Ethan's first grade performance

Ethan performed with his first grade class and sang his little heart out. He is in the front row with the orange 'tiger' hat on. We had fun watching him and the other kids sing and dance. Soooo cute....

Enjoy the pictures and videos too

Here is another video...sorry about the shaky camera...



A little video of the last song where he is extra cute because he is singing a song about how much he loves us! Then the kids go into the audience and hug their parents (or in Ethan's case, his grandparents, and aunt and uncles too).

Zoe's Ballet Recital

Zoe had her very first ballet recital last Friday. She was so excited to perform with her cousin Isabelle in front of the family. It was also her first time wearing makeup and wearing her special costume. She was so excited to wear makeup - probably even more excited than the actual performance. Here are a few pictures and one very raw video. I will post the official video (and more pictures) when I get them. Enjoy!

Zoe is the smallest one on the right side.

Zoe is in the very front on the right side...

Ballerina

Zoe started a new ballet school with her Tita Sheeree. Last Saturday was Zoe's last class of this first session so her Tita Sheeree made a quick dance so the girls could perform for us...

Let's Play Ball...

Baseball started up again. Ethan is no longer in T-ball and is now in A-ball! Saturday was his first game and first time hitting a ball thrown to him. Here are some pictures of him. John is an assistant coach and enjoying spending time with his boy!

Also there are a few videos of him hitting the ball (thrown by his coach). He did great!!

Ice skating

I used to love to skate when I was a kid and had been planning on taking the kids too. So I was so excited when Zoe and Ethan were invited to their friend Mattison's birthday party at an ice skating rink. This rink is actually where the San Jose Sharks practice!

Zoe was very nervous and cried the entire time on the ice. Although she never fell, she felt more comfortable keeping John company off the ice!

Ethan enjoyed it though! The rink offered the kids buckets to help them learn how to skate. Ethan fell several times, but just got back up and tried again.

Ethan and Zoe...looking at eachother thru the glass. Ethan is on the ice and Zoe is off the ice...so cute!


Zoe's video:

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Ethan's video

Cruisin...

We went on a 4 day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico. I haven't been on a cruise since I was a kid but it was John and the kids' first time on a cruise. We were a bit nervous about getting sea sick and luckily it wasn't too bad. John and I felt the boat moving a little bit but the kids didn't seem to be too bothered by it. We had a great time and enjoyed relaxing and doing something a little different. The kids really enjoyed Camp Carnival - where they got to do kid's activities and hang out with other kids their age. John and I went to the casino (and lost!), went to the comedy club, played a competitive game (or two) of ping pong (I lost big time!) and just hung out. As a family, we played Bingo (nope, didn't win that either!) and played mini golf, saw a show and pretty much ate, ate and then ate again...

Captain's dinner on the cruise was a treat. Zoe really enjoyed getting dressed up.





It was 60-64 degrees so it definitely wasn't warm enough to get me into the pool. But since the pool was heated, kids had a great time. John and I sat and watched the kids while we drank our pina coladas!

Kids convinced John to get into the hot tub once...

The food was one of our favorite things about the cruise...here, Ethan is eating our favorite dessert - the melting chocolate cake. I ate it every night...Ethan and Zoe skipped it once I think...

Here is a friend we made on the boat:

Our cabin steward put a few towel animals in our room to visit us, a pig, an elephant and a sting ray:

Here is a picture of our cabin:

Catalina Island was one of the ports we stopped at. We had to take a little boat from the cruise boat over to the island. I've never been there before so it was fun renting the golf cart and driving around the island. The weather was beautiful too...









We went to Ensenada Mexico where we explored a flea market and La Bufadora, a blowhole or a pretty cool marine geyser that explodes upwards sometimes as high as 80 ft. above sea level. Ensenada was not the prettiest part of Mexico but the La Bufadora area was beautiful and we're glad we went.