Last week of school

The last week of school was tons of fun for Kimee and me. I didn't take pictures, but I wanted to remember these things we were able to do, a lot of together. Next year, we will still see each other a lot, but not as much since we won't be in the same grade.

On Monday, we had an awards assembly where Kimberly earned an award from her teacher for being an Amazing Writer.

On Tuesday, our school got to go to the local pool as a reward for the Principal's Reading Challenge. Kimberly was one of the top 10 readers in first grade, so she won the privilege of going on the FlowRider. She only did it once, but that was pretty cool. She didn't want to do it again. We went down the big slide once. She screamed and didn't want to go down, but I just grabbed her, put her on my lap and down we went. We had been waiting in line, freezing in the wind, for about 10 minutes. I wasn't about to just walk back down the stairs. I think she actually liked it, but she wouldn't say so because she was mad at me. We spent most of our time in the lazy river, and visited all the little pools for a short time in between.

On Wednesday, we had field day. Kimee and I ran a mini marathon together. She was mad that she didn't win. I explained you can't walk half the time if you want to win. I thought it was fun. We played games, after lunch watched a movie, and then the school had a magic show assembly. The magician was awesome and super entertaining.

On Thursday, we had the school dance festival. The first grade did the "Barnyard Boogie", so here is a picture of Kimee and me dressed up. It was fun.

Friday was the last day of school. Kimee was really sad to say goodbye to her teacher, Mrs. Rogers. She has really loved her as a teacher. I tried to explain to her that she will still get to see her a lot next year. It's hard for Kimee to imagine liking another teacher. The last day of school was exciting too, because after school, we were driving to St. George for a fun weekend vacation. More about that in another post!

Lagoon Day!

Every year, we get to go to Lagoon for free with Dave's company. Lagoon Day is usually at the beginning of summer, but this year it was a week or two early, on Sat., May 22. It rained all morning, and we actually had snowflakes land on our van as we were pulling in. We waited a few minutes for the rain to stop before going in around 12:30pm. Luckily, that was the last of the rain. The rest of the day was really nice. It was really cool and there were hardly any lines. We got to go on tons of rides.  It was so much fun to go on rides all together as a family (last year Maddi sat out a lot). Maddi even got to go on some of the kiddie rides! How cute! The only bad thing about the weather was not wanting to eat tons of popsicles and ice cream bars at the company luncheon. At least the ones we did get didn't melt very fast :)

Tradition says we must start on the carousel. And here we are, the first of many times.

Next, to the kiddie rides. Kimee took a while to get in the mood for rides. She was scared and nervous. She was almost crying, wanting to get off this ride before it started. Before long, she was excited and happy and wanting to go on every ride.

Maddi got to go on some rides, too! I asked Audrey to put her arm around Maddi, and she put her in a choke hold. Poor Maddi! But she cheered right up when the ride started.

A few times around on the cars. We basically went to one ride, and got back in line several times before going on to the next ride. 

 

After lunch, we walked by the new ride, Jumping Dragon. Audrey really wanted to go on it, but Kimee didn't. So Audrey and I went together. It was so fun! Audrey wasn't scared for a second. It went really fast forwards, and then backwards. It wasn't really scary. Audrey loved it! I was proud of her for being brave enough to go on a big ride.

Kimee waiting for us. Maddi fell asleep. Unfortunately, she didn't get too long of a nap.

While she slept, we went on a few more rides like the Tiki boat, swings, Puff the Dragon. Later, we went on the Puff roller coaster again and I squeezed Maddi in the seat between Audrey and I. It was so cute and fun!

Another one of our traditions is to go on the train after lunch.

A couple more rides, and it's time to go home.

One more time (or three) on the carousel. When there's no wait, why not! I think the girls wanted to try to ride on each different horse by the time we were done.

We finally headed out around 6pm, after letting the kids pick out a treat at the gift shop.
We stopped at Arby's for dinner and headed home with some exhausted girls and parents!

One more thing I have to say about Lagoon. If you haven't been for a few years, I think it may be worth trying again. Last year was the first year of a new law in Utah that restricts smoking out in the open in public places, like parks. I'm not sure exactly what the law says, but at Lagoon, you have to smoke in designated areas. The last two years have been SO much more pleasant. I have noticed a huge difference in the atmosphere there.

Audrey's Preschool Graduation

Audrey has been going to the Special Needs preschool at my school as a tuition/model student this year. Her teacher told me a while ago, if she could hand pick a tuition student, it would be Audrey. What a compliment! Last week, they had their preschool graduation. She's such a cutie!

Here she is singing songs...

She was pretty sleepy and kept yawning...

Maddi was entertained by Grandpa...

Audrey in her graduation hat...

With her teacher, Miss Jennifer...

With the teacher's aide, Miss Paula, whom she really loved...

The 6th graders did a carnival afterward for the kindergartners and preschoolers. Audrey got her hair and nails done, face painted and played a few games before going home with Daddy.

Congratulations on graduating, Audrey!!!
(Next year she will be in preschool again, she's got another year before Kindergarten.)

Maddi's First Words

Maddi's first word was uh-oh.

She now says, in her own cute way:
birdie
pisa (pizza)
peese (please)
ba (bath)
na (no)
dis (this)
was da (what's that)
da do (thank you)
ma
da da
And maybe a few more I can't think of right now. I wanted to get this posted before I forget!

the farm

At the beginning of May, we went down to visit a cool farm in Springville. We got an awesome tour by a friend of Dave's from work.

The turtle was awesome! 

Not shy at all, it was walking all over the place. 

And it had cool spikes on the back.

 Then we got to feed the lambs. How fun!

On to the kangaroo, my favorite!

The kangaroo was really friendly and liked the bread we brought.

Do you want a taste of my bread?

Too bad, I'm going to eat it!

Maddi had so much fun! She fell down in the mud a couple of times, including one face plant. But she happily got back up and kept cruising around.

Gotta love this haircut!

miscellaneous fun

As we have been working outside more, the girls are always out there playing around. Kimee and Audrey both love to water the flowers, which is nice. Until they decide to do this. . .

Maddi loves to play with the horses, whenever she can sneak a chance.

Kimee lining her horses up on a train.

We had a sleepover in the living room!

Kimee teaching school to a small group, cross-age class.

This is not so much fun, but as Maddi was playing outside, she tripped and hit her eye on the picnic table. I finally took a picture as it was about to get better. I think she is going to have a scar there under her eye from this accident.