Preschool Graduation

We are slowly but surely catching up.... just in time for me to get behind again, I'm sure.

At the end of the school year, Benton graduated from preschool.  My stinking camera was giving me a hard time with the lighting (I was in a bright area and they were in a dark area and I could figure it out) so I didn't get any good pictures of the actual graduation.  So angry...

Alas,  here is a picture of the kids performing one of their favorite songs.  Benny is all of the way over on the right in the white shirt right next to his best friend, George.

 Here is Benny with his four teachers.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of them and his school.  Can't wait to send Paisley there!  I am so proud of him.  He was a bit behind when he started the year and he has more than caught up.  Can't believe that I'm going to have two in school!

Tab's Birthday Party

We decided to throw Tab a small birthday party this year.  He of course wanted a Star Wars themed party.  My budget for the entire party was $60 and I am proud to say that I stayed below my budget!  He had three friends and a little brother who were able to make it. 

After the kids had put on their Jedi Robes and selected a light saber, the games/training began.  First was a version of "clean up the back yard".  Each young Jedi had to master his light saber skills by thwarting the other Jedi's attempts to whack the balloon bombs into their section of the deck.

Some dueling may have also occurred. 

Next up was instruction in the proper use of the force and then Agility Training, aka obstacle course.

First each Jedi had to use his hand eye coordination to block the bombs that the other Jedis were throwing at him.

Then he had to run along the rail ties.

And then down the slide.

Then they had to use their balancing skills to skip between the bricks.

They had to whack the storm trooper. (He was originally attached to a punch balloon but they kept popping in the heat.)

Next was a dive through the cube and down the slide on the other side.

They had to jump over the stack of bricks.

And whack the next punch balloon.

Next up was a dive through the tunnels.

Whacking another Storm Trooper.

Run along the rail ties...

And Finish by whacking the last balloon.  The fastest and most agile Jedis won Yoda Kites.

Next up was some time away from the heat for cake and ice cream.  I made an R2-D2 cake.  It was my first time using the color dust to get the silver.  The kids seemed pretty happy with the cake so I was a happy mom.

Blowing out the candles.

Next up was back outside for the Death Star pinata.  Tab has been begging for a pinata for ages, so he was very excited for this part.  I made this also.  It was a balloon, some paper/cardboard and a little bit of your run of the mill flour/water paper mache.  I like to believe he loved it.

 At first we let all of the kids whack the pinata with their light sabers.

 

 They were kind enough to let Paisley in on the fun.

 

 Then we broke out the bat.

 And things really started to get fun.

 Tab was the lucky boy to finish her off.

 Then we went back inside to escape the heat again for present opening.  He was elated to start off with this awesome shirt.

And it just kept on coming with a few sets of Star Wars Legos.

The party was finished off by an appearance of Darth Vader.  They used their newly acquired Jedi Skills to take him down so quickly that I couldn't even get a picture of Jason being mauled by a bunch of 7 year old boys.  He said one swift whack at the groin was all he could take.  I'll have to let Luke know that detail for the next time he has to take down a Sith.

Tab decided to take on the roll of Darth Vader as we waited for parents to pick up kids.  Tab has some sort of strange fascination with the Bad Guys. (Transformers- he prefers the decepticons, Star Wars- Darth Vader, Savage Opress, Asajj Ventress, Darth Maul, etc.)  Should I be worried?

First Grade Fun Run

Tab's school had a Fun Run type of event for all of the kids.  We of course went to support Tab.

Here they are all, lined up.

 And they're off.

 Almost there buddy.

 Finishing

 Ahh,  he did get something from me... he sticks his tongue out when he is running hard. (In high school my coaches always got after me for it, especially when I was pole vaulting.  They were always worried that I was going to bite my tongue off.)

 So Proud!

He is the funniest kid.  He doesn't really have a competitive bone in his body.  It absolutely kills Jason and I to watch him participate in sports.  We have to remember that it is just important that he is participating.  So, that being said,  He would be running along and would pass someone that he would quickly slow down so that person would catch back up to him and he would strike up a conversation and then he would speed off to the next kid and do the same thing, THE ENTIRE RACE.  He didn't even know the kids that he was stopping to talk to.  Even with all of the crazy stuff he finished in about 6 minutes, not bad for 3/4 of a mile.  About 5 minutes after the race was finished, they had an un-timed run, where parents were welcomed to run with their kids, so Jason and I ran with Tab.  Still ever the space cadet, he kept up a pretty good pace for having already just run 3/4 of a mile.  It gives me hope that I may have a running partner some day soon.  (Really my pipe dream is to get all of my kids to the point where we can run 5k's together as a family.)

But, I Did What the Directions Said!

Tab Came home with a math test that really gave me a good laugh.  I could help but share.   The last question is just awesome.  To the left of the question he started his answer with 40, 50, 60, 70.  Then immediately about the question, he began the next portion 5, 10, 15 ... 85, 90.  Then under the question he began the last portion, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 80, 81, 82,  then he ran out of space and drew his arrow up to where he finished counting to 94.  In the top right, where the large arrow leads you, you can see that his teacher must have stopped by his desk while he was taking the test and showed him what she meant for him to do, and then he finished filling in the rest.  Poor kid.  I would have been seriously annoyed having spent all of that time writing out my answer only to learn it was much more simple.

Spring Break

 So as to avoid boredom over spring break, I gathered together supplies for the kids to do a bunch of various "science experiments" for whenever they were bored.

Here the kids are posing with their Tornado in a Jar.  They really had fun shaking this up time and time again.

Later I put a bunch of baking soda on some plates, colored some vinegar and then let the kids have at it with some medicine droppers.

Benton really poured it on.

 While Paisley used very small amounts at a time.

 Tab experimented with designs. 

 The kids LOVE to play Star Wars, but we don't have any Star Wars costumes.  No worries, they come up with their own.  Tab is of course Darth Vader.  (He really had a thing for the "bad guys").  His costume consists of a black blanket, a bandana and his light saber.  Benton Was Obi Wan with another blanket, bandana, belt and light saber.  Of course Paisley was Princess Leia.

 I thought they looked pretty great.

 We also made some straw airplanes.   After some experimenting with the structure we were getting pretty good at flying them.

And because Mom couldn't be bored, (Ha! is that possible) I had some fun playing with Paisley's hair.  I wish I had a better picture of this, it was pretty detailed with some weaving and such going on.

Easter....yikes

Our Easter Celebrations began with a little egg hunt at Benton's preschool.  Benny and Paisley both enjoyed the hunt.  The big prize was the egg with a quarter in it.

 Why do these two never want to look at the camera?

 Benny's preschool class as well as another class along with all of their siblings.

 Next up was the Primary Egg Hunt.  We also had a few games.  Benton and Paisley tried the spoon race.

 They were big cheaters holding their egg on the spoon, but so did pretty much everyone else also.

 Next up was a sack race. Tab is in the florescent yellow jacket.

 Paisley, slowly but surely made it across the field.

 Finally the hunt, itself.

 The Easter Bunny hung some eggs in the trees and Tab was jumping to try to reach one.

 Grandpa came up to visit for Easter.  I can't remember why, but my mom was out of town, so he came up.

 The kids woke up and went to work looking for where the Easter Bunny hid their basket. (And yes, Benton's shirt is on backwards.)

 Per Jason's request, the kids follow a trail of jelly beans or candy filled eggs which leads to their basket.

 Sharing the wealth with their sister.

 Tab was quite pleased with finding the eggs.

 They finally located their "basket".  Since my dad was coming up, I had him bring one of my mom's ginormous stainless steel bowls.  This is what my parents always put our community Easter Candy in.  It was kind of fun to do the same for my kids.

 Jason was working nights, so when he got home he ran out and hid the eggs and then we sent the kids out.

 Paisley really had a blast finding the eggs.

 As did the rest of the bunch.

 

 

 Then came the discovery of the final egg.  Paisley beat Benton out by a milisecond.

 Which didn't go over well.

 It was quickly confiscated.

 And happily placed in his egg carton.

 As you can imagine this didn't bode well.

 She was quickly won over by being allowed to eat as many eggs as her little heart desired.