4th Grade Program

The 4th Graders put on a Program every year to show off all the Idaho history they learned throughout the year. It is such a cool program written and conducted by one of the 4th grade teachers, Mrs Scheer. This year was an extra special year because Mrs Scheer is retiring and that makes me so sad! She is hilarious and was such a great teacher for Jaedyn a few years ago. We are going to miss her!

As part of the program, the kids work on a project that goes on display that evening. Jaedyn made a little Indian scene with teepee, rocks, grass and little firepit her year. Lilia wanted to make a cradle board for hers. Her dad taught her how to use a saw and helped as she cut the backing. She then tied pieces of leather scrap to the board and sewed a bedding. And her project was featured in the show! I gasped when I saw Sacagawea turn and show it off. After the program, the school actually asked if they could keep her project for future years to use! She was a little hesitant at first, I think she wanted to play with it, but the more she thought about it I think she became flattered and ultimately decided to hand it over.

The kids really got into the music, but I have to say, no one more so than my daughter. She was so animated and fun to watch! That could be a little parental bias showing through, but I don't think so 😉

And little Ms McKinley has taken a page out of Lilia's book. She is all about creating recipes these days and this is her shish kabob.

 

May Birthdays

Lilia has enjoyed baking this year. Like... LOVES it! So her grandma sent her a cake baking recipe book for a bookclub. Lilia decided she wanted to make her birthday cake this year and chose a sushi themed party. The ideas for the subsequent cakes are courtesy of this book. She made this cake from scratch and I decorated it for her. Going along with the sushi theme, we planned a whole party.

Lilia's Guests: Carlie, Legacy, Ava, Abby, Halle, Leah, Ebony, and McKinley. After the friends party, Jaedyn and Chad also joined the celebration.

We ate Broulim's sushi rolls for an after school snack. Knocked my socks off that ALL of the girls save one, love sushi. I almost didn't get enough! LOL. These newer generations apparently have more developed palates!

We played sushi basket (like fruit basket but with fish themed names) It was a hit and always a good ice breaker.

We made rice krispie sushi rolls

I failed to mention this is Lilia's 10th birthday. I thought that was important to clarify since she is holding up 4 fingers. Sometimes she gets a little confused. LOL

And opened gifts. And I love this pictures. One of Lilia's friends knows her very well and bought her an apron. You can see that it was a huge hit.

We celebrated Jaedyn's birthday a week later. Jaedyn is older now and just wanted to hang with her friends. So we Did a family party with presents on her birthday and let her have friends over for a late night. 

The shock in this pic is so great. I commissioned Helen again to draw a pic for Jaedyn. It is of her in Christs arms with his hand placed gently and lovingly on Jaedyn's cheek. Once again, Helen nailed it and the pic has taken up residence in Jaedyn's room.

I got no pix of the late night cuz I hardly saw the girls! Jaedyn wanted Lilia to make her cake so once again, Lilia very happily became Head Birthday Baker, and I decorated a cake. Jaedyn chose pancakes. This cake would have been yummy except for the loads of icing it required to make it look like a stack of pancakes! But I was pleased with the end result and none of the kids seemed to mind all the frosting.

As Jaedyn celebrated her 13th birthday, I found myself the mom of teen... for real. She is my experimental model and I am grateful for her love of me despite all the whoopsies! Sure love you Jaedyn my girl! And I'm very proud of the grown girl you are becoming.

 

Subaru and a Visit from Vancouver!

We bought a new car!

And I don't have a picture of the experience

Except this one.

We traded in our 2013 black Dodge Caravan and bought a white 2020 Subaru Ascent. So excited for the adventures to come with AWD and higher clearance! We also wanted vehicle that hosted 2 extra seats so we could share the adventures with more people! The salesman took our picture with our new purchase... and never sent it to us. But I have one of McKinley relaxing in the TV room while we signed all the paperwork. 

Our first adventure with our extra seats... Grandma Tina and Grandpa Damon came to visit! My kids looooooove their grandparents. We took a trip to Yellowstone with them and Valerie and Luis joined us with their family. And somehow, the only pictures I have from the experience are the pix the kids took in the car! How does this keep happening?! I bet the pix are on Chad's phone.

Little miss poser here captured G-ma and G-pa with Jaedyn in the back seat. I need to do better *sigh

You can see we played a little bit of musical chairs during the drive. Sometimes kids just don't do well on car trips. I hear that's pretty normal. But it sure feels horrible when it's happening to you!

I do love the random selfies that technology provides for us today! 

Damon was a saint and while visiting on HIS vacation, spent many hours fixing our filter faucet. The girls got lots of cuddles in with their grandma as I'm pretty sure she read the whole library to them not to mention bringing them a new library with her book club. Grandma's Book Club is a fun tradition that Tina created to help her connect with all her grandkids who live so far away. Every couple of months she sends a package in the mail and my girls get SO enthusiastically excited every time one arrives. The packages usually contain a book for each girl along with a small gift that either goes along with the book or along with whichever holiday is fast approaching.