Sarah's end of year extravaganza (I have to get creative with my titles, right?)

Sarah had a great time in 2nd grade. Her teacher, Mrs. Minkel was wonderful and did a great job of teaching Sarah. She made great friends and was sad to leave Hayden Peak.

Sarah earned the gold Hawkeye award, which means she had to fulfil a number of requirements. I took three pictures of her getting the award but they all came in super fuzzy. Probably because I tried to zoom in on her. Or because she walked so fast to get her award and get out of the spotlight. :) It's too bad, because she looked especially darling.

Third from the right :)

Here is her report card. I'm not one of "Those" parents, but when I saw her second term grades I wondered how she could be marked down for things she normally excelled at. I asked her teacher and she said that's it's impossible to get perfect scores that term. Apparently they have to mark them down. Oh public education! :)

Here is her school picture. Next up, third grade. It might just be me, but third grade seems so much older than second.

Steven's end of year adventures

Steven's year ended with a kindergarten program on June 26th and an awards ceremony the day before school ended. Steven is a great little performer and is always fun to watch. There is never a dull moment with this kid. :)

Here is Steven receiving his Hawkeye award. He did a great job.

For the last day of school they had a field day where the kids rotated around different water activities. At the end they had a fire truck come and spray the kids with the fire hose. They usually kept it above the crowd but sometimes it would find it's way down and give the kids quite the soaking.

Adam running to join the fun

The kids with Zak, Steven's Minecraft buddy

Steven's teacher, Mrs. Melzer, was wonderful. She seemed like the perpetually happy type, which is surprising considering her job is to teach a large group of five year olds. She loved Steven and always had nice things to say to him and about him.

Here are his grades. In the past I've added them to an annual folder, but it might be easier and fun for him to see them in our family scrapbook.  (unless then day comes when it isn't fun, and then I won't do it) :) We decided we're going to pay them a little for getting good grades, but it's hard when they don't really get traditional grades. I guess that's in the upper grades.

His school picture. I'm not sure where his class picture is. Hopefully it shows up with the other things I seem to be missing. :) I really love his smile!

Adam's end of the year fun

I am going to play blog catch up for a little while. I have posts I want recorded, but they take time that I've somehow misplaced.

In June Adam had his preschool program and finished his first year of preschool. They did a cute 50's sock hop theme. Although I believe the sky is the limit for my kids I don't think Adam will choose to be a performing artist. :) You can check out some of his sweet looks from the program.

Each child received an award from their teachers and Adam received "Mr. Smiles". This might have seemed rather strang to the other parents that had seen him in the programs, but he was always very nice and smiley in class. His first day there a little boy was crying and Adam went over and helped him stop crying. It was sweet.

Here are his end of year "grades". He's done really well learning his ABC's and numbers. On the last day of school the power went out so they didn't have their carnival. Instead they got their year books and some treats.

Here is his school picture. Yeah, he's adorable. :)

Mike's deployment to paradise

On May 27th, three days after moving in, Mike left on his first trip/deployment to Guam. (Rough life of an Air Force pilot) He was mainly on Guam but also visited Wake Island,

His phone took a bath in salt water a few days in, so he didn't have a lot of pictures the places he visited. He had just enough to make us jealous we weren't there. ;) I'll have him add captions soon, I just need to get this posted and move on.

On July 3rd we got him back.

Sleeping Baby

Mike and I don't usually let the kids sleep with us but every morning is "mandatory snuggle time" when the kids can come in a little before it's time to wake up. Their internal clocks wake them up somewhere between 6:30-7. It's nice bonding time. (unless I'm really tired and taking elbows/knees in the back.) While Mike is gone I try and think of ways to ease the kids missing him. One thing that works is letting them take turns sleeping in our bed. It's usually just once a week, but they all love it. Adam somehow manages to sleep in my bed more than the others. He usually comes in the middle of the night and I'm too tired/lazy to put him back to sleep.

Here he is one night when he INSISTED on bringing all his peeps to bed when it was his turn to sleep with me.

One of the many things I love about him is that he's 100% mama's boy. When Mike got home Adam wanted to say more meal prayers than usual. He mentioned Mike leaving, but since I can't hear well I assumed it was him praying Mike wouldn't have to leave again. Nope. He was praying that Mike would leave soon so he could sleep with me. We both got a laugh out of it. Since they love sleeping in our bed I'm going to sleep in their beds a few nights so each of them can take a turn sleeping on my side with Mike. It's only fair. Maybe that will stop Adam trying to get rid of Mike. Maybe. ;)

Building a backyard

Mike and I had a GREAT idea. My sister and her husband would come out for a few days and we'd landscape our backyard. We'd flatten the land, dig the sprinkler lines and save lots of money. Then we woke up and realized it was over our heads. :) We love where we live, but it's on the side of a mountain and full of boulders. We decided to use the landscaper the builder used. We had my friend Kaylen draw up some plans, since I didn't know exactly what I wanted, and the landscapers went to work.

Here are the general plans. First is what I'd drawn up and the second was what Kaylen drew. We went with hers. :)

Their first day they pulled these three boulders out of what would be my garden area. Since our yard is sloped we needed to do a rock wall to separate the upper and lower portions.

I don't know how long it would have taken us to complete the backyard, but it only took them a week. I now have a garden, so I need to figure out how to use it. :) We put a little "thoughtful" spot on the right side of the yard that we are going to dedicate to Erik. We're going to build a tree and have a bench as well as some nice flowers and shrubs. We can't decide on the right tree. Mike and I would like a small shade tree but the kids are set on having a weeping willow tree. Here are some pictures of the final product.

We're planting fruit trees on the top tier and normal garden variety in the lower portion.

Selfies

Mike is 100% anti "selfies" but I don't think he not love the overload of selfies I found on my phone. Adam has discovered how to use the cameras on our phones and loves to take pictures. Primarily of himself. :) Here is a small sampling of what I recently found.

I love finding these little gems on my phone. :)