The Uromastyx are growing and more curious about the kids all the time. Perhaps their ears are becoming more adjusted to the joyful sounds of piano practice, one kid after another haha.
Jim took Nicole and Diana camping. They loved the adventure with Dad!
Diana loved the s'mores and tent. She kept changing outfits, and thought it was morning when she changed into her next day outfit. After taking a restroom trip in the middle of the night, Nicole said "Well I'm not tired anymore, what should we do?" Such a great time for Jim and the girls :)
Michael will be joining cub scouts in a few months, and they were kind enough to invite him to their day activity rock climbing. He was able to do every course he tried, most of them without the lines that give you automatic belay help.
For the Memorial Day holiday we made fairy/gnome/troll gardens. I loved watching the kids pick out flowers for their garden! We ended up getting too many flowers and now our backyard has a little extra color too.
Michael with his garden. He added a stone bridge and bench along with a campfire. The plants he chose were more earthy than flowery, perfect for his trolls :)
Jacob had a mix of the earthy with some color (no pink! :) And his gnome is reading a book, which was pretty cute.
Nicole's fairy garden is full of color and a glass pebble stream. Her fairy is on a unicorn and she has a little white picnic bench too.
Diana had a lot of help- she wanted to plant a million flowers so we really had to work to fit a lot in there! The kids have all since added more mini animals they have found. It will be fun to change the scenes and flowers out with the seasons.
Katy and me chillin on a cold day at the pool.
We had a few days of rain during swim team. It was kind of fun!
Jacob about to take his first dive- in the pouring rain! He is working so hard and can swim half of a pool length by himself. To get the swim necklace that allows him to play in the deep end by himself, he has to swim a full length. He has tried twice and not made it, and is still determined to get stronger.
Playing in the rain. Diana is a little fish. She does what she calls "slips" which is a handstand/sort of sideways flip. She makes friends with tons of kids and adults. Everyone at the pool knows her, she wants to be involved with everything going on. I love to watch her play in the pool, it is the perfect activity for her- constant motion! Katy likes to sit on the step for a while, then she braves out walking as deep as she can in the water while I follow right behind her. Between the two girls it's quite involved watching them!
Every now and then Diana will take a nap. She is storing up her energy so she can unleash the pure joy of her being at the pool!
The kids had their first swim meet last week. We had a job to do as well at the meet. Jim got caught at work and with a traffic detour from an accident, so we had quite the time poolside in the heat. The girls were dying to get in the water and they had pictures, volunteer training, etc so the meet hadn't even started so there was nothing to really watch. Jim was amazing and came straight in his dress clothes to relieve me at 7. Quite an adventure for the first meet!
Flare had most of her body shed this week and it looked so cool! Usually it's just smaller pieces, but this was awesome. I love seeing how amazing her colors look after a shed.
I planted several dozen sunflower seeds. The birds and "weed"-picking kids got all but two of them. But that's okay because I think between the two plants they are taking up all of the available space for sunflowers that we had. These plants are huge!
School got out on Thursday, and Friday Jim took the oldest three to the beach! They are waving goodbye. Jim took them to work for a little bit but they spend the afternoon at the beach.
Blissful way to celebrate the end of the school year! The kids made lists of everything they wanted to do at the beach, they were so excited!
Meanwhile, I was finishing up preparation for our summer. We had done a family night that week from a talk given by President Monson and talked about his encouragement to "gaze upward, look inward, reach outward, and press forward" and how this summer we would be having fun and growing too. Even Diana has a picture check off chart she can't wait to start.
I made a schedule of before and after baby since swim team ends right about when the baby comes. With the incentives for long-term and short-term good choices, I feel great about their excitement and our ability to do well this summer as a family even with a new baby.
All of the workbooks, part of summer school, ready to go!
Diana and Katy decided to have lunch at 10am with leftover pizza. We support Papa Johns and Chickfila a lot these days. Papa Johns gave me a 50% off coupon that lasts almost until the baby comes which really is awesome since that makes it same/cheaper than freezer pizza.
Jake had his last soccer game yesterday. It was blazing hot and with our small team he never subbed out. They coach had him as sweeper since he excels there, but with the sluggish way everyone was moving, it was like Jake couldn't help himself and started playing offense too. He was everywhere! The other team scored twice and they were all super sweaty. Jake was amazing and played like I've never seen him! He ended up scoring three times so his team won 3-2. I loved watching him sprint and work and dribble the ball. He was totally engaged in the game and it was awesome.
We celebrated by going to Chickfila and letting them trade their kids meal toys for ice cream cones. We even went inside and let them play in the play place which is the ultimate treat for them :) We talked with all the kid about working hard, win or lose, and how great it feels to try your best.
We had stake conference and went early so we could sit close enough to see Elder Ardern. Jim was able to have 6 hours of meetings during the week with him, and was so kind to treat me by watching the youngest three in the Primary room where it was broadcast while I was with Nicole and Michael able to really concentrate.
I took Nicole out of school to watch Diana and Katy so I could go to the "no kids allowed" Kindergarten luau and awards. I've always been allowed to bring my littles so it was frustrating, but Nicole did a great job and I was certainly able to enjoy Jacob so much more without keeping tornado Diana quiet.
Jacob's teacher was excellent this year and he has loved school all year!
Showing his orange lips from his cupcake.
Nothing says ready for first grade like leaving Kindergarten in a grass skirt!
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