Awards Night

On June 19th, the middle school had an awards night.  Brandon got an award in math, so we were able to go and celebrate his great accomplishment.  He is really good in math and he got straight A's this year.  It was a really good year for him at school this year.  He only got one B+ in Science the first trimester, otherwise he got straight A's.  I am very proud of him.

What a cute boy!

Can you see that?!  He's my height!  How did that happen?!!!!

Smarty pants!

The Last week of School!

The last few weeks of school are insanity at our house!  The schools always have so many activities, it is crazy! So the last week of school my boys had spirit week and every day they were supposed to dress up in some way.  One of those days was crazy hair day.  I didn't take pics of the other spirit days, but I did of crazy hair day because their hair was pretty cool.  Kenyon had his slicked back with silver glittery hair spray in it and Brandon's was purple with green polka dots.  It is hard to capture in pictures, but it was pretty fun.

Also the last week of school Shaylee had her cultural celebration where the parents made food from the kids' countries and then we all get together and eat a yummy buffet.  The kids all share something interesting they learned about their country.  Maycee was so happy that she got to go the cultural celebration!  She felt like a big girl.

Yummy!!! Our contribution was the pancake balls (aebleskiver)  you can see on the orange platter.

Sisters

She was so happy to be at school with her big sis

Rebeca, Shaylee and Maycee

Clamming Camp out

The same night as the Pinewood Derby, Brandon had his clamming camp out.  He loves this camp out and he loves Pete to go with him on it since it's on the coast and Pete doesn't mind camping on the coast.  Since I could go to the pinewood derby and not the camp out, we decided that was a good compromise.  Each child had a parent to take them to their event.  Since I wasn't on the camp out, I don't know what happened, but I do have pictures that Pete took.  I know that they clammed in the morning and then made clam chowder for lunch.

Father and son

Pyramid

Playing in the sand

Sunset

Diggin' for clams

He found one!

Here it is!

Yuck!

At the campfire

Surrounded in seaweed.  Gross!

Girls Pinewood Derby

For Shaylee's activity days the leaders thought it would be fun for them to do a pinewood derby.  Pete was super happy about it because he really loooooves the pinewood derby.  This was supposed to be his one year off after doing it for five years straight and for two of those years he made two cars, then he was going to have one year off before he had to make a car for three more years.   Brandon had a campout that night that Pete was going on and Pete was also wrapping up coaching baseball, so he never got a chance to make Shaylee's car.  I took over and helped her sand it, paint it, and put the weights on.  Pete put on the wheels and we were ready to go.  We did the very least to this car than we did for any of the boys' cars and it did so well!  She won 4 out of 6 races and the two races that she lost she was within centimeters of the other car.  It was kinda funny.  Pete said I get to build the cars from now on since I did most of this car and it did so well.  But, the important thing is that she had tons of fun.  It was supposed to be a daddy/daughter event, but it was a mommy/daughter one for us since Pete went on Brandon's campout.

Shaylee watching her car get ready to race

Racing

One of Shaylee's races

Shaylee and her BFF, Natalie

Shaylee's award- "The Most Creative Paint"

"On your mark..."

"Get Set..."

"GO!!!!"

My Little Baseball Boy

Jaron has been obsessed with balls and sports since he was tiny.  We have a video of him watching a basketball game when he was 18 months old.  Last summer he played baseball on the community center league.  It was easy going and fun for him to start at that level.  This spring Pete decided to have him play little league baseball.  Little league is much more intense and time consuming.  There are two games and a practice every week.  The games last about two hours and the practice is an hour and a half.  Since Pete was coaching, little league took up a lot of our time this Spring.  Jaron's last game of the season was on June 11th.  He had a great time playing and really enjoyed having so many friends on his team.  He improved quite a bit during the season and was able to get at least one hit a game by the end.  He also was able to field the ball quite well and made quite a few stops with his fielding.  He is tiny and so he is not the best player, but he tries hard and does pretty well for how little he is.  And I must say he is seriously the cutest little baseball player!

In perfect catcher position

What a cute catcher

In fielding position

#7 at bat

With two of his little friends

Last Band Concert

On May 9th, Brandon and Kenyon had their last band concert of the year.  It was a great concert.  They had the Marching band, 8th grade band, 7th grade band, and 6th grade band all play.  It is amazing how much better the bands get as the kids get older.  Both boys played amazingly well.  They are both really enjoying band.  Brandon plays the clarinet in the marching band and 7th grade band.  He also plays the saxophone in the Jazz band.  Kenyon plays the clarinet in the 6th grade band and at this concert he was able to play the Timpani drums.  He has been wanting to do percussion all year and was so happy when his teachers recognized his hard work and let him choose which percussion instrument he wanted to play.  He did an awesome job.  He is now stuck on playing the drums in the band.  So, we need to figure out what to do about getting drums for him and drums lessons as well.  Both boys also play the piano.  They have a lot more musical talent than I do, that's for sure!

First Grade Fun!

The morning of May 9th Jaron had all kinds of fun end of the year activities for the first grade.  He started his day out with annual first grade Hot air balloon launch.  Every year the first grade classes each make a hot air balloon and to end their study of air and gases they set them off over the play ground.  The whole school comes and watches.  It's a lot of fun for them.

Waiting for the Hot air balloon launch

Mr. Schiewe's class's balloon

Watching it come down.

After the Hot air balloon launch he had field day.  I stayed and helped for this activity.  I ran the hula hoop contest.  Jaron had a great time participating in all of the different events.  His favorite was the tug of war and the obstacle course.

What a cute boy!  I love that face!

Rowan, Aiden and Jaron

Later that afternoon he participated in the Fun Run which raises money for the school.  I helped with the fun run, but not while Shaylee and Jaron's grades were doing it.  So, I don't have any pics of them running.