go team USA--VoFo style

for the week of the 4th, my parents and brother's fam came for a great visit. there is so much to blog i'll have to do it in stages--we crammed so much fun into a few days. Independence Day was celebrated in style with patriotic clothes from Grandma, cute hair dos, a FAMILY 5K run/walk (so fun, details later),the Spreckels parade and fair,great food and entertaining fireworks on my driveway-turned-amphitheater. wonderful times were had with all the VonForell cousins and Jim & Lynda Hill's family. a few highlights were: Brady's capacity filled pockets with candy at the parade, jeff's raindance during fireworks, Big Papa's cupcakes, and Jared's consective fireworks set up--i say to all that "GOOD STUFF"!

an IEP gave my ASD son SAI with a SLP for the summer--it's a GREAT thing

sometimes i feel so lucky. it's not luck, i know--there has to be a higher power involved. after some hard work and lots of consideration by some of Caden's "TEAM" we had an Individual Education Plan to determine that caden with his Autism Spectrum Disorder will receive Specialized Academic Instruction with a Speech Language Pathologist. in other words, Caden got into summer school and it doubles as tons of speech therapy everyday!!! oh how he loves it, it is so wonderful. it's a 4 week program, 4 hours a day and he gets to ride the bus AND there's 3 field trips--yahoo! the humble day has come for us to accept him being on "the short bus". but he's so darn cute it's gettin' easy to get over it. he comes home every day with a huge report: "mommy school is an awesome time today, i ate my snacks at lunch time, i did circle time, i did the headphones to my animal book and i played outside at playtime". and to think this is from the child who couldn't make an insightful comment less than a year ago. i am so grateful for the divine blessings we are receiving.

top 15 reasons why we love our dad!

ok, i'm not sure if i'll ever get the adorable video clip in of the father's day events, so i'll just journal this in case. the morning started out with good ol' biscuits and gravy. the kids very cutely presented their gifts and handcrafts to daddy. a keychain, bookmarks, funny t-shirts, souper soup for a super dad, and cards with their top 5, and top 10 reasons they love daddy (kendra did one and made brady do the other). to sum up their lists: caden says "because he likes his room", and kendra and brady both said that the number ONE thing they love about daddy is that "he loves ME". they were so proud of their cards and sentiments. jared is a wonderful, loving, patient and very HELPFUL father. K & B sang their fathers' day songs at church is always a highlight. he loved his dinner of ribs and some other sides that he neglected and just chowed on the ribs. it was a delicious daddy day.

end of the school year hoopla!

aahhh, big exhale now that second grade is over for miss Kendra. we are so proud of her--academically she did wonderful and socially she learned a lot. girls and their drama, it has already begun. but i must say that kendra handled it beautifully. to wrap up the year i helped with the games at her big party, we had lots of imaginative fun with foam noodles--and some crazy noodle wars too. teacher and staff thank you gifts are always fun and nice to do and be DONE with. sweet kendra said she only "teared up" when she had to say goodbye to her teacher and friends. good girl--no crying--it only gets harder the older you get. SUMMER FUN HERE WE COME!!

Caden my little grad!

granted he wasn't in preschool very long, but what a great experience he had in Mrs. Crystal's class at cute little Lincoln School. She said that after 2 days they both had each other figured out. He followed the program and actually played with the kids (sometimes) and did his work--mucho kudos to Rosie for the BEST foundation. he loved his little congrats grad necklace--it kept him still up on the bleachers diploma, donuts, candy bag and a school memoirs book--Caden loved his "graduation birthday party" He's just so dang cute we are so proud of him to make these little steps and we are so blessed to find these special people who are helping him on his way.