Fossils on Father's Day

This morning, Caden got up early. Finn was up just after 6am, and Caden came trotting downstairs shortly thereafter to make crepes for breakfast. Mama is in France this week, but before she left, she and Caden went over the recipe carefully, and he was ready to go! The crepes required only a little bit of help from Dada and turned out delicious!

After chatting with Mama on FaceTime and eating our crepes, we headed out for a hike. We'd been wanting to look for fossils that were supposed to be in an uplifted limestone reef a 15 minute drive away, so we headed that way. Finn hiked almost all of the way to, around, over, and back from the reef, which ended up being about a mile. No wonder he's happily resting in his crib now. We found lots of shell imprints and even some preserved pieces of mother of pearl in the rocks.

Yesterday, Caden's Cub Scout pack assembled at a nearby swimming pool to earn swimming badges, play in the water, and share a dinner of hot dogs and pot luck dishes. Finn is convinced that he can do anything that Caden can do, and he has no fear, so Dada had to keep a close eye - and preferably both hands - on him at all times. 

Thursday was Caden's last day of school for the year, and we couldn't be prouder of his progress this past year! He's excited about robotics camp at UCI next week. He also had fun getting together after school with a couple of his classmates, including playing mini golf at Boomers on Wednesday.

And Finn has been cheesy as usual. 

The Orange County History Play

A highlight of this past week was the 3rd graders' performance of the Orange County History Play at Turtle Rock Elementary. They'd worked on it for weeks, and everyone in the class had several speaking roles. Caden played Captain Portola, charged by the king of Spain to blaze the Mission Trail from San Diego to Monterey. Everyone was fantastic!

ABC

This morning at breakfast, Finn entertained us with a song:

Blue & gold

The school year is winding down for everyone. It's finals week at UCI, and Caden only has a couple more weeks of 3rd grade. This past week brought the end of spring baseball, the year-end Open House at Caden's school, a piano recital, and the Blue and Gold dinner, where the Cub Scouts in Pack 607 advance to the next rank.

It was great to go to Caden's school on Thursday evening to see all of the things that Caden and his classmates have been working on this year! His teacher had everyone go on a scavenger hunt around the classroom to check out their writing, projects, and displays. 

On Saturday, Caden performed several songs, including one of his own compositions. The piece he wrote, called Run From the Monster, tells a story of someone trapped in a maze who is ultimately rescued.

On Sunday morning, we headed out early to check out an antique market up in Santa Monica. It was at the Santa Monica airport which, unbeknownst to us, is also home to a really neat aviation museum. After wandering around the market - and buying a cool fountain made of recycled faucets and plumbing fixtures - we headed over to the museum. Finn was amazed and somewhat overwhelmed at the jets and planes, including the front end of a Boeing 727 that protruded out of the building, allowing kids to sit in the cockpit inside the building - with all of the lights and dials lit up - and look outside.

And this evening was the Blue and Gold dinner, where Caden earned his Bear badge and a gold arrow point.

Finn has been doing a great job using the potty. He became interested after watching the older kids at school and now tries the potty chair at almost every diaper change.