May

At the beginning of May, Ryan and the kids went to the L.A. Opera with their piano friends to see Tosca.  They said it was good, but very bloody.

Celeste had her first spaghetti dinner in May.  She was suspicious at first, but ended up with a first-class Skeddy Face.
  

Connor and Elise both promoted to blue belt at taekwondo, then we took a break for the summer.
  

Lauren Elise Brown turned ten!  She got a new bike, a huge box of candy, and Mario Kart for her 3DS.  Her dinner request was to go as a family to Vegas Seafood Buffet, because it has a chocolate fountain.  We were too full of desserts to do cake that night, so we waited until Nana and Al came the next day.
  

Evan gave Elise some petrified wood, and a magnet game.

The pool wasn't quite ready yet.

Ryan's grandparents came to stay with us for a few days, and we cooked all kinds of great food.  Nana made sliders one day, and later Ryan smoked some pork ribs.  He gave Nana and Al the assignment of making five different regional barbecue sauces.  We decided Orange and White were the winners.
  

Elise's Birthday Cake

Barbecue Sauces

Celeste did a bunch of exciting things this month!  She played with Baby in the Mirror, got some new teeth, tried the bounce-bounce, and learned to pull up and cruise around while holding on to things!
  

Ouchie Teeth

  

  

We did our annual Primary Talent Show.  Elise and Evan played piano, and Corinne sang "Skidamarink-a-Dink-a-Dink."  She got so shy, though, that by the end she was singing and crying at the same time.  It was adorable.  We also got a picture of Celeste with Evie, the Kennys' baby.  We were feeling sad that they would be moving to Utah in a few weeks.
    

Elise's friend Eleni invited us over for a birthday pool party.  All these kids do piano together, as well as going to the same school twice a week.
  

Okay, I saw this weird bug on our pool fence one day.  It kept flying a few feet up, and then coming back to the same spot.  It turns out it was a Robber Fly catching gnats.
  

Crescenta Valley Latin Academy held its end-of-year Recitation Night.  All the classes shared poetry and facts they'd learned over the past year.  It's really fun to see this school grow and change.  Part of me wishes it was still tiny, but there are so many advantages to having more families involved.
  

Corinne's Jr. K Class

Evan's Class (1st Grade)

Connor's Second Form Latin Class

Elise's Class (2nd/3rd Grade)

At our piano studio's spring concert, one of the teachers took these great pictures of the kids playing.  Afterwards, some of the families went to the beach together.  Celeste thought the sand was delicious.
   

  

Best Picture Ever

One day, I heard the water running, and went outside to see Evan sending ball-pit balls through our sidewalk drain with the garden hose.  It would have been really bad if he had clogged it, but he didn't.
  

Connor had his first real visit with the orthodontist, and got braces across his top teeth.  He'll eventually have them on all his teeth, but this was a big first step!
  

Random cute pictures from May:
  

Elise played a treasure hunt game with the little ones.