Other May Happenings

Matthew grew some facial hair.

(This is from a picture at school where they had all the kids in his class put on mustaches for teacher appreciation week.)

Princess Megan's hair for May the Fourth day at school. (Her hands are posed like Princess Leia's.)

Playing with Blokus.

Megan was proud to earn her cupcake game.

Sarah and U went to the 6th grade dance (and then got ice cream at Kokomo's after).

We had an anniversary.

Matthew playing trains with Brayden.

Megan enjoyed her playdate with Aashna.

Sarah had her orchestra concert. She received an award for being the most improved player in her orchestra class.

Wynter and Matthew riding the train at a classmate's birthday party.

Doing the last Art Masterpiece project of the year. The kids put tissue paper on paper and got it wet. After the tissue paper dried, the kids removed it to see the cool designs underneath. It turned out really cool!

The most exciting mail: The Lego catalog!

Matthew at the Kinder Celebration. You can't tell it from the picture, but he'd actually been pretty sick that morning, wheezing and breathing super fast. A trip to the doctor with a super charged breathing treatment and a steroid prescription helped him get feeling lots better pretty fast. (Interesting stats: he weighed in at 35.6 lbs which is a bit less than the 36 lbs he weighed at his doctor visit in January. {Most of that difference could have been the heavier clothes in January.} However, he was 43.75 inches tall, 1.75 inches taller than in January!)

The End of 6th Grade

Sarah's last day of 6th grade started with a breakfast and slide show to which parents were invited. Sarah took advantage of us being there to get some photos.

Sarah, Eliana and Mia

Skyelar, Sarah and Malia

Darby and Sarah

Mrs. Fredrick and Sarah. 

Mrs. Fredrick was Sarah's homeroom, math and (for most of the year) science teacher.

Mrs. Young and Sarah.

Mrs. Young was Sarah's writing and social studies teacher.

Mrs. Babcock and Sarah.

Mrs. Babcock was Sarah's language arts teacher.

Sarah and Dr. Hendricsen.

Dr. Hendricsen has been the principal at Sarah's school for the past couple years.

The last thing the 6th graders did was walk the halls with everyone else (all the students and staff plus parents who come) clapping them out. This is the hall I was in before the 6th graders came.

Here comes Sarah!

She was a bit emotional so was hiding her face. I do think she enjoyed her time at her elementary school. She's excited to move onto junior high next year.

End of School Dress

At the end of the school year, there are always a few special dress days. This year, the last Friday of school was Super Sports Fan Day. As you can see, my children are all ASU Sun Devils fans.

Silly pose!

Matching!

Megan and some classmates in ASU gear with Miss MacTurk wearing University of Arizona attire. Miss MacTurk went to U of A and definitely takes the rivalry with ASU seriously. She had even joked that no one wearing ASU clothes would be allowed in her class on Friday. Consequently, Megan really wanted to wear an ASU shirt.

The last Tuesday was Dress to Impress. Here the girls are looking all fancy!

(Matthew was home sick.)

And scowling....

The last day of school was free dress, meaning you could wear whatever you wanted. Matthew opted to wear his ASU attire again (his teacher attended ASU so maybe there was positive reinforcement) while the girls chose other clothes. What a good looking bunch of kids!

Kinder Graduation

Tuesday, Megan and Matthew had their kindergarten graduation ceremony.  With five kindergarten classes, they elected to break it into two sessions.  Guess which family of multiple kinders got to attend both sessions?  This explains why there are no pictures of them together.  They had practiced several songs for the program and it was a great experience.

Megan on the stage.  She is in the red dress in the back row.

Matthew's group had three classes.  He is in he second row on the left.

Megan loves Miss MacTurk!

Since we were hanging out between programs, we found Matthew's teacher Mrs. Tolonen and got a picture before he had his certificate.  She always tells him they have a special bond, probably because of their hair.

Matthew getting a hug from Mrs. Tolonen when he got his certificate.

We love our now first graders!

More -isms

After seeing Moana:
U: Moana did what was right, even when it was hard, didn't she?
Megan: Yes.  She stood for what was right even when she thought "I am standing here and I am going to die." She stood there anyway.

At dinner, we were talking about someone travelling and mentioned "checked luggage."  Matthew looked at us and said, "What is checked luggage?"  I guess we are teaching the kids to pack light.

The alarm to go to church goes off:

Matthew: "Someone forgot to put my shoes on!"
Wonder who that could be.....

U: Who would like a fourth macaroon?
Megan: Me!

U: you haven't even finished your second one.

Megan: I'm suffering.
(Note: she was savoring.)

Mom: There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Megan: What's the other way?

Matthew is big on following rules and laws (that he agrees with) so lately he tries the following tactic:
"It is a law that ..."
Matthew's laws include:

• "parents have to say yes to their kids the first time."
• "sisters have to help clean their brother's room."
• "you can't cry in the car."
• "you have to have snacks when kids want them."

Matthew: Who are the people that tell you if the soil needs other stuff in it to grow plants?

Me: Farmers? Gardeners? Can you describe more what they do?

Matthew: Oh! It's scientists.

Matthew to Megan: Let's play scientists! Scientists do art.

Matthew: I was going to drink my green smoothie but then I remembered how much mom likes them so I saved it for her.

Sarah: Just because I'm forcing you to do this doesn't mean you have to cry about it.  You have a choice.

Megan loves calling the day before anything "the day" eve. For instance, the day before Mother's Day is "Mother's Day Eve. Next Tuesday is "the last day of school eve" since Wednesday is the last day of school.

Matthew's Talk

Matthew gave a talk in Primary.  Here is his text:

I am talking about baptism.  Jesus was baptized.  He went to the river Jordan to see John the Baptist.  John had the priesthood.  Jesus wanted to obey the commandments.  I want to be baptized too.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sarah's 12th Birthday!!!!

Sarah's 12th birthday was Sunday and she celebrated in grand style.

With her friend Maren, celebrating the night before. They hung out, ate pizza, watching Freaky Friday and made s'mores by roasting marshmallows over the gas stove.

With her gifts and cards. She loved them all. She enjoyed receiving some money which she happily used to buy some clothes and makeup.

Sarah was super excited about this shirt.

Showing off some new earrings from Megan. (Her big gift from mom and dad was getting her ears pierced.)

She loved the Lush glitter bar from Matthew.

Showing off her new dress.

The spectators....

The Young Women President and her husband put a bunch of flamingos and a sign in our yard. She thought it was very cool.

Ice cream was her dessert of choice.

Happy Birthday Sarah! We love you!