Growing Up Cunningham

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Road Trip Part 2: Redwood Forest

Our next stop was the California Redwood Forest. Land of the World's Biggest Trees.

Of course, that means we had to find a redwood stump to build Legos on...obviously.

RIGHT BY our campsite was the Smith River, which proved to be a great playground for these adventurous kids. We skipped rocks, swam, found treasures, played paddle ball & football on the rocky beach.

Check out these teeny tiny kids...

Like all good tourists, we visited the home of Paul Bunyan & the Trees of Mystery.

And rode the Gondola up the hill to see the *amazing* views of the Great Redwood Forest. (*Note to self: on an overcast day you can't even see the parking lot below...)

And of course, we all thoroughly enjoyed camping in the great out doors. Apparently we fed these kids too many marshmallows!

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Road Trip: Part 1

After that super serious baseball tournament, we literally hustled home & jumped in the car to begin our summer road trip. First Stop: Rogue River, Oregon. Hometown to the fighting Chieftains & Daddy.

Check out our #RogueCrew

We took a short tour of the Main Event Locations...

Then headed out for a wet jetboat ride on the "Wild and Scenic Rogue River." We only had 1 sick child on this day (poor Ashlyn who slept on the jet boat), which is way better than 3! #glasshalffull

Recital

Check out our little dancers with their biggest fans!

They had quite the crowd who showered them with bundles of flowers after the show!

Afterwards we had dinner back home with our relatives and cousins. Ashlyn's favorite part is getting attention from her baby cousin, Raelynn. Check out that huge smile.

Second Grade Baseball

Second Grade Baseball is no joke, people. Baseball pants, try-outs, kid-pitchers, championship tournaments. We almost missed our family vacation (scheduled last winter for LATE June)...only to find out that our departure day was the day of the big city tournament. LATE JUNE is SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER. I tell ya, this must be as serious as it gets.

Connor's favorite position this year: First base. His dad mentioned a few times how this was the position he used to play too, which Connor thinks is infinitely cool (for now). Never mind that this was ALSO THE EXACT POSITION HIS MOTHER PLAYED. No one cares.

Connor also chose his own baseball number this year. He requested from the Coach to have the "biggest number possible" which is clearly a good strategy. Go #15!

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Our Graduates & Our Third Grader!

These two girls are officially no-longer-preschoolers! We have requested that they be placed in the same classroom for Kindergarten, because they are barely identical and their teacher will have an easy time telling them apart. Dear Kindergarten Teacher: You're Welcome.

(Left in Jean Skirt: Kaia; Right in white skirt: Ashlyn)

We celebrated by skipping 2nd grade class for the day & going on Safari!

Here's our second grader off to his last day. This is the lovely Charlie Brown potted plant that Connor picked out for his teacher. He found out her favorite color was red & oh my gosh the red flowers at our local store were barely alive. I'm sure she already knows that its the thought that counts.

Our neighborhood bus stop crew that keeps growing each year. Ashlyn is included, because well she's been ready to get on that stinking bus for THREE YEARS NOW.

Cheers to our THIRD GRADER!!!

And so as not to disappoint, here is the end of the year survey:
Connor
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Friends: Connor M., Ella, Drew & Jake
Favorite School Subject: "Definitely Math"
Favorite Food: PBJ
Favorite Book: Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective
When I grow up, I want to be: "I don't really know yet, but I guess I will just say Designer-builder for now." *

Kaia
Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Friends: Hadley, Brynlie, & Ashlyn
Favorite School Subject: Art!
Favorite Food: Graham Crackers & Raspberries
Favorite Book: Brownie & Pearl
When I grow up, I want to be a: Doctor

Ashlyn
Favorite Color: Pink & White
Favorite Friends: Hadley, Halle, Brynlie & Gigi, & My Sister
Favorite School Subject: Monkey Bars! **
Favorite Food: Blueberries & Strawberries
Favorite Book: Pink-a-licious
When I grow up, I want to be a: Psychologist like Mama

*Thank you Connor for being so SO practical. Of course you don't know for SURE what you will be & guessing is just such a strong commitment. Thanks for participating anyway.
**Agreed. They should promote "Monkey Bars" into the real "school subject" category.

A few Parties

Spring time is Birthday Season around the Cunningham's. We like to celebrate just a little bit...with only a few parties here and there.

The festivities started out with a Birthday Morning Surprise for our FIVE. YEAR. OLDS!!!!!

Then, as part of tradition we have a family party for all three kids, complete with some sort of large cake, plenty of cousins, and chaos.

This year our eight year old, wanted to open gifts as Iron Man. #nevergrowup

Next, Kaia & Ashlyn were celebrated at preschool with pink cookies & birthday hats:

And we hosted a lovely 5-year-old tea party. This was so cute and so much fun, except no one liked our "hot tea" (hot apple cider), so I dumped out all the fancy tea cups & offered lemonade, which everyone wanted to try, but no one also liked. So, we settled with water in the fancy tea cups. #shouldhavestartedwithwaterinthefirstplace

As a super special treat, the girls got to get a grown-up manicure and pedicure courtesy of their Aunt Erica & Uncle Troy! What a fun gift! They were too short to reach the foot bath, so we had to improvise :) I reminded them over and over again that this was such a super special once-in-a-lifetime treat. Ya know, so we don't go broke on beauty treatments before they are 16.