Graduation Day

K's last day of Preschool was yesterday. There was a Spring Program which all the kids participated in. Each class got to do 5 little songs that they had hand movements for. There were 3 classes in all; the morning and afternoon 3 year olds, the morning 4 year olds, and the afternoon 4 year olds. Then the kids moving on to Kindergarten received their diplomas. Afterwards there was a picnic by the playground.

Here are both the morning and afternoon 3 year old classes.

They performed first.

This is K's class. She had four girls and two boys.

But one of the boys moved away recently.

Here is one of the songs they did: "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man"

During the picnic, L was running around

trying to catch the Preschools wild squirrel.

Here is K with Hannah, Diana, and Jessica.

She loves these three girls to pieces!

Here is K with Yareli.

Here are Diana, Hannah and K with Payton.

This is K's teacher, Mrs. Bruce and her assistant, Mrs. Houghton.

K was really sad when she had to say goodbye.

A Year of Fun

Last September I put K in Preschool for 3 year olds. I thought that she could learn a lot more there then I could teach her. It also gave us some time away from each other in which she could become more independent and self assured. At first she had a hard time mingling with the other kids. Luckily there were only three other kids in her class so it didn't take too long for her to acclimate. However, in the beginning she only played by herself and didn't participate in the group activities. They learned new songs and hand movements to go with them, but K just stood there and watched the others. In some of the pictures she is standing off away from the group. I think it was just a little overwhelming for her at first. But by the time we came back from Christmas break, she was much more outgoing.

At school they participated in lots of fun things: crafts, field trips, scripture lessons, playing on the play ground, having story time, playing with toys, and snack time. They also learned their letters, numbers, shapes and colors. K already knew her alphabet, but not all the letters by sight. She also knew most of her shapes and all of her colors. But learning them again in a classroom helped to solidify them in her mind. By the end of the year she not only new all her capital letters and numbers by sight, she could also right her name without being told the letters. She can even write most words if you spell them out for her.

K enjoyed preschool immensely. By the end of the year she had six other kids in her class and she liked playing with all of them. She was also much more outgoing and self assured. She is sad that the school year is almost over, but excited that she will be able to go again in the fall. Here are some pictures taken by the school of their activities through the year.

On their first field trip they went to the pumpkin patch.

Every day someone gets to be the helper. They lead everyone out to the playground and back in again. They also get to ring a bell when it is time to clean up the toys.

Here is K playing with shaving cream. I remember doing that when I was a kid. I loved the smell of the shaving cream and the way it squished between my little fingers.

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes. They got to have a little party and then go trick-or-treating around the school.

Afterwards they got to eat some yummy treats for snack time.

For Thanksgiving they had a Pilgrim feast.

For Christmas they made crowns in honor of Christ's birth. They also made these cute Rudolph masks.

The school has a little squirrel platform where the kids put out peanuts.

Here is their Valentines Day party. All the kids brought Valentines to share and they got some from their teachers too. K made her all by herself.

Zany Zoo came to the preschool and the kids got to pet lots of different types of animals. K especially liked the turtle.

As long as it wasn't raining, the kids got to play on the playground everyday. K loved running around and pretending to be a lion. On rainy days they played in the basement.

The kids learned about the transformation of butterflies from caterpillars. They got to have some caterpillars in the classroom which they fed everyday. Then they saw them make their crysillis and finally transform into butterflies. They got to set them free once they all emerged. K absolutely loved this experience. I hope to take her to Canada's butterfly farm in the near future. I am sure she would absolutely love it!

Here are the kids in the chapel for their weekly learning about the scriptures.

The kids learning how to make fun sounds with sticks.

Every day they got to have story time with Mrs. Bruce.

Memorial Day

We had some friends over for a BBQ on Memorial Day. The girls had a great time playing in our spacious backyard while the adults relaxed and visited. It was gorgeous day!

K and her friend Kaitlin had a little picnic on a towel.

L was happy as a clam after a yummy lunch.

The girls eating Popsicles on the swing set.

L eating her first Popsicle. She really liked it.

Ben and Emy with Clara. She enjoyed a Popsicle too.

Becky and Randy enjoying some of the food while Braden snoozes.

All the girls wanted to ride in the carriage swing. It was really cute.

Picture from the other side.

All four playing together.

We set up K's playhouse outside and the kids loved it, especially Clara.

She kept peeking out the side of the house. What a cutie!

The girls all wanted to be pushed on the swings. So M ran back and forth between them for about 20 minutes. I think he got a pretty good work out, too:)

Randomness

We made BLT's for lunch one day and found out that L loves bacon.
L loves to be outside in the backyard. She is getting pretty good at not putting things in her mouth that she finds outside.

L found her shadow and was very intrigued by it.

K learned about Jack and the Beanstalk at school. She decided to draw a picture of it on her doodle. She is very good at drawing things. I am always so impressed. In the middle is the Giant's castle with the giant standing beside it on the left watering his flowers. On the right is the Beanstalk with at the bottom starting to climb up. And the big face on the right is the moon.

I went into K's room to see if she had cleaned it and I found this. All her animals were in rows on her bed along with her xylophone and books. She said they were in school and she was teaching them about music and reading to them.

We had a windy day last week and K said she wanted to try and fly her kite. She didn't want to go to the park but wanted to fly it in our backyard. Without enough room to run, she was having a hard time getting it into the air. But she did manage a couple of times. She had lots of fun, but next time I think we will go to the park instead.

Jack-O-Melon

We bought some watermelon at Costco on Monday and had some after dinner. M decided to carve the melon while getting out some juicy insides. He is always doing fun and creative things. K loved it, though she was very upset when daddy took the face off to get to the rest of the melon later this week.

L and Me

While Daddy was shooting rats and K was riding horses, I had my baby girl all to myself. We seldom get to spend time alone together and it was nice. We played, read books, and talked to each other. Though L's words were more grunts than anything since she doesn't talk yet. But we had a good time.

This is one of L's favorite spots when we are downstairs.

It's a perfect seat for her.

L with her big sister's hat on. She loves to take it on and off.

I think she is just too adorable!

Taking her baby for a little walk around the livingroom.

Sage Rat Killing Spree

Sage Rats are a huge problem for farmers in the Eastern part of the state. They populate quickly and consume tons of crops. Farmers encourage hunters to come out every spring to kill the sage rats to help cut down on the population. M used to do this all the time with his college buddies. It has been a long time since he went, but he decided to go with his friend Randy. They left on Friday and drove about 4 hours to get to these farms.
Apparently there really isn't much out in these areas. The towns are small and sparsely populated. He said that there were two hotels out there, but he is pretty sure the only clientele they get are from the sage rat hunters. For whatever reason it was a slow day for rat hunting. In the past he went earlier in the season and said he couldn't reload his gun fast enough, there were just so many. But this time he hardly got to shoot at all. But he and Randy did have a good time. Here are some pictures of the scenery where they were shooting. But be CAUTIONED, the final picture is of a dead sage rat.

Another Shower

I got the opportunity to make another Baby Shower Cake today. Melissa is in Young Women's with me and she is having a baby girl in July. She asked me to make a cake for her shower and I was happy to do it. I found a picture on the Internet of a cute cake and decided to copy it. Here is what I did.

I made a 9x13 inch cake and cut out the dress.

I used one and a half cupcakes to make each bootie.


I baked a small cake in a small metal bowl to make the bonnet.


Here is the finished product. It was actually pretty fun to make.


Congratulations Melissa on the anticipated arrival of your little girl.