Kindergarten Graduation

Ella has graduated Kindergarten! I really cannot believe that we are going to have a first grader.  Kindergarten really just seems like preschool but first grade they are BIG.  They go to school all day, eat lunch there, they are big kids.  She has done great this year, I'm so glad we went ahead and put her in.  She had such an amazing teacher, she learned a lot, made friends, and really enjoyed it.  I hope that first grade isn't too big of a shock for her.  That is a long day for such a little girl! I'm so grateful that she is our oldest, she is such a great example to her younger siblings.  We love you Ella.

Ella and Megan are the best of friends! They play so well together and are really just the cutest.  We are so glad she lives right around the corner.

Here she is saying her part in the microphone.  "We sat with our friends and giggled and ate.  It was a great time to say the least!"

She sang all of the songs and was very animated.  We had people comment to us later how funny she was.  She went all out in the chicken dance, bobbing her head like crazy!

She loved her graduation picture and held it up every time we took her picture. I had no idea they were taking a picture that day and her hair was in a bun on top of her head with a big crooked bow. 

My sweet girl.

In front of her classroom.

We love Mrs. Sumens! I hope all of my kids will have her.

She got the VIP treatment: a piggy back ride from Dad all the way home.

Mallows

We love roasting marshmallows in our backyard. Ella and Kash are very particular about their marshmallows, they do not want ANY black spots.  I actually think they prefer them right out of the bag but they still like making their smores.  And they always know if they don't want to eat theirs, Mom will.

Lucky

Kash is always so good to play with Evie.  He will lay on the floor and let her attack him.  He puts on a show, making noises, playing dead, etc.  I always tell him to be careful because she is pretty tough! She is so lucky to have such a sweet big brother.

Swingin Fun

We went to Cody's block party where there were a bunch of rides for the kids.  We got there with only a few minutes left so the only pictures I got were of Ella and Kash on the swings.  

They didn't want to look into the sun to take a picture so Ella used her "sunglasses."

They held hands as they went around and around.

Next year we will be on time!

Gunlock

We went out to Gunlock with a bunch of friends to camp.  We didn't stay the night but we made delicious tin foil dinners and yummy smores.  We ate, hung out by the fire, the kids played down at the river and caught frogs, and we went home in time to sleep in our own beds.  My kind of camping:)  The only downfall was as it was getting dark we couldn't find Kash.  Matt somehow thought he heard him crying and went in that direction.  He had gotten lost a ways away and with it getting dark he was absolutely terrified.  I felt so bad for him, he told us how he was screaming for us and we didn't come.  I reminded him that if he is lost he should say a prayer.  He was still upset and exclaimed, "I can't see which way Jesus is pointing!!!"  

Ella is quite the climber and was the first to discover the best rocks to play on.

 Kash hammering in the stake for horseshoes. 

 Evie is obsessed with babies at the moment and spent most of the night smothering baby Ezra. 

 

 Matt was in charge of the fire and cooking the dinners.

Nate and Lola. Nate brought a banana cream pie from Veyo to share that was sooo good.

 This girl was completely covered in dirt.

 

 Maybe one of these weekends we will get brave and actually spend the night.  Maybe.

A new house

After the festival we went to Kurt and Ashley's house.  They just built a beautiful home and we went over to celebrate.  We had a BBQ and went four wheeling in their backyard. 

The kids absolutely loved going on rides with Matt.

 

 Matt forced me to go on a ride with him and Kurt and Ashley also went out with us. It was really fun going over the river and even more fun when I got to drive! I am a slightly more conservative driver than Matt so I wasn't scared for my life with me behind the wheel.

  

We are so happy Kurt and Ash have an awesome party house! We will probably be over there more than they would like:)

Kite Festival

The kite festival was HOT.  We realized in years past we had always gone in the evening, but this year we went in the afternoon and about died!  You have to park very far away and then walk into the festival and once you get there there is pretty much NO shade.  So we drank lots of water and had lots of snow cones and tried to make the most of it!  The kids still had fun but when we were leaving they just couldn't take it anymore so we parked our stroller on the side of the road under a wall that provided some cover and Matt literally RAN to get the car. He is so good to us!:)

Making the trek to the festival...it didn't help that our stroller was half broken!

These two were pretty cute holding hands the whole way.

Of course they loved all of the bounce houses.

 Kash crashing down the giant slide.

 

Scowling for the camera

 It's amazing how a snow cone can lift your spirits.

 

 

  Evie was double timing the water bottles!

Ella running with her kite.  There wasn't really any wind so it didn't work out too well!

 

Poor Evie with her flushed cheeks.

 

 I think she's done.

We learned our lesson.  We will time it a little better next year.

Fiesta Fun

We went to Fiesta Fun for family night and the kids had so much fun.  They keep asking when we can go back.  They loved playing all of the arcade games the most, especially Kash.  They were so excited to earn their tickets and pick a prize.  Afterwards we played miniature golf and chased Evie around the course.  Then we went out to dinner. 

At one point Matt had to climb up to the top of the play set and save Evie.

This was Kash's favorite game!

 

 

Story Time

Ella read a story all by herself in front of her kindergarten class.  She chose the book, "That's not my Princess."  She read it using the overhead and did a great job.  She was a little shy about it, but read every word correctly and at the end exclaimed with much excitement (which her teacher appreciated because they have been learning about punctuation marks) "That's my princess!"

She is growing up so fast!

One Last Time

After dinner Matt and the kids jumped in the jacuzzi for what will probably be the last time.  It is starting to get warm now so this is the last time we will be heating it.  It's not too sad though because in the summer it turns into their own little pool!