Random Fun Things

 Ryan and Ashley got awards at church for AWANA-our Sunday night activity for kids that is just awesome!  They learn scripture, do mission projects, play games, and have fun.  Ryan is also proudly showing off his new Bible.  Our children's pastor, the amazing Pastor Travis, gives 1st graders a Bible as they learn to read and 5th graders a new one to take with them as they move to Youth Group.  We love our church!

 Downtown picnic on rocks near the library!

 How I found Ryan one morning when I went in to wake him up for school!  I thought your head was supposed to poke out from under the covers, not your feet!

 Ashley loves Geronimo Stilton books-he is a crazy mouse who acts like a person.  Books are kind of silly but there are TONS of them, which is good since Ashley is always reading something!

 We took Ashley's friend Claire and her brother Henry with us to the library one afternoon for a Geronimo Stilton party!  They had cheese its for snacks, the librarian read a couple of chapters of one of the books, and then had terrific games and activities for the kids.  They all had a blast!

Middle School End of the Year Celebration

 Just like in Middle School, it is not cool to have mom come eat lunch with you-it's not cool to have her hovering and taking a gazillion pictures.  However, I come, help out, take a few, and sneak out!

 At Scott's school they call it Student Appreciation Day and it is GREAT fun!  The kids all get a free baked good, soda, and picture at the photo booth.  They have outdoor inflatable games, dodgeball (Scott's favorite game in the world) tournaments by grade, minute to win it games-students vs. some very good sport teachers, and pizza for lunch.

 The games I saw were who could get all the tissues out of the box-one at a time-first and who could stack the most cookies on their foreheads before the stack fell over.  It was hilarious to watch!

 Each homeroom class decides on a team name and gets shirts.  Scott's class take off of Superman t-shirts turned out really great this year.  I think that a good time was had by all the kids that day! I had fun bagging baked goods and helping hand them out!

Young Inventor's Fair

 Ryan's class was divided into groups and each had to come up with an invention to solve a problem.  Ryan's group named theirs the Magic Pop and it is an opener for bottles and jars

 Last Tuesday night before going to Scouts all the 5th graders gathered in the cafeteria to show off their inventions. 

 The group did a really good job-they had to write about the problem it solved, the cost of their materials, how their invention compared to other similar things available on the market already and what they would sell their invention for.

 Some other inventions Ashley and I saw were a clothes hanger to put your whole outfit on for the next day, a hair brush that already had gel on it to keep down fly away hair, a dog harness with reflective tape to make it easier to see your dog walking at night, and many others.  It was a fun night but we are definitely counting down the school days at our house-just 6 more mornings to get up!!!

Ballet Recital

 For Ashley's Saturday afternoon ballet recital, Grammy and Ashley's cousin, Abby Jane, came up to join us on Friday night after Abby Jane's field day at her school.

 There were trampoline games

 drawing and secret code letter writing planned

 and the girls judged some paper airplane contests

 Max was thinking hard about eating a paper airplane that landed near him!

 Our neighborhood pool opened that same Saturday.  Ashley says that swimming all year is what she misses most about life in the Philippines so we had to go try out the pool that morning before she went to recital practice.

 My happy little water bug!  In spite of the water being what most people would call freezing!

 On the way to practice

 Here is the peanut gallery waiting for the show to start

 Ms. Anita introducing her teachers at the beginning-she was also Ashley's teacher this year

 The little ones are always so much fun to watch-looking for their families

 tweedle dee and tweedle dum were very cute

 Alice was just lovely

 here was the queen of hearts

 Ashley class was called the queen's court

 They did a great job

 These two were very excited to see each other after the show

 a huge thank you to Grammy who has done lots of extra driving for 9 grands end of year things!

 with Mom and Dad after the show-such a fun afternoon!