Visit to New Orleans!

We took a day trip to New Orleans!  Matt and I had visited ten years ago, days before Hurricane Katrina hit.  It was nice to go back and see it, and much of what we remember (including the crazy streets!).  

 The colors on some of the fish were amazing, and in this photo it you can't really see the glass!

 And much like ten years ago, the weather felt much more like the rain forest outside than inside!

 The kids really enjoyed this frog that they could climb on.  And so I had to take each of their photos with the frog...  I am sure you are surprised as I am!  Olivier was first.

 Then Mason.

 And the boys joined in for Anna's.

 Olivier liked pretending he was driving the boat.

 Mason was excited to touch the rays in the tank.

 They had an oyster (looked a bit like a hamburger though if you ask me) that Anna wanted a picture of.

 And I think they all mentioned the pearl is like the pearl in Grandpa's book!  It was so cool to hear them connect what they were seeing to the book that Grandpa wrote!

 They had the giant jaws...

 And I liked this photo more, seems to fit them!

 After we finished visiting the aquarium we went walking down to find the cathedral.  It was a very hot and muggy day!

 The kids were fascinated by the boats.

 And we finally caved and stopped for some cold water.  It was rather yucky out!

 We all needed it!

 I took the kids into the cathedral.  Shame on me though, I did take photos inside which you aren't suppose to do (although the sign stating such was facing the inside of the church, not where you come in from).  At least I didn't use the flash!  It is beautiful.  The kids were very good and asked a lot of questions about what things meant.

 This is the organ in the back of the cathedral.

 And the kids wanted me to take this photo of Mary with baby Jesus.

 A nice photo of the cathedral.

 In Jackson Square (right in front of the cathedral).

 Each of the kids took our photo in the square.

 And Anna wanted me to take this photo.

 And this is what the base of the statue notes.  It was beautiful and overlooked the Mississippi river.

 And even though I am far away from work, there is still an RTA.  :-)

Time to enjoy!

Today was a great day!  We walked around the complex where we are staying to see where everything was and went and tested out the water temperature.  Nice and warm!  :-)  

After getting fairly wet we decided we better go get our swimsuits on!  We enjoyed the beach in the morning, naps, a few errands, and the pool after dinner.  The kids thought that was funny!  They were worried it would be too cold!  ha ha!

And we are off!

Today we left for vacation!  We arrived at the airport around 4:45 a.m. (yes, a.m.!) and then it was time to get on the first of three planes.  The kids were excited to be on three planes in one day!

 The first ride had the boys together.

 And an excited Anna.

Anna asked me to take this picture when we were above the clouds because she wanted to remember what it looked like!  I was happy to do so!  

 Our first layover was in San Francisco and it went well.

 Then we were off to Houston.  We had a bit of a delay there due to the remnants of a tropical storm but thankfully it didn't interfere much, just a slight delay of our flight.  Whew!  When we walked from the airport to the plane it was out of the air conditioning and one of the kids said "it's hard to breath!"  :-)

 We landed in Mobile, got the rental car, picked up some groceries, then headed off to Dauphin Island!

Baseball game!

We enjoyed a Blues baseball game!  The kids were very excited to go and did really well even when the game went into the 15th inning.  Yes, it was a very long game!  

All smiles!  

 Then the silliness kicked in!  (And Mason is mad that I got these silly photos of him!  He has asked me to delete them!)

 The kids were excited that friends were able to join us too!

 And they enjoyed playing under the blanket!  It was funny to see the moving blanket.

At the bottom of the 7th inning they had a "footloose" race (they set the kids shoes up part way into the outfield in a random order, the kids are along the outfield grass on the 1st base line and have to run out and find their shoes).  The boys had fun doing it but Olivier tried to tag 1st base, one had to stray and it doesn't surprise me that it was Olivier!  :-)

Swimming

The kids are nearing the end of this session of swim lessons.  They have been working on swimming on their backs, mainly keeping their legs straight when kicking.  They are at different levels and it has be interesting to watch them learn!  

One step closer to kindergarten

Today we celebrated the end of the "school" year.  Although the boys will still be at Cal Poly through the end of the summer, the regular school year is coming to an end.  And for the boys, they have been with many of their classmates since April 2012.  It is hard for them to imagine what kindergarten will be like after being in the same school for so long.  

To start off we waited in the yard while they got ready in the classroom.  This year they have been working on a large variety of projects.  One in particular was bridges.  One of the groups (with some help from all the students and Ryan, "Zoe's dad") built this bridge over the sandbox.  We checked it out while we waited.  

We visited the painting section (you will see their identity paintings at the end of this post), we visited Mason at the science station.  They have a variety of material including colored water, cabbage juice, lemon juice, vinegar, corn starch, etc.  Mason explained some of their projects and showed us how they work.

 Cute photos on the science sign.  This is Olivier.

 And Mason who is writing the results after he tested his hypothesis.

 Then we visited Olivier at the spider group.  This is the paper mache black widow they made.

 And with the pink toed tarantula.

 Then we visited the bridge group inside.  They made the golden gate bridge and talked about the animals that live in the water around it.

Some of the other bridge models they made.

 The bridge group used this as a reference.

 Then the kids got very excited because the lights flickered.  They scurried over to their spots as the parents gathered around to enjoy the next part of the evening.  They called the kids one by one to talk about their identity paintings.  Olivier mentioned how he included pancakes because he likes them.

And Mason mentioned how he drew a spider web and he got to hold a spider in his hand.  

In case you didn't know, room 7 is cool!  (And they sing about some of their projects but those are harder to hear.)

Mason in the back row on the left in the bright blue shirt.  Olivier is in the middle row on the right side in the dark long sleeve shirt.  

 The boys with their teachers, Ashley and Emily.

 They got awards (sorry they are a bit crooked, I took the photos of them after I put them up)

And here are their identity paintings.  Olivier drew pizza, pancakes, a tow truck, a shark, a spider, and a book. (And his name as they reminded me!)

 Mason drew a spider web, a monkey, some math, spaghetti and meatballs, and a swing, and a book.  (and his name).  :-)

This is how we should walk across the parking lot, right?