Simpson Springs 2017

As soon as school got out, we headed out to camp!  We usually go to Simpson Springs every Memorial Day.  The first day, we went to the geode beds past Dugway.  We went to the geode beds a few years ago too; it was pretty fun, but we didn't really find many geodes.  This time was more of the same--not a lot of good luck finding anything.  Then we decided to actually go and read a sign & a map that was posted...apparently we've been looking in the wrong place!  Ha!  We felt pretty stupid.

After we went to the correct place, we realized there were geodes everywhere!  It was a lot more fun after that!  We got lots and lots to bring home.  Funny how things work out so much better when you actually read the instructions, huh? :)

I think we tired the kids out pretty good!

Our cute Parker doggy likes to go camping with us too.  

Bryan is always so good to set up the zipline for the kids to ride on.  It's a lot of work and I'm grateful that he's willing to do it.  The kids always love it.

We did some Jeep rides, and Bryan took the kids on some motorcycle rides too.  One of the days, Papa and Aunt Mel & her family joined us.  We had a fun time playing lots of games, just visiting, and hanging out by the campfire.

On the way back, I broke out the Hubba-Bubba bubble gum for our family bubble-blowing contest.  Even Bree can blow bubbles now!

I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty much the bubble-blowing champion of the family! I got some huge bubbles!

I also had some pretty epic bubble splats on my face!  My sunglasses took the brunt of this one!

I took my glasses off and kept going.  I was surprised that my camera caught this picture just at the perfect moment of bubble-pop!  Kind of cool, right?!

We drove into Tooele to visit my mom's grave for Memorial Day.  I thought it looked very pretty.  These holidays (Mothers Day, Memorial Day, her birthday, and the anniversary of her death) do not really get easier for me with time. Sometimes I do just fine, but other times it hits me pretty hard.  I miss my mom so much. I feel so sad that my kids can't know her.  It's hard to be patient, but I am grateful for the knowledge that eventually I will see her again.

May Happenings

Our May happenings...Miles played little league baseball again.  Baseball has always been his favorite sport.  He loves to bat, and he's usually a good hitter.  This was the first year of "kid-pitch" though, and we all know how that goes.  The pitching is pretty bad, so most kids just get walked, again and again.  Then when they actually do get a good pitch, the are usually so gun-shy that they won't swing anyway and they strike out.  Whomp, whommmp.  It's a bummer.  And, unfortunately Miles got stuck with a real dud of a coach too.  I'll just say that he would make a perfect drill sergeant!  Lots of yelling, getting in boys' faces, making them feel like they are stupid and worthless, etc.  Suffice it to say that Miles told me he doesn't want to play again next year.  It breaks my heart! I kept reminding him that he can't let this dumb coach ruin the sport for him.   We were all very happy when the season ended.

Tess had a really fun party with her girls from Activity Days at church.  She only has a few more weeks until she will be in Young Women (!) so I wanted to add a picture of the whole group of 8-11 year old girls.

Also in May, of course, is Mothers Day!  My sweet family spoiled me as usual with breakfast in bed and really nice gifts.  I am a very blessed lady!

On the last day of school I made all the kids wear their Freedom Elementary shirts and take pictures by the school sign.  This is the one and only year that they will all be together.  In fact, Tess & Miles won't ever be together again because of the way they are spaced.  So I needed to document this!

I sure love our school.  We have wonderful teachers, fabulous helpful parents, and the best principal ever!  I had to snap a pic with my kids and our principal Diane Rockwood.  We are so lucky to have her!

6th Grade Fun

Of course there was fun stuff happening in the 6th Grade as well!  Tess had an awards assembly and a talent show this week.  She has become close friends with a darling girl in her class name Benttlee.  They are very similar and have so much fun together.  For the talent show they decided to do a routine in the dark; they bought matching neon clothes and used glow sticks and lights during their performance.  The routine was called "Jump."  First they came out tumbling (here is Tess doing her back tuck)...

...then they did cool jump rope tricks.  Here they are jumping in the same jump rope together...

...then they did hula hoops, first regular hula hooping...

and then spinning them around themselves like a jump rope...

They also did skip ropes (the kind that goes around one ankle.)

I got tired just watching them!  They did a great job.

Tess also was given many neat awards during the awards assembly.  I was so proud of her!  She has very high achievement in academics, she was a class officer, and she also got 2 physical fitness awards, one of which was so hard to get that only 3 kids in the whole grade qualified!  Wow!  (I'll tell ya, I am grateful that she inherited her coordination and physical skills from her dad, not from me!) 

Way to go Tess!  You are amazing!

Kindergarten Fun

More end-of-year fun! This time was the Kindergarten field trip to the ZOO!  Bryan took the day off work to join us.  We only had 3 kiddos in our chaperone group--Bree, Matea (Bree's neighbor friend), and cute little Noah from her class.

The zoo has an temporary exhibit all about insects.  There are gigantic bugs all over the place, with information about them, and some of them even move.  It's pretty fun.  

The kids seemed to be more interested in posing on top of the animal statues than in the animals themselves!  That's ok though.  It was just fun being there.

The Kindergarten also had a "Hawaii Day" at school.  They had rotations where they made grass skirts, made leis, had treats, played games, etc.  It was fun.  Bree has had the best teacher this year, Mrs. Kearsley.  I just love her so much!

Field Day 2017

My last big PTA event for this year was our annual Field Day.  It turned out so amazing.  I can't take a bit of credit for it; our Field Day chair was incredible.  In the past we've always had 8 or 9 stations that the classes come out and rotate through, at set times (15 minutes or so at each station).  It has always been fun, but it's a bit of a headache to try to get everyone to rotate correctly, at the correct time, etc.  Plus, some stations were favorites and the kids wanted longer than 15 minutes, while others were duds and the kids were bored after 5.  So this year, I heard about another school that just does a big carnival style, free-for-all.  The kids can come out and roam around and spend as much time as they want at whatever stations they want.  It was so much more relaxed and FUN!  We had a whole bunch of prizes for the kids to win too, so I think everyone had a really great time.  We had 3 big bounce houses, balloon animals, popsicles, colored hair spray, face painting, and lots of games.  

And--hallelujah!--the weather was beautiful!!   I couldn't have hoped for a better day.  

Here's Tess with some buddies after face-painting...

Miles with hair color...

One of the highlights of the day was when the fire department came right before school got out and they sprayed everyone (who wanted to) with their fire hose.  So much fun!

This pic of Bree is post-fire-hose, so her face-paint is a little drippy.  

What a great day!

3rd Grade Fun

May!  May is craziness!  So much going on with soccer, baseball, year-end activities and programs, awards assemblies, etc, etc, etc!  But it's such a fun time too.  I love attending the kids' little programs at school.  The 3rd Grade did a play/musical similar to the story about the Little Red Hen.  Miles had a speaking part.  He's in the center, with the sunshine/sunglasses on his apron.  He did great! 

The 3rd Grade also does a Drive-In Movie for a year-end reading party.  Luckily our kids love to read so getting their reading minutes is never a chore.  The kids were supposed to bring a box decorated like a vehicle and then they would sit in it during a movie.  They parade around the school first to show off their cars.  I am a firm believer in "let the kids do the kid projects!" so I just got a box and let Miles go to town.  Some parents go crazy and do super elaborate shapes for their kids' cars, but I think it's better for the kids to do it themselves.

Miles used a bunch of cans of spray paint; he was going for the tie-dyed look on a VW van.  I loved it!

(Tess wanted to make sure that Parker was in this picture. Ha!)

Monster Truck Show

We were invited to our very first Monster Truck Show!  Our neighbor Paul's dad does it for a living and has done it for years, with many different vehicles.  Now, Paul has his own truck and has started driving more often in shows (just for fun--not for his living.)  Anyway, it was a lot of fun!  And super, duper loud!!  We all had earplugs and it was still deafening! 

Here we are with our friends, the Ashbys.

 I was amazed to see how high the trucks go in the air, and of course watching them drive over little cars is always so cool to see too.

Tess and her buddy Lauren are jamming out to YMCA during a break.

And Miles can't ever keep a straight face for the camera!

Bree follows in Miles's photo footsteps...