May 2013 – Page 3 – The Espinoza Family Blog

Fishing Derby

Today was the annual kids fishing derby at church. The last time we attended was 2 year ago, we didn’t go last year because we were on vacation in Utah.

Isabel was excited again to get out and fish with Daddy. This year we went with our friends Steve, his nephew Anthony, and our friend Copper.

We had a great time in the rain and the kids all seemed to have a fantastic time too! I didn’t get as many pictures this year because of the rain, I didn’t want to get the camera wet. Enjoy!

We arrived! Getting our gear out and heading to the fishing hole.
Maybe the sun will stay out and it’ll be great! The sun wasn’t out long and before long it was raining again.

Cooper casting his line. He did such a great job! He was the first to cast but not the first to get a fish.

Isabel caught the first fish!
Very nice!

Cooper getting some help with his reel. He’s got something on the line!

Wow! Cooper caught a really big one!
5 1/2 lbs. for this one. Didn’t get a total for all 5 fish he caught.

Cooper with his big fish!
Isabel’s is the smaller one.

They took turns catching fish. Isabel got one and then Copper would get one. Then Isabel and then Cooper. Gino was hopping back and forth between the two of them just trying to keep up.

Anthony was doing an amazing job on casting his line but he wasn’t catching anything but sticks and other people’s line. Gino eventually did get to help him, just after Cooper and Isabel had caught their limit of 5.

A calm moment before both of them catch another fish!

After the derby was over, Gino helped Anthony out and he was able to catch 3 fish! Way to go!

We ended up taking all the fish home with us for a total of 13 fish in all. Looks like trout is on the menu for tonight! Yum!

This year there was a raffle for the kids in the fishing derby. Isabel won this big green tackle box!
She’s got plans for it but it’s not for fishing…

Until next time… Thanks Rayburn family for another great year of fishing!

First Grade: Day 158 – Spirit Friday

Today is Fantastic Friday!

Today was Spirit Friday – pajama day.

Today progress reports were brought home as well. Isabel is doing good but she could be doing better. She needs to focus on her work when it’s time to work, talk less and improve her handwriting (especially the work she hands in to be graded!). All things we have gone over and over and over again with her but Teacher Mrs. B is noticing her slacking in these areas now too. We’ll continue to work on those areas and hopefully it will improve, all we can do is try.

The class field trip to the zoo is coming up in 3 weeks. I have been selected as a driver, which I am so excited about! Pray that the day is sunny and no rain or clouds in the forecast. Also for safe travel to and from the school to the zoo, I will have 3 other precious kiddos in the car with me!

Classwork…

Got 100% on her Bible verse test this week.

Front: fill in the blanks for the story.

Back: continued on back.

Front: read the rhyme and then answer the question.

Back: add “ing“.

Spring Program – Revved Up And Ready To Go!

Tonight was Isabel’s spring program at school. The program was called “Revved Up and Ready to Go!” – a musical about the race of your life, by Heidi Petak.

It was fun and action packed with the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade classes. Although Isabel wasn’t feeling well (she has a really bad cough), she gave it her best try. Before going into the program we told her to lip-sync the words while everyone else sang. I think she tried that for a little bit and then just gave up all together.

The songs included: “Rev It Up!” – “Custom-built Heart” – “Jesus Is the Way” – “Forgive and Forget” – “Praise My King” – “Action” – “High Performance Mind“. Several of the students even had solo performances as well.

Isabel got to lead the first grade classes out into the sanctuary and onto the stage.
I know she was super excited about that!

Love the attire! The t-shirt and jeans went perfect with the program!
(Isabel is on the far left.)

Very nice group shot of the choir and cast, those on the very edge were cut off.
(I didn’t take this picture, I got it from school photos.)

Singing “Rev It Up!”. The kids had actions with this song and they really seemed to enjoy it!
( I didn’t take this picture either, got it from school photos).

First Grade: Day 157

Today is Thankful Thursday and it’s P.E. with Mrs. S.

I had asked Isabel about her day but at the time of actually writing it up, I have forgotten what she did!

I do remember that P.E. was cancelled this week due to rehearsal for the program tonight.

Tonight is her Spring Program. I have been looking forward to it for over a month! I know Isabel hasn’t been feeling well the past few days, so I hope she will be alright to sing. We’ll have to see…

Classwork…

Front: unscramble the spelling words.

Back: complete the spelling words with the missing letters.

Front: use “go” or “went” to complete the sentences.

Back: working with “go” and “went“.
The top picture for the “go” are the rows of books at the library. The bottom picture for the “went” is the computer lab at school.

Front: word search.

Back: fill in the missing words to complete the sentences.

First Grade: Day 154

It’s Marvelous Monday!

Marvelous Monday means All-School Open. The Monday morning assembly for announcements and other fun stuff for the week. This week’s ASO was cancelled due to rehearsal by the 3rd-6th graders. Their spring program is tomorrow night. Isabel’s program will be on Thursday. Can’t wait to see it!

Isabel said they did their spring MAP testing today. I think they did some last week too.

The Bible verse for this week is…

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
– Proverbs 3:5

Classwork…

Front: “was” and “were“.

Back: “go” and “went“.

Front: complete the sentences with the best word.

Back: spelling word work.

Spelling words for this week are…

tube – cube – cute – use – rule – huge – page – fudge – head –
read – few – many – carry – hours – angry – sorry

Front: choose the word that best completes the sentences.

Back: add “ed” to the words provided.

Patio Makeover – Part 2

Gino finished sealing the patio last night and it looks great!

This is where we started.

This is where we ended up!

We have some more work to do before loading back the furniture and other items. I’ll take more photos later. I will tell you that the plants along the fence are… we’ll just wait and see! Big changes coming soon!

First Grade: Day 153

Today is Fantastic Friday!

Teacher Mrs. B is back in class today and we were able to finally give her our “Thank you” appreciation gift.

Isabel’s friend was back in class as well. She was out 2 days sick and today she returned to class! Isabel said she was so excited to see her she hugged her around the neck!

Otherwise, nothing else was said about her day.

Today’s Teacher/Staff appreciation: appetizers.

3 of my students gave me appreciation gifts after class today. I feel awkward when I receive gifts from my students but they enjoy giving them to me and the look on their face is priceless! So I will accept them with a cheerful heart and shower them with thanks and many hugs.

Mr. J, gave me a gluten-free chocolate cupcake called “Death by Chocolate”.
My first gluten free bakery product and I really liked it! Not sweet at all.
The subtle chocolate frosting was yummy!

From Mr. N, I got a Target gift card! Love that store!

Mr. H gave me this mini rose plant.
He was so happy to hand it to me. I love his smile!

Classwork…

Got 100% on her Bible verse quiz.
I was worried she’d forget the numbers. Great job!

Front: adding “ing” to the words.
#2 – it’s right?

Back: adding “ing” to words.

Front: camping.
“Camping is fun. We sleep in a tent. In the morning we go fishing. Sometimes we see a…

bear. It’s claws were very big.”

Next week is the spring concert with the kindergarten, first and second graders. There is also a field trip to the zoo coming up before school ends. Looking forward to both of these fun activities!

There are only 5 1/2 weeks for school remaining until summer vacation!

Patio Makeover – Part 1

Since our patio was poured, stamped and stained a few years ago, we haven’t been happy with the color. It’s not what we wanted. So instead of hiring someone, again. We decided to do it ourselves.

So last Saturday, Gino started with a good power wash clean…

Looking south it doesn’t look so bad from over here.
The last time he power washed was 2 years ago.

But when you come over to where he has already cleaned, you can REALLY see the difference!

Black stinky (smelled like fish!) algae and moss clinging to the surface.
It’s really thick in some areas.

I took over the washing for awhile and had some fun with it. Isabel got a kick out of it too!
The area just left of the “I” in Isabel was the worst.

After power washing the surface, he stripped the old stain off (no photos). This took a few applications to do but eventually he got most of it off. What is left, will be covered up with the new stain and will give it character and depth.

2013-05-07 011_edited-1 We decided to use an eco-friendly stain, stripper, and sealer. All of which are made by the same company. This product is soy based and almost odorless. We’ll see how it withstands our rainy season but so far it’s gre

The color we choose looks really red in the photos but it actually dried more brown
(what we wanted!). The color name is, “Cola”. In the photos you can see patches of the old stain that still remained after several stripping attempts.