The Karafa Boys

If you know Jordy then you know that he loves to draw, color, paint, create etc. He is our little artist for sure. At school he gets to attend Art twice a week and they are his favorite days. A few weeks ago Jordan came home and told us that his favorite Art Teacher Mr. Kilgore was submitting his picture in an art contest. We were excited to find out it was for the Arizona State Fair. It had been years since the last time we went, and we couldn't miss seeing his art on display so we took the boys the first day the fair was open.

Imagine our surprise when among the 1st grade submissions we found this:


Our Jordan won 1st Place in the colored pencil division! He was so excited! I don't think he understood that there were prizes to be won!

A closer look at the "fat alligator"


We spent the rest of our unseasonably warm (or so it seemed to me) day looking for all sorts of fun. Our little Dill Pickles found this wonderful thing:


Yeah! A life size pickle to pose with! :)

A favorite ride for both boys was the bumper boats. We had much better luck than the car version!


Who can resist fair food? I personally find it to be the reason to go. My deep fried cheesecake only strengthened that truth. The boys enjoyed super sized snow cones and their very first candy apple. It was deemed better than a caramel one!

August 3rd was our first day back to school! This year we have made some big changes and Dillon is no longer home with Grandma. He is my great big PRE-SCHOOL boy!


He goes to Busy Bee's pre-school and loves his teacher Miss Chiemi. My boy has learned so much! He even writes his ABC's... all up and down his arms. Each day the kids at school can make a happy plate by finishing everything on their plate. Dillon has made a happy plate every single day!

Jordan is back at Freedom as a 1st grader this year. He loves his teacher Mrs. Wooden and his new friends in class. He is such a smart boy! Freedom is now a STEM school (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) and he has done many exciting projects. I love when he comes home and tells us his "hypothesis" (which in his words is a really smart guess).


I love my big school boys!

There's nothing like vacation... especially when your kids are getting along.


We spent our second day of vacation at California Adventure. We tried to continue our "tour of firsts" but couldn't miss our favorites... like Toy Story Mania. This time though, the boys rode in the own car alone.



Our next first was riding the California Screamer... Jordan was FINALLY tall enough!


Not really suprising... the boy LOVED it! He is such a daredevil with rides (and a wuss the other 98% of the time).

We ran into the Phineas & Ferb street show that had just started. My boys love all things P&F and were excited to join in on the fun!


We also become Senior Wilderness Explorers! I love the movie UP!

After riding the rest of our favorite rides and eating at our favorite restaurants we settled in to watch World of Color. It is amazing!

My little midgets have the best darn Daddy in the whole wide world. He took us back to Disneyland to celebrate our last weekend before school starts. We spent two wonderful days in Disneyland (our 2nd home) bliss.

This trip was all about doing the unusual. We have gotten in a habit of doing the same routine on each of our Disney trips. First ride is Jungle Cruise, skip the treehouse etc. We made a point of trying new things.

Jordan says first stop is...

The new Star Tours! No Rebel Spies were in our family this time around. But we did have a few...

Jedi Knights!


One fought Darth Vader:


And the other Darth Maul:


In our bazillion trips over the last 2 years we had never taken the raft ride over to Tom Sawyer's Island. It was a big hit with the boys. They loves the treehouse, the caves and especially the pirate treasure!


We actually let the boys venture into Toontown (too hot and boring for me...) and stood in the long line to visit the big guy himself...


In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki... Tiki room we shared a Dole Whip and a Dole Whip Float (Tiki Juice, as the boys say) and woke up that silly bird Jose!


My fabulous fellows are usually on best behaviour at Disneyland but this trip was all about being different. This little man got mad about something un-memorable and put himself into the corner while in the Splash Mountain ride. (like Mother like Son)



My boys spun their poor Mommy around and around (or maybe it was the other way around) on our favorite yellow teacup.



The Tiki Juice kicked in during the Jungle Cruise and my little guy got a little loopy:


Around 6:00 p.m. it finally dawned on me that we had never stayed at the one park all day long. It was kind of nice. We finished our night off with dinner, a show and fireworks. But before we camped out at our perfect watching spot we rode the happiest boat ride on earth:



Oh yeah, and Dillon decided to take Daddy up on his offer from Splash Mountain earlier that day and do this for a churro:


Too bad it was on the shuttle bus on our way back to the hotel. :)

Dillon loves to take pictures of himself on my iMac. I love sitting down for some internet surfing and finding gems like these...

The midgets are spending the next two weeks in Grandma K.'s care until school starts back up for them. My boys are never 100% angelic but they were pretty darn good for Mom these past few weeks of vacation. I know from personal experience that it is hard having a Dad who works nights and needs some peace and quiet to sleep in. (he didn't get named Grandpa Grumps for nothing! Love ya Dad!) The boys were able to keep it shushed and Daddy was able to sleep. Mom was even able to get a few chores done.

I was upset to hear that my boys had a no good rotten day for Grandma yesterday.  She took them to a movie and bought them snacks. She took them to Chik-Fil-A for lunch and playing. All she asked for was a few shopping stops with them behaving..... I guess they weren't behaving.


Last night we had a little family meeting and the boys signed a behavior contract. The need to earn a star from Grandma for 6 days to earn the reward of all rewards... A Disneyland trip the weekend before school starts.

Think they can do it?


Stay tuned!

I feel like a total slacker in regards to my blog lately. Lately as in the last year! Sheesh!

Seems like it was just yesterday that Dillon and I dropped Jordan off at his classroom for the 1st day of Kindergarten. The year has come to an end and now we have a "Big First Grader" (Jordan's own words) on our hands.



Jordy had a wonderful teacher name Miss Kucher. We were lucky to share her first year teaching with her. Jordan started the year knowing the basics and reading a few 3 letter words. He is now reading a few grade levels ahead and recently tested into the Gifted Program. He is definitely our little smartypants!



The kids put on a little show at Kindergarten Graduation. My favorite was when the sang the old Girls Camp song "A Tootie Ta". Here is Jordan with his:

That's Jordy in Yellow!