After school fun

Hunter?? Cheating?!!

Great idea, Hunter! This is cool!

The "too cool" big brother doing it all the fair way!

Soon enough he'll be on the road. He so did not care for the guy racing him - but in all fairness, the guy was super nice and great with kids.

One would've thought they were at DisneyLand seeing their reactions to this sweet ride!

We had a fun afternoon after school on Monday. Sanjog takes the boys mini-golfing often - I haven't for awhile b/c Hunter is the one who loves to golf - and he is that golfer that throws his club and smashes it against the ground if he doesn't get a "hole-in-one" everytime! Well, considering he is an almost 4 year old child, hole-in-one's certainly don't come on each hole!
I couldn't bear to be begged to go golfing any longer - and the fact that it was 80 degrees out and I knew I could start my tan, I thought "what the heck!"

We had fun! Aside from a few tantrums by Hunter, all went well. He really takes the game very seriously...as you can see in the pictures above he finally gave up on getting the ball to go down the right tube so he just threw it in...and Quinn, being the "do everything my big brother's do" kid, followed in Hunter's footsteps...both resulted in a "hole-in-one!" YAY!

Konnor got to do the rookie go-karts - and since we had a super nice guy and it wasn't busy, he got a good 10 minutes of driving in! He ended up pulling into park on his own before the guy said his time was up!

Hunter and Quinn of course wanted to ride the "ghetto" roller coaster - but again, the guy was super nice and let them ride it over...and over...and over. I couldn't bear to watch after awhile! It was making me sick - but they had a blast! So did I of course.

By the way - for those of you who do come back to read this - and do survive my rambling posts - just so you know, I write this mostly for my parents so they can see the kids on a regular basis. I also use it as a "sit down and journal" the day kind of thing. I never claimed to have proper grammar or be a good writer! Just know that I write it completely freehanded without thinking, spellchecking, or proofreading!!

Wouldn't it be nice......

I had to zoom in and post the closeup - look at the chubs!

to just pass out when you felt like it?! It was so cute to watch him hop up to watch cartoons and within seconds he was totally zonked out. What a life! Playing trains and making pretend food for Mommy must be exhausting : )

Happy Tuesday!

Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium

What an amazing creature!

We got to get up close and personal!

We could touch them.....

and they could try to touch us!

Smile for Grandma!!

Grandma loves flamingos!

He was all about the camera....is he handsome or what?

Through the tunnel on the log flume ride

Daddy and Quinn took the "Choo Choo!"

Petting the Bambi's

Just really quick!

Too cute...he'd quick go in for a feel and run away!

I've swam with the dolphins and pet sting rays all the time at the zoo but for some reason I couldn't bear to touch these star fish?

This uploaded really blurry but was really cute!

Never a normal photo in this family!

On Saturday I had a list of "To Do's" a mile long...I knew I had to watch the boys for a few hours while Sanjog worked but had a day filled with homework and catching up. Not to mention having 2 big quizzes submitted by midnight or early on Saturday evening and I hadn't yet opened my book for the week. Well, instead, the boys invited me to go to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium which is in West Phoenix (we call it East LA - seems so far away!). I couldn't pass up their cute little faces and have been wanting to go for quite some time.

We had a blast. You could get up close and personal with all the animals - and could feed most of them. Unfortunately, I think the animals are overfed so we didn't get the chance to feed them but we did get up close to several. It was pretty crazy!

They had rides there too (at extra cost of course :)) so we enjoyed a few and overall just enjoyed the perfect 78 degree weather! The boys had a blast and couldn't tell us enough times that they wanted to do it again.

Enjoy!

Fun with "P"

Hunter had pajama day at school on Thursday. Their letter for the week was "P" so they got to wear their pajamas, make popcorn and pancakes (doesn't that sound tasty!), and they made pink pigs! It was too cute. He had a blast!

Kindergarten Patriotic Performance

Konnor and friends getting ready for the program

Hunter was extremely excited to join in on the Pledge of Allegiance - and was very serious :) Good boy!

Konnor did awesome in his program today! It was so cute - the kids were all so proud of themselves and America! Not to mention Arizona - Arizona celebrated it's 97th birthday on February 14th so we all got to join in and sing "Happy Birthday Arizona!" Something I of course wasn't aware of - there's always something to be learned from your Kindergartner!!

We had a fun day at the park and out for lunch with friends afterwards! It's supposed to be 78 again tomorrow :)

***I am trying to upload of video of one of the songs Konnor sang - but it's not working! Will keep trying.....

A dreadful goodbye.....and much more!

We had dinner outside tonight!

Grandma and 4 of her 5 grandsons

Lunch together at Chili's Too in the airport

Watching the airplanes outside - look at those cute BUTTS!

The clouds were really low again this morning - pretty cool views

Booktime with Grandma

Lunch time at the park!

Whoever invented these towels was amazing!! Thanks, Pottery Barn for these! We've enjoyed them over the past 5 1/2 years!!!

They are screaming "Happy Valentine's Day!!!"

This is what you get when you cross a 2 year old with a cookie filled with red frosting! (ironically he is standing just like the monster on his shirt :) )

Happy Valentine's Day cookie from Pati - delivered to the front door at 9am!

Hunter got to enjoy a little of Konnor's "Friendship" party at school

Jake and Konnor at the party

Grandma Sherri enjoying a little of the sun we had to offer

A night at the movies!

Movies from the top bunk!

Konnor eating lunch at school - how handsome is he?

Jakob getting a taste of Kindergarten!

Breakfast feast!

We had another sad goodbye today...seems like time goes so fast when we're having fun! Grandma and Jake were due to arrive at 8pm on Wednesday - but while we were eating dinner with Sanjog Wednesday night we got the call they were delayed due to maintenance. Not your normal delay though - a SIX hour delay! Poor Grandma had to entertain a 5 year old in the Omaha airport for 6 hours and this Mommy had to explain to 3 little excited boys that they weren't going to see Grandma and Jake until the morning.

Jake called me at 10:45 our time that they were "on the airplane!" I picked them up at about 2am and we all got off to a very tired start! Reports were that Jake was great considering the circumstances - and I must admit, the Sky Harbor Airport was a little eerie feeling at 2am.

We had 4 little boys awake and rearin' to go at 6:30am. We were off to bring Konnor to school - and then Hunter. We then got to meet up with Konnor at school for lunch. He loves having visitors for lunch!

We didn't do anything too exciting while they were here - so I won't recap each and every day. The boys had a blast playing and going to all the fun parks we have around here. They decorated many Valentine's for Grandma - and made lots of fun messes for me to clean up! It's always so much fun to watch them play like they've been together every day for the past 5 1/2 years. We are so fortunate to see our family so often. We had a few fights to break up - and had to make many attempts to open "closed for business" ears - but all in all, they did pretty well.

I was able to get out for awhile on Saturday night and had a great time. So I owed it to my Mom to allow her to get out Sunday evening so after church - she and Steph took off to Steph's and enjoyed dinner at Pei Wei while I braved Red Robin with the 4 musketeers! They did awesome...and we had a fun night. We had plans to visit the zoo on Monday - but I woke up at about 4 am with either food poisoning or the flu - so had to call my Mom and Steph over at 8am to rescue the boys who had already fed themselves breakfast (the remainder of the gigantic Valentine's cookie!). Konnor did an awesome job of taking care of everyone for me. It wasn't the nicest day outside so no one made it to the zoo but the boys got to play lots of fun games, made lots of cool things, and enjoyed a home cooked meal by Grandma (fish sticks, corn, and strawberries :) )!!!

As always, it's always so sad to see them go. I must hear "I don't want Grandma and Jakob to go home" every couple of minutes but like always, I spoil them extra good after we do the airport drop off just to keep them happy! We had a lot of fun tonight with scooters in the house, dinner outside and a pretty happenin' game of Hide and Seek!! You just can't beat a game of hide n seek with a 5, 3 and 2 year old. It's so funny to see them "hide" and think it's such a tough game. Hunter likes to hide literally right in front of the seeker on the floor - Quinn starts laughing when he's hiding before the seeker has even finished the countdown....it was a fun night at the Gopal/Daale house!

We are exhausted! Konnor has a Patriotic program at school in the morning so I'm sure we'll have more pictures to come tomorrow!

Thanks Grandma and Jakob for all the fun! We can't wait to see you again soon.

The countdown is officially on for Grandpa and Anneke's arrival.....28 days and counting....

We love you guys!

another "stay tuned!"

We have had an insane past week! So sorry I haven't been updating this - and although I am now, it's nothing but another "stay tuned...." I am single Mom for 11 days straight - so I will get to it soon hopefully!

Keep checkin'!!!!

Ramblings from a Proud Mommy!

I'm still weeding through many pictures and trying to catch up on uploading...but in the meantime, I have a little bragging to do. We had Hunter's 1st Parent Teacher Conference on Thursday. Tuesday we got sent home a packet with all of his testing results...now, don't get me wrong, Hunter is really a super bright kid...but he tends to act clueless the majority of the time. So when I went to open it...I did NOT expect to see what I saw! Literally, he had checks on EVERY area of testing (which meant he did awesome) and he knew all of his letters, all of his numbers, all of his shapes (to include a "hectatangle) and her comments read...."Hunter is a very bright little boy. He loves to interact with the teachers and his friends." According to the checklist he could even "identify between living and non living objects!" Seriously? Preschool testing? Living or non living?!!!

Awww...it melted my heart. He is so incredibly smart and such a happy little boy. He loves his friends dearly. When we sat down for the conference his teacher's eyes lit up...she didn't even know what to say. I think she said something like "Hunter is a joy to have in class" but her face said it all. She was sooo impressed with him...and even more impressed with the way his "separated" parents parent our kids. We were commended. Always a good feeling. She said he loves to participate in class discussions...and gets so excited he likes to interrupt. Wonder who that sounds like?!

Way to go Hunter Bean! We are sooo incredibly proud of you! I treated him to Applebees and root beer that night....what a wonderful little boy. I look forward to the years ahead with this kid...he's that kid that is going to sit in class daydreaming and the teachers are going to worry he's not listening...but he will ace everything he does with no effort.

Too cute. I just love him to pieces.

Stay tuned for more pictures...eventually!!!

Stay tuned....

This week has been insanely crazy! My laptop crashed on Sunday (nearly brand new $2000+ computer) - I have another very expensive laptop my sister Stacy sent for me but the keyboard doesn't work...AND I disconnected my internet service from my desktop b/c I figured the laptop would be sufficient! Boy was I wrong! Anyway...I have many fun things to post from this past week. It was kind of nice to not have a computer and not have to worry (at least for the time being) about homework!

Got lots of pictures as well! Hopefully I'll get the laptop back by early in the week. Grandma and Jakob arrive on Wednesday so let the fun begin in the Daale/Gopal house!

Strike Out PWS Day in Tucson!!! Coming SOON!!!

So, my sister Stephanie rocks...literally. We both serve on the Prader-Willi board here in AZ - as events coordinators. Some of you probably already know but Clint Hurdle, the manager for the Colorado Rockies, has a daughter with PWS and is the spokesperson for PWSA-USA. Lucky for us, the Rockies Spring train down in Tucson. We tried to pull together a last minute event with them last Spring but it didn't get done. However, Stephanie has been on top of things this time around and we are officially on for March 20 - "Strike Out PWS" day at the ballpark! We are soooo excited. We are going to have booths with PWS information and signs up all over to raise awareness - and also just have a fun gathering of PWS family and friends. Woo hoo! This is really exciting...it was so nice of them to approve of this for us and welcome us onto the park that day. One of our little PWS kids gets to throw out the first pitch - how cool is that? Even cooler, Grandpa Jerry is coming and bringing that gorgeous little blue-eyed niece of ours!!! That's right...Anneke gets to make her debut here at the ballfield. Unfortunately she probably can't throw the 15 feet required to throw out the first pitch but it will be a truly special day to have her here.

Whew! All the excitement. Really. What a wonderful day this will be. I believe gametime is 1pm on Friday, March 20th. I will post more details as the time gets closer but we would love to have anyone and everyone come to cheer on the Rockies and help us Strike Out PWS!

Thanks, Steph! You are so awesome. As many of you know, her and I have struggled to pull this together here in AZ - we have battled trying to get people involved...not just involved, but active. Awareness is the key with this syndrome - so any chance we can get the word out, we will certainly take! This is going to be huge! We are also officially in full swing planning for our 3rd Annual Anneke Kramer Softball Tournament already! Anyone interested in putting a team together contact us ASAP!

9 days and counting until the arrival of Grandma and Jakob. The boys are incredibly excited - I...well, I'm a little bit nervous. We are used to having Grandpa around to entertain the kids! Now it's all on us! We might be in trouble!

We have a super fun month ahead of us - lots of parties at school, birthday parties, Valentine's Day (yeah...my favorite!), Grandma and Jake's visit, Konnor's first field trip, pajama day at Hunter's school, Hunter's first parent teacher conference, and Garret and Owen are visiting at the end of the month too!

I love Spring!