May

Brian is one of the 11-year-old-scout leaders, now. The week before Mother's Day, they had a lesson on respecting women and then they made bath bombs (to look like actual BOMBS) and said "Mom, you da bomb!" 

 Hayden had waited all day to go on a ride in the truck with dad...then fell asleep about 2 minutes into the ride.

Hayden suddenly became obsessed with going to the farm. Any day that it was warm enough and I had time, we tried to slip over there for a few minutes. We loved seeing the baby goats! 

 On the wagon ride, this particular day, Hayden reached his hand out and put it on Katie's back. He held it there for quite a while! It was adorable.

 Brian and I said "Let's go on a family walk." Which, of course, the kids think is code for "Everyone get your bikes, roller blades and wagons!"

 We took dad to the tulip festival, with us. We were hoping to be able to have him play giant chess and checkers with the kids, but they weren't up, that time. :( We may have gotten some super cute pictures of Hayden like this:

But in reality all the kids felt like this:

 Yeah, they were not happy campers.
We got curbing!!!

 And found gargantuan moths on the porch! GROSS!!!

 Hayden started feeling pretty left out, when I would fix all the girls' hair and not his. He was pretty set on me fixing his hair, too. It turns out that his hair has gotten long enough that I could put these little pig tails in! Haha! We have been growing his hair out a little, to try to counteract his cowlick that

He even got his way and got to wear pig tails to church. He agreed to wear church clothes only when I made him a deal that I would fix his hair. Compromises. 

 Rachel got to go support her friend, Hannah, by watching her play.

 The kids have taken over the office! They are constantly trying to play school, in there!

 We went to sweet, little Evelyn's baby blessing. The kids liked seeing the horses behind the fence.

 Everyone wants to be with Uncle Spencer!

 We made out way to Thanksgiving Point, again...

 Hayden enjoyed dressing up and putting on plays. He kept putting on these masks and telling me that he was SCARY!

 Hayden recently started actually playing WITH his friends! It's fun to see his social skills developing.

 As a mom, I'm basically a human bed. :) Hayden was super tired, one day, but he only wanted to sleep on me! He would wake up, notice that I had slipped away, then come find me and fall back asleep once he was laying on me again!

 We went to a fund raising/charity yard sale that was bordering carnival status. The kids got their faces painted, they got treats, they got to bounce in a bounce house...and I picked up a few throw pillows and a desk. Nice!

The kids were so excited to bring me my breakfast in bread and homemade cards, for Mother's Day. I so love these little cuties that I get to call mine!

 They even drew me a picture on the sidewalk with leaves! Haha!

 And Maliya did my hair for church! Nice!

 That night we went and celebrated with Grandma Lisa. This is a little dance party :)

 Monday, the 15th, we went to the airport to welcome home Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Myler! While waiting, we had the kids work on decorating a sign.

 Hayden LOVED watching the luggage return thing. It's the little things in life, you know?

 Katie and Hayden helped bring grandma and grandpa their bags :)

 And they loved riding on the moving sidewalk things. Haha!

 That night, we had a party and Grandpa and Grandma's house. I was so happy to see them and loved being able to visit with them. They brought these cute souvenirs home for the kids.

This is a regular past time of ours. If Hayden is not watching cars on tv, he wants to be either playing with them, riding in them, or watching real cars outside. He's a little obsessed.

 Hayden says that when I put my cleansing face mask on, I look like a SKELETON!

 Rachel and Maliya got their summer haircuts! Maliya's is super short! It makes her look so old!

 Rachel made herself! Blowing a bubble with "gum"!

 At the end of the school year, there were several big activities planned that required all kindergartners (AM and PM) to show up at the same time. So Katie got to hang out at home and go to school late several times. It was SO wonderful having her home in the mornings! She and Hayden played nicely, I got to take a long relaxing shower, and I got to hang out with her without her wanting to go find a friend to play with. On this morning, I even had time to curl her hair! I'm gonna be so sad, next year, when she's at school all day long!

The annual dance festival! I love seeing these cute kids perform for us. They are always so excited to show me what they've been working so hard on! The Kindergartners were "gummy bears" doing a gummy bear dance. It was adorable!

 For the Arabic dance, Maliya did an Arabic version of Pharrell's "Happy." She and Kyla were so adorable, dancing together!

 The 3rd grade class danced to a Medley including the song, "I got a feelin." and "Intro." She was amazing. Grandma Gayle came and commented about what great stage presence Maliya has. She was just looking way to grown up. It made me want to cry a little.

 Rachel was WAY on the other side of the field for her 2nd grade dance. It took us almost the whole dance before we found her! She danced to "That's what makes you beautiful" and even threw in a couple of awesome hand stands!
I got some good pictures of her Spanish Dance:

Maliya and Rachel started climbing ALL over the playset. They're pretty proud of themselves.

 Some intense snuggles from dad.

 The Kindergarten "graduation" presentation. It was super cute. I was so proud of Katie! She has come such a long way from the beginning of this year! The fact that she would stand up in front of everyone, participated, sang the songs, and even said her assigned part was HUGE!

 I brought a drink and graham crackers to keep this kid busy, during the presentation.

 We love Mrs Holmgren! Katie was so proud to show me her presentation. She was so happy to sit and take a picture with Mrs. Holmgren and eat cookies in her classroom, afterward. It was a great day. We walked out to the car, and then I realized that we had left something in the classroom. Katie offered to run back and grab it and said "Even though I have been shy to hug Mrs Holmgren all year, I'm going to hug her." That just shows how much Katie loves Mrs Holmgren, because she doesn't hug just anyone!

 When she came walking back out, she had a look on her face that told me that she had gone through with it and successfully hugged her teacher. It was a mixture of satisfaction, pride, awkwardness, and pain. As soon as she got into the car, the whimpering started. She quietly and sadly commented that school was almost over and she was going to miss Mrs Holmgren. By the time we got home, she was having a full blown melt down!

 The end of the year is full of all sorts of big emotions for these little kids! Poor thing.

I friend texted me some pictures from the Kindergarten aquarium field trip a while back, too.

 I volunteered for both the upper elementary and the lower elementary field days. Such a fun day for these kiddos!

 Hayden, rocking the mohawk. We've been growing his hair out to avoid the "wolverine" due. But as the days get hotter, it might be time to go the other direction and give him a buzz cut.

 I went on the last field trip of the year with Katie. It was a hiking field trip, for the class to set free the butterflies that they had been observing in class. I was pretty nervous about it. Katie has recently decided that me volunteering at school gives her licence to have major tantrums at school. Combine that with the fact that she told me, a couple of weeks before the hiking field trip, that she didn't want to hike and that she intended to refuse to walk...Yeah, I was pretty concerned about how it would go. But it turned out great! It was mostly downhill and a paved path that was mostly covered with tree shade. It was maybe a quarter of a mile? It wouldn't even call it a hike, it was a nature walk at best. Katie had a great attitude and the girls had lots of fun!

 And everyone that wanted a turn, got a turn to hold a butterfly!

 After the second to last day of school, we met with cousins to have snowcones, just like last year. Such a fun tradition!

 Last day of school! Maliya felt like she got jipped, only getting to have the wonderful Mrs Jones for half a school year. She has sure loved what time she had, though!

 A of her friends: Briseida...

 Nadia...

 Gracie...

 And Kyla!

 And, of course, the amazing Mrs Dominguez. Rachel felt like Mrs D is a "project girl" just like Rachel and loved all the fun activities she had to offer. After taking all those pictures at Maliya's class, I didn't get to Rachel's class until pretty late. But most of the kids were still in there and a lot of them were crying. Everyone was sad to leave!

 As they walked out of school, Eliana's mom snapped this sweet picture of Rachel trying to comfort Eliana.

 Saturday after school got out, we woke up early and made a quick, one-day, trip to Idaho. Brian has been having a really hard time at work and wanted to spend the day with his wonderful and wise parents. It was a fun trip, even if it was short! While there, Brian ate some starbursts and then folded the trash up to look like there was still candy in it.

 Hayden was the innocent victim that found them first.

 face drop.

 Don't worry. Grandma hooked him up with some real candy. :)

And Brian convinced Hayden to try out a four wheeler ride (he has been too scared, before). He LOVED it! He came running inside to tell me "Four wheelers are so COOL!" Grandpa and Brian gave the kids turns riding on the four wheelers. The kids would have kept them going ALL DAY if the adults would have let them!

 On the way home, that night, Hayden conked out within the first 10-15 minutes! I think we wore them out pretty well!

 We went up the canyon to visit the Burkes on their camping trip. They had this full on "100 acre wood." It was super cute!

 And there were lots of those reed things that you can turn into bracelets and necklaces. That activity was a big hit! Look at my little nineties boy!

 Brian tried to blow on a blade of grass. It didn't work.

 Keeping Hayden super busy each day and up late each night makes for a super cranky kid. He fell asleep at dinner, before even eating, while in the process of yelling at his dad. Poor kid.

 I took Hayden on a mommy date to see Lightning McQueen! I was ignorant in thinking that it was not going to be a big deal. I thought it was a Thanksgiving Point thing. I didn't realize that it was a Disney event located at Thanksgiving Point. I had NO idea that there would be THAT many people. But I had already promised Hayden that he would see Lightning McQueen. We were in line for THREE HOURS!

We survived and have cute pictures. That's about all I can say for that four hours of my life.