Last Day of 1st Grade. Last day of Cotton Boll Elementary.

I found the kids sitting like this while Sadie was waiting for her carpool to pick her up on the last day of school.

Sadie's cute class (Back row: Erial, Gennifer, Allison, Laylah, Kaitlyn Middle row: Alia, Sadie, Sofia, Amelia Front row: Andrew and Abigail)

Anytime I tried to take a picture of one person, they would all jump in for the picture! It was also really interesting to see how her class responded to the last day of school. By the last bell of the day, MANY of the kids were in tears because they were so sad it was their last day. They kept hugging each other and crying out "I'll miss you so much!" Their teacher said that they were a very close knit class. More so than any other class she has ever had. It was pretty sweet.

Sadie and her best bud, Allison

I brought cupcakes for the whole class for Sadie's birthday(2 days after school got out) and here they are singing to her. ** They have a special ending that says, "Happy Birthday to you! Cha cha cha, hi-ya! Stick your feet in hot la-va!**

Boston got along great with the boys

All the girls wanted to dote on Brooklyn

Sadie and her teacher, Mrs. Wishart. She was a very loving teacher and Sadie loved her too!

**Side Note: I have been EXTREMELY disappointed in Arizona education thus far and have a lot of evidence to back it up. Some of the problems can be blamed on her school or her teacher, but most of the problems stem from Arizona standards of learning. I am certain if we moved out of the state of Arizona, Sadie would be behind all the other kids in her class if I didn't supplement math and reading exercises. We have decided to move Sadie to a new school next year and hopefully that will help. My friend that takes her kids there said, "You'll think you've died and gone to... well, Utah!" I never thought that phrase would be a relief when it came to education... Fingers crossed next year goes well!

May Part 1

We had a lot of fun things in May to blog about. Here are a bunch of little things first. We had a water balloon toss at our ward breakfast.

Sadie had her second piano recital. Here she is with her piano teacher, Danette Collins. We sure love her!!

Mother's day was lovely... besides the fact that Ryan disappeared for the first 3 hours I was awake. I had NO idea where he was and I was miffed! It turns out he was preparing for a primary lesson and a talk for Sacrament meeting that he never mentioned to me. Luckily he's a great husband all the time, so I don't have to wait for Mother's Day to feel loved. Here is a gift from Boston. I love it. I love it!

My big gift was reseeding our backyard! The previous owners and renters of the home never sewed summer grass.

We had to rent a rototiller and it was a lot of work, but now that the summer grass is in, it will come back annually. (The winter grass here in AZ needs to be seeded yearly.)

We covered it all up because birds kept eating all our winter grass seeds last fall.

Giant bubble fun.

Brooklyn ready for dance class.

My kids just love Goldilocks play land especially the ball pit.

We went to the dentist and Boston actually got in the chair! We've tried before but he freaked out and wouldn't get in the last few times. No cavities! Whew!

They also have dress up clothes at Goldilocks. This NASA suit is so adorable!

Boston got some new water shoes.

The weather has been SO. MUCH. BETTER. than last year. It's a MIRACLE I TELL YOU! It was over 100 degrees last year ALL of April and May. This year it wasn't in the 100s until June. It has made such a difference in my well-being. Last year was REALLY rough with 6 months of extreme heat. I really love living here, but I love it way more with this weather!!!

April 2015

I genuinely never thought that my child would EVER get lice. But that day came. We never found the source, but I was one of those crazy moms bothering school nurses and administrators about it. I took EVERYTHING washable in my entire house into the garage and one load at a time washed it and brought it all back inside. It took DAYS! We were so, so careful and did all the shampoos and combing etc for every person in the house. We bought all the sprays for the couches, and mattresses and everything not washable. We even shaved Boston's head even though he didn't have any lice. And about 3 weeks later we got it again! I cried most of that day. But then got over it and got back to work. Glad to say we haven't had a problem since.

Did I mention that the second time it came back Ryan was out of town? Did I also mention that when I say "we" got it again that it included myself? Awesome. There are just not that many people I would call to come pick nits out of my hair. I tell you... there are truly angels among us! Sadie's feelings on the matter...

Sadie and our friend Emma were twinners.

Uncle Nate came to visit us. They used to have lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins around, but not since we moved, so these kids were in heaven. We went to the Arizona Science Center.

Relaxing

Playing

Brooklyn sure has strong opinions about everything. She is yelling those opinions here...

We had a great time.

I started teaching dance again in May! Hurray! I've missed it a lot, especially my older dancers, but right now I only have classes for 3-5 yr olds. I teach at an indoor play land (they have a lot of those here in AZ) and in the back there is a separate studio. So my kids come with me and play in the play area while I teach. Awesome set up right? Brooklyn likes to come in with me. She's pretty mischievous during class, but she only 2 so I kind of let her roam. I must say my heart swells with pride every time she is at home going around saying (and doing) "Passe!" and "Battement!" She is just so cute!

This picture illustrates Brooklyn's affection for her Daddy. She just crawled up into his lap and laid there comfortably while he was quizzing Sadie on homework.

Easter stuff

Our family doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny. It is a weird concept that has nothing to do with Easter. That being said, we also try not to deprive our kids of fun activities. Boston's preschool had an egg hunt and a crazy guy happened to be dressed up like a bunny.

Here is both afternoon and morning classes combined for a picture.

Apparently I only got one picture Easter morning. Sadie is sporting her new mask, dress, and holding her new unicorn pillow. We celebrate the Resurrection with some gifts, crafts, and biblical videos or stories.

This was also the first year I took Sadie to see the Mesa Temple Pageant. The performance starts after it gets dark, so the other siblings will have to wait a few years to see it. We had a really great time watching the pageant members depict scenes of the Savior's life, death, and resurrection. They had live animals and over 500 people in the cast. Sadie got to pet one of the goats before the performance started.

It was a wonderful and spiritually uplifting holiday!

Alkema's March

At the beginning of March, we were invited to a Grand Canyon University basketball game. They had free pizzas, drinks, and t-shirts for everyone! Their mascot is the Antelope and every time there is a free throw, everyone yells, "Lopes Up!" and holds their hands up like this.

I must say, Ryan and I are the best fans ever. I don't think it matters who we are cheering on, we just love being loud and crazy! It REALLY REALLY made me miss BYU though. I just love my cougars!

Senator John McCain was at the bball game, he is a tiny dot at the bottom of the pic. :)

We had LOVELY weather this spring and got a lot of use out of Brooklyn's wagon.

My handsome boy riding into the sunset...

Putting underwear on is hard.

"Take a picture Mom!"

Crazy hair day at school

Corned beef and cabbage has become a comfort food for me. It makes me miss my Mom and Dad. I just wish corned beef weren't so expensive the rest of the year!

Baby girl had a UTI and three days into the antibiotics had a fever of 104. I took her into the instacare and she got hand/foot/mouth of top of that! It was a rough week or so.

Boston had a preschool series on butterflies. They got to watch the different stages of real caterpillars turning into butterflies. They did a big butterfly release at the end of the month. Boston would yell at me if I ever called it a cocoon... "No Mom! It's a chrysalis!"

Our friends, The Kellys, brought over this delectable lemon meringue pie. Isn't it gorgeous? We played games all night, but didn't get a picture of us! Next time for sure!