Megan the platypus

The kids' new obsession is Phineas and Ferb, which has Perry the Platypus as one of the characters. Megan especially likes him and says platypus in such a cute way. Since we have no end-of-the-school-year happenings for Megan I figured we'd share her platypus cuteness instead.

Annie's preschool graduation

We were happy to get a spot in Mrs. Heather's preschool half way through the year. Annie had a good time there and made some friends. Hopefully some of them will go on to Desert Willow next year. We don't have pictures from fun they had at preschool, but here are a few from preschool graduation last week.

They sang a few songs, and gave a flower to their parents.

 Then Mrs. Heather gave them notebooks with a mini certificate on the front.

 Annie loves her notebook. She keeps making to do lists and crossing things off.

 Annie has followed Rachel in her affinity of wearing fake glasses. I made her take off her glasses for a picture with Mrs. Heather.

Annie also participated in a preschool book club on Wednesdays with some kids in our ward. She liked that even more than her Tuesday/Thursday preschool. Probably because they spent most of the time playing. It was 2 hours, taking turns at the different houses each week, and the plan was to read a book or two and do an activity or craft, have a snack, and just let the kids play the rest of the time. 
I think this is the only picture I got of the group.

And it's not even a good picture, nor does it have Annie in it. Ryan was happy to join in the fun on the weeks we had it at our house, though.
Two weeks ago we had the end of year finale for that group and had a fun swim party at the Loertcher's house. I'm glad we got in on the fun for the second half of the year.

Rachel's 2nd grade year

Rachel's last day of 2nd grade was last Thursday. Mrs. Curtin has been the best teacher ever. We will miss her. Rachel did great in 2nd grade, exceeding in every standard. She was in advanced reading this year and next year will finally get to do advanced math, too (because of budget restraints her school hasn't had a teacher for advanced math until 3rd grade, though next year they'll have it in 2nd grade, too). She's a smarty pants, and a great student, very helpful to the teacher and other students in her class, and a great friend.

Here are some pictures from 2nd grade:

 They got to check out Mr. Curtin's police cruiser and get a safety talk last week in preparation for summer.

The kids put on end of the year plays in their groups.

 Rachel's group did Goldilocks and the 3 Bullfrogs.

From the field trip to the Desert Museum:

 The kids all wrote down a quality they thought each of the other kids in their class had, then Mrs. Curtin put them together into a year-end gift Rachel really loved.

 Rachel, the printing press expert:

 I think this was from the Red Ribbon Races earlier in the year:

 Pumpkin exploration on Halloween. I got to come in and help out.

 Rachel's class on Halloween:

And now summer is here! Woohoo! In less than two months we'll have a 3rd grader. We're halfway through the elementary years. Crazy...

Ryan's preschool

Ryan finished a great year at Little Learner's Preschool last week. We sure are going to miss having Mrs. Caffrey teaching preschool. She's subbing next year, then recertifying and will be teaching eventually. She just needs to be sure to teach at Desert Willow so Megan doesn't have to miss out on having her as a teacher. :)

Color mixing:

 Volcano fun:

 Painting:

 Dough:

 Thanksgiving:

 Halloween:

Zoo fieldtrip:

 Preschool graduation:

 We love Mrs. Caffrey.

Ryan is happy that we still get to go visit when Rachel has piano. He told me yesterday on the way to church, "Mom, after church I want to go to Mrs. Caffrey's house and give her a sentence." I never did find out what sentence he wanted to give her. Or what that even meant.

Miscellaneous update

A few updates...

At the end of December I was released from the primary presidency after serving there for 3 years. I was called as the RS meeting coordinator at the new year, finally remembered to go get set apart the first or second week of February, then the next week I was asked to serve in Young Women as the Mia Maid advisor. I would continue in my RS calling until they found someone else. So I was released from RS in March. Then the first week of May I was asked to serve as YW 1st counselor, replacing my friend who I was very happy to be serving with. I was a little bummed to not get to work with her for more than 2 months. And my 4 month stint of not being in a presidency came to an end. I had commented to a friend a week or two before getting called that it was kind of nice to not have a key to the building and the responsibility that goes along with it. Since Rachel was 4 months old I've been in one presidency or another. But such is life. And YW is one of the best callings, so I'm not complaining. I even get to go to Girls' Camp this summer.

The girls must have taken some inspiration from that Homefront commercial and prettied up their dad. Just barrettes, though. No nail polish. :)

We got to have McKenzie and Peyton stay over night one night. We don't get enough cousin time during the school year, so the kids had lots of fun together.

Hopefully this summer we'll manage to see them more. They sure enjoyed chilling in these adirondack chairs I found on the side of the road before brush and bulky pick up.

Annie took a picture of me and Megan.

Ryan was really into masks for a while. But was mad when they would tear. So we decided to make one out of some cloth. He loved it until he lost it.

Rachel had a big project for school, researching an invention and inventor. She chose to learn about the printer, which turned into researching the printing press and Johannes Gutenburg. She did a great job on her report and presentation. She is now an expert on the printing press.

Rachel has done really well at school this year. She was in the advanced reading group, which she didn't like because she LOVED her teacher, Mrs. Curtin, and 2nd graders in advanced reading have to leave class and go to another teacher during reading time most days. Sometimes it's tough being a smarty pants.

Photo shoot

Everyone was dressed and nice looking this morning so we had a family photo shoot.