May becomes INSANE around here!

EVERYTHING wraps up in May, so we get to run around CrAzY for the whole month!

Dance Recital May 17th: Sophie in Pre-Clogging dancing to "It's a Hard Knock Life"...

She is an Adorable little Orphan!

Katy's class danced to Cheetah Girls' "Dance Me If You Can"

Followed by Concert #3 (we didn't attend #2, it was a school assembly concert!)

Denny's already Wiped out!

Sophie's Daisy Troop wrapped up their year of scouting by gardening the Church's flower beds on May 21!

Ben & Asa (and Denny's) Pack wrapped their year up with the annual Cross Over Ceremony, also on May 21!

The younger classes at the kids' school 'grew' their own Butterflies! May 22 was "release" day, after they all got to 'hold' the butterflies in a mesh tent!

And Asa's grade performed in...

And Soccer Season FINALLY wrapped up on May 23!

Ben completed another year of Soccer, with Dad as assistant Coach!

Sophie's U5 team, with Dad as The Coach!

Asa played this season, also, but with Mom and Dad running to and fro, neither one of us caught a snap shot of his playing! And His Team Photo is Professional, so, you'll just have to take my word for it, Asa played and played Well!

Here is Katy's Team, again, Dad is the assistant Coach! Bless these two men for volunteering to coach 13-10 & 11 year olds Girls! The Hormones flying on these fields, Wow!

In the middle of all of this, Our Sophie turned 6!!

The last day of school, saying good bye to al of our friends!

Whew! We survived-all of the extra dance classes, just to make sure we're ready for recital; 5 days a week of soccer, 3 of those nights there were usually 2 different practices going on; Scout meetings; Homework-don't the teachers Know? we have all of these extra activities going on Every evening, it sure seemed like Katy & Asa had more homework these last few weeks, than they've had at any other time all year!

Now, we get to relax for the summer, right?!

Easter

We colored eggs a couple of days BEFORE Easter this year, it's usually the evening before, so we were ahead of the game this year!!

Easter dawned to a BEAUTIFUL morning-still too cold and a bit too damp that early in the morning, so our Easter Bunny hid the eggs inside the house, again! Good thing our dog sleeps in a kennel, with the door locked, otherwise, I am sure she would have helped herself the all the eggs, candy & little goodies in the kids' baskets!



After all the fun of collecting all of the eggs, comparing what each of the kids got, we took Grandma N out for Brunch! Then back to the manor for their Egg Hunt!








Such a BEAUTIFUL Easter Day. We spent part of the day at the Park, playing on the playground, throwing the Fisbees, lounging on the blanket and soaking up the sunshine and the wonderful 70 Degree weather, without a bit of wind.

Then just 2 days later 6 Inches of SNOW, that stuck around for 5 day! (pictures of our friends' back yard-- Easter Sunday........Tuesday afternoon!) This was just INSANE!!

Ski & Snowboarding Lessons!

January arrived and with enoug snow for Ski and Snowboarding lessons!!

Katy and Asa, having already learned to ski a couple of years ago, decided they wanted to try Snowboarding! (Katy's in the front-the Mint Green/Brown jacket & Asa's right next to her in the Orange jacket.)








Ben and Sophie took SKI Lessons. Here is the beginners group learning how to put their ski-booted feet into the ski bindings. A difficult task for 40-60 pound children to do, 'jamb' their toes into the front and then to 'stomp' their heels in!









Here's Denny, as always, helping out! Denny ended up slapping some skis on himself and going up the hill with the group of skiers, last minute addition Instructor!








Sophie & Ben thought this was the best way up the rope-tow! This lasted for the one day's lesson, the following days they were on their own on the rope-tow!!

Here's Sophie: Denny helping her 'walk' up the little hill in her skis, falling down, 'cheater' ride up the rope-tow, on her own on the rope-tow, and skiing like a pro!!


Ben: Balancing walk in his skis, a little push start from an instructer, a cautious ski down a Small slope, and on his own on the rope-tow!!

Asa's Snowboard: Asa's quick-it didn't take him long to pick up the rope-tow on his own, get to the tope and board down, although, he did have a few falls along the way!

Doesn't he look like he's been Snowboarding for Years!?

And here's Katy: She really looks like a pro-the bent knees and everything!

2012 Olympics Watch Out!!

Ben's Reading Performance!

Ben is in the 2nd grade. He had a lot of difficulty reading at the beginning of the school year and has really been struggling to improve.

Monday night, the school district put on 'ELKO COUNTY READS' night-I really don't know how to describe what this is, but basically it is to try to get kids to read more. There are booths/tables set up at one of the local schools, books, books & books for the kids, GS interests, seeing eye dog info, mining info, BLM info, etc...

In the gym, classes and individuals performed readings!

Ben's class performed Aesop's Fables. 2-3 kids at a time stepped up to the microphones and read their fable. Ben's group read the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. He read his part very clearly and without stumbling. We are so proud of Ben for working so hard to be able to read and to be able to read out loud in front of 4-6 dozen people! Another WAY TO GO, BEN!!!

Sophie got her ears pierced!

Asa and Sophie smiling for the camera, waiting for the
salon people to get the guns ready!




Sophie was SO excited and had been Begging for pierced ears for months, Mom finally caved! She sat in the chair, fidgetting, excited, and starting to get a little nervous.









There were 2 techs, working together. Poor Sophie, she went quickly from Smiling to trying NOT to cry--because it did hurt, just like Mom & Katy said it would! The look on her face when they snapped those guns! I bit more shocked than what you see here-and she had a Death Grip on Mom's hands during the whole process!







But, a little numbing cream, and a look at the pretty 'diamond' studs IN her ears, and Sophie is a HAPPY girl with PIERCED ears!!

Gentlemen-- Start Your Engines!

It's Pinewood Derby time, YoOoHoOoo!

The Winners' Circle! (or is the horse racing?!)

Ben took FIRST!!

Way

to

go

BEN!!!

No School!

"Yeah!!" say the kids, "2 weeks-no school!"
"Ugh!!" say the parents, "2 weeks of entertaining and referring."
So-we have planned-spread out over the 2 weeks: sledding, sledding, movies, swimming (Oh yes! Grandpa got a membership at a local hotel with an indoor pool & put the kids on the account!!), get togethers with friends, sledding, and did I mention, sledding!"

Denny & Mary makin' a run--

without any kids!!

Robert,

Mallory,

Kylie,

& Sophie!!

Can we get

a few more

on the sled?!

Katy, and friends!

The Moms--enough said!

Ok, we usually get together, at least once a week, go to dinner and play cards, occassionally we go to a movie-WITHOUT kids, just us grown-ups, the moms and the dads-DATE NIGHT! But, since the kids are out of the school for 2 WEEKS-we need to entertain them. Here we are having game night WITH the kids!

Our friend, Vicki, brought a fun game for the kids-you put a dab of vaseline on your nose, then without using your hands or you mouth, you move a set number of cotton balls into your bowl. The first one with all of their cotton balls in their bowl wins! The hardest part was getting the cotton ball OFF of your nose without using your hands!

The kids playing another game from Vicki, "Help your neighbor"!

We hadn't started playing cards with the adults, yet, so guess where Denny ended up! Yep-he's snagged the Guitar Hero from the kids, AGAIN!!

Finally, grown-up game table: ImaginIFF... A new game that Vicki & Jason brought, a change from our usual Hand & Foot card game (Do you know how hard it is to find a game that 4 couples can play?!) It was really fun and funny!!



I forgot to mention-we still had dinner before the games: Delicious Soup-2 different kinds, Yummy Rolls, and Desserts-Chocolate!!!

What fun we ALWAYS have, it is So Great to have such Good friends, and bonus-all of our kids are near enough in ages that they play well together--most of the time!