School's Out party!!

We were finally able to do the boy's School's Out water party yesterday. For the last couple of weeks, it has been chilly and rainy...not good water party weather. So, after checking the forecast, we decided it was nice enough to have their party. Travis and Landon were each able to invite 5 friends to celebrate school being out. The boys played baseball while they waited for everyone to arrive and then they had some lunch. My boys requested pizza rollers again this year.

Travis and his friends having some lunch

After lunch, I made the boys play two games before they got to the water fight. We did a couple rounds of a water balloon toss and then we did water roulette where I filled cups up with random amounts of water and they each picked a cup and had to have it dumped on their head.

After the games the madness began. I filled totes full of water and let them have their water fight. After a few minutes, I brought out some water balloons, but they only lasted for a bit.

After the water fight, the boys enjoyed snowcones for a treat and warmed up before they had to leave (a bunch had a basketball camp to go to).

Our crew:

Tyler W, Dallin B, Jordan M, Kaeson A, Travis, Nathan C, Xaden B, Jaxon B, Sam M, Rocco R, Landon and Michael, C.

Landon's friends

Travis with his friends. Dallin wanted to be in both pictures. Landon invited him, but he hangs out with these older boys a lot.

The kids had a blast and I'm so happy that Summer finally arrived! Bring on the sunshine!!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day this year, we decided to drive up to Yellowstone for a day trip. The weather was supposed to be rainy and not very warm, so we decided to try our luck in the Park. It rained HARD on us as we left and drove up until about the entrance to Yellowstone. We were sure happy to see it stop! Landon had been talking about how he really wanted to see Old Faithful (he was little when we went last time), so that was our destination. We saw between 40 and 50 buffalo, two grizzlies, a black bear, elk, and deer.

The grizzly laid down to eat something.

We arrived at Old Faithful to find out that it was predicted to go off in about an hour, so we walked through the nice visitor's center they have for a bit and then found ourselves a spot on a bench to watch it. It ended up being about 15 minutes "late" from the predicted time. Landon was in awe of all the water and how high it all went in the air. I wish it hadn't been so overcast because it made it kind of hard to tell how high the water was going because it all blended in.

Old Faithful

The boys watching it go off.

Landon in front of Old Faithful after it had gone off.

After watching Old Faithful, we walked around the boardwalk pathways they have and explored the other cool things. It's really awesome to see the different colors, smells and sights that are in Yellowstone! 

 

This was Castle Geyser and I was more impressed by it than Old Faithful. It goes off less often but it erupted for such a long time. When you got closer to it, you got wet from the water coming from it! It was impressive.

Castle Geyser as it was slowing down.

After making our way around the boardwalk, we ate a picnic lunch and then walked around one of the souvenir stores as the rain started to come down. I was so happy that the rain had held off for the 3 hours we were at Old Faithful. We loaded up after checking out the store and made our way home. We stopped at a couple of spots on the way home, but due to the rain and sleeping boys, we didn't do very many.

A black bear on our way out of the Park.

We stopped in Cody on our way home at Millstone for dinner and grabbed some pizza and fried pickles. It was so yummy!

End of School

Thursday was the last day of school. This school year flew by! The boys had great years! They all grew physically and mentally this year and had great teachers that really cared about them. It's fun to see how much they have changed over the course of the school year.

The elementary school had their end of year awards banquet and Travis received three awards. The first award was for Student Council. He was the 4th grade representative from his class. They received a medal and a certificate.

Next, he was recognized by the music teacher as one of two students in their school to win in a music K-8 art competition. For the competition, students can draw a picture of anything as long as it relates to music. Out of 6000 entries from across the United States, he was in the top 4 finishers for the most humorous picture. His drawing was featured on line. He was super excited when he found out that his drawing had done so well a few weeks back when Mrs, Bischoff told him about winning. 

His third award was the Presidential Outstanding Academic Excellence award. This award is for high achieving students in the 4th and 5th grades. He was chosen as one of 12 in the 4th grade to receive it. Travis has always been very driven and a hard worker and that really showed this year. I'm grateful for his teacher this year that really acknowledge his drive and pushed him to do hard things. I am proud of him and the excellent young man that he is!

Kind of blurry...

Travis with the other 4th grade winners.

With all of this awards!

 The second to last day before they end of school was the fun day at the elementary school. It's always something the kids look forward to every year. This year's theme was Hawaiian. The kids got to swim, play volleyball, do an inflatable obstacle course, have snow cones, learn how to do the hula and haka, and do some re"lei" races. Charlene, Emily and I were asked to be incharge of the re"lei" races again this year. We did a limbo, beach dress-up relay, and beach ball balancing relay.

Travis doing the beach towel drag race.

 

The Asay girls all dressed up and ready for fun day!

The kids all got lei's to wear.

Landon said he took 2nd in the limbo...just look at those skills!

After the fun day activities, they had lunch, watched Lilo and Stitch and the whole school performed the hula and haka together in the gym.

Travis with his friends at lunch.

With it being the end of school, their were lots of activities going on. Travis got to go on a field trip up to the Dry Head Ranch and Caroline Lockheart Ranch. He had a blast exploring and learning about some of our local history.

The first graders got to go up to Zoo Montana in Billings for their end of the year field trip. I wasn't able to go because I was working, but luckily, I have a great friend that got to go and sent me pics of Landon. The weather was gloomy and chilly, so it was questionable if they were going to get to go, but they did! It's a good thing or I would have had a sad boy...he woke up at 6 that morning because he was so excited!

Landon's class.

Carson was asked to participate in the community Spring Fling. It was a fundraiser for the Kane Museum and Quilter's club. They put together a great program that spotlighted local past/present military personnel. They had a slide show of each person, told a little about them, and had people dressed up in their uniforms (if available) to show the different styles from the different time periods. Carson wore two Navy uniforms and it was so interesting to hear about them men that wore them. One of them had to have shrapnel taken from him because he was a suicide bomber shooter downer (as Carson put it).

The elementary school hosted a dads and science morning at school. The boys were super excited to have their dad come to school and to miss an hour of class! They made paper airplanes, mouse trap catapults, and made pill bottles pop into the air using Alka-Seltzer and water. They loved it and have been doing the Alka-Seltzer experiment non stop outside. 

I agreed to do a long term sub position in the lunch room, so, since March, I've been working as a lunch lade with a few days of classroom subbing that I already had scheduled before I was asked to work in the lunch room. It's been a really fun experience and I've really enjoyed it. I worked from 8:30-1:30, which was so nice. It gave me a little time in the morning after the kids got on the bus to get things done and a couple of hours after I was done working to do things too. I've loved getting to see my kids every day at school and working with one of my good friends who was also doing a long term sub job. 

Carson, and the other beginning band trumpet players, serenated us the other day during lunch at the middle school.

My friend, Amber and I got to go to the middle school by ourselves to serve one week and we had to document our fun times on the short bus that we got to drive back and fort from the elementary school to the middle school full of food.