May-hem

May is always a crazy month for us.  It is always full of end of the year school activities, getting outside and enjoying the nice weather, and the kids going many different ways in the things they are involved in.  Here is a long post about the things we have been doing this month:

First, the weather has been really nice so I convinced the boys to take me on a mountain bike ride.  Okay I didn't have to convince them very much because they are always looking for an excuse to ride.

We went up Blacksmith Fork because it is close and it is an easier trail for me.  They were both making fun of me for going so slow but I was keeping up with them so I was happy about that.  Another good thing is my bike chain didn't break or have issues!  It was a fun ride.

For a ward party, we had a fundraiser night for the Young Men and Young Women.  During the fundraiser the YM/YW auctioned off different services and desserts and even some funny pranks like Pie a Priest.  That one is always a big seller.  This year they also added Dunk a Deacon.

For $5 or so, we got to dunk a Deacon in a ice bath.  Logan was prepared to get dunked but no one was prepared for how cold the water was!  The dunking ultimately turned into a big water fight among all of the young men and even some parents.  It was pretty funny.  The kids especially liked the slip-n-slip created on the grass when the water trough was dumped out.

Emily worked really hard on her FCCLA project this year and was able to win a Gold ribbon at the State Competition.  At the end of the year, the FCCLA club put on a fashion show to feature all of the projects created by the members and the FACS classes.

Emily wore the dress she made for her project and Charlotte also got to be in the fashion show wearing the second dress Emily made for the project.  It was a good show and some of the outfits were pretty interesting!  All of the projects were very creative though and very well made.  

Holli Hall, a teacher at Canyon Elementary, was diagnosed with Breast Cancer this year.  She has been through a lot and has missed most of the year at school.  As a Canyon Elementary community, we wanted to do something to support her. On her final day of cancer treatments, we all gathered on the road by her house and made a cheering line so she could see us as she drove to her appointment.

There were so many people all dressed in pink cheering her on.  Not only were there many teachers but there were parents and kids.  It was a pretty amazing thing to be a part of.  Holli's mantra through this whole thing has been, "I've got this, we've got this, He's got this!"  Someone had made this saying into giant posters for us to hold.  

Despite the cold of the early morning, we were all there to support and cheer for her.  Someone asked me how I was doing with all of this and I started crying.  I don't know why because I though I was passed the emotions but being there and just seeing everyone and remembering just made it a lot.  Cancer is stupid but it definitely brings people together.  Holli is doing much better now and will hopefully make a full recovery.

May is also Mother's Day!

Charlotte's class put on a fun Mother's Day Tea for all of the moms in the class.  It was really cute to be served and waited on by the kids as we enjoyed a yummy breakfast.  

The Canyon Colt Fun Run was this month as well.  Logan is part of the Kindness Crew (the leadership team) at the school so he and the rest of the Crew were out there all day cheering for and helping the other kids as the ran their mile.  

He made this awesome sign that says "It's a 'RUN'derful Day!"

Charlotte was the first to run in the morning. She did an amazing job!

She ran the best she could and finished strong.  Emily was also there with some track members to run with and pace the kids.  Charlotte and Emily ran together.  

Charlotte ran her mile in 11:51.  She was so happy to be done, get an ice cream, and hang out with her friends at the end.

That afternoon, it was Logan's turn to run with the 6th graders.  He killed it and was one of the top finishers in his grade.  Emily was also pacing with him again.

Logan finished in 7:22 and was very happy to be done and get his ice cream.

Of all of his friends, Logan is probably the most athletic so he also enjoyed cheering for his friends as they finished.  This is a good group of kids and I am glad Logan has found great friends.

End of the year means Band Concerts:

Emily has really enjoyed being part of the percussion class.  Mr Beach has been a great teacher for her and she has learned a lot about performance and technique.  If he wasn't there, I don't know how much longer Emily would stay in band so for that I am grateful because she is quite talented.

Look Mom, no training wheels!  Brooklyn has learned to ride her bike without training wheels!

She never really loved riding her bike with the training wheels anyway and much preferred her strider bike.  She could zoom around everywhere with the strider.  Then Russell tried her on the pedal bike and she actually really took to it.  I guess the strider really did teach bike balance and helped her with the real bike.  She still needs practice with the two-wheeler but she is getting better and better.  As long as she focuses on the road ahead of her and keeps pedaling she does fine.  As soon ans she gets distracted and loses focus though, she falls over.  Pretty good for a four year old though!

Another thing Brooklyn is learning is writing her name!

Brooklyn is a pretty long name for a little kid but she is doing it.  We told her if she wants to go to preschool soon, she had to write her name.  'Broo' is pretty easy for her, 'K' is tricky, and then 'lyn' she gets mixed up and does 'yln'.  So sometimes her name is Brookyln.  She'll get it soon enough.

On the radio we learned about a new musical for kids called "Elephant & Piggie: We are in a Play!"  Elephant and Piggie books are Brooklyn and Charlotte's favorite books so I knew we had to get tickets to go see this play at the Utah Theater in Logan.  Luckily, Russell is really good at winning things on the radio so he won four free tickets. 

Brooklyn was so excited to she her favorite characters on stage.  She even brought her Gerald and Piggie stuffed animals to watch the play with us.  

The musical was so cute and so funny.  It incorporated scenes from all of our favorite Elephant and Piggie books so we knew exactly what they were quoting. 

Afterward we got to meet the actors who played Gerald and Piggie and Brooklyn showed them her little stuffed animals.  They loved them.  Brooklyn was so excited to meet the actors too.  We all enjoyed the play.

Now it is not everyday that you get to play a duet with a famous composer on a $300,000 piano.  Well Charlotte got to do just that this month.  Our piano teacher, Rowena Bunce, is friends with Kevin Olsen.  He is a music professor at USU and has written and sold many pieces for the piano.  For group lessons, she arranged a special meeting with Kevin and each of the students got a piece of his music to learn and play.

Charlotte was one of the students selected to perform his piece during the lesson.  After she had played the song once, Kevin remembered that this piece was actually written with a duet part so he sat down and played it with her again!  It was pretty cool to watch.  Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.  

Our elementary school principal is retiring this month so with the help of the PTA, I made this t-shirt quilt for her as a going away gift.

These are all of the t-shirts we had while she was the principal.  She was only there 3 years so it is a pretty small quilt but I think it still turned out great.  She seemed really happy to receive it.

Colby took wood-shop class this trimester at the middle school.  He really enjoyed it and made some pretty awesome projects.  His first project was a pen and then he progressed to the ultimate project, a Long-board!

The long-board turned out really freaking good!  He did some painting technique that gave the paint a tie-dye swirl look and then he added details with spray paint including a mountain biker, and some mountains.  Colby had been riding the long-board around everywhere and is getting pretty good at skateboarding now too.

The last day of school is always one the kids look forward to because it is Super Kids Day at the elementary.  I was in charge of this event this year and I think it was a success!

We added a few new games as well as some old favorites.  Our four rotations included 9-Square, Gaga Ball, the favorite Water fight, and a new game Octopus Tag.  All of the kids seemed to enjoy the new games as it was a change from the other years.  

Really it doesn't matter what games are played as long as the kids get to be outside running around.  Oh and water has to be involved!  They love the water. 

This year was also brought back the dunk tank!  The 6th graders loved being the ones to get dunked and the other grades loved dunking them.  Logan was so excited to be dunked.  He looked forward to his turn all day.

He did not anticipate the water being so cold at the first dunk but he got used to it after a while.  

This is Logan's last year of elementary school.  Middle school here he comes!

Mrs. Dixon has been a great teacher this year and has really encouraged the kids to be excited about middle school.  They are all well prepared!

On the last day of school. We had a fire in the backyard to celebrate the official start of summer.

The kids also like to burn their old homework so that made up most of the fuel for the fire!  We are so excited for all of the fun plans we have for the summer.  It is going to continue to be busy.  Some fun things we have planned are: FSY, Glacier National Park, camping, hiking the Tetons, Girls Camp and YM Camp outs, and just enjoying the outdoors.  Welcome Summer!