Bears go to Family Camp

After a few years of hearing people talk about Family camp and being jealous we finally decided to give it a try.  We went to the Lair of the Golden Bear (no you do not have to be Cal Alum, just join the Alumni association).

 The drive was about four hours and we were all crammed in the car but we did find an excellent park in Sonora to eat a picnic lunch and stretch our legs so that went very well.

 We found our tent/cabin and got unpacked. The girls made a sign to make sure everyone knew it was theirs.

 Of course, since it's Cal there is a Bear (Named Oski) so the girls got a photo.

And then they found their required sticks for hiking.  We were all set for a great mini-camp week.

Jordyn's graduation

 I'm pretty sure she was somewhere on this side of the group -- she is the one in red.

 Her cousin's were very excited to see the event and were fighting over who got to give Jordyn flowers.

 This is not the entire group that came to see her but it's a good number of us.  L-R (Meg, Tash, Bob, Heather, Pam, J, Dad, Auntie Linn, Kathi, Katelyn, Suzie)   Front Ash and Jaq.

 She had her colors on the back.. Go Ducks!

 more posing...

and a Harry Potter cupcake cake for the party.

French class party

 Being typical bay area parents (who don't speak a second language) we have our girls taking French.  This was the end of year party.  Both girls had a good time but only Ashton is planning to continue with French -- Jacqueline has decided to move on and is asking about Karate...

Mom and dad figure that we should see how we do with soccer, full day and gymnastics before we do anything else.. either that or we are "still looking" as we insist we are.

Fancy Dinners

 One weekend afternoon I decided a nap was in order and the girls decided they needed to open a restaurant.

 Complete with a typed menu..

and tv trays with table cloths.  We are very high class here at the Bear household.

Kindergarten field trip

 Bob also did a field trip with Jacqueline's class.

 The kindergarten class went to the aviation museum.

 Keeping the kids on task was a bit of a challenge at this age, at one point Bob had to suggest that the program "move along" a bit as the crowd was losing focus.

The kids really had a great time though.

Open House

 Open house is so fun as you not only get to see the work the kids have been doing, you also get to see how proud they are of all they have done.

 The big thing for Ashton this year was the village they built.  It had houses and businesses. 

 They had to purchase the materials and stay on budget -- I have no idea who came up with the plan but it was really impressive.

 Jacqueline had really made strides writing.  You can figure most of this out assuming you have a good 20 minutes to work on it ;-).

 She was happy to read me her stories she had written.

 but she was most happy to be able to see Ashton's work.

The big hit was the Flat Stanley project that Uncle Bill and Alex did for her -- they had taken Stanley all over Chicago and brought back photos, gifts and information of the entire city.

Walk a Thon 2011

 The biggest fund raiser of the year for Lincoln is the walk-a-thon.

 Getting ready.

 Jacqueline is happy that this year she is officially part of the event (and thus gets a Popsicle at the end that she remembers being denied last year).

 Ashton is a bit more relaxed about the event.

 But in the end Jacqueline's enthusiasm was just too contagious.