Kindergarten Graduation

Farewell to Kindergarten! It has definitely been fun, but now we're on to 1st grade (and all day!!!). Unfortunately, this means that I have a 4th grader too. How did that happen?

The Kindergarteners put on an awesome show with songs like:  "I'm a V.I.P in my Family" and "My teacher taught me how to read..."  and "Hit the Road Jack"  It was very cute and Sienna sat there copying their hand actions and just clapping her hands the whole time.   They had each kid walk across the stage, and the teacher told what they wanted to be when they grow up. Tanner said he wanted to be a fireman! 

Tanner at his Table, picking up all his papers.

Tanner & Miss White. Tanner loved her this year.

As Teacher "Thank You's" we gave some plants that said "Thanks for helping me GROW this year"

Biography Report

Meet: Ulysses S. Grant

Civil War General and 18th President of 
The United States of America.

He's kindof cute too:)

Did you know that Ulysses S. Grant's actual name is Hirum Ulysses Grant, but he was embarrassed by that because his initials spelt H.U.G. So when an admissions director at WestPoint messed up and entered his name as Ulysses S Grant, he kept it.   There you go, your history lesson for the day.

This is the 1/2 of the class that presented this day.

Mothers Day

**I don't even remember why I had nicknames for my kids, and it's starting to annoy me, and since I'm posting pictures with their names in them, I'm officially stopping with this post. Hope you don't mind:)  ***

Back in 2009, When Chase was in Kindergarten, I got a letter sent home saying I had to send in $12 for my mothers day gift. I was beyond perturbed, it was a constant stream of letters like that. Please send in store bought treats, please send in $5 for this, $3 for that, please send in a new book to exchange, please send in $32 because your son spilled a bottle of water on a National Geographic Hardbound library book and it is beyond salvageable (true story),  etc...  Well, I sent in the $12 and then didn't think about it again. I remember Chase was sick the whole week before Mothers Day. His teacher actually hand delivered the gift to us the friday before Mothers Day, because she didn't want me to miss out. When I opened it I was so in love with it:

 

Isn't it awesome??!  The ladybugs, bee's and butterflies are his fingerprints.

So this year, I got the same letter and I was so excited.   (And then I had to calm a friend down cause she was starting to go into the same rant I did 3 years ago!!  It's her first child & I promised her she'd LOVE it)

So Tanner walked in the door and handed his mothers day gift to me and was more excited than I was to show it to me. Chasetin's hand print has been on display for 3 years, and now we get to add his to it. (I'm officially on the hunt for a plate rack)  His is more of a green color, which is just SO Tanner. 

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, and hope that in 4 more years Sienna will give me one too:)

 

It came accompanied by this cute card. That's me and Tanner and an oddly shaped Sienna.  I love it:) 

Happy Mother's Day out there to all the Momma's in my life. Love you all:)

Ladybug is now specializing in Pedicures. Call me if you'd like to book an appointment with her. 

They're filling up fast people.

My garden :)

I have kindof a semi-green thumb, kindof brownish- green. But this year I was determined to change all of that.   Thanks to Pinterest I had gardening ideas/tips coming out my ears, I have a "board" dedicated to it called "Garden Awesomeness". So back in December I got seeds and planted them in little bio-degradable cups. I watered them, tucked them in at night when it got cold, fed them plant food. These little seedlings got more love than my kids do on some days (kidding, kidding.... well kindof!)  Come march we prepped the ground with all kinds of mulch/compost. I dug holes and put in some drainage pipes scattered thru-out the garden. The thinking here was that it will water the roots deeper, encouraging them to grow. So far it seems to be working. I found the idea here.  Of course I water up top too.

Thanks to all of the HELP I have around here, most of my little seedlings got trampled. Cucumbers got stepped on while Squirt was helping dig a hole for the tomatoes: "oops!".   Bell peppers got stepped on while Hubbie was watering the Zucchini:  "what, there was a plant there?"   Canteloupe has been stepped on twice by Ladybug. We are now on our 3rd try.... It's about 3 inches tall, if it had been able to grow from the beginning, I'd probably have fruit by now!    Jalepeno's were there one day and gone the next... that one is still a mystery. So anyway, I've replenished everything with some help from the nursery.

This is a pic of my zucchini in the back left (I could loose a small child in that plant, by the way!)  and several cages of Roma Tomatoes. The one in the middle refuses to grow up, it just keeps getting wider for some reason. It's full of green tomatoes though!!

This is Heirloom tomatoes on the left (huge plants, not a single flower on them:(  Cucumbers growing up a trellis I made! (found here) Lettuce and spinach underneath, and Green beans growing in the back, I have some poles for them to grow up but so far they are not cooperating! (found here)

I've been using this book as a guide, since it specializes in "hostile deserts."  He's got me using all kinds of crazy things like liquid seaweed and fish emulsion, they both leave by back yard smelling like a fish hatchery, and the flies around here are insane, but I swear to you, my lettuce doubled in size overnight!

So here's what I'm growing:

Zucchini,  Cherry Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Tomatillo's,
Prudent Purple Heirloom tomatoes,  Green Beans, Cucumbers,
Summer Squash, Lettuce, Spinach, Red Bell Peppers, Anaheim Chiles,
Jalapeno's, Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Green Onions, Basil and Cantaloupe.

Can't wait till I'm drowning in veggies, If you live nearby I'll definitely be sharing!

Christopher Creek

We went on our first camping adventure of 2012. We went to Christopher Creek, which was about 2 1/2 hours away. Just far enough to be out of cell phone range for 2 blissfully quiet days. (Well phone quiet I mean, it's never QUIET around here.)

While Little Man and Hubbie got the fishing out of their system, Squirt, Ladybug & I went on an awesome adventure. If you ask Squirt we explored the WHOLE MOUNTAIN and were gone all day.  Really, we never went out of site of the tent and were gone about 30 minutes!

 Brrr... the water was FREEZING.

 There was lots of Hammock time. Or fighting, depending on what you call it at your house!  I love this pic cause they're totally holding hands!   

And maybe we'll have Dad tie the hammock next time... Sorry about that kids:-)

 The girls watching the boys fish.

 He lasted like 30 seconds before he was bored out of his mind.

 This one however, was so patient, he could have fished ALL DAY!

 The 2 fish they kept, Squirt swears he caught that one with his bare hands??  (He's such a liar!)

 Does life get any better than a nap in a hammock?

 S'mores.  And OH.MY.GOODNESS.  A 2 year old and a camp fire is enough to cause serious heart problems. She just WOULDN'T.SIT.STILL.  She's just SO happy though. Love these 3!

We had a good time and we'll be adding Christopher Creek to our list of favorites. Hopefully we'll be back soon.   Hubbie just got called to be Scout Master in our ward so we'll have lots of adventures this summer I'm sure!

School Pics

Our school takes pictures in the Fall (your traditional year-book style pic) and in the Spring (a more fun one). For the spring pics they send home a proof to entice you to buy lots of your cute cute kid!

I absolutely love Squirts:

Little Mans however, is a cross between a mug-shot and total attitude. I can tell by his smile on the left that the photographer must have been begging him to smile and he's humoring her. The one on the right says "get me out of here... NOW"

I still refuse to pay their prices, but thought I'd share how cute these 2 are:)

Squirt turns 6!!

I can't believe that my baby boy turned 6, it's killing me how fast he's growing up.  We had his first "friend party" and oh.my.goodness... he had so much fun!!!!

Grandma & Grandpa sent him birthday money and he bought WRESTLERS.  He doesn't have a shirt on cause "wrestlers don't wear shirts mom, geez!"

His birthday fell on a Saturday and that was a perfect day for a party!  

We had a Super Hero Training Party!  

We started out by everyone decoration Super Hero Capes & Masks   (Blogger is being a little retarded here so the pics are out of order)   Then we had an obstacle course. They had to run the length of the yard, run thru some tunnels, weave thru cones, jump thru hoops, punch/kick the balloons and then run back to the start. We also did some super villain shooting! (with silly string). We had lunch, and opened presents and just had a blast.

CTR Hero

Squirt got chosen to do the "CTR Hero" in primary. Basically he brought home a blank paper doll and he got to decorate it how he wanted. Naturally he chose a super hero theme, complete with green briefs and blue tights!  On the back he got to write all the things he did to "Choose the Right" that week, which sadly, that week included "only throwing up on the carpet twice:("

Easter... better late than never!

 Easter morning dawned bright and early at our house. 5AM!  The little stinkers even beat the Easter Bunny up, so I made them stay in their rooms until at least 6 and then the Easter Bunny had to sneak out her bedroom window to hide eggs in the dark.  Yikes, she was nearly busted! 

Ladybug was not really very entertained by any of this. SHE didn't want to get up even at 6am... even for candy.  I kept showing her eggs and she would say "No dat not mine" 

 

For real Mom, get that camera out of my face!

Finally, I showed her what was in the eggs and she sat down and chowed on one, letting the boys do the rest of the hard work. 

Yes, Candy at 6am. You are the BEST Mom:)

SQUIRT: "BEST DAY EVER"

 Little Man: "Can't stop to smile, Too busy, MUST FIND EGGS"

After our ultra-healthy breakfast of Starburst and Jelly Beans, we got ready for church and had a photo shoot outside. I really didn't have very willing subjects, but they are cute none the less.

 I tried to get a cute picture of the dress I MADE for Ladybug. She wouldn't stand till, but you can still see it. It turned out pretty cute. (Just don't look too close)

 Hey, look at the camera!

 No, you look at the camera!

 This is so lame Mom!

 Say I love sugar... SUGAR!!

At church: Little Man chowed on even more candy that he had smuggled in, Squirt passed out on the bench, and Ladybug ran laps outside the Chapel for a full hour. 

Can you say SUGAR HIGH?!!?