School's out ... now what?!

Maddy and Jacob's last day of school was Thursday. Both kids had pizza parties for lunch - one of our friends runs a pizza store close to the school and he said that they delivered 150 pizzas by noon!

They both had GREAT teachers and will miss them. We hope for good teachers next year too - so far we've been really lucky!!! They learned a lot this year and had lots of fun. I still can't believe that summer is already here ... especially since we've been unseasonably cool this weekend.
Here is Maddy hugging her teacher goodbye. Her class got to wear PJ's and watched Charlotte's Web, which they just finished reading that morning. Here are some of Maddy's friends from her class.

Jacob loved his teacher too. Here he is saying goodbye. Spontaneously, some of the kids in Jacob's class pile together for a picture. Silly kids!
Jacob's class had some bubble activities planned for the afternoon. Every time they went to go outside, it started sprinkling, but the third time was a charm. Both boys had more fun chasing the bubbles the wind was blowing than doing their own.

It always amazes me how observant Ally is. Even though she has never played with bubbles before, when I let her out of her stroller, she went over to get one of the bubble wands and went right over to the little pans on the ground and dipped it right in. She loves to be "big" like the other kids!

CRAZY kids

Last Friday the kids had crazy hair and clothes day at school. My kids love to be in the spotlight, so they tried to get as creative as possible. Can you find all the things wrong with each picture?
Maddy has uneven braids that stick out of her head thanks to pipe cleaners, mis-matched ribbons / barrettes, her shirt is inside-out, her pants are on backwards and she has 2 different socks.
Jacob was dying to have his hair painted. Since I didn't have any hair paint, I thought I'd just use washable kids paint (if it didn't come out, I could always just shave his head - but it came out super easy ... probably easier than the real stuff you use to color hair.) He has a red painted Mohawk and the right side is blue and the left side is green. He too is wearing his shirt inside-out and has his shorts on backwards with the pockets pulled out. He also has two different socks and shoes.
Well, Bryson could not stand to have his brother ans sister all done up and be left out of the fun. He wanted an orange Mohawk with orange, red and yellow polka-dots all over. He had his shirt inside-out and backwards and his shorts backwards as well.
Here is Ally that morning playing around in one of the boys baseball hats. Everyone had to get in on the crazy fun that morning!

5 blissful hours

Yesterday I experienced something I only vaguely remember doing before. I spent the whole day shopping by myself! No kids crying, fighting, complaining, whining, etc. It was beautiful. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids, but as I tried on clothes in the dressing room and no one was making someone else cry or complaining about how bored they were, I relished in the quiet. As I sat by myself peacefully eating my lunch, I looked over at the next table and didn't envy the grandmother who was sporadically eating while holding her granddaughter and trying to keep her hands out the food while trying to feed her a bottle. I just smiled and enjoyed my peaceful lunch. I didn't have to wait in 3 different lines in the food court to get everyone what they wanted, didn't have to hurry anyone along so we could just get done and be home for a nap, didn't have to cut up anyone's food, wipe everyone down when were finished, etc.

How did I get 5 hours to myself on a Friday you may ask - well Travis had taken the day off work because it was our ward's father and sons camp out and they planned on leaving as soon as Jacob got home from school at 2:45. Well, due to some sort of scheduling mix up they had to move our camping location and the only place they could find on short notice was 2 hrs. away instead of just 30 mins. Jacob has a basketball game every Sat. at 9:30 and today was the very first game that Travis was able to go to because Bryson's game wasn't until 11. If they went to the further campsite, they would not be able to make Jacob's game. The boys decided to just camp in the backyard so that Jacob could have Travis at his game. Since Travis already had the day off and didn't need to go anywhere, I took advantage! Happy Mother's Day to me! :-)

The ironic part about camping in the back yard is that Travis and Maddy camped in the back yard last weekend, since she never gets to go camping. (The father and sons yearly camp out is about it as far as camping goes for us.) We decided to make it a tradition to let Maddy sleep in the tent with dad the weekend before, since Travis sets up the tent to make sure everything is still OK w/ it. If we would have known last weekend that the boys would be sleeping in the backyard too, they all would have just slept out there this weekend. What can you do? The kids have just as much fun in the backyard as anywhere else. Travis took the grate off the bbq grill and let them roast hot dogs and marshmallows - which they wouldn't have been able to do at the campsite because no fire was allowed.

Maddy and I had a "girls night". We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows w/ the boys and then we stayed up late watching Maddy's new DVD, Nancy Drew, while eating our snacks. We had a great time too. The best part is, after the fun we got to sleep in our nice comfy beds. ;-)

Busy, busy

I've been busy keeping up with the kids as usual. Here are some recent pictures.

Isn't she cute?! This is the first time I did her hair in 2 pony tails. I still get a kick out of watching her walk around all over. I think that she thinks she's as big as the other kids now.

The kids had a literacy night at school where they got to display some things that they have been working on at school and there was a book fair in the library. Jacob got to show us all the habitats that the kids in his class made and the report he did at school on his ocean habitat. Maddy got to show us her Greek mosaic and a poem about a Hershey bar (mmmmm- I was mentioned in that poem. Do you think my kids know how much I LOVE chocolate? ;-) Here are the kids with Clifford who was roaming around greeting the kids.

Jacob got to show off his jump roping skills at the last school assembly. Our camera just does not take good pictures in gyms, so sorry the quality is not great. In the big rope he did regular jumps, frog jumps where you get really low and he tried to do push up jumps and almost did it. Those are really, really hard. Maddy can't even do those yet.
One of the girls on Bryson's baseball team owns a couple of horses and is related to the owners of an equestrian center. The team and their families got to go to the equestrian center and ride in a carriage pulled by a miniature horse, ride a horse, and feed carrots to ponies, donkeys, and horses. We also had a picnic. The kids got pretty dirty, but we all had a great time!

It's crazy to think that school is coming to an end. Next week is Bryson's last week of preschool. He has had such a great time and LOVES going to school. He's going to miss going twice a week and I'm going to miss grocery shopping and running errands with just Ally.

Jacob is still love, love, loving basketball. He'd play the whole game if the coach would let him. He made 4 baskets in both of the last 2 games. He's really getting quite good. Travis is excited that the boy's games don't overlap next Sat. and he'll actually get to see Jacob play!

Maddy's musical theater class is coming to an end as well. Next week is her last week too. Her piano teacher is taking the summer off, so this will be the last month for that as well.

You'd think with the kids activities coming to an end that I'd have more time on my hands this summer, but I'm not so sure. As soon as school gets out, swim team starts and then there's swim lessons for Bryson as well. At least that only takes up the morning and then we'll have the rest of day to melt, I mean to enjoy. ;-) We're also planning a trip to San Diego in June and then in July we'll go to my mom's, Travis' family reunion and his parents in a two week trip. So I think I'll probably stay just as busy, just doing different things. Isn't that how it goes when your a parent?