Happy 8th Birthday Calissa!

Calissa turned 8 on Tuesday, May 25th. She was so excited to turn 8 years old! She requested home-made cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast. They were yummy!We always open presents in the morning before school. Here she is with her gifts. Her main gift was an orchestra level ticket to see "Wicked" again. She also got a 6 month membership to Club Penguin and some Disney Princess Diving Wands for the pool.

She loved her presents! After breakfast she went to school and enjoyed all the attention there. After school she did some homework and then played a little on the Wii. We then went out to dinner at Diggers Diner (her request). Grandma and Grandpa Romer and Uncle Drew and Christopher joined us.

She had a great day! We had her family birthday dinner at our house last night. She wanted Beef Stroganoff. Yum! Her celebration will last another several weeks until her baptism on June 19th! What an exciting time for Calissa! (Hopefully she'll pass that baptismal interview with her dad!) :)

Liberty Gymnastics - Take Three

Calissa had her birthday party on Saturday for the third year in a row at Liberty Gymnastics. She takes gymnastics there and loves it! It is a very easy birthday party for me, since the gymnastics people do all of the work. All I have to do is the food and decorations.Here are Calissa and her friends having fun!
Pizza time!
(By the way - Round Table tried to charge me $50 for two pizzas and garlic twists (one cheese and one with one topping). I talked them down to $38. Not usually something that I would do, but I saved $12!)

Calissa wanted Strawberry Shortcake for her cake. Here she is blowing out her candles.

CHEESE!!

Tearing open her presents. She was in rare form Saturday night. Quite hyper. She sure loves being the center of attention!

One last group shot. Christopher came too, but wasn't in the picture.

Happy 8th birthday Calissa!

You're A Good Man Charlie Brown!

On Monday, Calissa and Conner's classes took a field trip to the Martinez Amphitheater to see "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown!" I went as a chaperone for Calissa's class, but it was nice to have Conner there as well. It was cold and rain was threatening. We were told that if it rained, the show would be canceled and we would head back to school. Despite a few rain drops, the rain held out until we were heading back to the school buses.Calissa and Kaitlyn. The kids (and I) were excited to get milk and cookies at the start of the play, but unfortunately it was only for the kids! I was disappointed, but Calissa shared with me!
The cast.

Conner with his class.

The cast signed autographs at the end of the show. Snoopy was definitely the most popular character.

Here is Linus with my group.

(I only had three kids to keep track of ... how nice is that?)

Big Leagues?

Parker had a baseball game last Thursday night in Pittsburg that started at 6:30 pm. (Well, that was the time it was supposed to start, but our season has been all about waiting for the high school teams to finish their games and then starting our games late.) The boys were pretty excited because the fields in Pittsburg have lights. The game got started a little after 7 PM and about 8:00 the lights came on. Here is Parker playing short stop under the lights. Parker made several good plays at short stop and got a walk. Playing under the lights made them feel like they were in the big leagues!

Unfortunately, because they had lights, the game went until 9:40 PM! It was tied 5-5 going into the bottom of the 7th inning. I wanted our team to win, but I really wanted to go home more! So, when our catcher threw a bad throw to the 2nd baseman and the player went to third and then the next guy hit a line drive to score the run, I wasn't too disappointed! They played a good game and we got to go home.

We made it home a little after 10 PM. Luckily it was Thursday night and the kids were able to get up on Friday morning. They went to bed late on Friday night too since Travis and I went to the temple. I had to wake them up this morning at 9:40 AM! Hope they sleep tonight!

Conner's Webelos Badge

Tuesday night at Pack Meeting Conner earned his Webelos badge as well as several belt loops and a couple of Activity Pins. He's been busy and is almost done with Cub Scouts.

(Do you hear a shout of hooray from us, his parents? Yes!)

Here is Conner getting his awards from his Cub Master, Brother Wever.

Here is Conner showing the sign of the Webelos. I got to paint it on him. The red didn't come off my finger for 2 days, but luckily came off his face that night when he took a shower. I was a little worried that he would have some interesting marks on his face when he went to school the next day!

Lincoln and Conner sporting their scout paint!

Congratulations Conner!

Ardenwood Farm

Calissa's class went to the Ardenwood Historical Farm a week or so ago for a field trip. I didn't get to go on the field trip, but Calissa's friend Kaitlyn's mom went and took some pictures. Here is Calissa and Kaitlyn.
Going on a hay ride around the farm. They saw a tractor, the other class walking and fields. Don't you love those sun glasses?

Calissa's group in the gazebo.
Calissa and Marina helping make some rope.
Looking at a "really fat goat!"
Trying to pet the sheep. Calissa got to pet them and they were very soft.
They were learning how to make yarn from the sheep wool.

It was a really really fun field trip ... according to Calissa!

My Husband

How do I start this post???

My husband was put it as the Bishop of our ward last Sunday (May 2nd). I thought about not putting it on the blog, but in the end decided I needed to since it was a big event in our family. We found out about 2 1/2 weeks before he was put in ... which is kind of a long time! It was nice though to have some time to work through the feelings and emotions that come with the call.

My husband is a wonderful man and a terrific father and husband. I know that he was the person who is supposed to be serving as Bishop at this time in our Ward and I am grateful for that knowledge. I'm sure that will help when things get hard, or we wish he was home more, but I know that the blessings will far out-weight the sacrifices that our family will make!


Travis has a great sense of humor, loves to spend time with the family, is great at sports and is a great boss at work. He works hard and gives his best in all that he does.

More important than those qualities though, are that he is patient, kind, loving, very dedicated to spiritual matters (reading scriptures, prayer and having family home evening) and is a good example to all those around him.

/>We are very blessed to have him in our lives! I love him very much and the kids do too!

Parker says, "It will be a difficult change, but I know many blessings will come to us."

He also said, "That means that BYD will be at OUR house and you (mom) need to make treats for it!" :)

Conner says, "I have mixed emotions ... I am happy and sad. I am happy because we'll get blessings, but I'm sad that we won't get to see dad as much."

Calissa says, "I am so excited that my dad is the Bishop! It is going to be so exciting!"

(We chose not to tell her about Travis being called. We told her on Saturday afternoon that Grandma and Grandpa Burr were coming that night (Saturday) but she never asked why, so we didn't tell her. It's hard to keep a secret when you are 7! Sunday morning when he was sustained, she didn't even know what was happening until my mom told her. She was just excited to have both sets of Grandparents to sit with during church!)

By the way ... Travis may kill me when he reads this post! :)

Bremem Town Musicians

Yesterday the 2nd graders performed the Bremem Town Musicians at the end of the school day. Calissa was a donkey and was very enthusiastic!

Even after watching the play twice (since a teacher got the time wrong and they performed it twice) I wasn't quite sure about the story line. You can read about it here:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Musicians_of_Bremen

Calissa loves to perform! She had a lot of personality and was one of the few kids doing some actions. Hopefully she was supposed to do the actions.

She tried out for a solo part and didn't get it, but I was proud of her for trying. Conner said that he never tries out for those things in music and Calissa couldn't understand why not. She loves the spotlight and is a born performer!