There's more than one way to get into the toy basket.....He's certainly independent

Happy 5th Birthday

This year Ty wanted a Football Birthday. He decided that about 3 months ago and never waivered from his idea. The only thing he added was that he wanted his friends to swim at his birthday. Which was A-OK with me.

So while researching Football birthday ideas, I came across these really cute Football cupcakes. Complete with Milk Dud footballs. I knew I wanted to make them, no matter what. I bought a special grass icing tip and half way through I was glad I had not decided to make a full playing field. The grass icing is tricky. But it was worth it.

Excuse me while I go apply for Carpal Tunnel surgery.....

Kindergarten Graduation

Mia's class had a Kindergarten Graduation. They sang a cute song about First Grade and then each child was called to get their award.

Each of the classes tye-dyed their shirts. We're not sure if it was an accident but those shirts sure look like purple and gold to us....

We DID IT!! Watch out 1st grade...

Field Trip

Trent's class took a field trip to a local park. They have an 1800's village set up. Local high school students were the guides and demonstrated all the different areas. I found the field trip very interesting and I think the kids did too.
Cooking over open fires

The smokehouse for curing meat.

Spinning thread and weaving loom

Look who's Riding

WITHOUT training wheels!!!!

Swim Team

It's Swim Team time. That means a variety of things...
learning new strokes
swimming with friends
getting great exercise
hanging out by the pool every afternoon
back to back practices every 45 min from 3:45 to 7:00
and one very tired mom

It's a good thing we all really like swim team. It's a sport that everyone can do...yes, even Ty and Mia are participating this year. They are in the 6 and under category and do freestyle and backstroke. or as Ty says "Backstroke and Front Stroke" (Makes more sense to me that way also)

So we're ready for school to be over....mainly because it's cutting into our swim team schedule

Teacher Appreciation

A friend sent me a link to some cute ideas for teachers.

Teacher gifts always baffle me. I don't know why, I was a teacher....(wait, maybe that's part of the problem) Plus we have a unique situation. Because our children are all in Spanish Immersion there are only 5 teachers and they rotate through them. So I can't have a standard gift, or they'd get the same thing year after year. (We've had one awesome teacher 4 times just between Kaylee and Zane.)

The girls on the blog made this gift look so cute and so fun to make that I just had to give it a try. I think they came out cute and I would have liked one of these so I think they're winners.

Here's the outside

And when you open it, here's the inside.....

Mia's teacher on the other hand is man. So I didn't think he would fancy and pretty ribbon box. So he got a book and chocolates instead. He and I had a conversation one day about books and I asked if he had read this book and he hadn't. So I thought maybe this summer he could fit it in.

*****Book PLUG*** This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's a true story written by two men. One is a modern-day slave(son of a sharecropper) who grew up in North Louisiana. He meets a man who is a wealthy business man and art dealer. How their paths cross and the effect they have on each other is astounding... but you'll have to read it to find out.

Same Kind of Different as me written by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Slime Time

For this year's cub scout fundraiser there was a little twist for all the top sellers. The top seller in each group got to pick an adult to be slimed OR they could choose to get slimed themselves.

A couple of the boys chose to get slimed and many of them chose to slime their den leader. But because this was whole "slime" thing was David's idea, we think some of the leaders got together and bribed this little boy into picking David to get slimed.

The slime was not just pudding and food coloring. It had nuts, cornstarch, borax, jello.... it was AWFUL.

But it was all for a good cause and the boys had a stellar fundraiser.

Not everyone can look this cool while getting a hair cut.

somewhat AMAZING RACE

Each month our lifegroup (AKA Sunday School class) gets together for a social night. There is childcare at the church for the kids and the adults get to go out and do something fun together.

The thing we love about our class is that everyone is very fun-loving and ready for a new adventure. We've done it all... from 80's night, BUNCO, bowling, to KICKBALL.....

But this night was a new one and we did the Amazing Race.....

A friend of mine gave me some ideas on ways to make clues using puzzles, Sudoku, Jumbles, and Crosswords. Then you had to figure out the answers to the puzzles to lead you to local places for more questions. So, I put together the race and 30 of us headed out on a Friday night to race around town.
There were 2 challenges along the way. Where you had to stop, complete and task and then be given your next clue. I enlisted some other church members and they agreed to facilitate the games.

The funniest thing is the competitive nature of these people. At one point I decided that if we had said, "you must climb up on the roof and jump off " I'm convinced they would have said, "Where's the ladder"

So many funny things happened this night and every team had a story to tell. One group went to the wrong house and thought they were either going to get shot or have the police called on them.

Most husbands and wives were split into separate teams. The idea in all of this really is to build bonds and get to know one another.

On one team, the husband couldn't figure out how to use his wife's installed GPS. He called her to ask a question about it. She said, " MY team doesn't want me to tell you how to do that, so no. But I love you, Bye"

I decided early on that I wanted to be able to be a part of the race, so I just rode with one of the teams. I thought I could hold in my comments and not give a team an unfair advantage. And I did.... that wasn't the hard part. What I did not expect was the SHEER PANIC and GUT WRENCHING stress I went through when the people in my car couldn't figure out the FIRST clue..... They pulled out the Sudoku, stared at it for a while, then after about 5 minutes someone said... "OH I think this is a Sudoku and in a matter of minutes it was worked and we were on to our next destination" I wanted to run for the hills... I kept thinking. "what if no one else knows what this is? What if this really flops?" PANIC, PANIC, PANIC

But once we reached our first challenge and 3 of the 6 teams had arrived I began to relax and the night got more enjoyable. Of course any feeling other than the one where you're about to loose your lunch has to be more enjoyable.

After completing all the clues, the teams raced back to the church and rushed to the orange bath mat we had set out. Zane and I were there waiting, Where Zane said, "Welcome to HAFBC"

The last clue sent people to a local well to find the name of a type of water discovered in the area. Then the team had to write this name on a SONIC cup and turn it in.

The most surprising thing was the last team that strolled up to the mat.

They all had Sonic cups and were chatting casually and enjoying their beverages. I was urging them to get on the mat so I could record their time. At which point one guy says, "OH, this was a RACE?" "We've been done for 1/2 hour but we've been waiting in the car" Clearly the RACE part of the game had not been emphasized enough.

Anyway, It was a great night. And everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. The stories will go on and on and that's always a good sign of a fun evening.

Here's the winning team with their "Garden (travelocity)Nome" trophy......

Yes, David was on the winning team and he had no part in the clues or making the race. I'm firmly convinced it was his driving skills that got them to the winners circle. (And almost got another team on the side of the road in a ditch....but maybe we shouldn't go there)

Monkey Business

"you want to try what? "OK let's see if you fit!!"

There's one thing you can't say about David, that he doesn't try new things.so I guess if you're still small enough,

still limber enough,

and trusting enough

then you can FIT through the basketball hoop.

And as they always say.....

Monkey See..... Monkey Do