AMEN!!!

So, I came across this post on facebook, and it felt like she took all of my feelings (and actions - or lack thereof) and put them into words.  It was such an accurate reflection of my feelings right now. I laughed  out loud mutliple times.  My kids' reading folders look just like her signature picture.  I stopped signing them and checking them some weeks ago.

If you need a little something to help you get through these last few days of school, look no further.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2013/05/30/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever#

Weekend in Bear Lake

Normally, school is out by the 1st or 2nd of June and Shawn takes the kids to Bear Lake while I ride my bike at Little Red in Logan, but this year, school doesn't get out until June 6th and then we are headed to Boise, so we decided to spend Memorial Day weekend in Bear Lake.

Everyone is excited to go to one of our favorite places on earth.

The water temperature was a whopping 54 degrees, so getting in wasn't really on the docket, but being on top of the water was acceptable.

Jonas on the paddle board.  This has become a family favorite - at least when it's a little bit warmer.

Shawn and Jonas were the only ones willing to brave the water.  I had every intention of going, but just couldn't stay warm enough to do it.

Love this kid and his hair.

Love this guy, too - even without the big hair.

Samantha enjoyed some scootering in her pajamas.

Building sand castles on the beach.

When I saw this, I was pretty sure that things weren't going to end well.

Cold air and cold water didn't bother these kids too much.

There was a great deal of time spent combing out Samantha's hair that had been neglected for a number of days.  Next time, we may just cut it off instead.

The nice thing about Bear Lake is we can all stay pretty happy just watching the water.

Megan is such a good friend to Peter. It's so fun to watch them together.

Of course, no trip to Bear Lake is complete without a little reading...

...or ipod playing.

The kids got out the blueberry but no one ever quite finished the project of blowing it up completely.  Didn't seem to matter.  They played in it anyway.

We also spent some time at the pool and hot tub.  (I think that was the only place I felt warm all weekend.)

Carrying buckets back and forth is a good use of time as well.

And eating ice cream cones makes the trip complete.

We can't wait to go back.

Last Day of Preschool

For the last day of preschool, there was a party at the park.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but a little bit chilly.  The kids didn't seem to mind.

Mandy brought lots of lady bugs for the kids to watch and play with.  By the end, they were all over the place - including crawling on us.

Nothing like popsicles and a playground to keep everyone happy.  Can't believe this kid is done with his first year of preschool.  What happened to my baby?!

Peter with his class.  There were a couple of move outs during the year, but this is who's left.

Natalie, Suzie, Eleanore, Peter, Sam, Taylor, Gabe and Cole.

And one last shot with their teacher, Mandy.  We have loved Mandy and I'm a little sad that this is our last year of preschool with her - but she's taking some time off from teaching next year, so we hope she has fun, too.

Dance Recital

Right smack dab in the middle of the state water polo tournament, the girls had their dance recital.  It was a busy weekend - 3 water polo games and 3 dance performances all criss crossed and mashed together.  (At least it felt that way.)  I had to buy a ticket for Shawn to each performance hoping he could make it to one, since the schedule for the water polo games was dependent on wins or losses - so no way to plan ahead on that one.  He did manage to make it to the Friday night performance and then we immediately rushed off to a late water polo game.  Seriously, by the end of the weekend, we were exhausted.
We've moved to a new dance studio, so the plus side was that all 3 of my girls were in the same performance, but the downside (at least for an already over packed weekend) was that there were 3 performances.  Although 3 performances does make the cost of costumes a little more bearable and you get to see your girls dance for more than 3 minutes total, so maybe it's a wash...

Anyway, I of course, couldn't take any photos during the performance so here are my dancers before:

Duffy as a lollipop girl.  (The recital was The Wizard of Oz.)

Duffy, the lollipop girl, with Amelia the Munchkin.  Duffy is upset here because her tap shoes were missing.  Yep, we got to the theater only to discover that her shoes hadn't made it with us.  There were frantic calls home to Shawn to see if he could find them and bring them, but no such luck.  There was frantic searching through the dressing rooms and all over, and asking other dancers and moms if anyone had any extra shoes.  No shoes anywhere.  While I was out in the lobby calling Shawn, someone gave her some shoes to wear.  Phew!  That was a close one.  I still don't know where they came from - possibly from a box they brought form the studio full of all the shoes girls had left there over the year.  (Of course, you know what happened.  Cleaning up at home on Monday morning, I found her shoes.  Seriously.)

Amelia with a couple of her friends from school.

All 3 of my beautiful dancers.  Samantha was part of the interlude at the beginning and also part of the yellow brick road.  I didn't get a picture of that since that costume change happened during the show.

The dancers with Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Judy.  Grandma Cathy and Doug also made it to a performance, but I had been frantically looking for shoes and wasn't in the right mind to remember to take a photo.  (And Jonas was put out enough already that he had to attend the recital at all, so I didn't push my luck on trying for a photo of the boys.)

Samantha was in charge of her own hair for this whole thing and she used so much gel that even after she took the elastic out of her pony tail, her hair essentially stayed in the pony tail.  It was kind of like it had been shellacked.

Awesome stuff I tell you.  I'm sure it took a gallon of shampoo to wash it all out.

They all danced beautifully and I think they have really enjoyed doing some other types of dance than just ballet.  Fun to watch, but I'm glad for it to be over, too.

Boys State Tournament

Finally, we've made it to the last tournament of the high school water polo season.  "Let the wild rumpus start."

There is always a little time standing around and waiting for the game to start.

Generally, they have to be there in time for the game ahead of theirs so they can start warming up at half time and be ready to play when it ends.  Awesome that they are all wearing their caps in the stand.

Nervous anticipation.

And maybe some fatigue after a whole weekend of playing games.

Lined up and waiting for the pool to clear out so they can get in.

Some go for the dive in technique.

And others (like Jonas), go for the hop over the lane line technique.

Warming up with egg beater and ball passing.

Time to play.

Jarom (one of my favorite kids ever) making a shot.

Our fantastic goalie, Phil. 

Brian

And of course, Jonas.

The ball floating in the middle of the pool is kind of like the calm before the storm.

Several of the girls showed up to support the boys.

In the end, they finished 4th over all, which is fantastic. Three years ago, they placed 22nd.  Two years ago, they made a huge jump to 11th.  (The year of the heart breaking stolen state tournament game.)  Last year, they were 8th and this year 4th.  For a team to have made that kind of progress in that amount of time is pretty amazing.  I just hope we'll continue to see them improve despite losing some fantastic senior players.  The team and the coaches were thrilled with the outcome and that's what is most important.

Go Skoly!