Last Day of Kindergarten

 Last Friday was Matthew's last day of kindergarten!  Has it been a year already?

He loved kindergarten and I think it prepared him well for 1st grade next year.

Here we are leaving the house for the last day.

 And getting ready to go into his class

They had a little graduation ceremony in his class.  Each kid got to read a short (couple sentence) paper on what they want to be when they grow up.  It was very cute.  Matthew said he wanted to be an eye doctor and see patients.  He said he would give them an eye exam.

 Here he is with his paper.  He also drew a picture of someone getting an eye exam.

 All the kindergarteners getting ready to sing

 They sang a last day of kindergarten song for us.

 Here are some of us at the graduation.

 Matthew and his teacher, Mrs. Stevens

 I tried to take a picture of Matthew by this display that said Class of 2025

And my visitor pass.  I only took a picture because I remember I took a picture of my visitor pass when I took him to his first day of kindergarten.  That was just days after John was born and Scott deployed...and before we knew we would be moving this summer.  What a year it has been.  We only made it through with the help of many loving family members and friends.

See pictures from his first day of kindergarten HERE.

And here is Matthew the graduate.  Kindergarten was a great experience for him and I hope school continues to be a positive experience for him in the future...on his way to becoming an eye doctor.  ;)  Congratulations Matthew!!

Scrapbooks

The past few weeks the kids and I have been working on their scrapbooks quite a bit.  They are old enough that they can do a lot of it by themselves.  I started a scrapbook for each of them when they were little and we have so much new stuff to add!  Here is a T-Ball page Matthew made.  I write the little blurb for him and he picked the paper and attached it all with double stick tape.

 Getting his soccer page ready

 Another soccer page.  I helped a little with this one.

 Swim Lessons.  He did this by himself.

Gymnastics.  He made this page using pocket pages and pocket page inserts (like Becky Higgins Project Life) from Me and My Big Ideas (available at Michaels).  Easy for kids!  I just found out you can buy the Becky Higgins products at Hobby Lobby too instead of just online.

T-Ball!  My one big hang up about all this is that I want the pages to be chronological.  So when Matthew wanted to put all his T-Ball pictures (from when he was 3 with ones from when he was 5) altogether, it drove me a little crazy.  Also I like for there to be a description of what it was and what happened, something he liked etc.  So I'm trying to find a balance between that and letting them do it themselves.

 Here is a kindergarten picture Matthew did, with my help.

 More kindergarten

 A pre-k page Anna made.

 And a Valentine's page Anna made

In true Anna fashion she doesn't want me to help her at all.

So she wrote the titles on all her pages.

 This one says "I love my birthday."

She doesn't want to accept spelling help either.  Hmmm.

Another Valentine page she made.  The binder I've had for her since she was a baby mysteriously got broken on this day...so we have to get a new one.  I think someone may have stepped on it or something.

Anna wrote "second time playing T-Ball" and "I love T-Ball." She also drew a little picture.  Scott suggested I write what happened or the dates on a little sticky note and put it on the back of the page.  I think that sounds like a good solution.  He always has good solutions.  :)

 The kids are really excited about working on their books, so I like that.

 And they are both getting lots of writing practice

Here is a page Anna is working on about her 3 year old mermaid birthday party.  Some of you may have been there...it was in Oregon a couple summers ago.

And I tried to get a few of Grant's baby pages done while we were working on this.  I am not really that into scrapbooking.  I don't have a knack for making things look pretty (not one of my talents), but I do like having a nice picture book to remember all these special memories and for the kids to look at.  Also I don't have time to sit and work on scrapbooks much...unless the kids are doing it with me.  So this has been fun.

Great Sand Dunes

We went to Great Sand Dunes National Park this past weekend.  It's a couple hours south of Colorado Springs.  I'd never been there before and we'd heard its best to go around May when the spring run off is coming down through the sand dunes.

I liked this sign at the turn off for the park.  It says Great Sand Dunes and has a big arrow...pointing right at this giant pile of sand.  Well, seen it.  Let's go home.  :) I don't know why that pile of sand it there, but I thought it was funny.

 Here are the real sand dunes...they are far off as we drive in

So big.

 At the visitor center

 And at the actual sand dunes

 Johnny got a free ride

This is Medano Creek that goes right through the sand dunes.  It gets bigger and smaller depending on the season and the snow melt.  While we were there it was never more than ankle deep.  Great for wading across for little people.  It was in the 60s with a bit of a breeze.  I felt cold and the kids did too.  We still waded a little bit.

Here are Anna and Matthew wading across.  A lot of people bring sleds or sand boards to ride down the dunes.  Of course you have to hike up them first which is not easy.  We just played in the water today.

 Grant didn't want to get his feet wet or sandy.  But he did want me to carry him around.

He was quite bossy about it.

Me trying to put Grant down.  When I first took off his shoes (which he asked me to do) he felt the sand and then climbed my legs like a crazed animal up a tree.  Every time I tried to put him down he would somehow avoid putting his feet on the ground.

 Playing in the water.  I thought the water would be freezing...but it wasn't.

 Grant definitely thought he was driving me today.

 Trying to put him down again.  Part way through he said he wanted to try putting his feet in the water.  But he wasn't that crazy about it after he tried it.

 It was breezy

 Grant felt better with sunglasses on.

We had so much fun at the sand dunes.  It's a must do if you are in that part of Colorado!

Fathers and Sons Campout

This past weekend was the annual Fathers and Sons camp out at our church.  For various reasons Scott hasn't been able to go to Fathers and Sons with Matthew before.  He's been out of town, on vacation with the family, broken legged and one time in Okinawa the camp out was rained out.  But this year he was able to go and he took Matthew and Grant (Grant is just barely two).  They were all very excited to go.  Here they are getting ready to head off.

And Anna giving them a send off.  Anna had a list of Mommy/Anna things she wanted to do while they were gone, including going to get our nails painted and getting YoYogurt.  It had already been a busy day - we had Matthew's field day, swimming lessons in which Matthew and Anna have lessons, I swim with Grant and John goes in the YMCA child watch for an hour...then I madly dress everyone, go pick up John and go home.  I was tired, but Anna and I did go get our nails painted, then to YoYogurt, then to Wendy's and home to watch a short movie.  Then I had a nice shower and went right to bed.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains of southern Colorado, Matthew and Grant waited while Dad put up the tent in the dark.  I hear they tried to help, but may or may not have been too helpful as flashlight holders.

The guys all brought snacks for the "cracker barrel" and then got to have a snack fest just before bed.  Matthew said that was his favorite part.  I do feed him.

 I think Grant was excited to go on a big boy outing.

 Matthew had lots of fun playing with the other boys

He's in the camo jacket here.

And in the sleeping bag.  They used the lantern from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler!  It was very useful.

Grant reportedly had some trouble going to sleep.  I was hoping he would be extra tired after our busy day.

 Matthew getting snuggled in for sleep.

He was nice and warm in his sleeping bag.

Grant eventually went to sleep.

 In the morning they played around some more and had breakfast

 Here's the tent.  Easier to see by daylight.

 They had a nice feast of pancakes, peaches, bagels and bananas.  Yum.

 There was this big pile of sticks that a lot of the boys were playing on.

 Here's Grant playing

 And here's Matthew with one of his church friends, Jojo.

 Here's Grant helping clean up camp

 And Matthew...he found a big stick I guess.  :)

On the way out they saw some different wildlife, including this fox and her babies (extra points for spotting the babies in the bottom right corner).  The boys had a great time camping and I'm sure they will be excited to go again next year.  Anna is already planning what us girls will do next year too.