Kindergarten End-of-Year Program

Regan's last day of school is Friday, and her kindergarten doesn't have a graduation, but yesterday, they put on a showcase for the parents. It was so fun to watch. These are all the AM kindergarteners (3 classes). The kids seem so much older than they did when the year started. I'm not sure I'm ready for First Grade. Not seeing Regan all day is going to be weird. I know Hadyn's not ready...

Here's Regan waiting in line for one of her speaking parts. They asked her what she would do if she were a kindergarten teacher. She said she would take the kids to art class. (I thought she said Iceland, which would also be cool).

Another speaking part. Look how much smaller she is than the other kids. Her birthday is the actual cutoff for her class. She is a petite kid anyway, but some of these kids are a full year older (or more for some of the boys).

The greatest teacher in the world. We were asked to fill out a questionnaire for next year's teacher assignments, telling them what kind of teacher would be best for Regan (you couldn't specifically ask for a teacher by name). We would really just like to see Mrs. Emery graduate to First Grade with Regan... Doesn't she look like a cool teacher? She is. Thanks Mrs. Emery. We'll miss you!

Here is part of their grand finale song. It totally made me cry. What is wrong with me? (Don't forget to pause me music first).

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks...

For Fathers' Day, the girls gave Jeff a t-ball set. It has become their new favorite toy. It is a toss-up whether they like playing baseball or being a cheerleader while someone else hits. Jeff and I both loved softball, and I like to think at least some of the girls' enthusiasm for baseball comes from me. The cheerleading stuff...I have no idea, but I bet my friends from high school are smiling as/if they read this, picturing my girls as cheerleaders...

Frogs Revisited

Later, I will try to get Jeff to post and explain some of his trip. He took some great pictures. But for now, here's a teaser...I thought this was funny. I posted a picture of the frogs earlier this week, but he also took video. I think this is so interesting. It's just not something I see when I go shopping. Maybe I just don't shop in the cool parts of town...

He's Home!

We are so glad to have Jeff back home!

We'll have to add some more pics from his trip, once I find the camera... He's sleeping, the girls are playing with the stuff he brought back for them, and I'm going to start dinner...a grown up meal. I can't wait to eat something that doesn't include the word "fingers" or come between two pieces of bread.

Happy Father's Day!

We are having an unusual Fathers' Day since Jeff is so far away. We celebrated him in his absence, however, and he was so missed. We will have our own Fathers' Day party for him next Sunday, but since he has access to the blog, we wanted to give him a shout out. He is such a great dad. From the day Regan was born he seemed to morph into a SuperDad. He even changed Regan's first diaper in the hospital without coaxing or even suggestions from me. In fact, I took longer figuring out the mom thing, and didn't even realize she needed changing.

Here are just a few moments captured for posterity of Jeff taking care of us:

There is rarely a time when at least one of our cars doesn't need some tinkering at the very least. Jeff puts on his mechanic hat...

Landscaping, yard clean up, spider and ant killing, weed sprayer, garbage taker-outer, Jeff's our guy.

Even a new tile floor! Is there any job he can't do? We haven't found one yet

We girls spent some time at bed time talking about how great of a dad we have. Jeff, we love you, appreciate you, and lately, miss you so much! Thanks for all you do. Have a great Fathers' Day!

On to Shanghai

Jeff left Tokyo yesterday, and flew straight to Shanghai. He'll be there until next week. He was excited to get to spend the weekend in Shanghai since a friend, Brandon, that worked with him here in Boise has since relocated to Shanghai. Brandon and his wife will be spending the weekend showing Jeff the coolest spots and best food. It's always nice to have a local tour guide. Jeff said that it reminds him of a much bigger Penang, where he and I lived in 2001, but not as much pirated software, and the knock-offs aren't quite as cheap.

Jeff in front of some awesome buildings. I love the boat in the background.

A picture from one of the wet markets. This does remind me of Penang. Hopefully you can click on this picture and make it bigger. (Sometimes it will let you get a bigger view, sometimes not...any of you bloggers know why that is and how I can control it? I would love help with that...) If you're stuck with the smaller view, at the bottom of the picture, that green thing that Regan says looks like a green toilet seat, that is, of course, a bag of green frogs. Yummm...

On the Road Again...or Island, I guess...

Jeff is travling for a week or two right now. He's even going to miss Fathers' Day. So sad. The girls miss him a ton, as do I. We did a mini Fathers' Day celebration before he left, so he could take one of his presents with him. We got him a Gorilla-pod (shown here). It is the coolest tripod. It can wrap around anything and hold your camera steady, so you can get a lot of cool photos with you actually in it, versus just scenery shots, etc.

Yesterday he sent us a few pictures of where he is right now. He's working with Canon, in Japan this week, and most of next week he'll be in Shangai at the HP site.

I wonder if it is a good idea to work for HP, visit Canon, and wear your Intel polo shirt...confusing... I think this is from his hotel room. Look at all those trees behind him. Cool.

The hotel he always stays at in Japan is in the middle of some big forest and blueberry plantation.

They were ahead of schedule, so he got half a day off. He borrowed a bike from the hotel and went exploring. That is a sweet bike. I want a basket like that on my bike...seriously, I really do, that would be awesome!

Cool butterfly.

Yummm...School Lunch

Today Regan's Kindergarten class got to eat lunch in the cafeteria. My friend Val was thoughtful enough to email me pics, and forward-thinking enough to think about going to actually take pictures. Regan has been so excited to eat at school. I hoped that the meal could live up to expectations...I had my doubts. I remember eating school lunch, and I don't remember leaving full very often. However, Regan thought it was great. They got pizza, peaches, salad, baby carrots and milk, all on those cool partitioned trays. She is ready for first grade now, if only I could get the same excitement for all the homework that I hear is coming...

Waiting in line.

Awww...my baby girl is growing up so fast...yes, that comment actually annoyed me as much as it did you...

Busy Little Bees

The Luke Hive has been very busy and productive these last few days. We finished our downstairs bathroom, finally, and I think it is beautiful. I love it. I wish I had taken a before picture, because my description just won't do the old bathroom justice. First, the door only opened up half way, since it opened in, and would hit the pink (yes, pink) counter of the HUGE vanity. Then, the blinds in the window were never actually installed, just jammed into the window frame, so if you forgot, and tried to pull the string to open the blinds, they came crashing down. Finally, the toilet had a slow leak into the flooring, which had discolored the vinyl and made a mess of the subfloor. Our little guest bath has been out of commision for some time, but we are welcoming it back into the fold. It has a new color on the walls, a very dark burgundy, almost chocolate brown. A new vanity that is a much better fit for such a small room, an updated mirror, new tile floor, and Jeff removed the door frame and turned the door completely around so it now opens out. I really do love it, and the girls love that they no longer have to make the mad dash up the stairs to their bathroom when nature calls.

We also got our garden planted. We are still getting used to this garden thing, so we were pretty late in the season. Luckily, since we missed the window for planting seeds, we were still able to find most everything we wanted in seedlings at the garden store. Come fall, we'll have corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, jalepenos, strawberries, and raspberries. I also planted a couple nasturtiums. They are a really pretty flower that some friends of ours grew last year. It is edible, petals and leaves, and tastes like radish. I loved the taste, and thought it would be cool to have flowers in our salads, so we'll see how it goes...

Here's Jeff roto-tilling the tomato area.

What a Great Weekend

This has been the greatest weekend. Friday night, Jeff and I dropped the kids off at our friends (Thanks Crystal) and loaded up our bikes in the truck. We drove down by the greenbelt and spent the next hour and a half riding along the Boise River and in the Boise North End streets. The weather could not have been better for a bike ride. It was so fun! The biking, the weather, the surroundings, and having one-on-one time with Jeff was awesome. We even capped the night off with a little Maggie Moo ice cream. Perfect.

Then, Saturday at our house is Family Fun Day. We have a brown lunch bag full of family activities from which we draw, and have a great time together. Yesterday we drove up to Bogus Basin to go treasure hunting. Regan and Jeff (and when it's not too scary, Hadyn) have bonded lately over Indiana Jones. So, we went in search of our own treasure at the newly uncovered ski hills of Bogus Basin. Jeff and I hoped to find "real" treasure such as dropped sunglasses, money, property deeds, etc. from under the ski lifts. We found slightly different treasure, but the girls were in heaven. They kept saying how this was the funnest family fun day ever. It truly was great, even if we weren't any richer monetarily when we left...probably poorer, thanks to gas being somewhere around $12/gallon...

We hiked almost all the way up the face of one hill. If you know Bogus, we hiked under the 4-man lift, and almost got to the end of the lift. Jeff and I were amazed at how well Regan and Hadyn handled the hike. It was very steep in places, but they were real troopers the whole time, thanks, in part, to all their treasure. Again, just a great day, great weather, great family, great time.

Here's Hadyn and Jeff on the lift (it was off of course). You can see Regan on the seat behind them. I love the look on Hadyn's face. Do you think she was getting tired of the camera?

Hadyn again, giving the classic Luke camera pose. The bandage is from a scratch she got the day before in a fight between her and a tree branch. The branch won...

Regan and Jeff about half way up the hill.

Our little hikers...

The loot: Several rocks, a bolt, a broken snap, a shiny lid from a lotion bottle, a blue plastic circle, a dried up pen, a toggle from a jacket, half of an orange sunglass lens, part of a buckle and a piece of glass. The only treasure no longer there is a Captain Morgan liquor bottle. It was one of those small ones, maybe from a minibar or something. We let them bring it down, but it smelled so bad when I opened the bottle to rinse it out, I tossed it... The girls really, truly love their treasures. I love that this is what can make them happy. I know it won't last, they'll grow up and demand treasures of IPods and cell phones, but for one weekend at least, they were so happy to find this stuff.