5th Grade Pool Party

The 5th Grade has awesome activities for they're going off to Middle School Celebration. One that the PTO (school) does not sponsor is the Pool Party. It's funded completely by local business donations and parents of the kids. They Committee rents the local pool, there's pizza, ice cream, sodas, they get T-shirts and all sorts of crazy stuff. And it's totally free for the kiddos.

One of the highlights of the evening is the Dunk Tank. All the 5th Grade teachers had 30 min time slots so the kids knew when to come dunk their teacher. They even had the Principal (shown here) take her turn. The kids were in 7th Heaven. This is the main play area at the pool. This bucket fills every 10 mins or so then...

dumps all over the kids. The pool also has diving boards and big water slides.

Needless to say it was a good evening, it went from 6:30-9:30 and was the 2nd to last day of school, so these kids were tired the next day.

Shown here is Kody (the dark one), London (goggles on his head), and Sean (with the big smile).

Boys will be boys. The committee had beach balls filling the pool, so there were many of those flying around. London has the ball over his head, with Westly holding the blue ball and Tyler Echard in between.

London's 5th Grade Awards Ceremony

Video: Sici playing on Phone

Video: London's Awards Ceremony

5th Grade Talent Show

So forever ago I told you all London made it into the 5th Grade Talent Show. When he had to try out, there were 7 kids trying to make it with the piano. Usually they only pick 1 kid per instrument, but this time the picked 2. London and his good friend Star. And they both were amazing. London did so awesome! He performed in front of the entire school, and they loved it!

Sicily was so excited that she got to watch the Talent Show with Aspen. She felt so big sitting with all those 2nd Graders.

Every time I hear London play it makes me smile. He love the piano, it comes to natural for him. We think he'll go far.

Here's a couple of videos of some of the other performances. A lot of these kids were in London's class. I love the diversity of culture, you just don't get this much variety outside of Houston.

Blesinda doing her Indian Cultural Dance.

Here's the bunch. London's smiling at the camera from underneath the star. They all did so good and it was so fun watching them all.

Gator of the (last) Month

Aspen lucked out and was Gator of the Month for the last month of school. She was so proud, because in 3 years at this school this was the first time she was picked as Gator of the Month. Yeah for our Aspen!

Aspen's 2nd Grade Graduation

Aspen had the BEST teacher ever this year. Mrs. Minshew was the sweetest, nicest, funnest lady ever. She was always quick to give a hug and a kiss, always wrote "I love you!" on Aspens papers, and the coolest part (for the boys) she's also a Black Belt and teaches Karate on the side.

Mrs. Minshew is retiring this year. She's been teaching for 30 years and said it was time to retire when a student came in with an old year book and said, "Look Mrs. Minshew, you taught my Mommy." :)

We are so grateful to have had her as Aspens 2nd Grade teacher. Here's what she had to say about our little Aspen.

Phoenix's Kindergarten Graduation

Phoenix has had the best time this first year of school. He made so many cute little friends, girls fawned all over him and he got multiple notes asking him to be their girlfriend.

But most of all he learned A LOT! Mrs. Timmons was the best teacher for Phoenix. She was sweet and caring, and loved the kids, which in my opinion is the most important thing. I think she's been teaching for some 30+ years, so she really knows her stuff. They learned some of the cutest little songs and performed a bunch of them for us at their graduation. Here's one of my favorites.

He was presented with his little diploma so quickly I couldn't get his smile. Just know he was beaming, and so proud.

Thank you Mrs. Timmons for the best Kindergarten year ever!

Which Way for Memorial Day?

On our way to Surfside Beach for Memorial Day we passed this sign. I thought it was the best street name ever.As we got closer to Surfside though there were a million cars backed up, and cop cars blocking the entrance to the beach. We thought because of the holiday weekend it was just a bit crowded so they were closing up for a while to balance it all out. So we just turned right into some beach house neighborhoods, parked on their road and walked right on to an almost completely empty beach. Perfect.

Come to find out the next day they were closing the beach because there had been a Shark Attack!! An 11 year old girl had been bit on her calf. The shark had decided she was too big for him so it swam away. But with 2 rows of teeth marks they flew her out in a helicopter. We saw the chopper and everything and didn't think anything of it other than the chopper was flying a bit low.

And we were just down the street. Great! We did have a fun day all the same though. It was extremely windy so the waves were really choppy. But that didn't stop our kids from getting in a good swim.

We went with 2 other families with little ones too. Jared didn't take too long to fulfill his favorite job. Love those little babies.

Summer Buzz

School's not even out but summer has come anyway. So out come the clippers and the summer cuts begin. As you can see from Phoenix's ever so happy face, he LOVES to get his hair cut. No I am not hurting him so don't let that face fool you.
As you can see he is happy with the end results. I always love Phoenix with his little bald head.

Stage Crew

Our Elementary School is the greatest in regards to all their extra curricular activities. London's had lot of opportunities to be in plays, skits and shows. This time around though, he volunteered as Stage Crew for the 4th Grade Choir Concert, even got his name highlighted in the program.
This isn't all of them, but the few I could get to hold still. These kids had to have good citizenship in their school classes in order to even be considered to help out. I don't think London was all that sad that he was the only boy who actually passed the test.

His main job was to move the mics back and forth through out the show. But in the back of the picture here, you can see a "Steam Boat," the pipes at least. At the end of the show they had the whole choir up front and London got to help push the Steam Boat all over the stage behind the kids. He said this wasn't his favorite job because the dry ice "Steam" smoke that came out of the top would sometimes splash on them. Poor Stage Crew, you never know what they got through till you're one of them.
This is our friend Jacob Strathearn, who was actually in the Concert. He had a bigger role and got to dance with the prettiest girl and sing some cute Ye Ha! kind of songs. It was fun to watch his High School age siblings laughing and enjoying his performance.

Bee Hive Farmers

Our back neighbor friend. Cody, frequently hops the fence to come over to play instead of walking all the way around the block to get to our house. But after a few weeks of him actually coming to the front door, I asked him what was up.

"Oh, there's a bee hive in our back yard so my mom won't let me play out there."

What?

A few days later the kids were sent inside by some Bee Farmers who had come to collect the hive. We had a lot of fun watching them from the upstairs windows.

The first thing they did was smoke them out. When they blow this smoke on them it make them more docile and sleepy. Supposedly.
Once the bees were separating themselves from the hive the Farmers literally vacuumed them up. I thought it was hilarious. Sucked them right into a 5 gallon bucket.

This is the closest shot I got . You can see the 5-6 honey combs that the bees were all attached to. Still vacuuming as you can see.

Once they sucked them all up they took each section of the honeycomb and attached it to squares of wood. They then slid these squares into a box which would become the new "hive."
They set this new box/hive on top of the neighbors tool box. They then let all the bees out of their 5 gallon bucket so they could find their new home. They left the box there until the next day then came and took it to their new home. Kind of neat.

Lunch Anyone?

Sicily's not always into actually eating her lunch. There are times when the combination of food is only something a 3 year old would eat. Today was a prime example of that. Left over Mac and Cheese and a rather ripe Banana. She loved most of it, but when she was done, she was done. :)

After Effects of the Sleepover

I used to stay up late at sleepovers. But "late" for me meant 10:00, if you were lucky 11:00. London takes this to the extreme. His past 2 sleepovers have been all nighters. This last one took it's toll at around 10:30 the next morning. While practicing his piano this is what I found. Yes! He is zonked out. He slept here for a good 45 mins, then moved to the couch for the next 3 hours.
Sleep overs are fun, but the next day those kids are just worthless. No more all nighters London!

Can Can

Keeping with tradition, I bought this cute skirt pattern then passed it on to my Mother-in-law (usually to my Mom) to make it for me. As soon as Aspen put it on she immediately started the "Can Can." She was so excited to wear it to school, and even more excited when I said she could wear it to church. Though we did have to pull out the next set of shoes. She "needed" something sparkly to match the new cute skirt. Thanks Nana!!

Arrow of Light

After earning every pin under the Webelos sun, London has earned his Arrow of Light. For those of you that don't know what that means, it's pretty much the Eagle Scout of Cub Scouts.
The Arrow of Light ceremony is a lot of fun. 7 "leaders" read off the different qualities of a Cub Scout. As they read it they paint a different color on the Boys face.

Mom's and Dad's get to help too. I just like painting on them, the boys like this too.

After they are all painted they are presented with their actual Arrow of Light. Which I might add I pain stakeingly made over the course of 2 weeks. Wrapping each different color of string again and again and again. I will seriously consider paying someone to make Phoenix's when that time comes.

One of the nice things Cub Scouts does, is whenever a boy earns a new placement Mom gets a pin too. I was pleasantly surprised that I got a Arrow of Light pin. Pretty cool.

London was ever so proud of his face paint. And we are so proud of this achievement. He did a lot of work and earned every bit of this.

1st Year of Swim Team

Phoenix is a Stingray!

Well, actually he's a Mini Ray. That's what they call the practice team. He's not in the Meets each week, but he does get to practice every day with the other kids.
And he's loving it. We've gone from completely petrified of the water to...

Smiling in the deep end. To...

floating on his back. To...

Swimming freestyle and back stroke in just under 2 months. It's amazing and completely changed our summer from last summer.

He even jumped of the diving board last week. Amazing!!

911 Police Call

Sicily and I were making our regular Mac and Cheese for lunch one day when Beaux, our dog, started growling and barking at the back sliding glass door. I figured it was a bird or squirrels or something, until he kept it up. I finally looked out the back door to discover a boy trying to break in to my back neighbors house. He had climbed onto their back porch and was trying to jimmy open the door with a screw driver or something.

I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't about to go out there and say, "Hey! What are you doing?" I mean, what if he had a gun. So for the 2nd time in my life I called 911. The cops showed up in less than the time it took my Mac and Cheese to cook.
In the end I'm not sure exactly what happened, or who the boy was. Our neighborhood has a Yahoo Group. One family said they arrested the kid, another said it was just a boy locked out of his house. I'm really not sure which one it was because I know their oldest son is away and I don't know if that was him or not.

Better safe than sorry I guess.

Puzzles, Puzzles Everywhere

Sicily's new favorite hobby is Puzzles. I love when my kids go through this stage. She got a Pinkalicious puzzle from Nana for Christmas and is Finally able to do it on her own. It's double sided so as soon as she finishes one side, she flips it piece by piece and does the other side. It's adorable. And though she'll work on this puzzle for 30+ mins, eventually she'll get bored of it and move to Phoenix's "Justice League" one, or "Cars".
She may be a girlie girl most days, but she does have 2 older brothers after all.

Attack of the Ants

You think Mosquito bites are bad? Not near as bad as Ant Bites. Aspen got attacked the other day while laying down in the grass in the back yard. They went right through her shirt. These ants are minuscule, but they are MEAN!! These welts eventually swelled up into zit like pustules. And they don't stop hurting and itching until those zits pop.
Some things from Texas I could do with out.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tornado

Jared has been traveling for work quite a bit lately. One of his more recent trips took him to Alabama, the same night when all those tornado's hit. I wasn't too worried, until he came home to inform me he was actually IN Tuscaloosa. The city that pretty much got whipped off the map.

Being the tourists they were, him and his co-workers were kind of annoyed there was no gas stations or McDonald's open with any food. Funny boys.
Just a few shots of the overall damage that occurred.

Power lines in the street, buildings completely gone.

The Hotel they were staying in put everyone in the basement to keep them safe. At one point the tornado came with in 200 ft of the Hotel, that's when they all got to hang out in the Hotels Deep Freeze.

There is power in this picture but eventually there was no power, which means no air conditioning. And in 100 degree Alabama with 90% humidity, it was miserable. Their dinner for the evening, provided by the Hotel, was Granola Bars and bottled water.

Mom's and Tot's Temple Trip

We are so blessed to live so close to the Houston Temple. Only 45 min drive, not too bad, considering the Swiss Temple was our Temple when we lived in Cairo, Egypt. So 45 mins is pretty close.

Our Relief Society has organized a Mom's and Tot's group (actually I'm in charge of that organizing, but we won't go there). Once a quarter we go to the Temple to do Initiatories. Us Moms take turns watching kids while the others do 30-40 mins of Initiatories. It's super fun, the kids get to see the Temple and we all get to feel the Spirit.

I took a few shots this time around while it was my turn to watch kids.

Here's Sicily with Adam, Courtney and Porter.

Taking a walk through the "woods" on the Temple grounds.
The dry moment before the wet moment. Aren't they just cuties!
Love this. Bestest of friends.
"Look Courtney, look at Angel Moroni!" She was too busy posing for the camera. :)
I had to include a picture of the Soda Machine. I found it super funny that all the drinks are Caffeine free.