{Mothers Day}

I love Mother's Day!!!

My kids always give me the best gifts!

From Owen:  Coupons for flipping the pages of the book, doing my hair, and doing my make-up! 

I'm nervous to trade in 2 of them!

Ian planted me a flower and made me a jewelry box!

He presented my gifts to me at his school where he read me a poem!

I felt so loved and special!!!

Kenny and the kids gave me this beautiful necklace!!!

It reminds me of my sweet kids when I wear it.  Its the best gift ever!!!

I am so grateful to be the mother to my 4 beautiful children...I am so blessed!

{Show Stopper}

Owen stole the show as he sang his hear out at his 1st grade music performance.    

He was moved front and center for the "Squirrel song" and I quickly realized why!

This boy has MOVES and is not afraid to show them!  (so unlike his father....)

I smiled through the whole thing!  I was so proud of him and glad that he wasn't afraid to show off his dancing talent!

{Ian's Night to Shine}

We had the ear splitting privilege to attend Ian's 3rd grade music program!

 Lets just say I downed a couple of Ibuprofen as soon as I left!  I will not be encouraging him to become a famous recorder player!

After the music program, we were off to his pack meeting.  The scout master, Dan Babbel had the boys screaming as he sent electric shots their way!

 Drew could hardly stand it!

Ian and his friends were moving up that night in ranking to become bears.  They were told that their last test was to drink the blood of the wolf to pass.  

 Ian was adamant about not trying it, but peer pressure sunk in.........

 He didn't like it, but he drank it and then received his Bear award!

 They pin the wolf badge on upside down and have to do an act of service before they can turn it around.  Unfortunately, Kenny had a meeting, so I got to do the flipping!  He is getting to be a big boy!

 I am so very proud of Ian!  He is a remarkable young boy, full of energy and spirit!  I love him to pieces!

Drew released the colors and I was happy to go home and go to bed!

{Fun Filled Saturday}

I love when we have a lazy Saturday where it is spent outside playing with friends!  I guess I should not use the word lazy, because these boys worked hard!

 They decided that all they wanted to do was dig a hole, which is to become their fort!  They didn't want to dig the hole where I am paying a man to dig a hole for our trampoline, but 10 feet from there in the middle of the field.  They dug for hours!!!

 I was just happy they were outside, having fun, and working together.  Ian was over seeing the project and talked about underground tunnels and multiple holes for each friend!

When Kenny mentioned to them covering back up the hole they were all in shock!  Little Jacob responded, "We aren't covering up this hole until we are adults!"  Boys love dirt and I love that they have a spot to dig!

Sand Lot Game

Princess Elsa/Mya had fun playing with Spider Man Casen!

 While the others were busy playing, Drew was busy charming a snake!  I spent the day moving a log pile to make room for the trampoline and came across 3 snakes in the process.  Drew was around to catch one!

 Drew LOVES snakes and has been asking for one for years.  He was so happy to play with this one for the afternoon.

 Snake kisses!

 Leo is Drew's best friend and was slightly annoyed that Drew was giving the snake his attention rather than playing fetch with him.

 

Drew tried to help Leo to befriend the snake, but his idea came back to bite him in the butt!

After a lot of pleading from Drew to keep the snake, we reminded him that this snake belonged in the wild and that it was mating season and this girl snake (smart Veterinarian daddy), should be able to be  close to the other 2 snakes we had found in the same location.  We also reminded him that grandma would not be happy with a snake in her house and that once they had their own place, we would talk about getting him a pet snake.  He sadly let the snake go back in the field and went on his way to play baseball.  Minutes later I saw Leo running to the trees in the field with the snake in his mouth!!!!

I guess Leo wanted to be "friends" with the snake after all!  I didn't have the heart to tell Drew!

This was from the previous Saturday, but I still wanted to remember how much my kids love having the missionaries over!  My kids really hold missionaries in their mind up on a pedestal.  The Elder in the back, who we call Elder T-Moo, because we can not pronounce his last name,  came from Tahiti.  He speaks French and my boys loved watching and helping him to learn English.  They asked him all kinds of questions about his culture and hope to go visit him someday.  I loved hearing his testimony and am so proud of him for choosing to go on a mission!  The Elders are a great example for my children and I pray and hope that my kids will serve a mission someday too!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

{Denver Field Trip}

Never before have I experienced as cool of a field trip as the one Drew and I went on to Denver.  I was pretty shocked when I found out for the 4th grade field trip that it is an overnighter in a town 4 hours away.  I quickly decided that if he was going to go, that I would go too!  I am so glad I did because we had a blast!

 We rode in style in a nice chartered bus and got to watch the movie "Night at the Museum" as we traveled.  Very fitting movie for what we were about to experience!  I was in charge of these three cute boys in the front!  The were so easy and I had so much fun getting to know them!

 Our first stop was to the Denver History Museum.  The kids have been learning all about CO history at school, so it was fun for them to see the things they had talked about in school.  They had an amazing tour guide who brought the stories to life!  In the back the clothes are covered in grasshoppers!

 Drew was given the name of a man and was told to follow the directions on the back of his card. He was told to type his name on the type writer and mail a letter at the post office.

 Then he was to go on a car ride in the Model -T.

 Next, he was told to stock the shelves in the market.

 Of course we stopped for a potty break in the out house!

At the end he made a pie and set up a picnic!   He had so much fun reenacting the life of a man from the 1920's!

 The school rented out the Old Spaghetti Factory downtown.

 The building was an old trolley station and had amazing architectural details and gorgeous stained glass windows.

Drew with a bunch of his school friends!

 After dinner we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  The kids had several activities to go to and free time to explore the museum.

 They got to go to a planetarium and were amazed as they laid back in their chairs and could see the stars in the dark.

 The most memorable part about the trip was getting to sleep in the museum around the wildlife dioramas!  The kids didn't fall asleep until after midnight and I didn't even mind the hard floor after the exhausting day we had.

 In the morning the kids watched a 3D  I-max movie called, "Mysteries of the Unseen World."  It gave me the heebie-jeebies as it talked about most people having microscopic bugs living on their eyelashes.  All I wanted was a shower!!!

 Then we went to the Zoo.  The kids were dragging by this point, but we made it through and saw all of the fascinating animals.

We rode back on the bus and it was completely opposite than the bus ride to Denver.  All the kids were quiet and slept the majority of the time!  I am so grateful for this educational and cool experience I was able to have with Drew.  I love that he was able to have such a great field trip.  It was wild and exhausting, but I wouldn't have rather been anywhere else, than with my Drewsy!