Memorial Day

This Memorial day we didn't spend it with family. I take that back Taylor came over to our house and ate lunch with us and hung out with us. Morgan was at College, the Tady's were at a memorial for Aaron's Grandpa who died in April they were in Pennsylvania and New York. My parents left that morning to go to California to visit their parents and sisters and nieces and nephews and their kids since Taylor was going to girls camp tomorrow. So we decided to invite a family, the Marshals from our ward over for lunch and to hang with us. We had gone over to their house a couple months ago so we cooked up some burgers and hot dogs and pigged out with the typical picnic food (watermelon, corn on the cob, chips, and fancy baked beans). They have 5 loud kids just like ours so everything was crazy. Luckily, we have our backyard done for now. Which reminds me, I need to blog about that. So the kids played outside most of the time. Thanks Taylor for keeping an eye on the little kids so the adults could play a game. We also had Maddie from our ward over to play with the girls. When the party was over, Jon dropped off Maddie to her house and Taylor off at a friends house that she was spending the night at and then going off to girls camp with them the next day.

Last week of school

This year the last week of school wasn't as crazy as previous years. I tried to make it as simple as possible. With Talmage's class party out of the way (remember family fun day?) and Brenton in Middle School now and the days of class parties for him are over, I only had 3 class parties to go to. I volunteered for Connor's class (well more like the whole North Metro special needs classes which all the classes equal a little more than a normal size class) party but never got a call as to when they wanted my help since their party was an all day affair with about four or five different activities. That was easy so only 2 parties to go. Kennedy had her class party the day before school got out, May 21st in the morning. Wouldn't you just know all the classes planned an outdoor beach type theme and it was really windy and not so warm outside (but warm enough for shorts just barely). There were napkins flying everywhere as well as lots of accidental dropped food. The kids still had a great time doing limbo, hula hoop, surfing race and eating fruit, goldfish, and cookies all right before heading off to lunch. I was really sad I didn't bring my camera.
Payton's class party was on the last day of school in the afternoon. They started the party off by eating. They had cookies, chex mix, some really good punch made with lime sherbet and ginger ale, and they made fruit kabobs. Then they went outside and had a water balloon toss. Again, not the best day for beach type activities it was sprinkling off and on the whole time and windy again. Not the best for water balloons. They also played volleyball. I blew bubbles for the younger kids that were tagging along with their moms. Actually, I think the 4th or 5th graders who were out on recess had just as much fun if not more fun running after and popping the bubbles than the toddlers. And again, I forgot my camera which made me more mad than the day before because I kept reminding myself not to forget my camera.
I also decided to just donate to the teacher gift fund and let the room mom worry about what gift card to get the teacher. Only too bad for me only Payton and Kennedy's class did this so I still had to come up with 5 other teachers between Connor's 3 teachers and Talmages 2 teachers, and lets not forget about the bus drivers. I got the bus drivers a bag of assorted Lindor Truffles (Melt in your mouth goodness) and the 5 teachers I got gift cards to Brusters Ice Cream because who doesn't love a good sundae.
Now, Let the crazyness of Summer begin.

Family Fun Day

Talmage's school had a family fun day. Not sure why they called it family fun day since it was held on a Friday during school hours so basically only parents and kids to young to be in school could go. Hayden and I watched Talmage and his class sing 2 songs and recite a pretty long poem. They did a great job. They spent a lot of time practicing. Then they handed out Pre K graduation certificates. Then it was time for the fun part. They had the parking lot filled with all sorts of fun games and activities. They had a big blow up jumping thing, face painting/tattoos, sand art, fishing station, bubbles, cookie decorating, arts and crafts. For the first half I was in charge of the fish station. The kids would throw their fishing poles over and I would clip a prize on and then they would lift it up. Luckily their were plenty of prizes to give a way because some of the same people kept coming back about 10 times. They still wouldn't get the hint that I wouldn't give them the cool prizes after giving them some of the not so great stuff about 6 times. They also had cake and fruit and Popsicles. Later, they did a pinata. Since their are 2 Pre K classes each class did one pinata. I have to say out of the 2 classes Talmage's class by far got the best candy (I mean come on who brought the grandma red and white Brachs mints. Probably someone trying to get rid of them). The parents had to sign up to bring either food for anyone to eat at the party or candy for the pinata.

Jon missed the class program, but Hayden and I got their early so we could get a front row seat so I could video tape it without the back of someones head in the way. He arrived shortly after we went outside.

After the party, we took Talmage home with us and went to lunch at Steak and Shake and used our free meal cards so our meal for 4 of us to eat with tip only cost $5.00. Not too bad.

Here are some pictures of the day.

Talmage and Miss Gaye making a huge bubble

Talmage with his pinata goods

Talmage singing a silly song and doing the silly motions

Piano Recital

Kennedy has been doing Let's Play Music this whole school year. She loves it and picked it up real quick. She skipped year one and started on year 2 since she is older. She picked up all the year one things real quick and had no problems keeping up with the others that took it last year. In May, they had their recital. This is a 3 year program so the recital was for all of Miss Ashley's classes.

Year 1 and 2 students (some couldn't make it)

Kennedy playing her song , I'm an Indian which she decided to sing the words to the song while playing at the last minute.

She had a few mess ups because she never practiced and sing it at the same time she was only going to play it and not sing but once she saw

all the other kids singing she decided to sing too.

Kennedy with her certificate

Maybe someday I will put the video of her performance on the blog but don't count on it.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Well I just skipped right past my birthday. My birthday is on May 2nd. The day before my birthday (Friday), Jon took me out birthday shopping and lunch. We went on Friday during school hours so we wouldn't have to worry about all 6 kids just the one. We dropped Hayden off at Christa's house and he played with Eliza. We ate lunch at On the Boarder. Then we went and bought all new frying pans. The three we have now are junk they have been non stick for a few years now and now the food is really hard to get off the pan even after soaking it for a long while. I can't believe how slippery these new pans are I love them and they didn't cost too much I can't believe I waited this long to buy new ones. Then I wanted 2 bread loaf pans and a cookie sheet that has sides. All of our cookie sheets are the air bake ones and they don't have sides so it is hard to stir things while they are cooking without food falling off the edges and onto the bottom of the oven and burning that lasts forever because I always forget to clean it once the oven cools and the next time you remember about it is when you are preheating your oven to cook something else and the burn smell comes back and then you remember but can't do anything about it because it is too hot and the cycle goes on and on until it is a little pile of ash. I tried this when making granola and had granola all over the bottom of the oven. I also got a pair of sandals, 2 sundresses, and one church dress. It was a nice day. I do have a real hard time spending money on myself. Then the next day on my real birthday we had Chinese food and cookie cake.