Crafty Kids

The girls saw this book at the library the other day:

They brought it home and got to work figuring out the cutting and folding to make the little paper animals. Some animals were harder than others, but Hannah discovered she could put the rabbit together pretty easily.

Next thing I know, the three girls are busy working (all morning) at the table. This is what they ended up with:

The bunny, complete with a cage (hinged door and straw floor), travel bed, food and water dish.

I love my creative girls!

Pets and More Pets

For a family who didn't have any pets of any kind for a long, long time, we sure seem to be making up for lost time. Just thought I'd post a quick update in the pet department.

The two dogs are still doing well. We have to keep them out in the dog run for the most part because they've run too far off a couple of times. I've got a couple of weeks left in a basic obedience class I've been doing with Lupin. He's done really well. I've tried to do some of the same training with Bear, but he's got a few personality "quirks" so he's not catching on so quickly.

Brian and I have to open our bedroom windows every night because we don't have any A/C currently on that side of the house (a situation which I hope is fixed fairly soon or it is going to be a very long, hot summer). Every time we open the windows, we see some friendly faces. (They usually come around on the other side of the glass with their noses right against the screen.)

And there's no shortage of other dogs around here between family, workers and a stray that keeps showing up, when the kids need a new furry face to play with for a minute.

The kitty gets lots and love and attention (probably more than she wants at times), especially since so far she's been kept strictly indoors.

She is constantly finding new spots to explore and stretch out for a little nap.

And now we have fish too. Well, had, except for one that's left. Hannah got to bring a goldfish home from school and that got the other girls wanting their own fish. So off we went to the pet store for them to each buy a few goldfish as well.

Needless to say, the goldfish only lasted a few days (not surprising, especially since they were only in jars with no filter). But at least they only cost about 15 cents each. And we even replaced them once, but the second set didn't last much longer.

Hannah decided to spend some of her saved money and get a little tank with a divider and two betta fish. I kept thinking I needed to take some pictures, but hadn't yet and just tonight one of them (the bigger, prettier one) was found floating. I guess we're just not fish people.

Now everyone is telling me we need to get a cow or a horse or chickens or something. Yeah, yeah.

Piano Recital

I'm really late in getting this posted, but I hadn't transferred the video over until tonight. Back at the first of May, we went to the annual piano recital for Hannah & Courtney (the two who took lessons this year). McKay decided not to take lessons this year, but focused on trombone at school instead (which he has done very well with).

The girls were both excited for the recital. Courtney was up very first. She played two pieces, "Fiesta" and "Morning Has Broken."

Hannah was a little later in the program. She played "Sonatina," which she had been working on for quite a while.

The recital marked the end of their formal lessons for the summer (their teacher travels a lot, so she doesn't teach over the summer). I haven't pushed piano since then, but I'm hoping I can motivate them to play and practice some over the summer. Wish me luck with that!

Field Day Circus

Last Friday was the last day of school and also Field Day for the elementary kids. Of course I was there all morning volunteering -- wouldn't have it any other way!

The theme at the elementary throughout this year was "Learning: The Greatest Show on Earth" so they kept up with the circus theme for the Field Day festivities as well.

This was my station -- the circus train inflatable. I got to send the kids through and also shoo them out when they stopped to mess around in the middle. We all enjoyed hot dogs at the end. It was a fun day to end the school year!

Crash Course in Kindergarten

I mentioned in my last post how Hayley was moved over to Kindergarten for about the last six weeks of school. She started out just going over a couple of mornings a week for a reading group, then they wanted to get a better assessment of where she was, so they asked if she could start coming full-day.

She was excited about it (especially about being able to eat lunch at school and ride the bus home with the other kids) and seemed to fit right in. Since her birthday was only a week past the Kindergarten deadline, she didn't have much trouble fitting in with the kids socially.

I met with her kindergarten teacher about a week ago to go over her end of the year assessment. They test all the kids to make sure they are ready to move on to first grade. Hayley didn't get a lot of math in Pre-K (not enough time with a half-day schedule), but her teacher said she seemed to catch on quickly to the concepts she was taught. Hayley was already doing great and among the top in the class. So, we decided it was best for her to go ahead and move to first grade next year.

I admit that part of me had a really hard time with this! She's my baby and I couldn't help but feel like she was missing out on some of that "magic" and excitement of her childhood and the Kindergarten year. But maybe that's just all in my head. Like my sister said, what do we really remember about Kindergarten that had a great impact on our life? And, I know that academically, she will be much better suited in first grade in the fall. And I feel better knowing that she got to experience several weeks of Kindergarten, so in her mind, she's not really missing out on anything.

So, she graduated from Kindergarten last week. I just kept thinking, "How did this all happen so fast?" No more kids in Kindergarten for me -- sigh. Life moves forward.

After the graduation, we went back to her room for a few more pictures. Here she is with her Kindergarten teacher.

And Dad and Mom too.

Our babies are growing up!

End of School Events

We are officially done with school until the fall -- wow. While I'm ready for a break from dragging kids out of bed in the morning and packing lunches, I'm not sure I'm quite ready for everyone to be home all day. But it will be good.

I've fallen behind in posting about several of the field trips and other school activities over the past month or two. So here's a quick recap.

Hayley (and I) got to go with Pre-K to the Panhandle Plains Museum down in Canyon. That was the first time we'd been there -- they had a lot of neat stuff!

Then Hayley had to create a race car for Pre-K made from supplies around the house. She choose to make a wooden box with Tinker Toy wheels and use her little stuffed dog to be the driver.

They raced them on the same day that Pre-K did their Texas song for the Fab Friday morning assembly, so Hayley was dressed as a cowgirl.

It was about this time that we started transitioning Hayley over to Kindergarten. She was reading so well that at first they started having her just go over to a Kindergarten reading group a couple of times a week. Then we decided to have her switch over to full-day Kindergarten to see how she did and get a better assessment of where she should be next year.

So the following week, she got to sing with Kindergarten at the Fab Friday assembly.

That same morning they had the Kindergarten Writer's Workshop where the kids invite a parent and share the books they've been working on all year. I didn't expect Hayley to really have anything since she had just barely been there, but she did have one book all made! It was called "Lucky's First Time in School."

She read it to me and was excited to show me the kindergarten room.

McKay decided to audition for the middle school talent show. He wanted to play the "Star Spangled Banner" on his trombone. He was plenty nervous so he played a little fast and missed a couple of notes, but we thought he did great! I was proud of him for just being brave enough to get up in front of everyone to play.

Next it was Courtney's turn to be part of a Fab Friday assembly. Her 1st grade class did a little presentation about the water cycle. They sang along and "acted" out to a cute song about the water cycle. Courtney got the part of water vapor (she is on the far left).

Brian and I attended the 6th Grade Awards Assembly at the middle school last week. McKay earned several awards. The previous week at his spring band concert, he received the award for Outstanding Trombone. (Unfortunately, I was out of town and missed the concert and Brian forgot to bring any cameras with him.)

At the award assembly, he also received an award for art (which surprised him, since he always claims he "stinks" at art) and for being a "High Flyer" (basically a student-of-the-month).

The third award McKay received was the American Legion School award. This is an award given across the country to 6th graders (one boy and one girl from each participating school). In order to be considered for the award he had to write an essay on the theme "What it Means to be an American" as well as meet several other criteria. He received a nice certificate and medal.

We're very proud of all the kids for having a great year!

Palo Duro Canyon

A week or so ago we went on a little outing to Palo Duro Canyon with some of our family who are in the area now. We had only been there once before with the kids over a year ago, so it was fun to go back. It is such a pretty canyon and so unique in that everywhere around it is as flat as can be until you come upon this gorgeous canyon.

We went with Brian's sister Jana and her family, as well as our nephew Matt and our niece Ashley and her family (plus Ashley's brother-in-law). We had a little picnic dinner first. The kids had fun exploring and playing in the dirt.

Then we decided to find a trail for a short hike that everybody could do together. McKay and Brandon studied the park map.

We went to a place where Brandon thought he had seen a sign for a 1/2-mile nature hike, but instead we found a trail marker for a 1 1/2-mile hike. We decided to give it a try!

Turns out this trail went up, and up, and up. (Many of the trails just wind around the bottom of the canyon.) But it wasn't super difficult and the kids were great troopers. In fact, our girls led the hike the whole way up!

Here's Ashley and Jana (with baby Zoey) along the way.

The views were beautiful! We could see the big ampitheatre down below where they were rehearsing for the big musical production they do every summer.

Lots of little wildflowers among the rocks.

I took this picture of McKay as I was standing above him on the trail and told him to look up.

Finally, the summit!

The girls thought these rocks at the top were pretty cool.

McKay the Conqueror!

Then it was time to head back down. (This is when Courtney decided she absolutely couldn't go another step, even though she was the one begging all along for a "hard" hike.)

We need to go back sometime and explore some of the other trails!