May Randoms

Geo and I, Chris and Danika (taking pic), DanaLee and Andy
Double date to Taggart's.  It rained a ton in May = beautiful, green mountains!

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Lucy's piano recital. She played a song that sounded like a Caravan.  She had
another one picked, but passed that off quick so she chose another.
After 9 months, she's on level 2.  So far she loves practicing and has done
really well.  Mrs. Manwaring is a great teacher!

May seemed to be a crazy month juggling new baseball schedules, end of year recitals, school functions, etc.  Lucy had softball practice on the last day of school.  I dropped her off and George met me in the garage as I pulled up. "Guess who just called?!?  The missionaries!  They are lost and looking for our house.  We are supposed to feed them dinner tonight!"  Aaaah!  I jump out of the car to see the missionaries car drive past our house!  I run in the house and whipped up the fastest chicken taco salad imaginable (thanks to the cooked frozen chicken I had on hand).  I served it "build your own toppings" style which was great because one missionary only ate chicken and chips.  The house was a DISASTER!  The kids played with the build your own marble run and that was all over the floor, Erik dumped a box of rice krispies on the carpet, and there were wet towels all over from the water fight.  Not to mention the normal dishes in the sink, etc.  At 6ish, I left to pick Lucy up from practice.  I was about to pull up to the ballfield when I get a call from the coach's wife asking if I was coming to get Lucy.  It was 6:18 and in my head I was thinking, "sheesh.  I'm three minutes late."  Well, it turned out her practice ended at 6!  Both George and I thought it was 6:15 the whole time.  Man, what a night!
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Erik is a crazy man.  He gets into so much trouble so fast.  His biggest mess this month was flooding the basement.  George was in the house and yells to me outside that the basement was flooding!  I ran in to see water dripping out the heater vents and kids carrying every towel we own to the basement.  The circuit box was dripping water.  We found out later that Erik was messing around George's bathroom sink, turned the faucet so that it just ran on the counter instead of the sink and watched the water run down into the heater vents.  Our basement isn't finished so it could have been so much more of a disaster than it was.  Man, that kid keeps us on our toes!  
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George was pushing Erik in the swing....
Erik:  YOOO-HOOO!!! Austin!!!  Look at me!  (in a super high voice)
We laughed so hard!
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randomly during lunch
Austin: So... I do think it would be great to be king of a blueberry bush.
Me:  What?  Well, ok.  How come?
A:  Well, you could, you know.... eat all the bluberries you wanted.  And give everyone else what they wanted too.
M:  ummm... ok.
long pause.
M:  So... what got you thinking abt bluberry bushes?
A:  Oh, I was just thinking abt Yertle the Turtle.  Remember how he is the king of a blueberry bush.
M:  Ummmm, no.  I don't remember that.
A: (not exact quote, but close).  You know...

I'm the king of a blueberry bush and a cat!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

Elise in her reader's theater at school.
She is definitely a great reader!

Two sandhill cranes walking toward our house.
We usually hear them call in the morning.  Cool looking birds!

Cowboy dress up at school.
No way was Austin going to wear a
cowboy shirt too.  He definitely has
his favorites.

Austin and I say some of these when he
walks out the door for school.  He ALWAYS
says "Give a Hug, Lady bug" and gives me a hug.
And ends with "The End, my friend."
 *sigh* I love my sweet boy!

Clara got the shots.
He got the treats.

typical trip to Costco
this is going through the TV section :)

helped with an awesome service project
Daysforgirls.org

boys going on a car ride

We made the trip up to Logan for sweet Halle's baptism.  She broke her arm two weeks before (poor girl!).  She and Elise were climbing trees after one of Gavin's lacrosse games and Halle fell on some roots when she jumped out.  The baptism was wonderful.  I don't have pics because George and I had to split up that day.  Later that afternoon we celebrated Hannah graduating from BYU and Jody from USU!  Way to go ladies!

Elise's birth great-grandma, Wanda, passed away on May 4.  She had been pretty sick and in the hospital.  I was really glad we took the time to visit her when we went down to San Antonio in September.  Elise was a little emotional about it.  She wanted to send a "kiss" to her while she was in the hospital.  Wanda was the one who kept in closest contact with us.  She'd always reply when we sent pic messages and sent us texts on the holidays.

This grocery trip to Ridley's was a nightmare!  Erik pulled the balls out from
 the bin and threw them down the aisles.  They put random things in the cart.
  And Erik and Cole thought it was so funny to run from me and hide.  I made
room for Erik in the super full cart and he was ticked to be put in there, pulled
 the binkie from Clara and woke her up.  I was so happy to get out of there!

Mother's day pedicure
for Activity days!

morning with the boys

so true!

I love this pic!  My four little yellow brick road travelers hand in hand.  :)
They wanted to play at the ballfield playground and I wanted to wait in the van for Clara to sleep a bit longer.
So I sent them on their way.  I'm sure the holding hands is Elise's idea since she is the motherly type and it made me smile!

Lucy's Dance: Enchantment

 This year, Lucy decided she wanted to try a ballet/jazz/tumbling class.  It was a good thing for her.  This is the first time she's done something like this and some things were stretchers.  The tumbling was the most challenging because she got her mother's scaredy cat genes and her father's flexibility.  However, she improved a bunch.  Even her cartwheel was pretty scary at the first of the year and now looks great.  She was in the class with younger girls... only one other 4th grader.  Her friends were in the competition class.  I think that was a bit hard too.  Toward the end of the year she told me she was going to try just ballet next year, but after all these fun recitals, she told me she was going to do it again.  I guess we'll see.

The first performance was at Morgan High School.  I think it was their alumni basketball tournament or something.  Anyway, it was a good one to be first in that there weren't a ton of people there.  Grandma Liz came to watch and they had pictures afterwards.  Maybe later I'll scan the real group picture in, but for now, here's one from my camera...

The second performance was a competition held at Lagoon.  I think it was America On Stage or something.  George took her to that one while I had the rest of the kids in Logan at Halle's baptism.  It was a big event with four different pavilions of dance performances going on.  Lucy's group took second place so that was a fun surprise!

fan club... Erik running wild through the seats

The last performance was the year end recital.  I think this one had the biggest crowd.  Lucky for us, they divide the recitals into 3 groups so you only have to sit through an hour and a half.  And I really enjoyed it.  There were a lot of talented girls!

We sure love our little dancer!

Fathers and Sons

 The boys went to their first Father and Son's camp out on May 29-30. And wow, was Austin excited!   He wrote up a checklist of things they shouldn't forget.  It was perfect!  He said the bubbles were on there in case they got bored, but he told me they had so much fun that they didn't even need them.

The camp out was held in the Mountain Green Bowery.  George was a brave man and took all three boys!  And they LOVED it!  I asked the boys to help me write this post and they said:   Cole:  "We cooked in someone else's fire and they said yes.  And there was a playground there."  Austin:  "Me and Cole helped my dad set the tent.  We cooked some smores.  And we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows.  For breakfast we had chocolate muffins and powdered donuts with raspberry jam inside them."

George said Cole threw up in the tent in the night.  Fun, fun!  Maybe it was all that food.  Lucky it was only once, but wow!  That's always a mess.  Still, everyone came home with smiles.  When they got home, I was out pulling weeds and collecting trash for a neighborhood clean up.  I lost my phone and was so grateful my prayer was answered and it was found. Those things aren't cheap and the weeds were higher than my waist.  Austin waited patiently through the whole ordeal and then called out, "Mom!  Are you ready for our chat?" and sat me down on the couch and gave me all the details.  I loved it!

While the boys were out, we had a girls night!  We painted Lucy's tea set and watched a show.  I think it took an hour for them to finally agree on the old "Parent Trap."  I sure love my girls!

Last days of School

 Last day of Joy School was May 14.  We had a party at the park in Enterprise.  It was kinda cold and rainy, but we still had a good time.  Cole has loved Joy School and I've had a great time rotating through as a teacher.  It really was a great group of kids... pretty mellow and good buddies.

Camille and Brigham, Karla and Eve, Aubrey and Grady, Chris and Charlie, Heidi and Ty, Me and Cole, Sarah (her mom couldn't make it, Jessica and Shawni, Jenny and Sienna

 Austin's last day of Kindergarten was May 21.  I was kinda sad about this.  I've love having Austin around and I'm sad to see him go to all day school.  :(  He's had a great year and loved school.  One thing that has helped him a great deal is meeting with the reading specialist, Mrs. Rutherford.  He and his friend Blake were above reading level at the beginning of the school year so they'd meet with Mrs. R for about 20 min each day for some reading that was more on their level.  Two little girls joined the group mid-year and I think it was a great thing for all of them.  Mrs. R was fantastic!

Austin and Mrs. Jarvis
I didn't always see eye to eye with Mrs. Jarvis on how Austin's schooling
should go, but she was a good teacher.  The last 26 days were devoted to
an alphabet letter and Austin loved it!  She was also very organized!

last day for the girls... May 28

We were counting down the days for these boys... the shoes were done long before school was. They were worn right through.  Austin's were camo boat shoes and he loved the things because he didn't have to tie them.  It was a struggle every.single.time. to find ANY of Cole's shoes before school started.  Even though he rotated around with whatever shoes we could find, he still wore these out.  Velcro wouldn't stick either.

Lucy and Mrs. Fearn
I was really hoping Mrs. Fearn would move up to
5th grade.  ;)  She was perfect for Lucy... challenged
her to excel, complimentary, easy going when I came
with my boys to help with reading.  We loved her!

This year we made homemade
triple berry jam for the teachers and aides.
The kids helped a lot with the jam and I
always have them make the cards.
Much cuter that way.
THANK YOU teachers!

Mrs. Smith and Elise
We loved Mrs. Smith!  She was so sweet to
 Elise!  She was easy going, great about 
helping Elise feel special and letting her 
go  to the office every time she 
"needed" a bandaid.  She let Austin join
 in with the class when I volunteered 
and he thought it was the best thing ever.

 The boys and I decided we were going to do some sidewalk chalk art to welcome the girls home.  Austin was a crack-up.  I loved his messages.  He also drew a seahorse, treehouse, smiley faces, etc.  Love that kid!

love those little feet

Cole:  "The diap-y gum will draw a picture"

When George got home, we filled up a bunch of water balloons and water guns and waited to ambush the girls.  Can you see George and Cole and Erik on the hill?  Austin and I hid behind a big pile of mulch on the street.  They were working on our yard that week so there was a huge pile.  It was perfect.  We soaked the girls good and laughed so hard.  The other moms in the cul-de-sac had some watermelon and drinks and all the kids ran around shooting each other.  Way fun!

nice shot Cole!

And summer has officially begun!  Woot, woot!