Iron Chef - Smoothie Night

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This was such a fun night. Randie, my 1st counselor and her Mia Maid class (the 14-16 year old girls - weird name for the class, I know) planned an Iron Chef night. I thought their idea to make smoothies was brilliant! Randie had all kinds of ingredients laid out for the youth to choose from. I really enjoy our combined youth nights - the boys in our ward are tons of fun. Get the girls and boys together and it's a ton of laughs, as you can see! Randie was so sweet to open up her house to around 30 people - or more! The pile of shoes at the entry was hilarious.

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This team made one of my favorites - a chocolate mint smoothie. Mmmmm. Jordan's dancing helped make it taste better too!

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The look on their faces makes me a little nervous. This may have been the team that made the weirdest smoothie I've ever had - complete with Snickers, fresh fruit and peanut butter. Bleck!

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Hey! I caught Lizzy smiling! (O: (Usually she sees me coming and makes a funny face.)

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I was more than happy to be asked to judge! Fun job! The yogurt-y fruit one and the mint chocolate were my favorites!

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The Worst Field Trip Ever!

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Natalie's first grade field trip to Jackson Bottom Wetlands has been my most memorable field trip ever so far. I LOVE Jackson Bottom and think they do a fantastic job at the field trips. I went with Sarah for her first grade and loved it. However, hers was earlier in the year which proved to be a better time. I'll explain later... At first, everything went fabulous. above is the station where the volunteer encourages the kids to fill up a film canister with various objects that they find to make a nature potpourri. I love the looks on Natalie and Emma's faces - I guess they don't like how nature smells!

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This was the station where the kids looked for birds and talked about animals' sense of sight.

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Angela, my field trip buddy. Next year she'll get to go on her own field trips!

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Natalie playing bat and moth. Her glasses were blinders and she had to use her sense of sound to find her prey. He had to echo when she'd call out to him - just like echolocation. (sort of!) After this station, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and looked forward to our turn to hike in the wetlands. This is when things took a turn for the worse.

After enjoying my PB&J, Natalie's teacher, Mrs. B. approached me and asked if I'd be in charge of the group going on the hike. She had to stay with a student who had a severe allergic reaction to the pollen on the hike. I was also told that there weren't enough Jackson Bottom volunteers, so I would also be leading the hike. What?? I didn't really know my way around. A lady handed me a map and showed me where to take the kids and suddenly I was in charge of 40+ parents and kids on a hike I hadn't been on in two years. Luckily, I had other parents who sympathized with me and helped out. We managed to find our way around, but I have to admit, it was a bit stressful.

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I was happy to spot the pond we were headed to, but things started taking a turn for the worse again as some of the kids with allergies started having reactions to the pollen. Luckily, I had a spare water bottle in my backpack. We had to flush one boy's eyes with the water because they were swelling up and itching so bad. We quickly headed back on the trail and I got a little huffing from one of the workers for not taking long enough on the hike. When I explained the problem, the teachers started gathering all the kids who were having bad allergies. In all, there were approximately 10 who were having severe reactions and tens more whose noses were running and eyes itching. Soon, the paramedics arrived! One of the moms is an RN and was concerned at how bad some of the children's swelling in their eyes was. While the paramedics checked the poor victims of allergies, we had to keep the rest of the kids seated and under control for a good half hour. Natalie proclaimed, "This is the WORST field trip ever!" I think some of those poor kids with such bad allergies could definitely say that, but Natalie and Angela and I were very lucky. We didn't have any problems at all, but I have to admit, I was happy when it was finally time to go!

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Just before several hikers started dropping like flies to the horrible allergies. Next time, a winter or fall field trip might be better!

Spring Flowers!

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I LOVE our Wisteria that hangs by our entryway - it is such a welcome treat when spring finally comes! The color of Angela's dress matched so perfectly I had to snap a picture as she did one of her chores - sweeping the porch. She looks like Cinderella working away. She was singing and actually quite enjoying the work sweeping up all the pretty petals.

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Natalie in front of the pink Rhoddie.

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Sarah looked extra cute with her hair all done up from Paige's spa birthday party.

Preschool Teacher

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At the end of the preschool year, I realized I had no pictures of me teaching, so I had Tina take a few action shots of me in one of my roles as a mom. I have loved doing this with my girls and will miss it! I'm so grateful to Julie and Kim for coming up with the great Kidgenuity curriculum! I'm lucky to have them for my friends. (o: (That was a little advertisement for them!)

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Apparently, I raise my eyebrows a lot when I teach. (o: It makes the subject matter more exciting.

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Just the Girls

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Usually, when the ward has the Fathers and Sons campout, it doesn't really affect our family. Even though everyone is invited to go, Hal* feels weird just going by himself. However, things are different when you are in the bishopric. He and Mark (the 1st counselor) had to be in charge of the fireside that night. I think he had a good time, but was grateful that it was close enough he didn't have to camp overnight. (O: Meanwhile, we joined some friends whose dads and brothers also attended that night and we had a girls date to IHOP. Shannan, Tiffany and I planned an impromptu gathering at IHOP and were thrilled to see Julie just happen to come with her daughter Jenna. We called her over and had a fabulous time all together. The girls were pretty hyper and got a lot of smiles and laughs and maybe some dirty looks from people nearby. Lots of people commented on the big group of girls and asked where the boys were. (o:

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Angela loves Jenna! Can you tell?

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This is so cute of Natalie and Brooke.

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Afterwards, Shannan invited us over for a movie! I don't even remember what movie it was because the moms just jabbered the whole time. We got shushed a few times by the younger women.

Student Led Conferences

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Every spring the kids have their student led conferences to show off what they've learned the past year. Sarah has LOVED being in Mrs. Elliot's class and learned so much. I have really enjoyed working with her too and I am so impressed by the way she treats her students. She really shows them respect and treats them as responsible and capable young people. Sarah has thrived in her class - we just love her! I think one of Sarah's favorite memories was earning her license to write in cursive. It's an actual card with her picture giving her permission to do her homework in cursive.

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Some lovely art Sarah did.

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Sweet Mrs. B. We have loved having her two years in a row! Sarah last year and Natalie this year. She has taken good care of Natalie on the days when she felt homesick and she is a good friend to our family. We love Mrs. B.!

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Natalie's reading has really taken off this year and we are so proud of her!

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Natalie's cute person. We had to laugh at the heart tattoo she colored on the arm. It says, "Rock and Roll". We laughed so hard we almost cried.

The Farmers in the Dell

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Look at these two cuties. They've been friends since we were doing their preschool field trips! Now they are the 'big kids' at the little siblings field trips! Sarah was especially excited to see Paige this day because we had recently learned that Paige is going to move very close to us! Sarah jumped up and down when she found out. These two have always gotten along so well - they are such close friends - even after we moved away 4 years ago. We love Paige!

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Duyck's Peachy Pig Farm is such a fun place. It's nothing fancy, but that's why I like it. It feels like another world - away from the chaos of cell phones, television and bustling cities. It's a place where we like to go to get back to nature and simple joys. This time of year is the best because all of the animals have just had their babies. Baby pigs, baby ducks, chicks, kittens, cows . . . and the kids can hold and/or see all of them.

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Natalie - my animal and baby lover - this combination, animal babies, was heaven for her!

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So sweet - I love this one.

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What's cuter than adorable kids with adorable little kittens. I can't think of a single thing. Little Savannah - Lucy's little sister, especially loved the kitties and literally cried when she had to put them down.

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A baby cow!

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The kids played on the old merry go round for over an hour!

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Preschool Graduation

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Aw - my sweet, little baby. I am sad to move on from this time of life. I've loved doing our preschool co-ops with my girls. I've loved working so much with great friends and getting to be so hands on with teaching. It has been fun to watch my little preschoolers learn about fish, trees, transportation, shapes, etc. But especially watching them learn how to find joy in the world around them and how to make friends. My time with my girls during their preschool years has been priceless. Good job my little Loo!

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I love this picture of Tina. One of my bestest friends, isn't she cute? (o: Tori didn't want to get up with the kids. She decided mom's lap was better. And she wasn't the only one . . .

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Ansley got suddenly shy too! Gemia looked cute though! It was kind of funny that half the preschoolers were struggling at their graduation. Probably a bit of stage fright - there were lots of moms, dads and even grandparents watching.

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After the ceremony the kids ate friendship GORP - they all brought an ingredient to mix in. This was their fun snack to watch during the preschool slideshow. It wouldn't be preschool graduation without one of my slideshows. And it wouldn't follow tradition without some sort of stressful mishap that almost prevented the slideshow from happening! I am an incurable procrastinator and finished the slideshow at 10:30 p.m. the night before. (Actually, earlier than other years, I was so proud!) However, something kept going terribly wrong when the slideshow was rendering. I tried several things until about 1:00 a.m. Then I gave up and went to bed in tears. Vern* took pity on me and insisted I let him try. He is seriously the most magical person when it comes to tech stuff. I have yet to witness him not figure something out, he does not give up and knows about 20 ways to do things and usually one of them works. My love for him grew exponentially as he worked until 3:00 a.m., when the rendering completed successfully! He had to get up a few hours later for work - seriously, that is the definition of love. And he wasn't even mad at me!

As we all watched the slideshow at Julie's house and I listened to the kids laugh and giggle at the fun pictures, I almost cried. No wait, I think I did cry. I was so grateful Vern* made that fun memory of watching the show all together possible.

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Do we look a little excited that we "graduated" too? Melanie, Tina, Gemia, Kayelynn, Arianne and I - we just missed Monica for the picture. It was quite a year - Tina had Madeline last fall, Kayelynn had a horrible first trimester of pregnancy and was bedridden, Melanie and Julie sold their houses and moved and Gemia was in the process of selling her house, Arianne had health problems, Monica went back to school and I guess I had the most "boring" year. (O: Somehow we juggled everything around and pulled off an entire year of preschool between the 8 of us. My friendships with these ladies was another huge bonus of doing a co-op. Love you girls!

Oh, did I mention that my big mother/daughter activity was this same night?? After my 3:00 a.m. slideshow stress. Somehow I survived and it was actually a pretty great day!

"SuperMom" Mother/Daughter Night

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This was my last hurrah as young women's president. We did have a few activities after this before I was officially released, but this was my final big activity. My baby. I got the idea a couple months earlier, but as I watched General Conference at the beginning of April, this whole night came together in my mind. Especially as I listened to Elder Holland's talk on "Mothers and Daughters". It was perfect, exactly what I wanted to share with the girls. My presidency and advisers helped me to plan a nice dinner and evening for the moms and the girls. We had some fun table games and a few girls presented superpowers that moms have. (To go with our yearlong theme of super heroes.) I had a meatloaf making party at my house in the afternoon.(It's a recipe I get compliments on all the time.) So we had yummy food. And we ended the night listening to Elder Holland's talk once again. Each mother and daughter also got to take home a mother/daughter journal that they could write back and forth to each other. (See picture below.)It was a fabulous idea that Kaitlyn actually told me about. I think everyone had a nice time, I got lots of positive feedback and I really enjoyed the evening too. Thanks to my husband who rocks at technical stuff and got my laptop/internet/projector connection up and running.

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I put out a call for help serving at this activity a few days before and these wonderful ladies saved me! I am so grateful for Michelle, Sherry and Kim. Not only did they come and work so hard that I didn't have to do any clean up in the kitchen, but they did it with smiles and had fun together - so I heard! They are the best!! I am so lucky.

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Randie (my 1st counselor) and Janae (my Mia Maid adviser) enjoying a moment of sitting down.

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Kaitlyn and her supermom, Judy.

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Melanie and supermom, Cherie. (Also may awesome visiting teaching companion!)

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This cute little girl showed up to help daddy take down the projector. (o: It will be fun to go to mother/daughter activities with her someday!

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I thought these journals turned out pretty cute - I was especially proud that they each cost just a little over $1 each as I found all the materials at the dollar store! Yes!