The Last Day!

Bentley and Maxwell said goodbye to their teachers

and hello to summer. We are looking forward

to the next few months. August 25th will be here

before we know it and we want to enjoy our break!

Not What I Had in Mind

Last year, John built the kids a playset.

Today, we bought some cheap Shopko chairs

so that the grownups could sit, talk,

and watch the kids play.

The kids have a different idea, though.

Each of the "big kids" picked out a chair,

and saved their spot with their bike helmet.

Max says he's willing to share, so if you manage
to get on his good side, you might have a seat.

ShoeMan

It turns out that our little "sock-hater" loves shoes!
Milo had some soft little shoes

(to keep him from taking his socks off),

but he wore them out.

We bought him some new shoes so that his

little feet would be protected outside

(assuming that he will one day walk outside -

even though he walks inside our house,

he still crawls everywhere else).

But he wants to wear them all the time.

If he sees his shoes, he has to have them on.

He comes by his shoe-love naturally.
Ruby, Max, and Jonah also like shoes.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Tonight was the boys' piano recital.

All three of them did a fantastic job on their pieces.

I erased everything on my camera so I could

film at least one song per boy, but

ended up not recording any of their songs,

and later realized that some of the erased photos

hadn't been uploaded to my computer yet.

Doh.

The thing is, we left Ruby and Milo with a babysitter,

and when I went out the door, Milo was screaming,

so I was a little preoccupied when I checked my

camera and deleted EVERYTHING.

Luckily, things at home went really well.

Our babysitter had a cell phone,

and Milo got to play with it.

He was in 7th Heaven.

Anyway, besides the boys' great performances tonight,

the highlight of my day was getting a bike!
Now I can ride with the boys.

I've thought about getting a bike off and on for a while.
(Probably since we got married.)
But for one reason or another, I never did.
Today, I even bought a helmet -
after all, I make the kids wear one.
(It's in the basket. I will wear it to ride, but not for photos.)
Tonight Bentley and I went for a quick ride after
the other kids were in bed. It took us about 5 minutes
to cover a 20 minute walk. It was awesome!
Now we're looking for a bike carrier so that
Ruby and Milo can come along too. Hurray.
I told John that today feels like my birthday,
Christmas, and Mother's Day all rolled into one. :)

Seriously

It's supposed to be warm and sunny the rest of the week.

Maxwell has a class program and picnic today.

Right now, it looks like this outside:

Our poor apple tree is really weighed down.

John just ran outside to cover the tomato plants.

whoops.

Thank you, May.

On the way to school this morning, Bentley said,

"Hopefully May snow will bring June sweat."

I could do without the "sweat,"

but some sun would be welcome.

3/12

A couple of weeks ago a friend of ours graduated

with his Masters degree. To celebrate, he and his family

rented out a lodge at Aspen Grove and had a party.

We're normally homebodies,

but this was a pretty big deal,

so we loaded the kids into the minivan,

and drove up the mountain.

They had a great time playing outside,

especially in the little old west village.

I took lots and lots of photos of the kids,

and then just before we left, I asked Bentley

to take one of John and me in front of the mountain.

Bentley took one photo, missed the mountain,

and then the camera battery died.
At least John and I are in it,

so it counts for my Project 12.

Hopefully I'll have better luck with the
photography for my next post.

It's Over!!! or Joy School Graduation

Today we had our Joy School Graduation.
The kids got diplomas and cookies.

The Moms got hugs.

I had one photo taken of me with my graduates,

and planned to post it tonight.

I uploaded the photo to my computer,

and got my first good look at it.

Nice. Thank you Ruby.

As I said in the post title, "It's over!!!"

Biker Dudes

After spending hours riding up and down the street

with their Dad holding onto their shoulders,

Jonah and Maxwell are proud to announce that they

are both "training-wheel free!"

John should win an award for patience and perseverance.

Maxwell and Jonah should win an award for

their awesome bike skills.

Hopefully they will all settle for a shout-out on our blog.

Biker Dude M from jenny on Vimeo.

Biker Dude J from jenny on Vimeo.

Lollipop, lollipop . . .

She did it!

Today after Primary, Ruby waited for me

outside of the Primary room, instead of running

away, hiding, or walking home alone.

As promised, she got last week's lollipop

when we got home from church.

Also today, she gave her first talk in Primary.

We recreated it here:

Her First Talk from jenny on Vimeo.

Oh, Max.

Yesterday when Maxwell got home from school,

he told me that he hadn't eaten his sack lunch

because at lunchtime he didn't feel hungry.

Big Brother immediately jumped into the conversation,

"I saw you with a LUNCH TRAY!"

Maxwell looked stunned for a minute,

and then claimed that he didn't eat school lunch, either.

Further questioning resulted in tears

from our tender-hearted Max.

Eventually, we got to the bottom of the story.

Here are the facts as I know them:

The boys get to pick 2 days to eat school lunch,

and I pack them a sack lunch the other 3 days.

Yesterday, both boys opted for sack lunch,

but Maxwell forgot and went through the line

to get a school lunch. When he sat down to eat it,

he remembered that he was supposed

to have a sack lunch, so he threw the school lunch away

without eating it, and didn't go back to the classroom

to get his sack lunch. AND, he was out of money

on his account, so he had

to charge his wasted school lunch.

Poor kid.

Hopefully lunch today will be less eventful,

and more filling.

Sunday Afternoon Scare - Or a Memorable Mother's Day

(the older kids ready for church this morning)

Today at church, the men took over Primary,

and taught all the youth so that every woman

could attend Relief Society on Mother's Day,

(they sent us home with cheesecake instead of flowers, yum)

It sounds like things went really well, over all.

However, I forgot to ask the men in Primary to

corner Ruby until I could come and get her.

(She runs away, so the regular leaders keep her in the primary

room until John or I can get down their from our classes.)

When I arrived outside the Primary room,

Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah were standing in the hall,

holding the lollipops they'd been given in class.

I asked where their sister was, and Bentley said that

she was next to him as they walked out of Primary,

but then she was gone. I checked all of her usual hiding

places - outside around the building, in the chapel,

in the bathroom, on the stairs,

and circled the building a couple of times.

After a little while, I stopped being angry and frustrated,

and started really worrying about her.

My sweet neighbor drove through the neighborhood

looking for her, but found no sign of our Ruby.

Other kind friends helped with the search inside and out

of the church building. After nearly 30 minutes,

my friend Tonya drove back to the church to tell me

that Ruby was home with John

(he brought Milo home early for a nap).

She had walked home alone.

When I got home, I tried to explain to her how scared

and worried I had been, but I think she was most upset

about her lollipop. A teacher sent Ruby's home

with me, but John and I decided that she can't have it

until next week; and then, only if she doesn't

run away or hide from us after church.

The real miracle in all of this,

is that I only lost Jonah once during the 30 minutes

that I spent searching for Ruby.

May!

We've had a awesome and busy first week of May.
Grandpa and Grandma R* were here,

and somehow I didn't get any photos.

I guess they'll have to come back

so we can get a few with the kids. :)

Also this week, we had

Joy School,

Jr. Achievement,

YW Mother-Daughter Activity,

Teacher Appreciation Week,

HMQS,

a yard sale,

Pack Meeting,

hair cuts,

piano lessons and make-up lessons.

The kids managed to fit in some light saber

battles, kick-ball games, tree climbing,

(Ruby keeps getting stuck in the apple tree,

she can go up, but can't come down on her own)

and afternoons with sidewalk chalk.

Milo stopped trying to walk for a couple of weeks,

but he seems to be giving it another try.

I didn't take many pictures this week,

but here are a few of the ones that

somehow ended up on my camera.

Somebody's Got a New Smile

Maxwell lost his first tooth this morning!

He's doubly excited about because he is only 6,

and Bentley didn't lose his first tooth until he was 7.

Gotta love this sibling rivalry.