Last Day of First Grade

 I can't believe the difference in this little guy. Not only does he have more teeth but he has completely lost all his toddler features and is a full fledged growing little boy now. He is also almost 4 inches taller than when he started, 4 inches!!! He ended the school year doing 3rd grade math and reading at a 4th grade level. Yesterday he was telling me the process of how white blood cells fight off infection and right now he is telling Mason and Chloe all about ribs, explaining how your lungs work and showing them where their internal body organs are. This kid is a sponge! He is ALWAYS asking questions and I only have to tell him once and he remembers it.

 

 Gavin did his hair himself for the last day of school. He did a "reverse mohawk" and the twirly bump in the middle back is "a cupcake". He is such a character.

Field Day

This picture says it all!!!

He had a BLAST on field day. They had a dunk tank and they all got a chance to throw the ball to dunk the principal, they played with a parachute, a huge soccer ball, played spray bottle tag, Paper Rock Scissors baseball and did an obstacle course (that's what I helped with). At the end of the day an ambulance and firetruck showed up and they cooled the kids off by hosing them down. I even got wet from where I was standing!!

The kids were running and yelling and laughing. You couldn't help by smile, they were all having such a great time.

Gavin in the beginning when he was just a little bit wet. He kept going back for more.

Soaking wet, but he kept going back. Towards the end most of the kids had fizzled out, but not Gavin. He was there until the very end and was begging for more when they were done.

Look at the smile on his face : )

Two of my previous scouts came to show me how wet they were and I got lots of really wet hugs

Field Trip(s)

Gavin has had a BAZILLION field trips this month. It seems like everyday he was bringing home a flyer from school talking about another one. 

May 14 - Freeman Park/ISU:

They went to Freeman Park to eat their picnic lunches and then walked over to ISU to the chemistry department where they started desks on fire, shot rockets off and "changed to color of water". He had so much fun.

May 15- Reed's Dairy:

They went to the local dairy and looked at all the baby animals: calves, geese, foals, piglets and ducklings and they finished it off with ice cream cones

 

May 28- Aquatic Center/Kate Curley: 

They went swimming for a couple of  hours and then walked a few blocks to Kate Curley park where they ate their picnic lunches and then played on all the toys

May 29- Paramount Theater:

They went to the movie "Bears"

It was about a mama bear named "Sky" who had two baby cubs, one named Scout and one named Amber. There was another bear named Magnus and "he was the strongest bear in the whole world and another bear that was almost the same strength as him and his name was Chinouck"

 

May 30- Tautphus Park Zoo/ Sandy Downs:

 They got so see all the animals except the monkeys. His favorite was the "blind duck". He said it was blind because it had "white eyes". They ate their lunch at Tautphus Park and then they went to Sandy Downs to play in the sand.

June 3 - Camping Day - 

They took a pillow, blanket and flashlight to school for a camping day. They used the blankets to put over their desks to make tents where they used their flashlights to read books in their tents. They went outside for a scavenger hunt and told scary stories around the campfire and then roasted smores.

I went with Gavin to the Aquatic Center. He played with this smiley face ball almost the entire time.

Chelsea and I ate lunch with these crazy kids: Kyandra, Gabe, Gavin and Porter. 

Gavin and I

He wore his coat all afternoon even though it was a warm sunny day

On the way to meet the kids Chelsea and I drove past this dead squirrel and I was laughing so hard because of how it was laying in the road. We couldn't help but pull over and get a picture of the poor thing.

Then of course we had to get a picture WITH it!! Good times.

Chelsea and I on our hot date to the kids field trip. This girl is moving away this summer and I am sooo sad. I can't even think about it without tearing up. : (

May 28, 2014

Mason's T-Ball

Mason wanted to play T-ball this year so we put him on a little co-op team in the neighborhood. They don't do t-shirts and instead have matching bandana's so they know who's on their team.

Mason wanted to wear his on his head like a pirate

Mason's first time up to bat

After he hit the ball he wasn't sure where to run. The fields were getting watered so we had to makeshift the bases.

Third base had a huge distraction. Mason kept getting on the cone and riding it. He was bouncing on it and saying "yee haw"

5/29/2014

Father Son Campout

My boys headed out to the Father Son Campout. 

This is their second year. They went to Table Rock campground again, but this year Cody said he felt silly because he was the ONLY one that brought their camper and the ONLY one that brought a four wheeler. Last year everyone did. 

 Cody even remembered to take a picture for me and even though it's dark it's a lot better than last years picture:

LOL! I love my hubby!

While the boys were gone we had a girls night out. We were planning on doing manicures/pedicures, drinking salted caramel frappes, dipping things in chocolate fondue and roasting marshmallows for smores over the fire pit in the backyard with the aunts, girl cousins and grandma but the ended up not being able to or being sick : ( so it just the two of us. 

We went to Perkins for dinner where she announced in the middle of dinner VERY loudly, "Mom, I NEED TO GO POOP!" and while we were in the bathroom our table almost got cleared off because they thought we had left but luckily someone else who had heard Chloe's announcement stopped them.

Then we went to the store to get tissue paper for our project for the night. She walked through the entire store backwards. It took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. but I just let her do her thing.

I gave here a tubby when we got home and she showed me her "mermaid hair"

Then we made these "bom-boms" for her room

Watched a movie and ate a cookie or two

Then she snuggled up in my bed with me and we went to sleep. We were both exhausted from the long week and I was in bed by 9:30 and we both slept until after 9! It was sooo nice to catch up on some much needed sleep

Memorial Day 2014

We went to Stoddard Creek camping this year and it was awesome. It was green, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, we didn't have cell phone signal unless we drove down the road, there were great ATV trails and I was with my family. It doesn't get much better than this.

Relaxing.....

It seems like this rarely happens anymore.

My niece Madi learned how to drive Gavin's four wheeler

Chet chasing her down

Chase's very first camping trip!!

Mason, Madi and Chloe

Gavin spent hours riding around and around

Mason and Chloe playing in the creek. I told them over and over again NOT to get their shoes wet and as soon as I walked away to haul firewood to the campsite (less than 30 seconds away) guess what they did, YEP! They came running over to me and told me that they both "accidentally fell in the water". Uggh!!

Cousin's

Megan, Mason, Madi, Gavin and Chloe my clumsy kid

The view from the top of the mountain that Madi and I drove too

Erin, Tayvri, Brigham and Bailee

Chloe

Mason, Chloe and Grandma

My dirty Mason with a dirty worm

Digging up more worms

Mason wearing two helmets

Chloe, Madisen and Megan

Gavin fishing on Camus Creek

He caught one

Daddy and Gavin

Gavin plowing threw the water

My view most of the time we went for a ride

Chloe and Mason were so tired, but wouldn't sleep so I put them both in the hammock and rocked them to sleep

Chase and Mason

This is what happens when I leave my camera laying around

The men went on a mission to find some firewood

Cody wearing my "kardashians" (what he calls my huge sunglasses) so he would have protective eye wear

Tayvri

Gavin took these two pictures on one of our rides

The kids squealed and laughed while we were going up this trail

My kiddos and I on top of the world!

Gavin wanted a picture with him and the littles on the 4 wheeler. He is turning into a mini-me when it comes to taking pictures.

Megan and Mason

We let them have a movie night. They all cuddled up in Aunt Karen's camper and watched Brave.

Megan, Chloe and Mason

Mischief!!! 

The three of them disappeared shortly after this picture was taken

We found them headed up this hill. Look closely you can see them

Time for a tick check

We all went for a family ride

(we are definitely overdue for another atv, it's getting pretty scrunchy with all 5 of us)

Megan, Chloe, Mason, Madisen and Gavin

Chloe, Megan and Mason

Mrs. Chloe Blue Lips

My momma!!

Grandpa taking the kiddos for a ride

Cody went for a ride, ended up getting lost (he is severely directionally challenged) and had to ask some people on horses for directions to get back to the road and it wasn't the road he was talking about but along the way he found me some flowers so he picked them with high hopes he would make it back to camp before getting eaten alive by bears, wolves, or zombies

He made me pose with them

I played some frisbee with my little dude. We would try and catch it by sticking our arm through the hole.

Mom and dad with some more wood

Paul went for a ride with the twins. They both ended up falling asleep like this. He said it was a long ride back.

Gavin peeling out after getting high centered on a stump

To say he LOVES animals would be a complete understatement

Oh you know, just giggling and sharing snacks with each other

Mason drops his pants wherever and lets it go when we are camping. Not always a good thing

Cody teaching Mason how to drive the 4 wheeler.

Thanks goodness for the kill cord

Mom and dad watched the kids so Cody and I could go on a ride alone

Our first attempted selfie. LOL!!

Much better!!

This is why Cody calls my sunglasses my "Kardashians", they are overly HUGE!! I ended up buying them somewhere when we were in his truck and I didn't have any and my selections was either men's glasses, ghetto glasses or these. At least my peepers are well protected.

Some views from our ride

LOL! I look super ridiculous here. This pose is all for your amusement

The "rollercoaster hill". Cody may or may not have said a really naughty word as I drove us up this hill. (insert hysterically laughing emoticon)

We went through a really rocky, slanted part of the trail and no offense but Cody makes a terrible passenger. Instead of staying low to the seat and close to me to keep all of our weight centered he was practically standing up and we ended up getting thrown off when one of the wheels hit a big rock and my foot slid off the brake pedal so I was reaching for the hand brake and lost my grip.  Actually, I just got thrown off and then Cody decided to bail off too (city boy) instead of grabbing the handle bars and stopping it. I hurried and rolled out of the way so I didn't get rolled on. Cody jumped up and went chasing after it and was able to stop it. Luckily we were both ok. I got a little scraped up and have some bruises on my right side from landing on the big rocks, but we are alive, the atv is ok and next time Cody will listen to me when I tell him he needs to stay close to me and not stand up! : )

He was laughing so hard he was snorting! Such a goofball

Chet running over some logs because...well...because he's Chet

Gavin teaching Mason how to cast

"Fishing" 

There's no water in there

Gavin fell asleep in the chair by the fire. He does this almost every time we go camping

Dad and I showing off our "white" legs
I was trying to start a new trend, white socks with capris but it didn't catch on

Megan 2, Madi, 4, Chloe 3, Gavin 7, Mason 4

Our annual last day of camping picture

Dad, Mom, Chase, Chet, Karen, Cody and I

Mason, Chloe, Madisen, Megan and Gavin

(Paul and Erin went home the day before and we forgot to get a picture with them)

We stopped in Spencer so Gavin could look at the rocks, he loves rocks.

This is what he ended up getting

"Iron, emerald, gold obsidien dimond"
"Gavin's minecraft blocks"

Gavin also brought me home a heart shaped piece of wood : )

Dirty, stinky camping piggies : )

Paul and Erin came home a day early and decorated our house, yard and tree for us with pantyliner's
. Wasn't that so sweet of them?!?!