The first outdoor swim this year

Bella and Jacob got to swim at Bella's friend's, Cami, house while her Mom visit taught me. They have a beautiful pool! Bella and Jacob had a blast.
Cami wanted me to take a picture of her hanging upside down

I kept trying to get Bella jumping off the board but the delay between hitting the button and the phone taking the picture was too long. Here's her splash though..

Last week of school

I don't even know why they bothered to go to school this week. I know its to get in their full 180 days, but I'm not sure any learning took place. The did however have talent shows, ice cream socials, Goshen Olympics (water day), watch movies, play games, walk to the Y for rollerskating, have a "camp-out" in their room, dance and listen to music while cleaning the room, etc.

Bella, Jacob and I ate lunch with Katy on Monday. This was in Bella's words "awesome". Eating at a school, let alone the big kid school, made her day. Then I went to Xandy's Goshen Olympics. It was hot and humid, a perfect day for water games!

Typical Xandy- chasing the boys

Xandy's teacher Ms. Holshouser is moving to 4th grade next year. Katy really hopes to get her!

Cooling off with snow cones- (at least they can enjoy the fruits of the ridiculously expensive sno cone maker the PTO bought- but thats another story)

Chicks, Ducks, and Geese

Our friends the Westons bought some baby chicks, ducks, and geese as pets. We went over on Sunday so the kids could play with the animals. I felt bad for the poor little birds. Jacob was literally loving them to death!! I refrained from holding them. Birds have never really been my thing. Almost everyone else got pooped on, so I was happy with my decision

This yellow duck was Jacob's favorite, poor thing!

Summer look

Our weather went from rainy and cool to HOT, HUMID and sunny in a blink of an eye. Katy and Xandy had their hair cut Saturday. They just look more comfortable to me now. Katy had over 4 inches cut off and Xandy had just under 4 cut off. Now that they look cool and comfortable, Jacob's and Bella's hair seem too long. This was Xandy's first time at a salon. I usually cut hers myself but she wouldn't let me cut it. She wanted to see how long it could get but it just wasn't healthly anymore. She was very concerned about the oilspill and when she learned my salon was donating the hair to help soak up the oil she decided that would be worth cutting her hair. I was touched that my little girl was so concerned about the environment and conservation. That, or I got played big time!! She asked when she was down if she could go there every morning before school to have her hair done. Get in line, Honey! I wish I could do that too.

Saying goodbye

Jacob, Bella, Jillian, and Mia

Our good friends the Janazzo's moved this past week. Bella and Jacob will really miss Jillian and Mia. Best of luck in Wisconsin! Rochelle, Jen and I went out to eat Tuesday night. We tried a new little restaurant. It was fantastic!!! I highly recommend the Grace Manor seasonal restaurant to anyone local.

Visit from a cousin

I haven't blogged in several weeks. We've been too busy having fun to have time to blog about it. Nicholas(my brother), Natalie, and Weston came to visit us mid-May and stayed for a week. They are in the process of moving and are visiting family until Nicholas's new job starts. We had a ton of fun showing them around St. Louis. We went swimming at the Y, ate at Bobby's (of course), explored the Arch museum, attended a temple session, went to the zoo, visisted the Botanical gardens,went to a Cardinals game, and drove by the world's largest Ketchup bottle(Nicholas was disappointed in it). I left Natalie in charge of pictures since she has a way nicer camera than me. She is still living it up on vacation in Utah so for now, here are the few pictures I took. (I don't have any zoo pictures but we accidently went on members day and since I'm a member we got to ride the train and the carousel, park in the close lot, and pet the sting rays for free. I have so many free "tickets" on my membership but we were able to do it all without it taking away any of my points)

At the Gateway Arch

This pictures is gorgeous on a clear day w/o the contruction

The fountain was dyed green for a wedding the next day. We saw 4+ brides getting pictures here. We also ran into Elder Tanzie- a missionary that had been serving in our ward several months ago

At the botanical gardens

The Cardinal's game

Some of you might have remembered the picture I took when we first moved here of the partially flooded statue
If you look real closely at the next picture you can see just the hat poking out of the water right in front of the bridge.

Less than 48 hours later (Mon morning) when we crossed the Mississippi we noticed that the street we had walked on and drove on Sat afternoon was now completely under water. Got love the spring floods here.

Botanical Gardens

I went on a field trip with Xandy's class to the botanical gardens. They were beautiful and much bigger than I had expected. There was a fun group of moms chaperoning and we had a great time. I am looking forward to going again with Jared when I can pay more attention to my surroundings instead of trying to keep 1st graders out of the fountains on a hot humid day.

I DID IT!!!

I was extremely frustrated that I didn't get to finish my race a few weeks ago. People kept telling me "Its still an accomplishment to run as far as you did" or "you can always run another one later". I understand both of these points are true but it still didn't comfort me. When I graduated from high school, I had a list of three things I wanted to do in life besides get married, have a family, etc. Running a marathon was one of those things. I highly doubt I'll accomplish the other two. One was to recieve a Doctorate degree. I could always go back on work towards this but why? It would cost my family a lot of money and I plan on being home for my kids. The second was to do research in the Amazon. I'd be happy with just a visit to the Amazon at this point. Honestly, after a documentary Jared and I watched the other day, I'm not sure I even want to go there anymore. But, back to the point.... I thought watch something happen to me between now and the fall that would prevent me from running and I'd never get to accomplish even one of my goals. So, I just did it. I woke up early on Saturday and ran. Jared and the kids were troopers and spent the morning in the car driving from park to park to bring me gatorade. They only stopped to go to Katy's soccer game and then started right back on it. Jared and I had mapped out a 26.2 mile course using the trails the night before. It took me 4hr and 50 mins but I have now completed an entire marathon. Physically it was much easier than Nashville's hilly course, but mentally it was challenging. Other runners and specatators REALLY help. Its hard to keep going at the end when there is no one around and you aren't in a real race. I trudged through it though and am very excited to have finished it!! Already looking forward to running another one in the fall.

Lil' soccer player

A few weeks ago, one of the guys Jared works with sent home a pair of cowboy boots and little cleets his son had outgrown. Although Jacob has worn the boots several times, he LOVES the cleets. (I think I prefer the cleets also) Whenever Katy gets ready for soccer practice he has to put on his cleets. Then he kicks a ball all around the backyard. Its very cute.

Jim Gill

Jacob and Bella have been attending a playgroup at the High school on Tuesdays. They play with educational toys, make crafts, have a sensory table, and learn rhymes and songs. Its geared more to Jacob's age but Bella has tagged along all year. The high school students come and play with the children learning how to interact with young kids. The program also provides optional seminars and learning support for parents who want some extra guidance.

They have both really enjoyed this weekly outing (big thanks to Rochelle for convincing me to sign up). Tuesday was the last playgroup, not only for the year, but forever. Due to budget cuts, this part of the early childhood education program was cut. They had arranged for Jim Gill to come put on as concert for the kids. Jim Gill writes and sings kids songs. One of the songs, Jump and Shout, was a favorite throughout playgroup. It was requested every week and was Jacob's favorite part. Its great because he's an excellent counter and some of the credit goes to the song.

Jacob woke up Tuesday morning and asked if it was time to "Trot trot to playgroup" yet. Trot trot to playgroup was one of the rhymes we said every week.
(The kids would sit on our lap while we sang)
Trot trot to playgroup, Trot one two, you better watch out or you might fall through
(We'd pull apart our legs letting them fall through to the center)
(sitting on our lap again)
Trot Trot to playgroup, Trot on over you'd better watch out or you might fall over(We'd tip them off to the outside)

The concert was across the street at the athletic complex. When I pulled into the parking lot Jacob yelled "This is NOT where we jump and count. He was worried we were skipping it.

Jim did a great job interacting with the kids. Unfortunately, my kids were not sure what to think of a guy sitting right in front of us singing the songs and playing a banjo. I could barely get them to participate. When Jim started to sing Jump and Shout, Jacob jumped up and started jumping. I was excited that he was finally getting into it. Halfway through the song he randomly froze, ran over to me, and buried his face in my shirt. I have no idea what caused it. Its like he suddenly realized he was having fun.

The program bought a Jim Gill CD for every family. Unfortunately, it was not the one with Jump and Shout so I bought that one. Its funny to hear Bella and Jacob walk around singing songs about Alabama and Mississippi. Jacob is enjoying jumping and counting from his own home.

My pictures didn't turn out very good but here is a few:

Waiting for it to start

Happy 7th Xandy

Xandy turned 7 on April 30th. She was thrilled to have the day off due to a teacher workshop. We loaded the kids up in the car when Jared came home from work and headed down to the mall. Xandy had no idea we were going. She was excited when we stopped at the Piercing Pagoda. We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home per her b-day dinner request.

The next day we had a Luau party for her. We painted toenails and decorated flipflops by tying water ballons around the top of the flipflop. (I ended up having to help a lot!)

The finished products (make sure to double knot!)

Trying to move the Hula hoop around the circle while holding hands

The Limbo (cousin Megan is the girl behind Xandy)

Passing the coconut. A special thanks to big sister Katy who instead of playing manned the music so Mom and Dad could get the food ready

We did not serve cake (also upon her request) but instead had Hawiian pizza, fruit skewers, and fruit smoothies. Her primary teacher stopped by with a gift and some yummy brownies frosted with peanutbutter and chocolate.
The delicious brownies!!

I was able to pick up some Luau decorations for a $1 each at Deals!

I made the centerpiece with extra fruit I had leftover from the skewers and smoothies

Xandy with her friend Lexy and Jacob. Lexy has been in both her kindergarten and 1st grade classes so far.

Attending sister's party was exhausting. Jacob crawled up on his Dad and passed out