Class of 2023

Hailey graduated from preschool today! She was so excited to graduate, but extremely upset that she wouldn't be going to Kindergarten for a few months.

Presenting the Class of 2023. Life seems to just zip by once the kids start school. Thirteen years until graduating from high school doesn't really seem that long.

80's Day at School

Julie's class has been celebrating a decade a day for the last few days. Today was the 80's. Julie had the best -- and biggest -- hair in her entire class!

Hoofin' It 2010

Our elementary school holds an annual 5K/1 mile run as a fundraiser and way to promote healthy lifestyles. Last year we had family commitments, but this year Josh wanted to join the rest of the Stampede (our school mascot) for their "Hoofin' It 2010." It really is a stampede too! The principal warned participants to not trample any children at the beginning of the race. We opted to do the 1 mile. Josh was awesome and we were able to run almost the entire race together.

Soccer

While the kids enjoy playing soccer, wrapping up another season is always a relief. Julie has loved soccer the most over the years and was able to really increase her skills on the Lightning Bolts. Her coach is British and is passionate about the game. We enjoyed sitting on the sidelines and hearing him politely tell the girls they were "unlucky" when a play went wrong.

Josh has a love-hate relationship with soccer. He hates to go to the games and practice, but really loves soccer when it's over. He did really well this year and was able to score consistently at each game. He's #9 on the Jet-Sharks.

Josh's Birthday!

Josh and his best friend Kent have back-to-back birthdays. Kent had a party on Josh's birthday, but didn't want Josh to feel left out, so they made an enormous sign to wish them both happy birthday (I didn't have my good camera, so I couldn't fit it all.)

Josh LOVES Legos. Almost all of the gifts he got were Legos this year. We had a hard time pulling him away from them to go to dinner and have "cake" afterwards. (For those that didn't know, we don't eat cake at birthdays. Josh choose brownies, ice cream and magic shell this year).

Apparently, I bought the wrong ice cream.

Happy Birthday Josh!

This one's for you, Sandy!

When Grandma lives two states away, you have to put extra school program footage on the blog so she doesn't miss as much. Here's Josh singing the school song. (He really does know it; he was just a bit nervous.)

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year we had a chance to get together with my Mom at Deb and Jerry's. It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with her. Not long ago I received an email about honoring our mothers and expressing our love whenever we have the chance. It was nice spending time today doing just that.

Mother's Day Tea

Julie has an wonderful teacher that really encourages her students to stretch themselves. One of the things she does is hold a Mother's Day Tea where the mothers come to school to be honored. Each student writes a letter to their mother expressing their love and then reads it to them and the other mothers present. For some kids this is their first opportunity in public speaking.

In Julie's letter I was quite surprised by the things that mean the most to her, like my homemade bread.

Second Grade Hoedown

I have a great appreciation for teachers willing to put together a school program. I remember how many hours they took to prepare. With over 130 second graders, putting together Josh's school program was no small feat, but the teachers at Josh's school did a wonderful job. Here is a clip of my favorite part of the program: the old fashioned melodrama. Josh is on the top row at the edge.