Sports Banquet

This school year Zachary played sports at school. He was on the Boys A Football team and the Boys B Volleyball team. This was his second year playing flag football and his first in volleyball. LP had their year end sports banquet - always a fun event. A lot of our friends were there, and the school serves a wonderful Mexican feast dinner.

Here is Zach getting his name called for football - he was one of only 2 sixth graders on the team - Jacob is the other 6th grader. The didn't have the greatest season, but they learned a lot and had fun while getting some exercise, and that is all that matters. He looks so serious, doesn't he?




Then came the volleyball team. This team was all 6th graders, and their Coach was one his classmates mom. Mrs. Carr was a great coach for these guys - they won all but their last two games!! What a great season. Zachary was so excited to be on a winning team - he really enjoyed volleyball and plans to play next year as well.



He won the "Most Improved" award on the team - we are so proud of the effort he put forth. He had to juggle practice, homework, practicing his sax with everything else all while still managing to keep his high GPA.

Zachary on Student Council

Zachary decided this school year to run for student council. He ran for Commissioner of School Spirit. This is a perfect role for our outgoing, a little crazy, spirited son! So we made a poster, stickers and he campaigned. He was running against 3 other people. He then wrote an awesome speech that he gave to the whole school. I wasn't able to make it, but I listened to it in practice. Those who listened to the speeches told me that he did a great job. And the student body agreed:

HE WON!!!

Here he is at the installation ceremony. The Principal pinned his student council pin on him, after Father Vincent blessed them. As you can see, he is the only boy up there. I think he is going to have a fun year next year in this role, and the girls are excited to have him there.

Getting his pin ...

We are so proud of Zachary for putting himself out there and running. He is building quite a little resume at school!

The Sleep Over

This is our first sleep over. It brought back all kinds of memories from when I was little and would have and go to slumber parties all the time. It was fun to be the mom this time and plan the party (although at 2am it wasn't' fun to be the mom!).

Here is Nicholas with his friends Tommy, Miguel, Andrew and James. This is one of the only times these 8 year old bundles of energy sat down (eating pizza was the other time)

Zachary was welcomed by these guys to participate in all the festivities - and I think he had more fun than he thought he would!

Dinner was easy - throw some pizza, chips, fruit (ok, that is mom trying to have something healthy on the table), and rootbeer in front of them and have them go to town. Their parents have done a great job, these boys used good manners, said please and thank you and a few even asked for milk for strong bones. Mrs. Vallas, their school principal would be proud.
Dessert time ... time to light some more candles and sing Happy Birthday. Remember, I have been practicing cupcakes and fillings ... check these chocolate ones out with a mouse frosting with chocolate fudge drizzled over them ... yum. Nicholas gives his seal of approval!

Blow out all the candles ... there are 8 this year!

Now comes the fun part - let's invade the playroom! We have a great room that is made for sleep overs ... pull out sofa, TV with the Wii and DVD player, lots of room for sleeping bags and pillow fights!
The boys all brought their Nintendo DSs and were playing Pokemon and other games - helping each other get to the next level most of the evening.
Playing the Wii
Nicholas is so excited this night is finally here!
Big brother Zachary controls the remote (so what's new?)
These boys stayed up ALL night! I think Dad finally lost it about 2am, when they were still running down the hall and being quite loud. Amazingly Katie slept through the whole thing. Sunday will be a day of rest and naps, at least for the parents! Here they are before bed - or at least, they are in their PJs with their teeth brushed.

The next morning, the kids were more awake than I thought they would be. I put on my best June Cleaver apron and made them all homemade waffles with Ms. Chipman's (Nicholas' teacher) family recipe. So yummy! We had fresh fruit to put on them, homemade whipped cream (left over from the cupcakes), chocolate sprinkles and hash browns.

Then we took them all to church. I don't know how large families get so many kids out the door every day - it just about did Johnny and I in to get 7 kids up, dressed, fed and loaded in the car. But we made it to church before mass started. We had a tired pew of little boys - I think that is the quietest they have been at church since Tommy's sleep over! Even Katie was good. I think she liked having the extra kids sit with us. Then we delivered the boys to their moms (sorry for the lack of sleep and sugar high ladies!) and went home and crashed!! Such fun memories ...

Revlon Run/Walk for Cancer

Mothers Day weekend my Aunt Irene and I, and Zachary and Nicholas participated in the Revlon 5k Run/Walk for Women's Cancer. Irene has been participated in this event for years, and I joined her about 4 years ago. This is the first time the boys have come. It requires us to get up very early on a Saturday - about 5:30am! We then drive down to Los Angeles to walk around the Coliseum and around the USC campus, ending on the field where the Trojan's play football. They were very good getting up so early and with the waiting time before the walk officially began.

Here we are before the race - getting ready to go:

The walk itself is an amazing experience. Y0u walk with women in purple hats that show that they are cancer survivors. You walk with people in support of a loved one fighting cancer. And you walk with those who are walking in memory of someone lost to cancer. Those are the heartbreaking ones: the father and children who have lost their mother/wife.

We pointed these out to the boys, so they could get a sense of the grander purpose of getting up so early and why we were there. But we had fun too - this is really a well run and fun event. The boys enjoyed walking around the campus of USC and talk about going to college there (yikes - I'd better start saving my pennies ... wait, this is USC, make that more ... now!). And of course, the ability to get out with my boys and get some exercise and fresh air was part of my inspiration as well.

Nicholas did really well until about mile 2.25 - then he was asking if we were almost done. Those skinny legs of his got tired! But quickly after that it was time to walk down the tunnel that leads to the field where the USC Trojan football players come out on game day. Now you need to understand, my Aunt Irene (who is Nicholas' godmother) is a HUGE Trojan football fan ... I mean never-miss-a-game, come-to-our-house-to-watch-on-the-big-screen-TV, yell-at-the-TV kind of fan. So this part of the walk is a big deal, and the boys felt the same way.

Here we are entering the tunnel:

And at the end of the tunnel by the wall that shows all the championships the Trojans have won - it's an impressive list, whether you love or hate USC football.

And on the field about to cross the finish line. It was cool to be on the field and see all those people everywhere:

Nicholas gets his medal. The medal is one of the things the boys were looking forward to:

And now it's Zachary's turn:

After the race, all walkers get a goodie bag of treats and some water. We fought the crowds and got our food and found a small patch of grass to sit for a few and eat. Michael Bolton was performing a concert right there, Aunt Irene and I enjoyed it. Nicholas, on the other hand, was pretty much done with the whole thing and tired

One last photo op with Mom to show I really was there the whole time! The we had to say goodbye to Michael Bolton and start the long process of getting the shuttle back to the car. By the time we got home it was about 2:00 in the afternoon - and nap time (at least for me!).

They say they are going to do this again next year - I really hope we can make this a family tradition ... and when Katie is old enough, she can come as well.

3 Generations

I have always wanted to have a Mother-Daughter/Mother-Daughter photo, so when the church was taking photos for the directory, we jumped at the chance to get dressed up and take our photo.  It came out beautiful

Extreme Hike with Friends

My running buddies and I decided to do something different today and went on a hike instead of our usual Saturday morning run. Jill, Valeria, Jo Ann, Cathy and Traci and I joined with some other hikers for an Extreme Cardio hike sponsored by the Irvine Conservancy. If reading extreme cardio hike didn't freak you out - well let me tell you, it freaked me out! The docent (the guide) was very clear at the start (6:30am btw) that this wasn't for the faint of heart or those not used to vigorous exercise. We run 6-10 miles every weekend, so a hike should be in our ability level, right? Well, we made it - but it wasn't always easy.

The views were spectacular! We drove back behind Irvine Regional Park, beyond where the public can normally go. We were in a section of land owned by the Irvine Company, way back beyond the 241 toll road. At times we had great views of Irvine Lake. It was a gorgeous morning - not hot at all, which was nice.The docent kept a pretty fast pace - there were about 20 people total in the group and we all had to stay together. This is mountain lion territory and very rugged, so we couldn't get too far ahead or behind and be on our own. We managed to get enough ahead at times to be able to stop and take some pictures

My friend Cathy has this great backpack to hold all her stuff. We had to bring snacks and plenty of water. We took a break and ate on some big rocks. Cathy brought PB&J, nuts and everything else in that pack of hers ... and nothing was squished.

The girls enjoying the view ...

Part of where we hiked through was the burn area from a major wildfire several years ago. This picture doesn't do the re-growth justice, but it was so amazing to see charred black and burned trees with all the green re growth all around it. What a site to see - the circle of life and how time keeps moving and things grow back ...

Here is some of the group using the hiking poles to get up this hill. We hiked for over 5 hours, over 15 miles, and with 3500 feet of elevation changes!! Hence the extreme cardio part ... yikes! At one point we hiked 1000 feet up in about 1.5 miles, dropped down 800 feet and went back up another 900 feet ... it was an intense workout, that's for sure.

Here is the whole group on these amazing rocks during a rest stop. It's pretty incredible that this is all pretty much in my own backyard - you don't feel like you are in Orange County. So while I was pretty tired after all that hiking, and it was challenging to climb so many miles of hills at a decent pace, we had a great time and got to experience something different. And the calorie burn was awesome - so we celebrated by having big hamburgers later on!!

And this final photo isn't from this hike, but from another run - Cathy and Val made a very coordinated and matching pair ... from the same shirt and grey capris down to the black shades ... looking good ladies!!