A Kindergarten Graduate

It is hard to believe that it is the end of the school year already. I feel so old saying it, but this year really flew by. Ethan had a fabulous time in Kindergarten. His teacher was phenomenal and he learned so much. He is an incredible reader and there is definitely no more spelling words in front of him! He had his kindergarten celebration on Wednesday, it was lots of fun to celebrate with him and his friends.

On Tuesday all three kindergarten classes went to the local water park and played fun games and ran around in the fountains for a while. I was able to go along and help, it was a lot of fun to watch him and all his classmates interact. Let's just say after this year I have a whole new respect for Kindergarten teachers!

Here are the girls waiting for the program to begin. I arrived at the church at 9:30 for the 10:00 celebration. Kevin thought that was way too early, but we ended up only 8 rows from the back. We're thinking some people slept there to get good seats:) We know better for our next one!

They don't do an official graduation at Ethan's school. It was a program with super cute songs and poems and a slide show. They received their awards and diplomas the day before at school. It was a perfect length and really fun. Here Ethan and his friend Madeline are dancing to one of the songs.

They all had a speaking part. Ethan had to memorize 4 lines to a poem. By the time graduation came Morgan had most of it memorized as well. He did a great job. Afterwards he said that talking into a microphone was really fun. He must get that joy from his dad!

A family photo minus the littles. We left them at home with a sitter so the rest of us could enjoy the program.

Papa, Nana, Auntie Kara and Annika were also able to join us.

Here we are trying to get a cousin picture. Doesn't Morgan's enthusiasm amaze you? Just proof to the rest of the world that she's not always smiling.

That's better!

Ethan and Madelyn-I think this may be the friend Ethan misses the most over the summer. He sure had a lot of fun with her this year. We have promises of several play dates over the summer.

Ethan and a couple of the boys in his class. He has a lot of fun with them too.

Ethan John, you had such a great year. You grew so much academically, spiritually and socially. You became more courageous as you met new friends and conquered the monkey bars. You read 147 books this year! WOW! You have memorized so many scriptures that I know will help you as you grow up. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! It is kind of bittersweet knowing that next year you will be in school ALL DAY! I think mommy and your sisters and brother will miss you having lunch with us everyday. But I know you're ready and we can't wait to see what you learn. First though, let's have a great summer! Love you buddy!

Lately

I realize it has been a while since my last post. We've been busy just doing life around here. Truthfully I feel like we are at a very challenging and exhausting phase right now. Having 2 20-month olds with increasing independence and individual minds is exhausting to say the least. Just when I have 1 corralled where I want him/her to go the other one takes off, so I chase him/her down only to have #1 run off again or climb up again or dump the crayons out again or, well you get the picture. We like to call our life controlled chaos 98% of the time and the other 2% of the the time it is uncontrolled chaos. We have snapped a few pictures in the past couple weeks though so I'll share those with you.

Morgan got her first haircut about 4 weeks ago. She was thrilled to finally have her turn at a hair cut and smiled like this the whole time.

Also about 4 weeks ago we had an Easter egg hunt with some of my cousins. Here are Hudson and Brooklyn with their cousin Audrey. We like to call them the triplets:)

Here are the kids with Opa and Oma on the Sunday morning after we got back from Mexico. Brooklyn was not to thrilled to be unattached from me once she had me home. I think she missed us.

Brothers

Kevin took this picture of Hudson and Brooklyn a couple weeks ago. They are starting to interact more with each other and it is fun to watch. Unfortunately they are also starting to fight more. Sharing does not come naturally that is for sure.

Anyone who knows Ethan will know what a big deal this picture is. Our neighbor brought over some puppies that were in the animal shelter. There were 8 puppies and he brought over 3 for the kids to see. We are trying to get Ethan over his fear of dogs and my neighbor thought some harmless puppies might help. He actually sat on my lap and pet one of the puppies for about 10 minutes. It was a HUGE step for him.

My pretty ballerinas. Morgan and her friend Emmry were playing dress up the other day and Brooklyn had to join in.

Not to be left out of the dress up time. Hudson had to be Spiderman for a while.

Ethan is doing an amazing job with his reading. He has learned so much this past year in Kindergarten. He has started to sit down and read with his little sisters and brother. It is fun to watch.

We are working on finally finishing our back yard. It has been a  6 year work in progress but we're ready to be rid of all the dirt. We moved one of our trees so we put the kids to work digging the hole.

This past Friday I was treated to a special "Muffins and Makeovers with Mom" at Ethan's school. I had this little cookbook and plate Ethan made for me waiting when I got there. The cookbook is really cute, each kid had to write the ingredients and steps to one of their favorite recipes. Ethan chose Grilled Pizza. He even included cutting the pizza up into small pieces if you have babies. Guess what he watches us do every day? We had to come fresh faced and with clean toes so our kindergartner could give us a lotioned foot rub, paint our toes and fingers and do our make up. Ethan actually did a pretty decent job. It was a very fun morning.

My toes, not half bad for his first attempt. He told me that I could stop going to get pedicures now because he could just do my toes for me. What a sweetheart:)

And the finished product. I'm not sure cosmetology is in his future but that is probably ok with daddy.