded the whole time.
They had lots of rolling displays where the kids could see the progression of the balls.
This one was fun and easy to duplicate at home. My friend Erika actually did this for a birthday party and was so much fun.
By far my favorite part was the 'noodle forest'. They had hundreds of pool noodles suspended from the ceiling in a giant room where the kids could run through them to the other side. It was a blast. I will admit it became a little nerve wracking at times when we couldn't find some kids, but it was really fun to navigate those noodles!

The next adventure was with mister Max. Seriously...isn't that smile to die for?! Anyway, we were able to go to Superstition Springs Farm with his Preschool class. It was PERFECT! Really...it was. We were the only visitors there, the weather was mild, and the staff was very hands on.
Max loved holding/touching the animals and got the biggest grin on his face each time.
Nora got to come along and really did enjoy herself despite her face in the picture. The faces of Claire and Cole crack me up too!

Nora was in heaven on the hayride with Mrs. Gleason. She was Max's AMAZING teacher and will be held up as a hero in our house for years to come.
These looks of sheer delight just make me happy.
I love how Nora is holding the Rooster like a baby!
I just happened to catch this picture of Max's friend Ethan and I LOVE it.
Can you tell that he's a little smitten with Charlotte? She is such a sweetheart and I couldn't let the photo opportunity pass.

Last but definitely not least was the field trip I was able to take with Ella and her 3rd grade class. We went to the Museum of Natural History in Mesa, and to an I-Max movie on the Grand Canyon.
Here is a picture of Ella's teacher Mrs. Miller explaining one of the exhibits.
Ella and a few darling friends in front of a life size fossil bone.
Ella and Daisy posing in front of the Dinosaur exhibit.
Of course the kids were enamored with the 'poop' exhibit.
Yes...it was all about poop.
Ella took charge of the camera for a while and actually got some pretty great pictures like this one!
Self portrait of Mother and Daughter on the bus. I sure love this girl.
By far the best part about the field trips is being with my kids one on one. I love seeing them interact with their classmates and get excited at a new adventure. I have to eat up this time I have with them before they are too cool to have Mom come along. Thank goodness they still love me!

It's official

I'm now a private blogger. I'm sure you don't really care...or perhaps your mad because I just messed up your Google reader. I know all about that. My friends that have private blogs get forgotten on occasion! I'm actually trying to come up with a way to remedy that. I'll let you know about it soon.

Anyway, the benefit for you is that now we are private...you can feel free to comment at will. I was surprised at how many of you requested invites. I seriously thought I had about 10 readers. Anyway, thanks for coming on board. I cannot promise anything, but I will really try to start posting again. My soul needed a break, but I'm thinking it's now needing a release.

And the crazy just continues...

I am yet to enter all the email addresses to make my blog private. As usual it's been a little crazy around here. Now that school has just started I will try to get to it. So, if you still want in...let me know. I'll be back to blogging soon!!