The Last Day of School

I am so glad that school is out!! And maybe I won't feel that way in a few weeks, but for now, I don't have to remember homework at the last minute anymore and no more stupid reading minutes looming over my head. Sleeping in!!! Time to relax (kind of :)). Charity and Kelly are not as excited as I am, but I'm sure they'll find sleeping in and playing all day a nice break soon enough.
They had a really nice last day of school yesterday. I got to go to Kelly's class during the last hour. They had moved the chairs outside under a nice shady tree and the kids all had their little "Me" books and then bound copies of all the "books" they have written this year. It was so fun to just sit there and look at Kelly's work over the year, how much she's improved and grown. And then to read her books that she's written herself. They're just adorable! I had no idea they were doing that at school, but now it makes sense why she was so into doing that at home. They did a cute little page at the end of each book titled "About the Author" and it had facts about Kelly. SO CUTE!! I loved it. So after we read her stuff, Mrs. Holbrook said some really sweet things about the kids, then she passed out frisbees for them to decorate and then Kelly and I got to play frisbee together for a while. It was really fun for me. I completely spaced bringing my camera since I had been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off all morning trying to get the boys ready and situated with a sitter.... but my friend/former young woman leader/mother of a kid in Kelly's class shared her camera and took a few of Kelly and I.... I'll have to post them when I get them. But anyway. It was a fun time. After the frisbee we sat back down in the circle and Mrs. Holbrook passed out more goodies for the kids and a book to "feed their brains" with during the summer, and then she excused the kids to gather up all their belongings from the classroom. It was such a neat thing. I loved being there with Kelly. I really can't believe she's done with Kindergarten. That was a fast year. I can only imagine how fast the rest will go. She's done so well though. Her teacher seemed pretty sad to see Kelly leave, she cried when she hugged her and that almost made me cry. I know Kelly meant a lot to her and I know that she meant a lot to Kelly. It is tough to have to give up this perfect teacher only to reach back into the bin of teachers and hope you pull out a good one for next year. We've enjoyed this class too. So anyway. Kelly's really happy to call herself a first grader now :)
Charity had a nice day too. I don't know as much about her day.... but she was very HUGGIE after school.....she went around and hugged everyone around her about a million times each. She was excited to show me her yearbook and all of her "Autographs" :) It's cute that they JUST sign their names at this age :) I'm still trying to understand why these little paperback yearbooks can cost so much, but I'll keep my complaints to myself I guess :) not ruin the moment. Charity's friend Liza had a little end of the year party at her house. She was a little late, but she got to do the whip cream fight, the water fight, played in the playhouse, jumped on mattresses at the end of the stairs.... I mean this was a FUN party!!! I just met the mom who threw it a few days ago and she's my new idol. I just think she's really sweet and such a fun mom.
So anyway. That was the last day. I am seriously so excited for summer it's funny! No more driving to the school 3 times a day.... that's probably the best thing of all! AND I get to have my sweet, helpful girls home with me all day again!! I do love that.
Happy Summer Everyone!

Thanks Aunt Becky!

Nate's sister gave us her cute whale wading pool. We were dying to try it out, so even though it was starting to get overcast on Monday evening, we couldn't resist. The kids were FREEZING! I really doubt that it was even close to 80, but I think we kind of blew that ol' rule out the window in AK, sorry Mom. Anyway. I took like 100 pictures (NOT exaggerating! in fact I think it was 2 over) and as you know I'm not a decision maker so I put most of them on here :) I LOVE summer/water/swimsuits pictures. They're just fun. So here you go :)

cute Noah was cold, but he kept going back for more

He didn't like being IN the pool though

Brad was a crack up.... he just kept making us laugh

I love this one because you can see Noah trying to dip his foot in. HA HA! that didn't go over too well. And Luke's little crack- he needs some more bumb to hold up his trunks.

Kelly braved the water and put her whole head under

Luke's funny in the water..... pretty much fearless.

he loves this action photo of himself. I love the arms! HA!

I don't know if you noticed Luke's change of swim suit. He actually POOPED in his first one!!! Luckily we caught him before he got back in but I HATE poop in the boys' swimsuits..... with the mesh lining and everything...... GROSS!!!! Nate's my hero for taking care of it for us.

I need to frame this picture and hang it in my room.... I LOVE IT!!

Look! Noah's standing on his own!! He only does it when he thinks we're not looking usually :)

I like this one too.... Noah was pretty enthralled with himself in the window. And his cute big brother made it even more fun.

It's so cold they don't even want to sit down! sad.....

brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

awwwwww!!! Kelly's so sweet with Noah! (I know I always say that)

Charity's a goof in the pool too..... thank goodness her cast is waterproof! I don't know what she would've done! Well, I do know! She would have been crying during all of the pool fun!

we were trying to find my dad's attachments for his air compressor to pump this sucker up, but we couldn't find it, so Nate ended up blowing the whole thing up HIMSELF!!!! We are attributing his illness to that. He's been deathly ill ever since..... poor guy! But what a cool dad to sacrifice his lungs for his children. Thanks again Becky for the pool..... I will probably get millions of more pictures of them out there.... try not to post so many next time though :)

I forgot to mention this....

Charity won a soda pop for spelling Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for her teacher :) Apparently it was like this big deal for the end of the year and Charity pulled it off :) I was pretty proud of her, and she was too, gotta document it :)

Stowell Reunion

Saturday was my Mom's, Mom's family's reunion. The Stowell Family Reunion. We went up to North Canyon Park and had a nice relaxing time there. I liked that it was really low-key. My kids just played on the playground the whole time. I was a little annoyed because things got messed up with our lunch, Nate had our money and was still at work until an hour later, so we had to wait for our lunch while everyone ate..... okay with me...... not okay with my kids. So basically we bummed food off of everyone else and then wasted the food that Nate so painstakingly brought to us (the people at the Bountiful Quiznos are in SLOW MOTION). That's all my complaining for now :) Grandpa read one of his funny old English stories that we all love so much. He's good at humoring all of us. And we sang happy birthday to him and ate cake for his 80th birthday that is tomorrow. I seriously can't believe he is 80! I remember my great-grandparents' 80th birthday party!! It's just weird. Anyway, I will ramble on more about that later since he's having a party soon. It was great to see everyone there. I really skimped on the pictures and the other few that I got were just lame, so this is it :) One happy little picture to jog my memory of the event :) Better luck next year.

Date with Luke

these are late. From my date with Luke. We had so much fun. Good times.

He got really messy with his ice cream. Normally this wouldn't fly with Mommy..... he took advantage of me :)