School is out...for the kids anyway

This past week was a lot more calm than the rest of the weeks in May.  On Monday, Colten played in his first tournament game for baseball.  The team had a bye the last week of the season...I don't think that worked in our favor as it was about 10 days since they had played their last game.  It also didn't help that they had to wait an hour for their game to start due to the previous game being tied.  Our game didn't start until almost 8:30pm...that's a late night for those boys.  They played their hearts out.  Colten got a walk his first at bat.  Then stole bases to get to third.  Then a teammate brought him home with a triple.  He has learned quite a bit about baseball this year.  Same with me as apparently there are specific rules for little league play.  Aspen went to her last gymnastics class until August.  She says she is learning a lot...I think she just needs a little more confidence.

The kids were both excited for school to be over.  Colten found out who his teacher will be for next year, Mrs. Fuchs.  I don't think he was too excited about that but hopefully she can win him over.  I am excited for him to be in her classroom.  Based on the note she sent home, she understands the growth mindset.  Maybe between the two of us, we can help Colten change some of his fixed mindset habits.  Both of the kids earned their Eagles medallions along with a few other awards.  They got little coupon for places to eat so we'll have to make sure to use those this summer.

On Friday, we headed north.  First stop was in Cedar for our annual eye appointments with Dr. Albrecht.  I just love him and trust him with my eyes.  I had had the thought that maybe we needed to try and see if Colten would be able to get contacts since he will be playing tackle football this fall.  The doctor agreed and fitted him for them.  It will take some time for him to get used to them.  And he needs a lot of practice putting them in but he'll get there.  Aspen had a lot of change in her right eye so hopefully her new glasses will help her see better.  I learned that I have an astigmatism in my right eye.  Because my eyes are so bad, the astigmatism needs a different type of lense.  Lucky me.  We were at the eye doctor for about 2 hours...yikes!

After the Cedar we continued heading north to Richfield.  We were staying the night with Grandpa Higgins and Sheila.  I haven't been to Richfield in almost 5 years...not a whole lot has changed.  It was a nice evening with Grandpa and Sheila.  Grandpa took the kids out for a ride on Sheila's razorback and apparently let the kids drive.  They sure do love their Grandpa Higgins.  Sheila and I went for a walk and had a nice talk about life.

Saturday morning, we got up and got ready for the baptism.  Parker, Holly's oldest boy, was getting baptized.  I learned that Siri doesn't do too well in small towns...or that small towns are all messed up.  Kind of got lost on the way to the church but luckily Sheila knew right where I was and got me to the church.  The kids were excited to see their dad and his family but they were nice to sit by me during the baptism.  We went to the luncheon afterwards where Kody made an awesome mountain man breakfast and they had a few other treats.  All in all it was a good day and Parker was just glowing.  He had quite a few people there supporting him.

After the luncheon, the kids went with their dad for some of his summer time and I headed up to Provo and then eventually Stansbury Park.  I stopped in Provo to go to the Provo City Center temple.  I always am nervous to go to a new temple but am slowly learning that it isn't that bad...just ask directions.  I didn't quite make it on time to do an endowment session so I did initatories.  I have only done initatiories at the St. George temple so it was fun to see how this temple did it.  Afterwards, I climbed the two flights of stairs to go visit the celestial room.  It was beautiful (but what celestial room isn't).  I had the realization that no matter what temple I am in, I always feel at home.  I am so grateful for this past year where I have been able to truly focus on the gospel and the aspects of my life that needed a little bit of changing so I could focus on that more.  I don't always love my calling of teaching in Primary but I am grateful for it as I am relearning the things that I don't remember from my youth.  I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and I am hopefully doing things that are pleasing to Him...I see the blessings in my life that He has given me so I believe that He is pleased.

After the temple, I headed up to Marilyn's.  They spent the day at the lake with their family so they weren't there but I was able to relax, go for a walk, watch a little TV and see them momentarily before heading to bed.

All in all, it was a great week.  I have 8 more days of working before my summer break begins.  Hopefully, those days fly by because I am definitely ready for it.

Aspen graduates from elementary school

And I couldn't be there :'( I was up in Springville for the last session of SAGE testing but my mom and Hollee were able to be there.  Aspen worked hard this year and earned the Give Me Liberty award.  She learned a lot of different facts about America.  She has been enjoying her last days of parties and doing little jobs around the school.  She is excited to move on but I think she is also a little sad to be leaving elementary school.  She is down to her last 4 days.

Mrs. Tui sent me this picture from when someone visited their class with clothes from military university to try on.

She has found a youtube channel called Art Club Hub where this family draws little cartoon characters/things.  She has sat down over the past 3 days and just watches the videos and just draws right along with them.  She has a talent for drawing.  She has inspired her brother to sit down and draw as well.  I hope to get her into some art lessons in the fall.

Colten hasn't sat down for as long as Aspen but here are a few of his drawings plus them sitting together watching movies on the laptop.  They were not arguing but getting along which is such a sweet sight for me.

On Facebook, Dixie Direct was giving away some tickets to the Brigham Playhouse for their show of "Bye bye Birdie"...well I won 2 tickets so the kids and I went on Saturday.  I had never been to the Playhouse before but we will definitely be returning.  It was a cute little theater.  The show wasn't my favorite but still good.  Colten won a cookie that he didn't share at all :p  Aspen and I got some treats instead.  Aspen wants to go back to their mystery play so we'll see if we can do that.

Colten was mad that he didn't have anything to drink and wasn't going to take a good picture.  Oh well haha

Aspen let me three barrel her hair on Sunday...I haven't done her hair much in the last couple of years so it was fun to be able to do it.  She is growing up too fast.

Oh my word....

Well last week was one for the books.  It is almost a blur.  Aspen finished up her softball season with a double header.  She played her heart out.  But the first words out of her mouth were "I want to play soccer." haha  I think she had fun playing but it is starting to get a little too competitive for her.  She doesn't really care about winning or losing, which I had that quality.  She had an awesome coach this year and some really great teammates.

She is winding down her last year of elementary school as well.  She has completed all of her SAGE testing.  She increased her ELA and Science but went down in math.  She has passed off her Give me Liberty packet and has her graduation tomorrow.  I can't believe that she is almost done with elementary school.  My little girl is growing up :'(

Colten is enjoying life.  His latest thing is Beyblades.  He has found other kids in his grade that also like them.  He was taking them to school...until they got banned from school haha.  He got money from his Grandma Karla for his birthday and he knew exactly what he was going to do with it....yup he bought a beyblade.  We had his birthday party this past weekend and it was a beyblade party.  He got 3 new beyblades and was super excited.  Who knew that these things would entertain 10 boys for 2 hours?

Baseball season is going pretty good.  His team finally found their groove and has been doing much better.  Colten had a double play last week.  He caught the ball and tagged the runner.  Unfortunately, I wasn't there to see it but Grandma Chris was.  She said it was pretty cool.  Their team has made it into the tournament so baseball will continue on for another week.  At least I will be able to see him play in those games.

This past week I think I have spent more time with the I-15 freeway than I have at home haha.  Our school decided to try out grade level testing to help improve scores.  Get into an environment that the kids could be comfortable with and teachers they actually know.  There was a scheduling problem and it cause me to come up to Salt Lake for 3 days and then to Springville for 3 days.  It is a little rough but it was fun to see my students.  Testing (even though I am not the one taking the test) always wears a person out.  But I am almost done and then only have a few more days of school.

This past Saturday was filled with parties.  We had Colten's birthday party so I spent the morning getting things ready for that.  Mind you, I arrived home Friday night around 10:30pm so I had nothing prepared.  Then Aspen had a friend's party to go to that evening.  And Colten went to a friends party on Saturday night.  So lots of partying here at the end of the school year.

Aspen helped me make the cupcakes for the party.  Well I distracted her while she was cracking eggs...she missed on one of them.  Haha never talk to Aspen when she is cooking.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  The kids gave me my gifts early.  Each of them had something from school that they had done.  Aspen made bath balms at achievement days that week so she gave me one of those and a cute card she drew and a very nice letter.  Colten gave me a packet of questions he had answered.  At church they handed out Utah truffles...yummy!!!!  They did that last year as well.  I love my ward.  The kids both came up to me after church with things that they had made in Primary.  They were little superhero chocolate bars.  It was so cute.

Then we headed over to the parental units house for dinner.  I was attempting to make a strawberry pretzel jello salad.  It turned out to be very delicious and I could have eaten the whole pan of it.  We watched "Love, Kennedy" and then played some games before heading home.  It was a great Mother's Day.

Great start to May!

Keeping busy does make the days go by much faster.  I can't believe that we are already in May and the kids have less than 20 days of school left.  This week was a pretty calm week in regards to activities.  Aspen didn't have any extra curricular things besides gymnastics.  Colten was supposed to have a game on Wednesday but they canceled it due to rain/muddy field.  I was more than grateful not to have to sit through another cold game.  Other parents were upset they called the game early because the sun came out just as the game would have started.  Oh well - I wasn't haha.  We did spend Wednesday night watching "Love, Kennedy" while Colten worked on a Star Wars puzzle he found.  Holly and I cried our eyes out but Aspen loved the movie.  Thursday Colten was able to attend scouts and made some pretty cool mazes.  Since he has had baseball on Thursday he hasn't been able to attend much.  But he was happy he could go this time. 

Our Friday/Saturday schedule was not as relaxed as our weekday schedule this week.  On Friday night, the kids and I volunteered for the IronMan kids.  I had volunteered last year and asked if the kids wanted to do it with me this year, they both agreed.  I learned that I didn't need to abide by the times from when we signed up.  I knew a little bit from last year but we were still there early.  Luckily the kids had brought their dinner and sat and played a little in the river at the splash pad.  When the time came closer, we went to the finish line to help make sure everything was set up.  The kids had fun handing out the medals to the kids.  But Colten said "I would have rather ran in the ran than volunteer".  I told him he could run in it next year.

Saturday was a busy day.  I got up early to go to the temple.  Then Colten had baseball practice.  After lunch we headed out to our IronMan run aide station.  It took a little bit longer to find the right cop to let us through but we eventually got there.  The kids had a blast while the athletes were running by.  They stood and yelled "Water, water"  or "Ice, Ice".  It didn't take them long to have an athlete give them the red wristband signifying "Favorite volunteer".  I had made sure to bring plenty of food and water but US Bank took care of the volunteers at the aid station.  They ordered Chick fil A sandwiches and cookies.  Then they also had drinks but I made my kids drink water mostly.  It was plenty warm out (90 degrees).  The kids did really good until the athletes were coming few and far between.  But by 4:00 most of the athletes had passed and there were just stragglers so we were told we could go home.  We headed home to cool off for about 30 minutes before heading back out to the volunteer dinner they had.  It was pretty fun but unfortunately we couldn't stay the entire time.  I was scheduled up at Tuacahn that night.  Colten did get to participate in the bottle flipping contest, although he didn't win.  He couldn't use his strategy, which is to only flip the bottle 1/2 turn and I told him the object is to flip it a full turn.  The kids had fun and are wanting to do it again next year. 

I quickly dropped the kids off at home and headed up to Tuacahn for my volunteer shift up there.  It was for the Jay Leno show.  I didn't know what to expect out of the Jay Leno show.  I wasn't too impressed.  There were some funny parts but overall I would be alright not seeing him again.

All in all it was a great week.  Sunday has been spent relaxing and watching Living Scriptures.  Grandma and Grandpa are coming over for dinner in a little bit.  Hopefully we will hear about their trip a little too.  This next week is a busy week as I am headed up north for school testing....yay :)