Memorial Day & Peace Pole Ceremony

 We went to a cemetery in Roseville on the morning of Memorial Day.  They had a special program with our Aunt Judy participating in the band, which was conducted by R.J.'s band director at his school.  It was a great program and the kids got to meet some special elected officials and talk to them a little bit.

 At Braden's school, someone donated a peace pole.  I think it said something about letting peace prevail or something of that nature.  Our cub scouts were asked to do a flag ceremony and they did a great job, thank goodness.  The practices did not go so well, but once they were in front of the whole school, they maintained appropriate seriousness.

Diversity Bazaar

R.J.'s G.A.T.E. class does a diversity bazaar at the end of the year.  It is a fundraiser for the program.  Each group comes up with a country and they have to do a big project all on their own.  R.J.'s group chose Japan.  They wanted to serve sushi, but at the last minute the teacher said no, it was too expensive.  So R.J. and I learned how to make Yaki Onigiri really fast at 10pm the night before.  They had to have a food item to sell.  It turned out not so bad, but I forgot to take a picture.

Each group was responsible for finding at least one adult chaperone, and Ryan was it!  Conner and I visited for a little while at the end.  It was unbearably hot that day!

 

One of the booths was spray painting hair and Conner really wanted in on the action.  They painted a smiley face on his head. :o)  He loved it!

Can you tell how hot he is?

CTR Charlie

This year in primary, the theme is "Choose the Right." Our primary created a CTR Charlie, similar to Flat Stanley. Each week we draw a child's name and give them CTR Charlie for the week. They are supposed to find a way to choose the right and document their experience with a picture, drawing, whatever, and bring it back the next Sunday. We put all the kids' cards on a bulletin board. It's really fun and cute. My kids all got it at basically the same time. Here is what they chose to do to choose the right...

Sienna made a sympathy card for a woman in our ward who just lost her newborn baby.

Conner made scrambled eggs for Daddy.

Braden helped me with laundry.

Miscellaneous End of School Year Celebrations

Sienna showing off some art work at her school's open house

Braden's Art Work Display

R.J. after his last band concert of the season.  He played the trombone this year and did a great job.

R.J.'s G.A.T.E. class had a 6-week segment where they studied Ancient Greece.  They wore chitons in class every day (like a toga), sat in groups as their assigned Greek city, etc.  Their P.E. class followed along learning all the sports in the Greek Olympics.  At the end, we had an exhibition night where they dressed up and gave presentations.  R.J. and his partner taught us about Ancient Greek weapons.

Conner's 4th Birthday

Birthday Donuts and a CARS light up tracing table

Conner has been so excited for weeks that his birthday was coming up.

Best bed-head ever

Every time I asked Conner what he wanted for his birthday dinner, all he would say he wanted was a giant cupcake.  Thanks to a neighbor with a giant cupcake pan, we made his wish come true!

I know it's a little lopsided.  It was really hard to get that cake out of the pan and it ended up coming out in pieces that I had to put back together.  Thank goodness Conner is not a perfectionist.:o)

Conner's favorite present, you can see in his left hand, a capri sun wallet my sister sent to him.  He was so excited and for days kept stealing everyone's money to put in his wallet.

Starstruck

Sienna and her fellow 3rd-graders waiting for the music to start.

This is the closest she ever got to a smile for the whole performance!

As a P.E. segment, our school has a special dance program where a "professional" comes in and teaches all the grades a different dance.  Then, we have a fun performance.  This year it fell on the same night as the Pinewood Derby, and Braden chose that instead of dance.  So I went to the dance performance to watch Sienna, who was very excited, but never actually smiled while she was dancing. :o)

Braden's 10th Birthday

 Braden invited two friends to go to the Hunger Games movie for his birthday party.  He made his own invitation.  I thought it was cute that he spelled it wrong. :o)

 On the morning of his birthday, he woke up to donuts and presents.  He was very excited to get Legos.  His primary teacher also brought him a present, which was so nice.  Sienna surprised me with a wrapped gift for him.  It was so funny, she took one of my books and wrapped it for him as a gift from her. :o)  She also put together a little book of her own, which was super cute.

 I always let the kids pick their own birthday dinner.  Braden made me laugh that he wanted hamburger helper.  Of course, we added yummy cupcakes.

St. Patrick's Day

 We had Lucky Charms and green milk, but green cake pops for breakfast was the most exciting.

 Conner was very happy with his St. Patrick's Day breakfast!

 We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner.  It was okay, but for some reason I remember it being yummier in past years.  These yummy green crinkle cookies made up for it.

 Another successful holiday celebration! :o)

Mother / Son Dance

We had a fun mother-son dance at the school a bunch of months ago.  It was a schizophrenic theme, "So You think You Can Dance AND Play games" or something like that, plus they told us to dress up from our favorite sports team AND there was something else, but can't remember it right now.  But it was fun, and we got pizza and lots of cookies.  We even got to take pizza home since they ordered about 30 too many!