School's Out, Scream and Shout!

The last week of school is kind of a joke, really, but the kids sure do like the fieldtrips and having fun with their friends.  On Tuesday I got to accompany the 3rd graders on their field trip to an indoor ice skating rink.  After participating in some lessons there was time for free skating.  I hadn't planned on skating, but when all of the other Mom's starting putting on skates I thought I might as well join in the fun.

It has been raining at least once a day for a few weeks now so the Middle School had to cancel their day at the Aquatic Center and move it to the indoor Fun Park. Britton thought having 700+ students inside the Fun Park didn't sound like fun at all so he opted to stay home from school.  Jenna did go and had fun, but she did say it was just a wee bit crowded.  I was more than happy to have Britton stay home so I could go on a morning bike ride before the rain hit. :-)

On Friday the sun finally came out and it was the first full day we've had without rain for weeks.  My neighbor, Annie, always throws a party on the last day of school and each year it gets bigger and better. This year she outdid herself with 2 large bounce houses.

 

The middle schoolers got home about an hour before the elementary kids so they were able to get in on the pre-party with all of the pre-schoolers.

Eating snow cones while waiting for the school bus to come.

 

Bubbles are always a crowd pleaser for the pre-school crowd.

 

The bus is here!

 

Annie made a banner for the kids to run through to start the summer holiday.  Fortunately no one was harmed during the rushing of the sign. :-)

The rest of the day was spent eating, playing and being with friends.  The party is just as much for the Moms as the kids.  Annie provides sandwiches and everyone brings something to share.

Now that Britton and Jenna are older they were invited to night parties as well. Britton's party was on the other side of town from 8-11 p.m. and Jenna's was from 7:30-10:30 p.m.  I told Adam I think I'm in trouble now that we have teenagers since I have a really hard time staying up past 10 p.m.  It's a good thing my kids have their father!

On Saturday morning our neighborhood was having a multi-family yard sale so late Friday night I went and gathered up some stuff around the house to put out.  For being last minute and not having too much to sell we were happy to put a few dollars in our pocket and open up some space in our storage room!  Of course, by the time Jenna and Korinne were done shopping at all the other yard sales we may have only broken even.  I keep seeing Korinne with things that I've never seen before. She was quite the shopper and found all sorts of things she couldn't live without.

We were sad to hear of the passing of Elder L. Tom Perry yesterday afternoon, but consider it a blessing was able to pass so quickly after receiving a terminal diagnosis.  Just the day before the church announced the cancer he was diagnosed with in April had spread and he would not be attending any more meetings and would receive hospice care. Within 24 hours he was gone.

We will miss him.

.

Thirty-Something

 

Jameson loves having Korinne read "Thomas the Train" books to him.  Korinne is really good at playing with Jameson and will often keep an eye on him when he is outside playing with his friends.

 

Wednesday night Britton and Jenna had their last orchestra concert of the school year.

 

Jenna played in the 6th Grade intermediate orchestra.

 

And Britton played with the 7th Grade orchestra.  I was impressed at how much they have improved during the year.  They both love it and look forward to continuing with orchestra next year.  Britton will move to the Jr. High, but they will still have the same teacher as Mr. Dixon splits his time between the two schools.

 

After I took this picture I realized that Britton has been growing and is now almost as tall as Jenna.  He beamed when I told him of this new development. He has been waiting for this for years.

 

On Thursday Adam turned 39 years.  Only one more year as a thirty-something.

 

 

To celebrate we got takeout from Firehouse Pizzeria.

Mmm, yummy!

Everytime someone in the family has a birthday Jameson feels like it is his birthday all over again.  Adam's presents were wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper (gotta replenish our wrapping paper supply) and Jameson couldn't wait to get his hands on what was inside.

Adam is such a nice Dad he let Jameson do most of the unwrapping.

Jameson was a little disappointed that it wasn't a toy.  What do you buy a Bishop for his birthday? A couple of new white shirts, of course! And a new basketball shirt.  He still plays basketball at 6:00 a.m. 3 mornings a week.

Ok, we're slightly boring, but I'm holiday challenged and Adam would be happy with a bowl of ice cream and a "Happy Birthday" high five so we make a very good "boring birthday" pair.  The kids were all home on Thursday night so we watched a movie together and had some ice cream to complete the celebration.  We love Adam and all that he does for us.  He is such an easy going guy that he is definitely the hardest person in the family to shop for. (That's where being quirky comes in handy, my family knows exactly what to get me on special days.) Adam is happy with whatever and doesn't have any "must haves".  This wouldn't be a problem if you're a born shopper, but since I'm also "shopping challenged" I make Adam fill out a list of possible presents for his birthday and father's day.  The surprise comes in when he gets to see which item on the list I purchased. :-)

On Friday night my parents surprised Adam by taking both of us out to dinner at Elements for his birthday. Wow. We had a great dinner and were so full we practically rolled out of the restaurant. I was more than happy to eat my leftovers for the next 2 days. Delish.

Saturday started out with more rain (we have had Seattle like weather the past few weeks) so naturally it was an excellent day to go to Lagoon with cousins in town from Idaho. I'm not even being sarcastic, rain = shorter lines. Love it. It didn't even rain much after we got there, but the lines stayed short for a few hours so we had plenty of time to do what we wanted.  We only have 2 pictures from a cell phone, but it was such a fun day and the kids loved having their cousins to hang out with.

Mom and Jameson on the train.

Quinn and Jameson

Jenna and Jameson love rides--the bigger the better. Korinne and Britton, not so much.  They are starting to warm up a little bit and it definitely helped to have some cousin peer pressure yesterday.  The both went on rides they wouldn't have gone on otherwise and had a good time.

My sister and her family were visiting our ward today and managed to see my Mom lead the music, Adam and me speak, and Britton play the piano for a special musical number by the men of the ward, "Praise to the Man" which my Dad actually got up and participated in! You would have thought we were taking over or something, but we're not.  It was all by chance. My Mom was recently called to be Korinne's primary teacher and Korinne really loves having her Grandma in class with her.

Breakfast of Champions

Every spring the middle school has a "Breakfast of Champions" and invites students that have received a 4.0 during the year and their parents for an "honor" roll (cinnamon roll) and juice.  Britton went last year and was a bit disappointed that it wasn't just a breakfast, they had to sit through a few speakers, too.  This year when the invitation arrived in the mail for both Britton and Jenna we discovered that Britton's 7th grade "Breakfast of Champions" was scheduled for 6:30 a.m. 6:30 A.M. ?!? How is making parents bring their student to school at 6:30 a.m. to listen to speakers a reward?  Britton was having none of it.  He convinced Adam to take him to Great Harvest for a cinnamon roll before school and call it good. Yummier cinnamon roll, no speakers--a win-win for all involved.  Even though Britton was a no-show they were still nice enough to give him his personal box of Wheaties and a certificate upon arriving at school. Jenna's 6th Grade breakfast was at a much more manageable 8:00 a.m. and she was more than happy to have her Dad with her for the event. 

They announced what the name, mascot and colors of the new high school will be this week. We will be Ridgeline High School with the River Hawk as our mascot and the colors of navy blue and green with silver accents.  Think Seattle Seahawks.  Same colors, same mascot (the river hawk and sea hawk is essentially the same bird). 

 

I like it. I voted for the name Ridgeline which was clearly the best choice of the 5 final names we were given to choose from.  They also gave us 5 mascots: Wolves, Hawks, Badgers, Raptors and Falcons.  I didn't love any of them, but in the end voted for the Raptors because it was the only one that was unique in the state and didn't already have one or more high schools currently using it. In the end the final committee changed Hawk to River Hawk on account of a river running through the high school property and in an effort to make it a little less generic. I admit it would have bugged me forever to be the Hawks when there is already a big high school in SLC using that mascot.  So I'm  happy with the change and support their decision.  Britton will be a freshman when the school opens and will be a memeber of the first class that will have been at the school for all 4 years when they graduate.

 

It rained a lot this week and on Friday afternoon we were experiencing a torrential downpour when my eye caught a little bit of movement in the back yard.  I went to investigate and saw Jenna making her way to the trampoline.  She was by herself, but couldn't resist going out to have some fun in the rain.

 

 

 

She had a great time and came in with a big smile on her face. It's funny, I saw a cold, rainy, miserable day. Jenna saw an opportunity to have some fun. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Attitude really is everything when it comes to the rainstorms of our lives and it was a good reminder to look for the positive in everything.  Thanks, Jenna.  You're cool.

Mother's Day

So grateful to have these kids in my life.

 

I had breakfast in bed and woke up to a clean house (Thank you Adam). Britton did the morning dishes without being asked, and Jenna and Korinne gave me coupon books for future chores to be done without complaining.  Perfect.

And Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. . .

. . and to my Mother-in-law, Bonnie.  What can I say, they both raised fantastic kids. :-)

 

Jameson decided he really likes Mother's Day, too.  He ate a lot of my breakfast and helped himself to some Mother's Day treats as well.  Too bad he was sleep deprived (no nap for 2 days) and had a hard day at church.

I'm not sure how Jameson would survive his days without trains.

 

Although he may not like the strict limits we put on the use of TV and other devices he LOVES his trains.

 

 

Britton had an away soccer game yesterday.  It was 1 1/2 hrs from home and the entire family came along for the ride.  Imagine how pleased we were when the light rain turned into a torrential downpour and the game was canceled just as it was supposed to start. They usually play rain or shine, but in this case half of the field was covered with standing water and it wasn't just a little rain, it was a LOT of rain.  Luckily for us it will be rescheduled and we'll get to travel down all over again in the next few weeks to make it up. (Note the sarcasm)

 

We passed by Lagoon on our way home and it was still raining so we decided not to stop this time.  Just a few miles past Lagoon the rain stopped so we turned around and decided to give Lagoon a try after all. Apparently Farmington was the cut-off point for heavy rain, because it was still raining cats and dogs when we pulled into the parking lot and continued to rain the entire time we were there. 

 

I didn't even know if Lagoon stayed open in the rain, but it does. The only time they shut down is if there is lightening in the area.  At first I thought going to Lagoon in the rain would be miserable, but now I'm converted.  Rain means there are no lines which makes Lagoon super fun, even if you are a little wet.  I think we'll purchase some ponchos and go to Lagoon every time it rains this summer. You can get a full day of rides in in a fraction of the time.  In fact, there were a few times when Jameson and Korinne were the only kids on a particular ride.  Not having to wait to go on anything makes Jameson a very happy boy.  We stayed for 2 hours and got more than enough in to make it worth our time. Having season passes to Lagoon has definitely improved the family's attitude when it comes to Britton's away soccer games. :-)

Sleeping Patrol

Jameson had a hard time taking naps this week.  Unfortunately he still needs them so when he does refuse to nap I know that from 3-5 p.m. I have to be on "sleeping patrol" to make sure Jameson hasn't fallen asleep somewhere, like on this comfy chair in the kitchen.

 

 Just in case you were wondering it is super fun to fight him about sleeping 3 times a day.  Twice to go to sleep and once to not go to sleep.  Good times.

Jenna played in a piano recital on Saturday and did a fantastic job.  Britton was supposed to play in the same recital, but he had an away soccer game and wasn't able to make it.

It is hard to believe we are starting the last month of school. Right now the kids are still testing, but in about 2 more weeks there isn't going to be a lot going on at school.  The kids in the neighborhood are running around all afternoon and having a blast.  Jameson had a new friend move into the cul-de-sac and now all he wants to do is go outside to play with his friends (hence the lack of naps). 

Britton now has a mountain bike and has been biking quite a bit with friends and with the scouts as they are working on their biking merit badge.  We are spoiled in that he can leave our front door and in 3 minutes be biking in the canyon.  You can't beat that. I've also started road biking again.  I haven't been as hard core this year and I was last year, but it is always nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful valley where we live.  I feel lucky to live in such an ideal biking location.

Happy May to you all!  Adam says May is the best month of the year. . .