The End of School

Boy has time flown by! We've been busy, and I haven't blogged everything that we've been up to, so here are a few highlights of the last couple of months:

Dallin competed in his 3rd Pine Wood Derby. He took 1st in Style, and 2nd to last in speed, but it's all about how cool the car looks, right?
His car was a skate board, which last minute, at the church, the found a toy elephant from the nursery and decided to glue it on the top to add a little weight. Apparently it was a little too much. I don't know why they couldn't have found a lighter animal, like a mouse.



Ashlynn's class went to the Denver zoo on a field trip. There were so many parent volunteers that day, that our group that I chaperoned, included Ashlynn and I. Her favorite part of the zoo was a mock covered wagon pulled by plastic oxen. She played another season of soccer. She got to eat lunch with the principle because she eared an award for being "Honest", and at her end of the year celebration, Mrs. Kempf gave her the "big helper" award. She said that Ashlynn is always asking Mrs. Kempf how she can help her, helping those around her, and she said that she thought that Ashlynn could practically run the class herself.





Talie finished the 6th grade and will be going into Middle School next year - CRAZY! She also was selected to eat lunch with the principle because she was honored the award Excellence, because of her hard work.

Benson takes the kids on rides around the cul-de-sac. I guess it's like they say, "You can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy.

I completed my first triathlon! Before this year, I could only swim to save my life. Call me crazy, but I like to breathe when I exercise, so when I have my face under water, and I'm trying to swim, I panic. But, thankfully my good, patient friend, taught me how to swim-thanks Dina! And that was my goal, to be able to swim so that I could complete the triathlon. It was so much, and there were 8 women from our ward who raced, so at the end we had a huge cheering section.

Sorry, I don't have any race pictures, I'll have to find one and post it later.

We said goodbye to our good friends and NC next door neighbors, who moved back to Apex after a 1 year stop in Colorado (ok., yes, we are a little jealous).














We saved three baby bunnies. They fall into our window wells, and then can't get out. So we open our basement windows, catch them, let the kids pretend they're their pets for a few minutes and then let them go.

Aaahh, Mother's Day. I've decided that this is one of my all time favorite holidays. The day starts out with me sleeping in and staying in bed absolutely guilt free, because I know that I must stay in bed as I wait for my children to bring me breakfast in bed. This year they brought me a huge platter full of breakfast. (This effort is always headed up by Talie - Thanks Talie!) It contained chocolate milk, cereal, orange slices, and a bagel with strawberry jam. Mmmm good. Then is my favorite part, when the kids clamor up onto the bed and bring me the gifts that they made me at school. I will be so sad when the day comes that they want to buy me a gift instead of make me one.
One of my all time favorite gifts was a poem that Dallin wrote me in kindergarten. It was a fill-in-the-blank poem where he had to finish the sentence with his own choice of word. My favorite sentence was, "My Mom is as pretty as __________ . Most of the other kindergartners put words like: flower, rainbow, or rose, but not Dallin, he wrote, My Mom is as pretty as . . . my Dad.
After we finished with the gifts, Peyton came up from the basement carrying tissue paper, saying, "Happy Muddah's Day!" And in the tissue paper was his favorite dinosaur and 5 packages of fruit snacks. Truly a gift from the heart. All day, he kept going down to the basement and filling gift bags with his favorite toys and coming upstairs with a big grin, and a "Happy Muddah's Day, Mom!"
Then at church we got a See's chocolate bar to get us through the last two hours - you can't beat chocolate - and the rest of the day, you can just get away with not doing too much, and not feeling guilty about it. Over all, it just reminds me how grateful I am for my kiddos, to be able to stay at home with my children, and for a Mom who I always knew loved being a Mom. Happy Mother's Day to All!
I should have taken a picture of my beautifully arranged platter, but my kiddo's are funner to look at.

Sick Day

This morning, Talie woke up with a fever, a few hours later, I got a call from the school that Dallin had a fever, and then Kennedi woke up from her nap with a fever. It came time to pick up Ashlynn from school, and I was rocking Kennedi in the rocking chair, and announced that I had to get up and go get Ashy from school, and Peyton asked, "Can I hold Kendedi?" So I got up and placed her on his lap. When I returned with Ashlynn, they were in that same position - well, Kennedi had slid off to the side of his lap a little - but he was ready for me to take Kennedi back.

Luckily I had checked out the movies, "Anne of Green Gables" from the library earlier this week, so we have plenty of low key activities for them to pass the time away until they start feeling better.

Summer in March

Peyton and Kennedi are always in the mood to go swimming. When one of them gets the idea to get their swimsuit on, they quickly solicit the other one to join them. Unfortunately - for them, they don't get to swim as often as they dress for it. This particular day, it's like 40 degrees outside, but it doesn't stop them from laying out on their towels on the back patio.

Notice the snow behind Kennedi. With 0%body fat, I can't figure out how she can stay warm.

One Saturday morning, Benson, Dallin and I came back from an early B'ball game and found Peyton and Kennedi in little bins filled with warm water on the family room floor. Talie was babysitting, and this was her solution to keep them happy without letting them get in the hot tub. She simply brought their "hot tub" inside=) - she always was a problem solver. Both Kennedi and Peyton had their own little bin and were as happy as could be.

In first grade, Ashlynn has been learning about our national symbols. At the end of this unit in school, her teacher, Mrs. Kempf, had the children dress in red, white, and/or blue and present a program to the parents. Mrs. Kempf put together a pod cast in which each of the children read a report that they had done on a specific US symbol (Ashlynn reported on the Bald Eagle), and in between the reports, she had taught the children a variety of patriotic songs which they performed. The program consisted of the traditional favorites, such as "America the Beautiful", some cute clever ones about Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington, where they acted out young George cutting down the cherry tree, and they finished with the song, "I'm proud to be an American", where the kids sang with great conviction. I'm sure you had to be there to truly appreciate it, but at the end of the last song, there was hardly a dry eye in the room. The spirit was so strong as everyone felt their love for this great nation. I was very proud of the class, and very grateful to Ashlynn's teacher for teaching the children something that is truly important. Thank-you Mrs. Kempf!

Half of Ashy's cute class, wearing adorable hats and head bands, provided by Mrs. Kempf.

Last Sunday, Kennedi and I were laying down on my bed, snuggling. And I asked her, what she learned in nursery today, and she said, "Toys." Not getting the answer I wanted, I rephrased the question, and asked, "What did your teachers teach you about?" To which she replied, "About Jesus."
"What about Jesus?" I further inquired.
"Umm, Jesus died yesterday. And the angel rolled the rock away."
I was amazed at how much my little two year old understood that her teachers were trying so hard to teach her. Again, I was thankful to my childrens' teachers for the love and time they put into teaching my children.