Its happening

Ya baby! Its true...This is happening...this is summer and the splash pads and back in fashion...

Big Girl with a big thumbs up

Jocelyn has been begging for me to take off her training wheels for like a year...So I finally did and vola she is a bike riding girl! Well not quite. I took the pedals off too so she is a learning to balance and push herself around bike riding girl. But anyway she is really happy about it...I think she will be ready for the pedals to be put back on really soon because she seems to really get the whole balance thing...

Its official-they are all swimming...sort of

Summer has begun and the proof is in the swimming lessons....this year they are ALL swimming...or swimming ish as the case may be for Creed....he did manage to swim in between his protests....but after another two weeks he loves it.

Treat Cupboards that say I love you

After a long miserable few years Brent's mom passed away the day after Mother's day. We were so thankful that Brent could go spend Mother's day with her and that she was alert and talking and could enjoy the afternoon. Since Brent was all ready up in Heber with his Dad the kids and I drove up for the funeral. It was fun to see all the cousins and the funeral went really well. We appreciated all the support and love from family and friends and we are thankful Grandma Weight isn't suffering any more. She really fought hard to be around for a few more memories with the grand kids and we appreciated her selflessness in her fight.

Grandma Weight has a cupboard in her kitchen and it is always filled with treats. After the funeral we went back to the house and Creed went straight for the cupboard. We didn't even know he knew about the treat cupboard. It was comforting and funny to know that she lives on in our kids memories....even if it is just in a treat cupboard or a beanie baby cupboard...even this 2 year old knows his Grandma loved and still loves him. 

The solo adult car ride with 4 kids and no dvd players was mercifully uneventful.

The cupboard that says I love you....

Radiant Roadrunners

I love the end of year programs at school. I get all spilling over proud and have to remind myself not to whoop and holler too much in a place where they are trying to teach appropriate behavior....Anyway, both girls had great school years. Their teachers were both super in tune with their needs and I genuinely felt their care/concern/like of/ for my kiddos. (Did that make sense?) I can't pay a teacher a higher compliment than to say that they left my child better than they found them and I can say that about both their teachers. I have felt really blessed to have my kids where they are and with the people they are with.
Taryn worked really hard this year and it showed big time by the end of the year. Her reading is ginormously better and she now actually likes it. At every parent teacher conference we went to her teacher told us how much he likes to listen to her read because she does all the voices for the characters-especially the girl characters she gets all high pitched for...She did all the extra projects offered and spanked the science fair (which is good since I made her spend 3 hours typing up her project all by herself). She persevered through more speech classes and helped a classmate with special needs in an extra PE class each week. She has a kind heart. And after a close call with tardies (she didn't want to get out of the car when it was cold outside) she did receive the radiant roadrunner award for being awesome in 2nd grade. I am proud of this girl because she works hard and kicks trash.
Cami also worked hard this year and even decided to put on a 4th grades got talent program. To her teacher's credit she let Cami go crazy and organize this huge talent show and invited the other classes and sent home notes to parents about it. Her teacher also had her create a big power point presentation for the 4th grade end of the year program to challenge her...and Cami gets a kick out of stuff like that. The best slide was one that showed the state of Utah with a heart and the state of California with a big x through it...(the words of the song said Utah was the best place to be etc...) I laughed so hard. (Don't get me wrong I do like CA, I just loved Cami's literal sense of humor too). Cami was also a really good friend to some kiddos who had a harder time and I was happy that she has such a kind heart. In the end she too won the Radiant Roadrunner award for 4th graders and was asked to be on the student council next year.
Anyway, here are pictures from their programs and their teachers.

Beautiful ballerinas

Taryn and Jocelyn had the end of year dance recital and they had a blast! Probably because they got to wear make-up but also because both of them really like to dance. It was Jocelyn's first recital and she did spectacularly. I could tell she really knew all the steps and she loved her pink tutu...She never once seemed nervous.
Taryn was in ballet and jazz and is still going strong...She always amazes me with how graceful she can be for such an energetic girl but I am starting to see that dance really requires her passion and energy so it is a good match.
Brent took them to their dress rehearsal and then left to go spend mother's day with his mom so Grandma and Uncle John came and clapped with me (and wrestle Creed for two hours)...Uncle John even went and go Jocelyn off the stage after she was done with flowers and I was so thankful for a good brother/uncle for my kiddos. Anyway, here are a million and one photos of my beautiful ballerinas...

Ballet girl

Jazz girl (incidentally with her two cousins)

You are my sunshine so it is appropriate to give sunflowers....and time to go home and go to bed since the sun is down....

Shaking out the pre recital jitters..even her fingers are graceful...

Jocelyn hiding behind her pink (as requested) flowers...

Jocelyn in a state of constant motion yet trying to cooperate for pictures....

The watch out I am about to bust out a crazy move face....

The real deal...trying to channel the wiggles into appropriate dance moves....

Sassy...

Thoughtful...

I love these girls and I am so surprised that it is possible to be so proud of my little dancers....who knew having ballerinas could be so much fun!?

Speedster

Cami love to run and has amazing endurance. She may not be the sprinting champ but you give her a 400 m race and she will kick it into high gear then just keep going and going. At her school track meet she won the 400 m race by quite a ways like she did last year. It was super fun to watch because after the first 25 when she passed everyone  I thought oh man she cant keep that speed up or she's gonna die...but no she did keep it up and won. Then at the district they had like 10 heats and a ton of kids running. You have to finish in the top 8 to compete in the finals. Last year she finished 25th at district. This year she finished 9th by 4 tens of a second...Seriously soooo close. And she won her heat by quite a ways. Grandma and John came to watch and I think they enjoyed watching her too. 

All the heats lined up ready to go...

post race spanking 

I love this girl. She is a kid any parent would feel so lucky to have and she is MINE!!!

Science Fair Victors

So basically the girls spanked the science fair this year...no thanks to me. I had great ideas for the projects I wanted them to do. And they had totally different ideas....Turns out their different ideas were the best. Cami won second place and Taryn won first place and got to go to the district science fair.

Cami's project was about if I person reads faster on bigger or smaller pages. She got two similarly leveled magazine stories and sized one small and left one regular sized. Then she timed people's words per minute. She discovered people do read faster with a bigger page and her hypothesis was correct. And somehow I didn't get  a single picture of her with her ribbon and poster dang it! But it was fabulous and interesting. She is really learning about comparing and analyzing and it is fun to watch her think....

Taryn's project was a twist on a project they did in class. In her class they put carnations in water with food coloring and the plants absorbed the colors. She wanted to repeat that and we told her she had to do one that she hadn't done before...so she asked if she could do the project with smell instead of color. She got flowers and watered them everyday with water mixed with 5 different essential oils and one plain water. After a week she had people smell the flowers and see if they smelled like anything other than a flower smell. He hypothesis was incorrect and the flowers did not absorb the smells like they did the color. It turned out to be really interesting. And she worked REALLY hard typing the whole darn thing up for like 3 hours....(so it was good she won to show her that hard work pays off). She spent the day at the district science fair reading Percy Jackson and answering judges questions....I don't think she was too impressed with it all, especially because she didn't win anything there, but I was impressed with her.

Both girls did great and worked hard and I am glad that they both have had the learning opportunities that they have this year. They both have had great teachers that helped them think and learn and develop.

Taryn at district with her poster....and kindle....

My beautiful smarty pants!

Showing their brave

For some reason Jocelyn always surprises me with how brave she can be. By now I should be used to it and just realize that she is fearless most of the time. She had a preschool field trip to a farm where they got to see and pet lots of animals, play on the equipment, and then plant some seeds. When it came time to pet the animals she was holding her hands out and ready for it....

Cami and sometimes Taryn have been REALLY nervous around most animals. In fact just lately have they decided they like our neighbors dog after years. SO I was shocked that she held the bunnies, chicks, and petting the goats. She didn't get too close to the turkeys or pigs but didn't run away screaming either...I love my brave girl. She enjoys life and learns so much from just exploring and trying things. I appreciate that about her so much!

Later that day we found out our neighbor/cousin had gotten chicks and Jocelyn was dieing to hold them again so we went and visited. After Jocelyn held one the other kiddos braved up too and jumped in. 

Easter and Bunnies

I love our preschool teachers because she makes the cutest bunnies...

The girls were really scared they were going to get skipped when it came to the Easter Bunny this year since we went camping. The camping trip was awesome but by about 8 or 9 am Saturday morning the kids (Taryn in particular) were saying hurry up lets go home so the Easter bunny can come...We lasted til about noon and then came home. Luckily the Easter Bunny stopped by while we were gone and the baskets were ready and waiting for the kids...In keeping with tradition the kids all got a swimming suit, sandals, flip flops, and summer could officially begin.
Later that afternoon we went to the art festival downtown then to Grandma Rices to have an egg hunt. The cousins (Lauren and Thompsons) helped hide the eggs and the kids had so much fun. The kids then re hid all the eggs so the parents could find them. After that we died eggs and had a messy fun time.

Taryn opening the "family gift" of the new Barbie Movie that has been anticipated since it was advertised on the other Barbie movie as "coming out in spring of 2014" All I know is curse you darn commercials on DVDs...you are making my children and me crazy!

Cami is clearly excited about her flip flops....

I don't remember for sure what she said but it probably went something like this..."OH YA BABY!!! I LOVE THIS SUIT!!! IT IS SOOOO FASHIONABLE!!!" It is fun to have a kid that feels things so strongly...You always know right where you stand.

Jocelyn is down with her new sandals even though they weren't the high heeled kind....at least they have plenty of sparkle...

Creed wanted to take off the camping tennis shoes and put in the crocs...I am hoping he is as in love with these ones as he was with the froggy ones from last year from Aunt Sarah...He might actually leave them on...

NO MOMMY!!!

So Creed is getting opinionated lately and verbal enough to be super funny. I put these Hawaiian shorts out the other day for Creed to wear. He hadn't seen them before and was very clear about how he felt about them.... He was stiff legging it and screaming and overall not being cooperative about getting dressed. We took a break to talk about it and finally in frustration he yelled out "NO MOMMY! THESE FAYE FAYE'S!!!!" He picked them up and threw them at her...He didn't want to wear Jocelyn's flowery shorts....And yes they really are his....