The End of the School Year

Its amazing how fast this school year went by! I swear that it had just started and the next thing we knew it was over! I have a feeling that I am going to be feeling like that every year though. How is it that kids grow so fast! I am trying my hardest to really enjoy these small moments because they are so fleeting, and over so very fast! As hard as it is to care for these little people, at the same time I am desperate for them to stay little and not grow up!

Every school year's end we go to the school to see all the work the kids have done over the year. It is so cute because they are so excited and proud to show us their work.

We went into the big multi-purpose room and there is this big wall of pictures of kids from P.E. They have pictures up of all the kids that hit the milestones of 20 miles of running over the year and it was 4 boys and LIzzy. They never took her picture because she had a doctors appointment that day but it was cool to see that she was the only girl. Then a few days before the end of the year she ended up being the only one in the school to make the 25 mile club, and she is in third grade, and a girl to boot! She said the P.E. teacher told her she was the best runner in the school, and I believe it! She has it in her blood, and I love to see that she loves it so much!

We took Nellie's picture next to one of her art projects, she did such a good job. She is quite a good little artist. We didn't get a picture of Lizzy next to hers because she couldn't tell which one was hers, which I thought was really funny, but it just goes to show each kids personality.

Nellie was given the assignment of making another diorama for a dinosuar this time. We are the bad parents that just used the one from the year before and changed a few things in it. We added a volcano and a tree. We just waited until the last minute and Nellie was okay with it, so oh well. I just get so tired of these kinds of assignments. Maybe if I didnt procrastinate it wouldnt be so bad. But of course I kept saying we have plenty of time, and kept delaying it until all of a sudden it was the night before it was due and we hadn't done it yet. Mom fail.

Jane had her end of the school year program. I love going to see her sing. She gets into the singing the way that LIzzy did when she was little. It is so cute. My favorite was Take Me Out to the Ball Game. She belted it out like a pro! Kevy was so proud!

This was what we were dealing with the whole time. These two are at the worst stage right now for things like this!

Jane is moving on to Kindergarten this fall! I can't believe my Janie is that big! So sad! We are also so sad to say goodbye to Miss Patty, she is the best teacher ever and Janie has loved her so much! She keeps telling me she doesn't want to go to kindergarten because she doesn't want to leave Miss Patty. We will definitely have to have Russy go there, because he is already talking about Miss Patty.

 

Fathers and Sons

Kevin was so excited again this year to take Russ on the Fathers and Sons outing. Especially since he was a year older. Kevin was a bit worried after last years fiasco but I knew that he would do so much better this year. 18 months and 2 and a half are hugely different. Russ was really excited to go with his Daddy. He has some serious hero worship of his Dad.

Russy fell asleep on the way there so Kevin was glad so that he wouldn't be so grumpy that night.

Russ thought it was pretty cool to have a bed in the tent with his Dad. He loved helping Kevin put it together and then carried "his hammer" around with him most of the rest of the night, banging it on what ever he could find, trees, the ground etc.

Russ did pretty good that night other than the fact that he wouldn't go to sleep until really late because every time he heard some boys outside of the tent he had to get up and try and see what was going on.

 

I wanted to make sure that the girls had a good Mommy daughter date, because I always felt so jipped growing up that the boys got to go on the Fathers and Sons and we didn't. I met up with a couple other moms from the ward and their girls and we went to the Mall and ate at Plutos and then let the kids play on the play area and then got some ice cream. The girls were throwing a bit of a fit because we were only going to McDonalds for the ice cream rather than a fancier place. It is things like that that send me over the edge as a mom. I just want my kids to see all the things I do for them, and they never seem to.

All the girls started making a train and dancing around the mall. It was super cute and drew a lot of looks. The girls and I had fun, but Annie is at such a hard stage right now. She is so hard to control because she wants to go do her own thing, so eating out and trying to keep her off the table is so much fun and then shedoesn't want me to hold her, but she wants to go and run wherever she wants to. It is really hard right now, but fun too. She is really getting her own little personality.

 

First Friday

One of our favorite summer activities to do as a family is to go to First Friday. The first friday of the month during the summer there is a fun little street fair in the Fountains. The kids have always loved going to it, so we usually go at least a couple of times during the summer. We deiced to go to the first one of the season, and there is a yummy place to eat there so we thought we would have dinner and then stay for the activities. They always have some Disney princesses come too and this time it was Elsa and Anna. Janie was really excited, but once we arrived and saw how much busier it was because of that and saw the line that was about 300 yards long. We decided that we just couldn't do it. So we went and explored some of the other stuff that was going on.

Miss Love wasn't too excited about the pickle. So far Russy is the only one that really likes dill pickles like his Dad.

the kids thougth it was pretty cool to sit in the back of the police car.

Once Russy saw the fire engine he wanted nothing to do with the ploice car anymore. He is all about the fire engines.

Annie did pretty good overall. She is at a really difficult stage right now when we go out places. She is so busy and doesn't want to be held and just wants to get into things and climb on things that she shouldn't and then screams bloody murder when we dont let her. But she is also at one of the cutest stages too. I guess thats why Heavenly Father makes babies so cute, to even out the difficulty.

Russy was really excited about his ninja hat and his sword that he got. I was really worried because it is only a matter of time before those things pop and I was worried how he would react. We had a few close calls where he feel into some bushes and it didnt pop so I thought we were good, but literally 10 feet before we got to the car he fell and poppped his sword. It was so funny becuase he was totally freaking out about it. The whole way home he just kept crying "I popped my sword!" He kept saying it over and over and over again. It is not an exageration to say that he said it 40-50 times on the way home. It started to become really funny because of the way he was saying it. First he was so angry, then he was sad. And then by the end the way he would say it was like he was just resigned to the fact that he popped his sword. It really was something we will always remember about Russy and his popping his sword.

 

Mothers Day Tea

I really look forward to my special little Mothers Day programs that I get to do with my little ones. I am going to be sad when the day comes that they are all past the age of doing them. At least I have quite a few years before that will happen. I love how they get so excited to have this special time with me. I love how they are so proud and work so hard on the little gifts they give me. What a treasure those things are for me. I couldn't ask for anything more!

Janie is always so cute at singing the little songs that she does. I love her smile too, it is so genuine and it lights up her whole face.

 

Everyday happenings

I swear there is never a dull moment in this house with these crazy kids of mine. Especailly having little kids and watching them learn new things and the funny things they say. There is always something funny to try and remember to write down. I don't remeber everything, but this is my attempt at doing my best!

Kevy and I brought the girls home a TON of shells from the beach. The girls were so darn excited about it and they had a little dividing party where they divided them amongest themselves. They took turns youngest to oldest and picked a shell each until they had divided them all up. It w as really cute because they would really take their time deciding which ones they wanted. I think they took close to an hour to do it. It was so cute.

Russ has a serious obsession with his Dads tools. He has some play ones, but he knows the difference and he wants his Dad's real ones. He plays with them all the time and he is constantly "fixing" stuff, like his trucks especially. The other really funny thing is how he knows the names of all of the tools too. I can always hear him saying," my crescent wrench, my pliers, my hammer, my screwdriver." I really love watching him do his boy things, it is too fun!

Spring Break this year was not very exciting I hate to say. I tried to do a few things with the kids, but it wasn't anything very great. I wish we would have gone somewhere for at least part of it, but maybe next year. The last day I let them jump on the tramp with the sprinklers on. I felt a little guilty because of the drought, but we only did it for about 20 minutes.

I really thought that Annie would hate it, but she actually loved it, she loved being out with the kids and she loved getting wet on the tramp.

 

I love this picture of Russ with his Grandpa. He loves being out with the guys, either his Dad or his Grandpa helping in the yard. I love how patient my Dad is with him too. I know that he loves it as much as Russy loves it.

Oh that time of year again. Time to eat popsicles. They kids just love them and Russy can down them in seconds flat. I cant believe he never gets brain freeze becuase he eats them so fast!

Russy loves to be with his Daddy working in the yard. He has his little mower that he uses and I know he really thinks he is mowing too. when Kevy is weed wacking Russy doesn't have a pretend one so he uses his baseball bat as a weed eater. It really is too funny, He even makes the sound effect.

Russy has learned (thanks to Jane) how to scale the pantry and get wahtever he wants. I really need to get a lock for the pantry because he helps himself to everything! It gets a little frustrating!

One day I was getting ready for the day and I came into the kitchen and I found Russy on a chair at the the counter hacking away at this gaint block of cheese. With a giant knife!! He just decided that he wanted cheese so he would help himself. I really believe that there are angels watching over little childern. How else would they survive!?

Annie loves baby dolls! I think it may be just about the sweetest thing ever! The other girls never showed a huge interest in them, but we do have a few and so Annie has found them and she carries them around the house with her. I love it so much. She kisses them and hugs them too.

We went to a splashpad with friends one day and it is Annie first experience with it. She acted pretty much how I thought she would. She just stood there and I thought she didn't like it, because she didn't really get into the water, but once I tried to take her away she got really mad at me.

Russy took a few mintues to warm up to it, but once he did he was a wild man. He is such a boy I love it so much!

I thought it was so funny because he went to check out one of the fountains that was turned off and it turned on right when he stuck his face there. Thankfully he didn't freak out about it though.

The little train ride was free that day at the fountains so after I got them out of their swimsuits we went and rode the train. Russ of course loved it. A friend stayed with Anne, because right after I took this picture she was trying to climb out the window. She is such a busy butt!

Here we have miss busy britches herself! She has learned how to climb on everything so she is a little monkey now. No fear, just trying to climb on everything and dance around. She defintely has become much more like Lizzy then Jane.

It is so fun to have kids that are a little bigger now. I got to go with Lizzy to her activity day, because it was a mother daugther one. It was so fun to be with this girl. She is so much fun to be around. I love talking and laughing with her. I love being a mom!