May

 I've spent a lot of time at the school lately.  I helped in Noah's class for their Cinco de Mayo day. 

 They made tortillas (I was stuck in the kitchen - there's a kitchen in Ava's classroom, so I could hear them getting ready for the Mother's day tea party which I would be attending later that day :) -  cooking the tortillas for hours), had multiple activities and got to eat their tortillas and nachos for lunch.

 Right after Noah's class fiesta, I went to Ava's Mother's day tea party.  She made me a cute place mat and Queen crown.  We ate lots of treats, the kids sang to us, and they all said something nice about their mom.

 The day after all the other school activities, I chaperoned for Ava's field trip to the hamburger farm (it's the same place we go for the pumpkin patch). They got to play on the big slides, ride the carousal,pan for marbles and then tour the farm.

 Learning about bees.

 The garden is shaped liked a hamburger and each section they teach a little about what's growing (wheat/bun, cucumbers/pickles, tomatoes, onions, lettuce).  They also show them how to milk the cow for the cheese and potatoes for the fries.

 Then we all got a hamburger meal for lunch.  Fun field trip.  I missed Grant's mother's day program because I was on the field trip.  Luckily I have many sweet moms in our ward that we could ask.  Grant asked his primary president to go to his mother's day program (I don't have pictures yet).

 The kids brought me breakfast in bed for mother's day.  Grant brought me toast and Ava brought me strawberries and Nutella.  Adam got me flowers.

 Ava and I made creme brulee for her FHE treat.

 There was a pioneer day in Coloma, so the kids and I went to that while Adam was working at the cabin.  It was pretty fun.  Lots of FREE activities for the kids.

 Playing pioneer games.

 Branding.  We went on a carriage ride, made bricks and watched the cannons be fired.

 LOTS and LOTS of baseball.  I swear that's all we do these days, but the boys seem to enjoy it, so Ava and I are toting them to and from practices and games.  Grant's a really good ball player and Noah has gotten so much better than when he first started.  He's become a pretty consistent hitter for his team.

We went to the kid's open house.  We have a new principal this year so she tried something different for open house.  She had each grade do an activity outside and then they displayed 1 piece of artwork in the multipurpose room.  It was lame.  Hope they go back to regular open house next year.

We waited in line, in the heat, for balloon creations and then left open house.

Noah had a solar system project due at school.  I am very meticulous when it comes to projects like this, but I told myself a long time ago that I wouldn't be that mom who does my kid's projects for them.  I've stuck to my guns pretty good.  It's hard to watch (I do assist) and not take over, but I know they'll be better off for it in the end.  I thought it turned out really cool.  He used clay to make the planets.  We tied a washer to some fishing line and pushed the washer into the middle of the ball before it hardened.  He had to label the planets, so he carved them into the clay before it dried.  He also added some colorful wire to Saturn for Saturns rings.  After the clay hardened he painted and then hung them.  It was quite heavy and they are supposed to hang from the ceiling in their classroom.  Noah said if one of the balls falls it might knock him out. :)  So far, they are holding strong.

I've had to make quite a few of these Arrow of Light plaques lately.  They are time consuming (I use a wood burner to do it all), but I think they are pretty cool.  Hopefully the boys don't throw them away.

Grant had his kindergarten graduation last week.  I can't believe all of my kids are graduated from kindergarten!!!  I never thought this day would come, but now that it has, I realize how quickly it came, and how quickly time is flying by.  All 3 kids have had this kindergarten teacher, and she's great.  She runs her class like a military boot camp, but man those kids are well trained - don't worry, they have lots of fun too.

Memorial day weekend at the cabin.  The only clean place at the moment is the deck, so that's where we sleep. 

We still pretty much only work on the cabin while we're there, but we threw in a little fun this time too.

All the kids can ski now.  Grant has taken a liking to it this year.  Ava does it for the reward (usually a milkshake), and Noah likes it but only after he whines about it for awhile.

Noah's on big boy skies this year, so it's not as easy as the baby skies.  He's having to learn how to control the bigger skies.

After church on Sunday we went to the dam to walk around.  Nice view of Mt. Shasta in the background.  On our way to church we saw a bear crossing the road.  It was pretty cool to see.  We also saw a deer and gray fox next to the cabin the night before.

The kids caught a lizard and played with it for awhile and then accidentally killed it.  Ava and Grant gave him a proper burial.

Ava loved skiing by the boys and making the wave hit them.

Found a pretty waterfall in one of the coves.  That water is COLD!!  Crazy how that water can be so cold and then about 10 feet away from it it's lake temperature.

The mosquitoes are horrible at the cabin and we were pretty diligent to spray bug spray, but the kids got eaten alive.  Grant had bites all over his head and arms.  I think they were getting bit while they were sleeping.  Anyway, like usual, the bites would swell up and then go down in size a bit.  However, the day after we got back Grant woke up with his eyes almost swollen shut and a horrible rash all over his face, and wherever he was bitten it had a little scab over the bite.  Weird.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  His face has been swollen and bright red all week.  I'm not sure if he had an allergic reaction from having so many mosquito bites or if it could have been poison oak???  Not sure, but we've been using my mom's witch potion on it and it seems to be getting better (I also started him on antibiotics yesterday so that is probably helping as well).  Noah also got a crazy rash on his nose this week.  My boys have got some serious skin issues this week.

Well, that's a wrap for May.  4 more days of school for us and then summer can officially begin!!!!  We can't wait.