Last Day of School

The kids all had amazing teachers this year, and they were all sad for the year to end.

Les with his 3rd grade teacher!I have never had a kid cry when the school year was over, but on the last day, Zak had a rough day. He is really going to miss his teacher, his friends, and filling his brain with knowledge.

Zak with his 1st grade teacher. Amber with one of her best friends, Emily.
Amber with a few of her best friends.

Zak, Amber, & Les on the last day of school.

And Amber with her teacher and another of her best friends, Sarah!

I can't believe that Amber is going to Jr. High next year. She is going to accomplish amazing things. She is also turning into a very beautiful young lady.

What am I going to do?!

1st Grade Awards

At the 1st grade awards assembly, Zak received the Scholar of the Year Award.
He takes his school work very seriously. He is very sad that the year had to end. He really will miss learning every day. He is one smart kid.

At our house, we refer to this as the "Smarty Pants" award!

Les also received the fastest runner award in the 3rd grade. They didn't do an assembly, so I didn't get pictures of him.

6th Grade Awards & Graduation

The 6th graders at our school are a great bunch of kids. You simply couldn't ask for a better future than what these kids have to offer. the 6th grade class is about 100 kids.

At the awards assembly, Amber received the Hope of America award! She deserves it. She is an amazing girl and a good example to me.

(They didn't tell me I had to be in a picture and I came from working in the house and garden all morning in my nasty clothes and hair not done, but look how beautiful Amber is!)
Amber also received the Presidential Academic Award and the National Fitness Award.

She has one proud Mama!

More SG Tri pics

Here are just a few thumbnail size pictures from the race. It really is beautiful country that they race in.

St. George Triathlon

In May every year, Brian does the St. George Triathlon. This year they had a kid race too, so Amber raced also.

They camped the night before at Sand Hollow.

Amber's race was first. Swim.

Bike.

Run.
Amber took 2nd place in her race category. But because of some confusion, another girl took off with her award. We are waiting for a new one to arrive in the mail.

She finished just in time for Brian to race.

He took 5th in his race category. He was very happy with his results. He always wishes he had time to train more, but reality doesn't let him. Not too bad considering all.

And since me and the boys had to stay home to finish the soccer season, Brian and Amber got to have some Daddy/Daughter time. I think that they both enjoyed that.

Marvin & Jesse Skit

Since Amber was a Peer Leader at the school this year, she got to participate in the character ed assemblies (skits) called Marvin & Jesse that the counselor put on each month. Amber's big role was in May. She was "The Babysitter!"

She really enjoyed working with the school counselor, teachers, and other peer leaders this year.

Math & Science Olympiad: Krypto

Amber participated in the Math & Science Olympiad. She was chosen to represent her school in Krypto....it's hard.

These are the three girls selected to do Krypto. Dallas, Whitney, and Amber.

And Amber with her friend Jill from the rival school.

During the challenge, you could tell that Amber was thinking REALLY hard.

They didn't win, but since she has been trying to qualify to do this for 4 years, she had a great time just participating.

Iron Kid

Les was chosen to participate in the District Iron Kid Challenge. He had to do a shuttle run, speed stackers, Frisbee throw, and sprint run and finish off with jumping jacks. Each school had 3 participants and the fastest schools won.
This is Les's friend Jacob from the "rival" school.

And Les with his friends from his school.

After the race, all the kids got to do Hula-hoop. Any kid that was able to keep it going for 3 minutes won a medal.

Les did it! He was very proud of himself. He was the only boy that was able to keep it up the whole time!

DARE Graduation

Amber participated in the DARE program this year....AND she graduated! What a relief!

Pinewood Derby

A Cub Scout's favorite Pack Meeting of the year....Pinewood Derby. Les knew what to do this year, and he loved every minute that he spent building his truck. He spent a night in March at Grammy & Gramps house, and he and Gramps drew up the shape of the truck and cut it out. We had no idea what he was going to do until we came home and saw it.

Then Brian guided Les in filing and polishing his axels. You will always get better results if you hold your mouth in just the right position while you do the technical work.

Filing the Axels

Polishing the Axels

Les did very well. He won all but one race that his car was in. It was very close.
We combined with the other two packs that meet at our church and only one car beat Les's. And that car only beat him by0.0108 seconds. Les's car was the fastest for our pack though!
Les ran off while I was getting pictures of the boys with their cars. this is the only picture that I got of him with his car.

He took second place, and received the award for the best truck design!And as CubMasters, we were very proud of our boys. their cars were very creative and they all raced very well. We have awesome boys and I am very proud of all of them.

But I am kind of proud of my boy. Les did Awesome, and I'm proud of all the work that he did by himself and his car did so well!

1st Grade Fieldtrip

Last week I went on the 1st grade fieldtrip to the Treehouse & Dinosaur Park. Zak dressed and acted as King Arthur as they learned about how ancient kingdoms were run.

He had a queen, knights, squires, etc.

And The boys loved Dinosaur Park. Zak asked me to take this picture while he pretended to run away scared. He really is such a funny kid!
The dinosaur park is such a fun place for little boys.

I'm always glad that I get to spend these days with my kids.

Easter

Before we went to soccer games on Saturday morning, the kids decided that they better color Easter eggs. The past few years, the Easter Bunny has stopped by our house on Saturday while we were out, so the kids didn't want to be unprepared.

They are now old enough that they can do it all by themselves!
And when we got home, sure enough, the Easter Bunny had been to our house. Since I got my new carpet, I wish that the bunny would fix the hole in his pocket. It is very easy to miss jellybeans in my new carpet, and I'm worried that one is smashed somewhere that we haven't found yet. Everywhere the Easter Bunny went, there was a trail of jellybeans. Upstairs, and down.

We were also invited to an Easter egg hunt at the house of one of Zak's friends. To start out, they sat all the kids on the back porch and explained to them that they couldn't put any treats into their own baskets. They had to put them in someone else's basket. I really liked the idea of doing it this way. It forced them to think about others, and not just a focus on how much they could get. It also slowed the egg hunt down.
Les & Emily, a friend from school

On your mark,....Get Set....

GO!!!

Zak & Miles helping each other

Amber didn't really want to participate, but she didn't want to miss out on all that candy either.

They certainly filled up their baskets. We have almost as much candy as Halloween.

And Zak had to get a few runs on the Zip line in to end the Easter fun!

We kept Easter simple this year. Just a few treats. But we took time to enjoy the spirit of the holiday and learn about and feel the Spirit of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.