4th of July

For the 4th we went up north to visit our family.  I really wanted to go garage sailing with my sis and mom so Thane dropped me off at 6 in the morning at my mom's house and went to the mountain to paraglide.  Well, he tried, the wind wouldn't cooperate.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun finding some baby boy stuff!  Here we are on a hike past Kiwanis Park in Pleasant Grove .  At the top of the trail there is a waterfall called Battle Creek Falls.  WOW, you're all hot and sweaty when you get to the falls, then you are freezing when you get there from the mist that the falls create.  The kids can play around the base of the falls because it's pretty flat and really shallow! It's beautiful and a really easy hike for kids, just keep a hold of them because it's shale and a little slippery.  These pictures were taken with my phone, so they aren't the best. :(

Here we are on the way back down, washing off our legs and playing in the freezing cold water!

We had a really nice picnic at a park down the road from the hike and the kids played on the playground and the grown up's sat around and talked.  My kind of party! :)  Here we are in front of my mom's house setting off smoke bombs.

My niece Amber and her little cutie Siana, with a sparkler.  Right after this picture, the sparkler went out and Siana grabbed the hot end and burned herself :(

God lit up the sky with his version of the fireworks too.

We roasted marshmallows on the deck and made s'mores, YUM!

Just hangin' out with Nana.  We watched the PG fireworks from the deck, it was a perfect holiday.  My favorite so far.  After the fireworks, there was no traffic to deal with, like at the stadium of fire :D

The Arrow of Light!

Tait received the highest honor the Cub Scouts gives, The Arrow of Light.  He worked really hard and had a lot of fun through the process of earning it.  Here I am reading a part of the ceremony to them.  They had war stripes painted on their face for every step they took closer to the bridge which leads them to Boy Scouts where his dad was waiting for him.  We are lucky that Thane is the 11 year old scout leader.

Here I was giving him his yellow stripe.

And here he received his arrow of light certificate and actual arrow.

And he is pinning the mom's pin on me. (because you all know, it's the mom who does most of the work, right! ;)

Here Tait is walking over the bridge to scouts.  The bottom step is Cubs, the top is the arrow of light, and the last step is Boy Scouts.

Here they are on the other side of the bridge with their new Scout leaders.

Summer Strings and Playing at the Splash Pad...

Here is Tait waiting for the recital to start... with is friend Carter.  Tait is very excited to learn more about playing the cello.  This was his first ever class, and they played songs like, Twinkle Twinkle, Hot Cross Buns, and Twinkle Twinkle ;)

Carter, Emery, Tait, Amara, Evey, Caden, Sinjin, Tiernan and Ella.  What a handsome bunch of kids :)

Yes, they used real red rock in this splash pad, isn't it lovely?  I can never wash it out of their suits!

They all decided to finger paint with the red sand!

And this is how they get their hands dirty...

Tait's Favorite Birthday Present!

The Mountain Board!!  Here he is out in the rain (yes, it actually rained in St. George!) having a blast.  Our neighborhood has the perfect slant to the roads to learn on.  He was generous enough to let his siblings try it out too.

After practicing on the easy stuff, we had to go and try it out the next day on the dirt hills behind our house!

Here is THANE trying it out first to make sure it's safe :)  So far so good...

oh,oh...

Oh NO!!!  Yeah, he scraped up his elbow pretty badly!!

And Tait finally gets a turn :)

And Amara of course was mad that Thane had to hold on to her... Sinjin was a little scared and Tiernan would go down the hill at all!  If that doesn't show their personality traits, I don't know what does!

Tait's 11!

Tait is not a cub anymore, he is a scout.  I can't believe it!!  Here he is in the morning on his Birthday on June 9th with his presents (well some of them, one came later!)  That thing on his leg is not an injury, it's a Hex Bug :)

Later that day the Hancocks came over with a YUMMY birthday brownie for Tait with candles and everything!  They are such great friends!  Melanie (the mom) is Tait's piano teacher and her son Carter is Tait's best friend.  We talk a lot about the Hancocks on this blog :)

For Tait's Birthday Party, he decided he wanted to do a Minute to Win it theme, so we had a lot of fun coming up with the games.

 The object of this game is to blow a ping pong ball from one cup to the other while they are filled with water!  It was hilarious!!  But they were really good at it!

Here they had a piece of spaghetti and they had to thread ziti onto it using only their mouths!

Pretzel fishing with a sticky gummy worm... pretty funny cause it kept getting stuck on the container.  After they caught the pretzel, they had to eat it.

Balancing a soda can with pop in it...

And here is Tait's choice of  birthday cake!  2 dozen doughnuts!!

I think from now on, Tait's birthday parties will NOT be held at our house.  11-18 year old boys are way to noisy and hyper!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAIT!!

Last Day of School!

I know I am a little late posting this since it is July 14th and school got out May 27th :)  But better late then never, right?  I can't believe Tait has officially finished his last year of Elementary school :(  I am so sad and happy to see him getting older.  He has turned into a great young man and we love him to death!  Here he is with his best friend Carter waiting for the awards ceremony to begin.  It was Hawaiian day that day also.

All of my kids received an award that day!   I was lucky to not have to deal with hurt feelings of someone who didn't get something!  Tiernan received the Outstanding Academic Excellence in Social Studies, Science and Total Composite from the Iowa Test.  She loves school and we are excited to challenge her more in the Charter school next year.  I hope she will thrive!  They only do these tests in 3rd and 5th grade.

Tait received the Outstanding Academic Excellence in Reading. Surprise Surprise~~  It's a punishment to take his reading time away!  One of the many things I love about him :)  He is now off to Intermediate School where there is only 6th and 7th grade!  It's so awesome, I'm so excited for him.  He is excited to play more sports and play the cello.

There aren't any academic awards for 1st grade, but Amara received the Outstanding Citizen Award for her class!!  They only gave out a handful of these to the whole 1st grade, so that really say's something about her character I think.  She is such a loving and helpful person.  She always makes sure everyone has a friend and that everyone is fair.

Here is the 5th grade doing the annual march down the hall.  They turn on Pomp & Circumstance (the graduation song) and all of the classes line up against the wall for the 5th graders to march and give high fives.  Very emotional for me, cause I would always be there watching other kids graduating, but now it's Tait :(  I couldn't get a good picture of Tait, partly because he was running, and partly because he was embarrassed by me trying to get a picture.  But he is right behind his friend Carter in this picture.

Here he is running by in a blur :)

We are excited and nervous about school next year with the little ones going to the Charter school with uniforms and sack lunches, and Tait moving on to bigger and better things in Intermediate school, but we will get by and I'm sure it will be a great experience!