End of school goings-on

I swear, 90 percent of the school activities occur in the month of May. It made for a busy month, but we enjoyed it and retained most of our sanity.

Bekah and Ana both got to go on a field trip for conflict managers. They swam at the Aquatic Center and ate lunch at Kate Curly Park.

Bekah had a 5th grade bike ride that I got to go on with her. I failed to photograph it, though. We rode our bikes from Ucon Elementary to Iona Square. The weather was perfect, lunch was provided, and we both got free T-shirts out of it. Good times.

Analee's class went to the Paramount Theater to watch a movie and then to a park to eat sack lunches and play.

Then we had the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade rockets. Bekah's first launch was a success.

Blast off! 

Kids who catch their rockets before they hit the ground earn bragging rights. Two less fortunate kids watch Bekah catch her through the fence where they are retrieving theirs.

Victory!

The second launch wasn't quite as successful.

Marshall, Conor and Rebekah get ready to push the buttons.

Rather than going out into the field, Rebekah's rocket shot back behind the launch pad. There was no way to catch her rocket as it fell onto the school roof. (You can see the rocket about in the middle of the frame.)

The custodian got the rocket off the roof, so it all ended well.

While I attended a field trip with Rebekah to Roberts Pond to go fishing, Grandpa Scott attended reading day in kindergarten.

Miriam's face and name appeared on the screen along with the total number of AR points she earned her first year of school.

Mrs. Schuster and Miriam in the kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Schuster is an amazing teacher and a saint. We're lucky to have her in our ward. (And I'm lucky to get to work with her in Young Women.)

Miriam next to her coat hook in the hall. She lost that front tooth shortly before the end of school. I love cute tooth gaps!

Rebekah and Conor getting their pole and bait from the Fish and Game officer.

What most of the field trip consisted of. Although other kids caught perch, Bekah and Conor didn't get a single bite.

We also got to see the girls in the end-of-the-year AR/AM assembly.

Analee earned over 200 AR points this year. 

Rebekah earned over 500.

As the school year ended, I breathed a sigh of relief. After all, three field trips in one week is a lot for me. And then baseball started with three practices and six games a week. No time for slowing down!

To see more end-of-school activity pictures, start here.

Analee is 9

For a first time in years, Analee's birthday didn't fall during Memorial Day weekend. We actually had her birthday party on her birthday! (She also had to go to school on her birthday.)

First we had dinner.

Pizza, chips, veggie tray, fruit, etc. It was too cold and rainy to eat outside on her birthday.

Then we bashed in a piñata.

Rather than our usual paper mache, we used a Corn Flakes box wrapped in paper. It proved quite sturdy. Analee got to do the final bashing after everyone else got a turn.

Followed by birthday cake.

Analee holding her breath so she doesn't inadvertently blow out the candles before we finish singing. She chose a German chocolate upside-down cake this year.

And presents!

Grandpa Dennis fooled her by saying their present was very fragile. It was $20 rubberbanded to a rock and wrapped in tin foil.

Unwrapping a pop can robot kit from her parents. Analee received Beados from the Wildes; water guns and a coloring book from the Scotts; a ribbon bookmark from Aunt Jessica; a book of optical puzzles, a coloring book and the movie Holes from Grandma and Grandpa Scott; and a couple of Minecraft-related books and an origami book from her parents.

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a fun time at the birthday party.

Analee is a fun and studious girl. She is constantly reading or "reading" audio books on her Kindle (her current favorite is The Kane Chronicles). She plays the piano and baseball and loves to help. Her third grade teacher told me countless times that she relied on Analee for help in the classroom and referred to her as a "gem." She also loves to help Grandma or her mom in the kitchen.

Analee loves playing with her girl friends and invites them over to play or watch a movie from time to time.

A current passion is origami. Since we gave her the book on her birthday, she has made more than 100 origami items. She even made 30ish trinket boxes for her teacher so she could give one to each student on the last day of school.

Analee with a confetti head and balloon mouth.

To see more birthday pictures, start here.

Miriam's dance recital

Just like our other girls, Miriam started dance class during the fall of kindergarten. Unlike our other girls, she took dance from a lady near our home instead of a studio in town.

As a dance parent, I was able to observe lots of differences between the two. Although each has its strengths and weaknesses, I'm kicking myself over not having the older girls do this program over the other. I've loved every aspect of Miriam's dance this year (including the laid-back attitude about how to style the girls' hair for the recital.)

Back on May 11 and 12, Miriam had her first-ever dance rehearsal and recital at Rocky Mountain Middle School. She loved every minute of them.

(At the rehearsal, they wore the same costume to perform all three of their songs.)

Dancing with a "cane" (PVC painted black) during her piano mix.

Joining hands with the other girls in her group during the princess mix. (Notice how tall Miriam is compared to the other girls.)

Not sure what she's doing here, but I think it's adorable.

Dancing with a scarf during the princess mix.

Singing along with the "Once Upon a December" part of the princess mix.

Her teacher dancing with her during the partner part of the princess mix. 

Still singing. Gosh, this kid is cute.

Miriam in her piano mix dress before the recital.

Miriam in her princess mix dress. The girls could have any Disney princess dress they wanted; Miri chose Rapunzel.

Curtsying in her red balloon mix dress.

Each girl was given lights to pin/sew to her red dress that would show up when they dimmed the lights during the red balloon number. Instead of having random swirls and designs, we wrote a message.

Performing at the recital.

The girls were supposed to join hands and extend them into the air. I told Miri she could only go as high as her neighbors' arms reached. That prevented shoulders from getting dislocated.

So many princesses! (Miriam's eyes are visible behind the right-most Cinderella's shoulder.)

To see more pictures from the rehearsal/recital, start here.

Yellowstone with cousins

We finally took Rachel and Justin up on their offer to stay at their cabin (April 29-May 1) and threw in a little bit of Yellowstone while we were at it on Saturday.

Analee looking at Gibon Falls with Seth's binoculars.

Pretty girl and pretty falls.

Miriam and Cooper climbing on rocks at the Gibbon Falls overlook.

Hudson getting some comfort from his mom. If you look at the background, you'll see Seth's holstered gun on his hip and his hat. He says he carries a firearm and wears his hat in Yellowstone to get the out-of-country tourists to point and stare.

Everything was hunky-dory until we stopped at the Artist Paint Pots. We all stood on the boardwalk by the mud pots for a while:

Notice the splatters on the walkway? Yeah ... we should have paid attention to that.

The kids were all lined up watching the mud bubble when a fist-sized clump of mud shot clear up past the railing and hit Winnie squarely on the bridge of her nose. She started screaming, and Seth (who was closer), ran over to her and wiped it off as quickly as he could with his bare hands.

 Rachel shot this picture of Winnie between Seth's wiping and mine.

I ran to the stroller and poured some water from a water bottle onto a Tinkerbell washcloth that just happened to be in the bottom of the stroller (Winnie had left it there during one of our neighborhood walks days before) and wiped her face more thoroughly. That's when I saw that some of the skin had come off on the right side of her nose where the mud had burned her. That mud was hot! When we got back to the van, I put some Neosporin and a Band-aid on her face. She was still a little sad about the whole thing, but gratefully all that remains of the whole incident is a little pink splotch where the skin is still healing.

We continued our Yellowstone journey with a trip to the Norris Geyser Basin and a picnic lunch (where we all nearly froze to death).

Rebekah at Norris Geyser Basin.

Winnie and her Band-aid sad about something NOT boiling-mud-on-your-face-related.

Cute cousins Kelsey and Winnie.

After lunch, Winnie went back to the cabin with Hudson, Kelsey, Rachel and Justin while we took Cooper and the rest of our girls up to Mammoth.

Rebekah, Analee, Miriam and Cooper at the Mammoth Terraces.

Miriam sharing her binoculars with Cooper.

Walking past the elk on the lawn at Mammoth.

On our way back from Mammoth out to West Yellowstone, we were rewarded with being able to see a sow grizzly and her three cubs walking along the bank of the Gibbon River.

So cute!

How close we were to them! (While still remaining safe and listening to the park rangers who were there making sure nobody was too stupid.)

Our group (and everybody else in the world) watching the grizzlies.

I shot a little video of them when Seth suggested it. Adorable!

We also saw more bison on our way out.

A bid daddy bison walking past our van.

A mama and her baby on the road.

The rest of our stay in Island Park was low-key and fun for everyone. To see more pictures, start here.

Bedtime reading

The other night, Seth and I checked on the girls like we do every night before we go to bed. Unlike every other night, Winnie was sporting a mask of sorts.

And the flash didn't even wake her up.

Gwenism #17

Gwen: Cooooooozzzyyyyy! There's a Z in cozy!

She's 3 1/2, folks. That's my literate girl!