Endings and beginnings

For once, I actually have a huge backlog to put up here.  Usually I can't wait to edit my pictures and write about it all, but there have been a lot of little things that have kept us (and my camera) busy.  Let's see if I can get them in order.

First up, randomness.

I taught the kids how to dropspin.  I love that kids think anything Mommy and Daddy do is awesome.  Well, and waving big sticks is always fun.

I've been doing a lot more photography sessions lately.  That's been a lot of fun!  Kaitlyn was helping me nail down my settings one day before we got started, and despite the crazy hair I love this picture of her with Muffin.  She adores that teddy bear.  A lot.

Tyler had his dance festival at school.  Figuring out what Tyler does at school isn't always easy, since he can't explain things very well.  But he kept telling us that "everything is awesome".  And when he class started dancing to the song "Everything is Awesome", I burst out laughing.  There was my answer!

The song is from a Lego movie, so every kid got to color in their own Lego person to be whoever they wanted.  I think Tyler tried to make his a Ninja-go.

Kaitlyn's grade danced to "Under the Sea".  I loved that in every picture I took, nearly every kid is doing something different.  Kindergartners are not known for their coordination - just the cute waves to the moms in the crowd!

That evening we got to see the new Curiosity Museum with some cousins.  It was a lot of fun!

Jasmine slept through half of it, but fell in love pretty quickly once she was fully awake.  (While half awake, she hates everyone and everything.)

Kaitlyn's competitive spirit reached a new high on this thing.  It talked about how monkeys hang upside down for a long time, and then let you test how long you could hang without touching the bottom.  She lasted 6 and a half minutes, and had a huge line waiting to use it by the time she was done.

And Tyler liked all of it, but once he and Daddy found the room of Legos, they were in heaven.  Actually, I think his favorite was the giant climbing gym we did first.  I had to peel him away after a couple of hours so we could see more of the museum.

The next day, Kaitlyn had her gymnastics show.

She was SO excited about that medal.  She kept asking me if I thought she would earn a medal again this year, and she wasn't even deterred when I explained that everyone gets one.  It was still awesome.

Let's see . . . next was the Fireman's breakfast.

That was a busy day- we split up to go to two separate baptisms, and Daddy took the kids to Cabela's and then shooting guns with cousins afterward.  I'm not a fan of that stuff, so I was rather happy he did that without me.  Instead, I took Jasmine to use our summer passes and go skating, and everyone met us there later.

And all of that brings us to the next Monday, when we all started new things!  Daddy had his first day at a new job.  He got a job up in Murray (a 40 minute drive, sadly) that he is really excited about.  He had to cut back a bit on the other businesses he has been running, but this job was worth it.  And at home, we started summer school.

We only have one week under our belt, but I think this might be my best step yet as a mom.  As I mentioned with our trial run over Spring Break, we didn't want to shell out the money for summer school this year, and I don't like the public school version, so I decided we would give it a go.  We don't stay on schedule each day, but I decided I am totally okay with that.  Every day we have reading time, lesson time, piano practice time, and chores time, and that is way better than we did during the school year.  They made cookies, we went to the pool, and we're going skating again tonight.

I let them draw from a hat of activities and things to create, and the picture above is from our color walk.  They had to look for colors while we wandered the neighborhood, and that was a big hit.

Another day, we used the Kiwi Crates my mom got us and made jumping frogs.  And that was a HUGE hit.

Coloring them and creating the catapult was fun, but launching them was the best part.  They loved seeing if I could get a picture of it flying.

And then Jasmine decided it was time to tackle her brother.

And despite the fact that neither girl is actually dressed for the day or has their hair done, I think this is my favorite picture right now.  Squish time!

I am constantly amazed with what Tyler puts up with from that girl.  She was sitting on him as hard as she could, and he just laughed and laughed.

Tyler makes the best faces sometimes.

Here's hoping we love summer school as much in August as we do now!