May--Ryan

Ryan had a few exciting things happen this month.

The kindergarners got to have an egg drop.

 Ryan wanted a parachute and cotton balls all around the egg. It worked and his egg survived!

 We watched some Reimann kids for a few hours one day and everyone got out the dress ups.

 Ryan's was the funniest by far.

 I was kind of dreading the Reading Fair Projects with Ryan since he stopped loving homework months ago and it usually was like pulling teeth to get him to do it. But he finally got excited about doing it on the book Creepy Carrots and every day wrote on one more carrot about the plot or the main characters, or whatever. It turned out to be a lot less painful than I thought it would be. He did a great job.

 And he got second place out of all the kindergarteners, so he was pretty proud of himself for a job well done.

Ryan made me this for Mother's Day.

 It says: My mom's name is Clleet
She is 37 years old.
She is as pretty as: a flowr.
She smells like: a flowr.
I love it when she: play with me.
If I could buy her anything I would buy her a: bread.
I lover my mom more than: enebude. (anybody)

I've been volunteering all year in Ryan's class and it's been fun getting to know his classmates and his teacher. Mrs. Parks is just great. We've loved her so much. This last month they've had duck and chick eggs in an incubator. The duck egg hatched first and I got to supervise the reading group that came to watch the duck, then write a sentence about it and draw a picture about it. 

 The kids were supposed to keep their hands in their laps and just observe. It was really hard for some of the kindergartners to control themselves when the duck got so close. They named the duck Fluffy.

One night my neighbor, who happens to be the parapro in Ryan's class (Mrs. Hager) called me and asked if we wanted to babysit Fluffy overnight. I knew that would make everyone's day so I said yes. Annie especially was excited to have a pet for a night.

 She even tried reading to Fluffy.

That duck is such a spoiled little pet, if we left him alone in a room for 2 minutes he would start chirping and chirping. As soon as we walked back into the room he quieted down. He just didn't want to be lonely. I was afraid that he would do that all night long, but after about 5 minutes with the lights turned out he quieted down. We are glad we could have him for one night (and no more). It served to remind us why we are happy without pets, though fanned the flames of the kids wanting a pet.

Ryan got into Daddy's clothes and convinced Megan to dress up in my clothes (she changed before I got a picture). They had quite a fun time being Mommy and Daddy for a while.

Ryan is still loving Karate or Kung Fu or whatever it is he's learning. 

 He had a belt test and got moved up from yellow belt to yellow with white stripe belt.

 He wanted both me and Jacob to come to the belt ceremony (last time only Jacob went because it doesn't even start until 8pm). We got a babysitter this time so we could both go and it made his day.

 The last big thing of the month was kindergarten graduation.

 The kids sang a few songs, then got their diplomas.

 Afterwards we headed back to the classroom for pictures and party time.

 Ryan with his friend Micah:

 (Ryan took off his button up shirt as soon as he could--he put it over his t-shirt when he was getting dressed that morning just so he could take it off ASAP.)

Ryan and his buddies Caleb and Easton:

 Ryan and Megan:

 I'm glad these two love each other so much.

And Ryan and Mrs. Parks The Great:

 They made this great collage of some of the highlights of Kindergarten:

He sure had a great year and has improved his reading and LOVES math.

May--Megan

May is always a crazy busy month, and this year that has held true. So I thought it'd be better to post about May in separate posts for each kid. One of Megan's pet peeves is being last. She even gets mad about being the last kid born in our family. Sorry, girl. There's no changing that one.

But she can be the first to post about for May.

Since her birthday is in the summer, Megan got to have a birthday spotlight in preschool at school before the end of the year. We read one of her favorite books, Dragons Love Tacos, then shared some powdered donuts.

All year long Megan has enjoyed being able to go play on the kindergarten playground when we would drop the kids off for school every Tuesday. Usually the kids ride the bus in the morning, but Rachel has been in Math Club this year, which began at the same time the bus was picking them up, so I had to take them those days. Megan especially loved the swings.

 Megan has been going to a Spanish Preschool Club since January. She has enjoyed learning numbers, colors, and some phrases.

 To wrap up the year they had a fiesta where they same some songs they had learned. It was super cute.

They also got to break open the piñata they had decorated when they were learning their colors.

 Thursday Megan got to have her preschool graduation. They signed a song in ASL, then got their diplomas.

 And of course the dessert was the best part for everyone.

 Megan has will miss some of her friends, Mikaela and Kensie, especially, but is actually pretty excited that school is over so her siblings won't be going off to school without her for a while. Two days a week for 3 hours just wasn't enough when everyone else got to go every day for hours and hours.

Piano recital

Rachel and Annie have been taking piano from Sister Bauer for about a year. They had a piano recital a few weeks ago and did great.


 
Unfortunately I just took a picture of Annie's first song, when I thought I was taking a video, but she did great on that one, too.
These girls are so good about practicing most days without needing a reminder. They've gotten in a groove where they practice every morning before school and it is so much better than trying to get it done after school when they would rather just relax (but actually need to do their homework and chores). Annie actually will often practice in the afternoons, too, especially songs she particularly likes.

Family reunions-of a sort

My Grandpa Jolley died on April 15. We were very grateful that we were able to see him once more in March. And thankful that he was finally free of his body that had become such an encumberance to him, and able to be reunited with my Grandma Jolley. What a grand reunion that was, I'm sure. Since we had just been up there the month before, our whole family did not travel to the funeral, but I did fly up and it was great to see so many of my cousins and family that I don't see often.

There were tables set up with things Grandpa Jolley loved. Prune juice, black licorice, rootbeer floats, his life jacket from boating and fishing...

His saxophone, pictures of him and Grandma, some awards he's received as a dairy farmer, his hat.

His casket had this awesome picture of a John Deer embroidered on there. That's what he would have loved to have been riding on these last few years.

We went down to Idaho Falls for the burial.

Afterwards we headed over to my cousin Becky's house for food and visiting. I stayed there overnight and enjoyed a more time visiting with cousins and laughing far too late, then woke up early to catch my flight home.

The following Saturday we headed up to Gilbert for my cousin, Greg's, son's wedding.

It was hot outside. The kids may have cooled off a little in the water from the fountain there on the temple grounds while they waited for the wedding to be done. Megan was super bummed that she didn't see the wedding. Still every time she sees pictures from the wedding she starts crying, "I wanted to see them get married!"

George was great at entertaining Ryan and Megan while we waited for the newlyweds to come out.

After pictures we went out to dinner with Von and Patty and all the rest of their family (except Greg and Chelsea's family who were helping get ready for the reception). It was fun to visit with them for a while and get a mini family reunion in before heading back to Tucson.

In other news, Rachel found my glasses. She wishes she had glasses of her own.

April

After getting home from our trip we had a day to recover, then we were back at school for 4 days. I got to accompany Ryan's class on a field trip to the zoo.

The kids had Friday off because it was Good Friday. I don't remember what we did at all. Maybe I shouldn't wait two months to blog... :)

Saturday was General Conference. We were happy to be able to participate in the Solemn Assembly where President Nelson was sustained. We kept our tradition of going on a bike ride between the Saturday sessions and enjoyed a bike ride out at the Julian Wash Trail. Whenever we do that I think that we really ought to get out biking more often.

Saturday night Rachel reminded us that on Easter morning we always wake up before the sun rises and go outside to watch a Bible Video about the Resurrection. I think we have done that once (maybe twice?) before, but since we always do it, we had to keep up the tradition. Sunday Morning we enjoyed our Easter morning tradition before we went downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny had left.

We enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt, then came back together in time for Sunday morning session of conference.

What a conference it was! We enjoyed the Sunday afternoon session at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house and it was exciting to hear the announcement about ministering replacing visiting and home teaching.

Later that week I got to go with the priests and laurels down to the Insititute for them to get a preview of what is coming their way after graduation. It was really good for all of them to see how cool Insitute is.

Megan and Ryan got to start swim lessons at Sunshine Swim School. They've been making great progress.

Megan feels much more comfortable in the water and will jump off the step and kick out to her teacher, and float on her back all by herself, and even do finning and kicking on her back all by herself.
Ryan has gotten to the point that he can swim across the pool all on his own doing big arms.

April is the month for AZ Merit testing for 3rd grade and up. To kick things off, they had an assembly honoring those who did well on their test last year. Rachel was highly proficient in both her ELA (reading/writing) and her Math tests last year, so she got a trophy. She's a good, hard worker at school and deserves great accolades.

Out of our laurel class, 5 girls are graduating. We are going to be down to just 4 girls for a couple of months.

With the end of the school year approaching, we have been squeezing in performances and sports competitions for the Young Women. A lot of the times it's fun to take the kids along to be exposed to things I wouldn't otherwise make time to take them to.

We've been to several track meets, plays, concerts, etc.

Sometimes all this craziness wears us out. Combine that with the sun rising so early that the kids think that when they wake up at 5:30 it's actually time to wake up for the day, and you end up with me trying to convince Megan to get a little more sleep down on the couch...

Annie is a performer at heart. She planned and put on a show for all of us in her room showing off her awesome dance moves.

Allergy season is here! Ryan's eyes have been itching like crazy, but when I suggested that that meant that he had allergies like Dad and Rachel, he denied it. Jacob managed to convince him that laying with a cool washcloth over his eyes would help him feel better.

It may have helped him for a little while, but this picture makes me happy always. :)

Say it, Don't Spray It

I brought this game along on our Utah/Idaho trip that I had found at either the Dollar Tree or Target that is a knock off version of Say What?! It was a hit with everyone.

 You put these mouth pieces in and try to read what is on the card while everyone else guesses what you're saying.

 It is hilarious.

Sharon was probably the best at enunciating and being understood. She and Mark (and everyone, really) were really funny to listen to.