First Grade Happenings

We had Samantha's winter conference and received her progress report. Lots of E's and 4's ;)

Guess we need to work on "listening attentively" to get that to a 4.

It's smooth sailing so far in first grade. 

Here's some of my favorite work she's brought home lately:

I thought it was so random she chose Denmark to compare to Santa Barbara. 

I've expressed concern about her continued use of phonetic spelling but again was told it will begin to disappear more and more and to enjoy the cuteness of it. Most of the time they don't even correct her. I'm not sure how I feel about that but I must admit, "Younavers" is kind of, sort of cute for "universe". 

She went from amusement parks, to Europe to La La Land… Oh the places Sam will go! 

I love Samantha's reason for why she brought 100 pink and purple Legos to school. What she meant by, "My dad thought it was a good idea" was that "he had hit his limit on this homework assignment". 

Samantha's kind heart for her buddy Gwendolyn. 

Women power. We are good at jobs AND "jods". ;) 

There's been a lot of dress-up days at school:

Crazy Hat Day (That's my hat from when I was little).

Crazy Sock Day.

Mix and Match Day.

Running club ended with a mud run AND

dodge ball! 

Can you spot Sam? She's a fierce competitor when it comes to dodge ball. Complete opposite of me when I was her age. I used to fake a stomach ache when we had to play because I hated always getting hit in the head.

Ice Cream for the finish!

Lots of cinnamon roll Fridays. 

Selfies with Mom. 

Happy first grader! 

A group of us bid on a date to the movies with her school teachers at the school auction.  Such a fun day for all of them! 

Kickball is her thing at recess. 

Online homework. Times have changed! 

Great work in first grade Sammy Sam! 

5-Year Checkup

Ears good.

Eyes good.

Weight 43 pounds (75%)

Last year, 38 pounds (75%)

Height 45 1/4 inches (90%)

Last year, 41 inches (90%)

So, does it look like this kid gained 5 pounds and grew 4 and 1/4 inches?!

YES!!! Look how little he was last year! 

This year.

Last year. 

Still making cute/goofy faces ;)

Excellent patient. 

So much so that he told everyone he LOVED shots which was fabulous since he got five and a finger prick. ;) 

Thatcher Turns FIVE!

And just like that, Thatcher turned five on March 8th. His choice this year for his birthday was a quick getaway to Orange County for the Pirate's Dinner Adventure (Medieval Times' Sister) and Disneyland! 

Grandma and Poppy Robinson met us at our hotel to join us for the Pirate dinner and to spoil Thatcher with guess what? Legos! 

A quick swim before the show. 

Thatcher is kind-of, sort-of swimming in the hot tub.  

We did have a moment where he panicked and was doggy paddling uncontrollably and I had to grab him….

We've decide the Fallon kids don't take kindly to swim lessons and figure it out on their own at some point...

Rosy cheeks 

and hot chocolate with Papa. 

Dressed and ready for the Pirate Show. 

Still so proud of his new shoes!

And the crazy photographer lady in action ;)

Twins (not planned). 

Enthralled by the dinner pre-show

Ready for the real show!

Our pirate for the evening. He looks like he is made out of wax.

A small chicken…

Lots of acrobatics.

Action shots. 

It was quite theatrical. 

The kids were selected to go on stage. 

Small dessert. 

Pirate Show Selfie. 

Another photo of me taking a photo...

We said goodbye to Grandma and Poppy and got ready for the next adventure…

The next morning on the tram to good ole' Disneyland. 

The last time we went to Disneyland,

Samantha was four. 

And Thatcher was not quite two.  

He sort of looks like a deer in headlights in all the photos I have of him there.

And the time before that, he was just seven months,

and did a whole lot of this.

So this really counts as his first time!

First ride of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean. 

I had to force Sam to take this picture with the princess. Gone are the days of her only wanting to take photos with characters. She only wants to ride rides, and fast rides! 

A big kid ride for Sam, Indiana Jones. 

While the boys did Star Tours, 

we waited in a long line for Space Mountain. We supposedly went to Disneyland on a lesser crowded day by skipping school and beating Spring breakers but damn, this place is STILL pretty darn crowded. 

Anticipating Space Mountain!

BOO for the long line…

Sam's too short to see but she did great and said she wanted to go again ONLY if there was no line which wasn't a gonna happen ;)

We were bound and determined to get Thatcher picked to go on stage for the Jedi Training Show so we camped out a half hour early and got front row spots. 

Phew, we got lucky and he was picked!

All trained and ready to fight.

The kids have to fight this guy (he has a name but I don't know it) or Darth Vader. I could tell from watching Thatcher's face that he was a bit intimidated by him. 

He lucked out and got to fight Darth Vader. 

This was definitely the highlight of Disneyland for him. From this moment on, all he cared about was getting his own lightsaber and going back to the hotel to play with his Lego set. I also knew that we could get away with not going back to Disneyland for many, many years. Samantha only cared about going on super fast rides which really isn't at Disneyland and Thatcher only cared about Legos. 

We decided to take a break from Disneyland and head over to Downtown Disney on the monorail.

This was a very good call as we hit happy hour at the House of Blues and Downtown Disney was pretty much empty. No crowds at all!  I loved it! 

Also, Thatcher got his fix of Legos at the Lego store. 

Everybody was happy!

Sam looks like she is posing for prom.

We headed back to Disneyland for a few more rides. 

and then called it a night.

Here's some video highlights from the weekend.