First Day of School

Jared's first day of 4th grade

Maggie's first day of 1st grade

Maggie and her friend Kirsi

Evelyn's first day of Joy School

I was invited to join a rotating 3-year-old preschool for Evelyn.  There are seven kids in it, so I get to teach every seven weeks.  It is twice a week.  Evelyn LOVES it. 

Undies on the head

Everyone dotes on Abigail:

End of School

 One of the last days of Kindergarten was Western Day, and I thought Maggie made the cutest little cowgirl.  I already posted a picture of Maggie with her teacher a couple of posts ago, but here it is again.

Maggie and Mrs. R.

Jared on his last day of 3rd grade with Mrs. M.  She was totally crying as she hugged her students good-bye.  :)  She was really sweet to play a couple of games of chess with Jared the last week of school.

Jared did a lot of fun end-of-year things that I forgot to document with pictures: they dissected owl pellets to find mouse skeletons inside, they did an egg drop off the school roof (Jared's egg almost survived in its popcorn and marshmallow cushion), and they exploded bottles of Coke.  He had such a fun year.

Jared and Maggie also participated in a dance festival, where each grade learns and performs a dance for the parents.  However, I was sitting in such a lousy seat that I didn't take any pictures of that event.  :)

Maggie's Kindergarten Program

Random picture of Evy with her Cinco de Mayo balloon from Grandma Stout

For some reason, our elementary school only does end-of-year singing programs for Kindergarten and 5th grade.  I think when I was young we did a program every year.  It's kind of a bummer.

I loved hearing Maggie sing her cute songs.  She was lucky to be standing right next to her cousin and BFF Summer.

Here are a few of the songs for your enjoyment:

This next video is my favorite:

Maggie and her teacher, Mrs. R.  She was the best (also Jared's Kindergarten teacher).  I hope she is not retiring any time soon.

Another picture of Maggie and Summer

1st Day of School!

We actually had two first days of school around here, since Jared started 3rd grade a week before Maggie started PM Kindergarten.  

I did not have ANY apprehension for the beginning of the year this year.  Both of my kids were assigned great teachers, and both were really excited for the school year to start.  

Jared's first day of 3rd grade

Lining up after the bell rang

Maggie's first day of Kindergarten--still working on eye contact for pictures.  Ha ha.

Maggie and the school mascot.  Many Kindergarteners and younger siblings were scared of the eagle, but Evelyn loved it!  She still often talks about the eagle we saw.  

Maggie and her principal, Miss K.

Maggie and her cousin are in the same class!

Maggie is sitting right by two friends from our ward

PM Kindergarten is the best.  I love that Maggie still gets to be my buddy all morning long this year. I love having her around to help me and to play with Evelyn.  Lately they have learned to play better together.  She has grown up so much lately!

Jared's Last Week of 2nd Grade!

During the last week of the year, Jared's elementary school has a Dance Festival, where each grade performs a dance for the parents.  Here is Jared's final hula dance (also shown in a previous post with Jared all by himself.)  He worked so hard to learn this dance!  He is wearing the blue Hawaiian shirt off on the left side (ok,and I think he is off-screen for the whole middle section of the dance--I couldn't see what I was filming at the time!  Oops. Enjoy the commentary by Alan and me.)

Jared with his 2nd grade teacher, Miss A. He is holding up a DVD of pictures she made for each student

Jared had an amazing year this year.  He excels at every subject and enjoys helping other students.  He finished the school's entire Take-Home Reading program halfway through the year, but he still spent lots of time reading every day.  He was kind of sad that the schoolyear was ending.  :) I'm so proud of him for how hard he works!

Maggie's Preschool Program

At the end of May we went to Maggie's preschool program and graduation.  Her class presented "The Tortoise and the Hare" and Maggie got to be the hare!  It was such a surprise--she totally hadn't told me about it.  She was so cute and had her lines memorized so well!

Maggie the Hare

Maggie's cousin and best friend Summer was the tortoise!

Oh, I love this cute girl!!!

They were pretending to be wind with these streamers

Maggie the graduate

Maggie's class

Maggie with her teachers, Miss Mitzi and Miss Barbara

Maggie is so excited for Kindergarten next year.  I can't believe how much she has grown up these past few months!

First Days

 By the way, never lose a library book.  It is the most grievous of sins.  We had to pay for Jared's lost book (see previous post), and it cost $24!  Seriously?? It was a skinny little chapter book, not a beautiful, colorful picture book!  I mean, I know they have to buy a new book and pay to re-catalog it and put the computer chip thingy in, but really?  Just saying...

Here are pictures of a few firsts:

Jared's first day of 2nd grade!

Maggie sometimes like to have curly hair--she slept in braids

Maggie's first day of preschool!  She looks a little sad because we had to take about 15 pictures until she finally would look at the camera...

Maggie's preschool shirt to wear on field trips.  Today was her first field trip to the library for story time.  (She tripped on the sidewalk a couple of days ago.  Hence, the cut up lip.)

I signed Maggie up for a little beginner ballet class once a week in the mornings.  Here she is before her first class.  Even though she doesn't know anyone else in her class, she was very excited and will really like it, I think.  She loves to pretend to be a ballerina here at home.

I love this sweetie!

More Funny-isms

• I sing my kids songs about the Mormon Pioneers at bedtime during the summer.  A few days ago Maggie asked me for the "Oreo" song.  I couldn't figure out what she meant!  Then she started singing it: "For some must push, and some must pull, as we go marching up the hill!  So merrily on our way we go until we reach the Oreo!" (Valley-O)
• Maggie likes to lay out her outfit the night before.  It is so cute.  (It usually includes undies, too.)

• Last night our neighborhood held its monthly "Cookie Walk." Four families sign up at church in advance to bake DOZENS of cookies and set up a stand in front of their house.  Then families can walk around the neighborhood on a Sunday evening and take a cookie at each station (or like, four or five cookies at each station if you are an entitled teenager...) and visit with other neighbors.  It's lots of fun.  Last night we had a station in front of our house with 10 or 11 dozen cookies laid out.  Jared was treating the whole thing like a business venture:  "So, Mom, we are open from 6 til 8 o'clock, right?"  And then he greedily said, "We are going to make so much money!" after which I had to tell him we were giving the cookies away for free! (I actually think he already knew that, and he was just saying it to be funny.) 



Getting ready for the cookie walk

I do not have a primary calling, but occasionally I'm told things that happen during singing time or Jared's class time.  Jared has developed quite the reputation with the adults who serve in Primary, and they are always telling me what a good singer he is or what funny and smart things he says:

• Jared's Primary class was asked what "amazed" meant.  As in, the people were amazed at the miracles Jesus performed.  Jared called out, "That means flabbergasted!"
• The primary chorister was teaching the primary kids a new song, and they were on their 2nd week working on it.  She praised them and said how she was so surprised and proud at how so many of them knew most of the words already.  Jared yelled out, "Well, duh, we learned this song last week!"
• Jared and his friend Lauren were sitting next to each other during singing time in Primary.  After a song was finished Lauren said, "Jared, you are such a good singer."  Then Jared replied solemnly, "Well, I always try to do my best at everything!"  
• After a Primary lesson on the Priesthood, Jared wrote on a poster the class was making, "Jared's Guide to Priesthood Ordinances" and then proceeded to list what he knew about each ordinance.  So cute!
• One last note about Jared before I share pictures from the last week of school--Jared is officially a Star Wars geek!  I love it!  He has read many, many Star Wars picture books this past year and is into Angry Birds Star Wars (it teaches more about the characters and plot than you think!)  He knows all the characters and the whole story line.  Well, we have finally started watching the movies with him!  I was nervous showing them to him cause I think they can be a bit scary (we will definitely skip big chunks of Episode III), but he is loving them.  At the end of Episode I, I was explaining to Jared that Palpatine was just pretending to be nice, but he's really a bad guy.  Jared said, "Duh, Mom, everyone know's he's Darth Sidious!"  It's super fun to share that with him.  I think Alan, especially, loves it.  

Jared on the last day of school with Mrs. H!  We loved her. Jared is actually sad that school's out (that makes two of us!) Ha ha!)  He enjoys it so much!

Below is a video of the 1st graders doing their dance for the Dance Festival the last week of school.  Jared's right on the front row, but this was the closest I could zoom in, so don't even try to pick him out. 

Random cute picture of sweet Evelyn with Daddy taken the day of the Dance Festival

August in a Nutshell

Ok, I'll admit it.  I've been crappy at blogging.  My computer that I have to use for blogging is 8 years old and REALLY slow.  Last fall Alan and I decided to delay the purchase of a new computer by buying a Kindle, so that's what I mostly use during the day to email and browse the internet.  It seems silly to buy a new computer just so I can do faster blogging...

At the end of July, Alan's company had a party where we got to go to a bunch of venues for free: gardens, dinosaur museum, etc.  However, I was so busy with baby Evelyn during most of the day that only took two pictures.  I'm lame.  But Jared and Maggie enjoyed this cow train, the bounce houses, and the free snow cones.

Anyone who knows our family well knows the kind of crazy work schedule Alan has had for the past year.  Not very many days off at all.  However, during August he was able to take many days off, and we had our own little stay-cation!  We went to our local water park a bunch of times, and we went to the Aviary.  Of course, I only took one picture (below).  What I did NOT get a picture of was the awesome parrot that got to land on Jared's arm during the bird show we saw.  He thought it was so awesome to get chosen as a volunteer!!!

Alan also set up our tent in the backyard and had a sleepover with Jared and Maggie.  Evelyn slept inside the house with me, but she really wanted to be in the picture, too.

Jared started soccer in mid-August.  On the morning of his first soccer game, his first top tooth fell out!

I was worried he would only have one missing tooth for school pictures (AWKWARD!), but luckily the 2nd top tooth fell out about a week and a half later:

A typical first-grade, toothless smile!

These pictures are from Jared's first day of 1st grade!  My boy is so big!

 Maggie and I have been having more one-on-one time since Jared is at school every day.  I've been worried about her having "middle child syndrome" lately, so I've been making an effort to give her more attention.

 This was taken on Maggie's first day of "Princess Preschool!"  Tons of my neighbors put their 3-year-olds in preschool, but I wasn't going to sign Maggie up, purely because I'm a cheapskate.  I was planning on just having my 2-days-a-week "Mommy School" that I did with Jared when he was three.  However, I was invited by a mom who just barely moved in to my neighborhood to put Maggie in a little 3-year-old preschool with some other girls in a neighborhood about 10 minutes away.  There are a total of 7 little girls, and they decided to call it Princess Preschool.  The moms that were planning this already had it all organized and planned for the whole year when they invited me to join them, and the whole year is costing me a total of $10 for supplies!  It rotates from house to house every week, so I will have to host and teach Princess Preschool about once every 7 weeks or so.  I am thrilled with this set-up, and Maggie loves it, too!

Last but not least, here are some pictures of Evy:

Trying to capture giggles on camera:  (not super successful)