Kindergarten Graduation

First Day of Kindergarten!

Graduation Day with Mrs. Williams!

Today was Cambrie's Kindergarten Graduation Program. It was so cute and fun, but also a bit sad to think that a whole year of school has already passed by. It's amazing how quickly the time passes. Cambrie is such an amazing little girl, very thoughtful, kind, and always wanting to help. Tonight she was helping me mop the floor and said, "Isn't this great, we're like 2 Cinderellas!" I'd never quite thought of cleaning that way before.

We'll be excited to have her home for the summer, but bummed that next year she'll be gone all day. We just started reading her first Junie B. Jones Book and she loves it. She couldn't be more excited to officially be a 1st Grader now! At the end of the program, they presented the future Class of 2020. Talk about crazy! I'm sure we'll be there before we know it. Boo hoo!

Memorial Day Memories

Cambrie woke up this morning all excited for a cookout in the canyon. She started making a list of people to invite and planning our menu. Unfortunately it did not take long to realize that the weather was not on our side. About 3pm the rain let up. Realizing it could be just a short break, Jason talked the girls into a quick cookout in our backyard. They start packing up food and getting warm clothes on to head outside.
I look at my watch and say, "It's 3pm, not exactly dinner time." Jason's response: "We don't work on a clock around here. We work on a fun meter, and the fun meter says its time for a cookout!" Alrighty then, the fire is started the foods all ready. . . and down comes the rain. With the rain falling harder and harder, the girls were still undeterred. Jason brought out our big umbrella and we huddled under it while we cooked trout, dogs and of course s'mores.
Cambrie just loved it. She kept saying over and over, "This is the best cookout ever!" It was great to see the kids having so much fun. It was great to learn that sitting in the rain can be magical. I'm sure it would have been nice to have a great sunny Memorial Day, but I'm also sure we'll never forget our cookout in the rain.
And when it rains on your parade look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. -Jerry Chin

Frantic for Food Storage

I really can't say exactly what caused it, it was probably a combination of many things: my neighbor's recent stock piling of food, threats of a potential trucker strike, rising food costs, claims of supposed food shortages, or probably even just guilt that my food storage is for the most part non-existent. At any rate, after an Enrichment Night on Preparedness, I wasn't feeling all that prepared. Fortunately, my neighbor and I were both very motivated so we decided to take a trip to Idaho Falls. It was quite the shopping trip. At Sam's Club each of us had our own flatbed filled. In fact, at one point, I think more items were falling off than were staying on. I finally decided to go get each of us another cart. I took this picture of Connie, but I need to say that this was taken way too early. Once the chaos ensued, pictures weren't on the forefront of my mind. I finally made it out with 2 carts and a flatbed. Not too bad! We got plenty of odd looks and many comments too which surprised me. No, we don't own a daycare! Yes, this is all for my family! Yes, I do live far away! etc, etc. It seems like there should be a better system for shopping. Put everything in the cart only to take it out at the register, to put it back in the cart, so you can take it out of the cart again when you get to your car. Whatever! We hadn't had enough yet, and there was still about 2 square feet of space in my Yukon, so we headed to Winco. It was my first time there and WOW, they've got some great deals. Well, load up another cart (way too full ), empty it again, load it again (it never all fits in the same way), and empty it again into the now very tightly packed car. After a mere 8 hours of driving and cart loading and unloading, we managed to make it home by 2am, only to have cars to unload and a whole Saturday organizing my bomb shelter (a nickname given to our cold storage by the workers on our house). Next on our list is a trip for the husbands to buy wheat! They're a little skeptical of our sudden urgency to increase our food storage, but they're trying to keep the mockery to a minimum. How does that saying go? Don't bite the hand that feeds you?! Nah, all kidding aside, there's a definite comfort to knowing that I have food for my family should a need arise.

By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.

-Ben Franklin

Catching Water Skippers!

I'm in the kitchen talking on the phone when I look out and see my girls and a couple friends trying to catch water skippers. This is not out of the ordinary in any way. Cambrie and Tatum both love bugs and have been waiting for the snow to melt so they could see their water skipper friends again. The only thing unusual on this day is Tatum and Sophia's choice of attire. I thought they looked so adorable out there all dressed up and in the dirt with their buckets that I just had to run out to catch a glimpse. Luckily, they did snag two critters . . . I'm sure the first of many for this Spring and Summer.

A new bridge. . .

Jason came home from work and built this bridge over the small stream on our property. The kids were so excited they all took off outside to check it out. They were out there for almost 2 hours just throwing rocks in the stream and running on the big dirt hill. I'm not sure what they'll do when the dirt hill is gone. We even have 3 trout that call the stream home now.

The Little Dancers

Last night was the big dance recital for Cambrie & Tatum. Cambrie's class danced to Ballerina and Tatum's class danced to the song from the Lion King. They were all little lions and she loved that. She's been looking forward to doing her "Stage Dance" as she called it for weeks. The moms have to take the kids backstage a few dances before their turn, and after I took Tatum back, I thought she was going to run out on the stage. I've never seen her so excited. Jason said he could see her from the audience coming out from behind the curtain. Cambrie was excited too, but with her, it's just time to get down to business. I took her backstage and she saw some friends that were dancing before her so we took a picture. After the pictures, she said I better get to my seat and to be sure to record her dancing. Well, we did get it recorded, so I'm sure we'll be watching it tonight.

1st T-Ball Game

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Cambrie had her first T-ball game today. It was pretty hilarious. 14 little kids on the field and they all swarm like bees wherever the ball is. It should be a pretty fun season. I was a little worried that Tatum would be bummed that she wasn't able to play, but obviously she had a great time just playing in the grass. It's such a novelty when your yard is all dirt!

Cambrie's Grocery List

I am a list person. I have several lists going at any given time: things to do today, things to do whenever, things to buy, things to remember, etc. I think Cambrie has picked up on this because today she presented me with her grocery list. Since we moved into our new home, we have done away with the magnetic pad that was always on our fridge - it won't work on the wood! She has mentioned on several occasions that we will not know what to buy at the store if we don't have a list, so I guess she decided to help me out.

Translation:

Fruit roll ups

Trix

Yogurt

Chips (different kind)

Clifford Soup

Fruity Pebbles

Nesquik

Chocolate **Note that this very important item was spelled correctly**

Macaroni and Cheese

Apples

Stuff to make chili

Corn

That's It!

Of course that's it! What else could a 6 year old possibly need?!

DIRT ALERT!

Well, here's part of our yard. You guessed it, it's all dirt. Actually no, there's a little mud, rocks and some water too. It seems to be perfect though. Jake sat for hours the other day throwing rocks into a puddle before plopping down in it himself.

I thought this quote was appropriate.

Dirt is not dirty,

only something in the wrong place.

Friends Forever!

Cambrie was so excited when she heard that Kenidee (our next door neighbor from Utah) was coming to visit. She marked it on her calendar and counted down the days. They had so much fun playing. They finished the day off digging up worms to take to the fishing pond with their dads. Here they are with one of their catches.

Daddy's Little Helpers

Now that we're in our new home, Jason's been working on getting his garage organized. He had plenty of help when he decided to build some shelves. I couldn't resist grabbing my camera.