Memorial Day

We had a fun, relaxing Memorial Day this year.  We spent the morning doing little projects around the house and running errands and then went out to my parents' to shoot Matthew's new BB gun and ride horses.  Our main goal was to fix Matthew's bike tire, and we'd spent the morning searching for tire patch kits (they were sold out of everywhere!) and then somehow managed to forget the tire tube. 

Learning safety rules first...

William can't wait until it's his turn!

He's a pretty good shot too!

Hailey was more interested in the cats than the gun.

The cat is almost as big as she is and she insisted on carrying it everywhere.  Lucky it is such a nice cat.

We tried to let Willy pet a cat but poor thing just got it's ears and whiskers pulled and eyes poked in a fraction of a second before I could wrench his grabby hands away, ripping out hair along with it. 

William did enjoy his first time on the horse!  And Hailey loves it as much as ever, my little cowgirl.

As Matthew gets older he's starting to enjoy horse riding a little more.  I think when he was younger it made him nervous because of his balance issues, just like he wasn't really interested in riding a bike until he was almost 4 and still doesn't like to go too fast.  This time they went on a really long ride and Grandpa said Matthew was enjoying it and singing all the way!

Matthew's 6th Birthday!

This year Matthew had a fun birthday party with some of the neighbor kids and classmates.  Vicky and family also made a quick trip up!  We had a lot of fun and plenty of cake!!

 For the last month or so every Saturday Curt's been doing a little treasure hunt with Matthew to lead up to the BIG treasure hunt on his birthday.  He would get a clue to help him locate a puzzle piece of the treasure map.  Then on his birthday we followed the completed map and found his buried treasure!  The map told us to go to the Menan Buttes. 

 We took a little hike until X marks the spot

 And dug up a BB Gun!! 

 And real treasure coins!  It was a hit.  I think Curt should do this every year for their birthdays, instead of just giving the present.  It was so fun.

 Even chubbers loved it.

kindergarten Yellowstone Bear World field trip

I got permission to go along on the bear world field trip.  It was so much fun to hang out with Matthew and his class.  And of course Bear World is so fun.  The only other time I've been was on the way home from our Honeymoon Curt and I decided to stop by there.  We still had cookies and frosting on the car spelling "just married."  If you have ever been to bear world you know it's not like a typical zoo.  You just drive through this open area where bears meander around.  So we're driving along and bears start lifting up their noses and sniffing and migrating around the car.  I was like "go go go Curt they're going to thing we're the cream in the middle!" because bears can rip car doors off!  So I was scared and we drove through really fast and didn't get to fully enjoy the view.  So this was fun to be up high in a nice safe school bus :)  

 The petting zoo was fun but this annoying deer kept going around chewing on everyone's shirts!  

 Matthew just wanted to pet a chicken.  He told the tour guide over and over he wanted to pet a chicken.  haha

 looks like someone needs a diet.

 Then we went and fed the fish and ducks.

 I don't know who's idea it was but one of the kids thought you could see the fish better through the bridge!  

Author's Tea

We were able to watch Matthew and his kindergarten class perform a whole bunch of songs that they have been learning throughout the year, and each child got to recite one of their favorite things about the school year in their own words.  It was really sweet!  Matthew is just such a goof ball.  Ugh, every class has a clown, I just never thought it would be my child. I guess I've always known he has a huge silly sense of humor. 

In case you can't understand what he's reciting here is the hard copy.

The teacher gave us a large packet of some of his artwork that was on display and his handwriting book and book club journal.  He has really improved over the school year, that is for sure.  I  think he's ready for 1st grade!!  

 "Snowy"

I love the scarf :)

 "Oystering" 

This is my favorite one I think.  I love how he crafted a whale out of paper.  It has a submarine underneath the whale, a rock and fish and plant to the right and a machine gun (what?!) to the left shooting at the submarine!

This last one is also interesting to me.  He said that it was the beginning of the world.  It's a volcano erupting and filling the world up with "larva."  

Matthew is such a sweet boy.  He has really overcome some HUGE battles this year with his sudden late onset hearing loss.  I worry about him. A lot.  Adjusting, fitting in, compensating, getting teased, keeping up...  It's apparent that he has a harder time staying focused than the other kids.  I'm not sure if that's because his mind is going a million miles an hour all the time or if he's trying to process and it takes a little longer to go to one ear through a hearing aid and into his brain or what.  Academically he is stellar.  He reads at a 2nd grade level.  And he seems pretty well liked by other kids at this point.  I got an annoyed parent honking at me the other day in the drop off zone because I was distracted watching how he interacted with his classmates.  As he walked up to the lineup outside of the school he was greeted with a chorus of "Matthew!  Hey Matthew come over here!  Hi Matthew!..."  

It's kindergarten.  So kids are still really nice and non judgmental.  He is really good at explaining his hearing loss too.  I hear all the time other kids asking him what's on his ear.  I used to want to try to explain to them, but I stopped once I heard how he never skips a beat and lets them know that "It is a hearing aid because this ear got sick.  It helps me to hear better.  The other ear was born broken but it will get fixed when I resurrect."  Some day, when we are not in such a great LDS community where 95% of his classmates know about resurrection, it will be a great conversation piece to open up a missionary discussion!

We're so proud of you Matthew!  Way to conquer kindergarten!!!!!! 

Beautiful Picnic (s)

After dropping Matthew off at kindergarten we just couldn't stand to go inside, the weather was so perfect!  So we decided to bring lunch OUT

Pretty little flamingo

This just cracks me up, maybe William sees Hailey standing on one foot a lot, but this is his new trick.  The youngest of three has to do what he can to get attention I guess! 

Cute little guy in his hat!  His baby blues are so sensitive to the sun so this helps out a little.

I know I've said it before but I can't get over how lucky I am that my kids get along so well.  sure we have our occasional fights to break up but for the most part they just melt my heart with their sweet sibling relationships!

and then.....

They turned the sprinkers on us!!! I am POSITIVE it was on purpose too!  The lawn maintenance guy was turning them on at the switch right across the driveway from us, 25 feet away.  He could have at least warned us.  not only that as proof, but the fact that our sprinklers on our small little grassy area were the ONLY ones in the complex that got turned on!  No. Joke.

so, what  can you do but run through them?  And that is exactly what we did!

We were sad that Matthew couldn't be there with us, so when he got home from school and Curt got home from work we took a picnic to the park!  It was a perfect picnic-y day!