Look! Two Wheels!!

Someone decided it was time to ride without training wheels.

 (Yes, her helmet is really low.  Yes, she can see - barely.)

 She rode up and down...

 and up and down...

and up and down the street until Mr. Blue couldn't run up and down the street anymore.

Miss Pink is great riding the bike, stopping and starting need a bit of work.  :)

Gymnastics Festival

Last fall Miss Pink told me that she wanted to take gymnastics instead of dance, so I signed her up.

She has willingly gone almost every week with a smile on her face.

Today the gym had a little festival where each girl did a routine on each apparatus.

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

 I was really worried that Miss Pink wouldn't participate.  

Sometimes she sees all the people and freezes.

Not this time.  We walked into the gym, found out where she needed to be and she ran off with a huge smile on her face.

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

 As she did each one of her routines I got a little teary-eyed.  I was so proud of her for getting out there in front of so many people and trying her best.  She was so brave!

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

 After the festival she had to show us her favorite move - hanging upside down.

(Photo courtesy of my father-in-law)

She's been so lucky to have her "besty" in class with her.

Way to go Miss Pink!

One Tooth Down

Miss Pink woke up Wednesday morning and just knew that her tooth needed to come out.

As soon as breakfast was over Mr. Orange talked her into tying her tooth to the door and he would slam it shut.

 It took awhile for Mr. Blue to get the string tied to Miss Pink's tooth.

When it was on tight, Mr. Blue asked Miss Pink if she was ready for him to tie the string to the door.

Her response?

"Um, no Dad."

 Needless to say, the tooth did not come out after breakfast.

Miss Pink spent most of the day in front of the mirror trying to get it to come out.

By Thursday, it was hanging on by a thread.

I wanted to reach in her mouth and "pop" it out.

I refrained.

 We went to dinner with her Uncle and cousin and while we were sitting and talking she looked up at me and guess what?

Her tooth was in her hand and she had a window in her mouth!

She was so excited to put her first tooth under her pillow.

The Tooth Fairy made it and gave that animal-loving girl a pretty cool elephant and butterfly.

I can't believe how grown up she is!

Toothpicks and Dolls

Miss Pink found the toothpicks.

 I think she has a pretty bright future in either acupuncture

or voodoo.

Either option could come in handy, I am sure.

Sleeping

Since Mr. Orange has been out of school, Miss Pink thinks they need to have a sleepover every night.

I wonder how long this will last.

Looks a little squishy to me!

Venus

Nana gave us some special glasses a few days ago with some specific instructions:

You need to watch Venus move across the sun.

Miss Pink didn't make it to the viewing party.

She was being a bit crabby and fell asleep too early.

 Mr. Orange, on the other hand, put those glasses on and watched, and watched, and watched, and, well, you get the idea.

 He was fascinated.

So was I.

Ensign Peak

Since it was Mr. Orange's last day of school we decided to jam-pack it with fun.

When school let out we ran down to Thanksgiving Point to have lunch with Gramma.

Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy a backyard pool.

The kids played in the pool until Mr. Blue got home from work.

We ate dinner then headed up to Salt Lake to hike Ensign Peak.

 I love this hike.

The views are incredible.

 And it's perfect for kids too.

Miss Pink and I ran the whole way down.

When the boys finally caught up to us, we talked them into some ice cream on the way home.

Let summer begin!

Last Day of School - First Grade

Wow.

It finally came.

The last day of school.

Mr. Orange was so excited to get to school that he absolutely, could not, hold still long enough for me to take a picture of him.

 "We're going to have a lot of fun this summer.  Right, Mom?  Right???"

 Mr. Orange with his Chinese teacher - W. Lao Shi.  She was an incredible teacher.  I cannot believe the patience that she had with these kids (mine in particular).  It was amazing to see Mr. Orange's progress this year.  Once he decided to pay attention in class (insert bribes by the parents and creative teaching by the teacher) he decided that he really did like Chinese.  I'm so excited to see how he does next year.

I would have taken a picture of his English teacher, but he had several.  Mrs. B. had a baby right after Christmas.  Then they had a long-term substitute.  Mrs. B. decided not to come back and to stay home with her baby.  Enter Mrs. J. - also pregnant.  She had her baby 9 days early and missed the last 2, or so weeks of school.  Enter long-term substitute number 2.  That is 4 teachers for his English class alone!  Incredible.  Let's hope he has post-menopausal teachers next year.  :)  I'm only half kidding about that.

Since I never got around to posting Mr. Orange's last day of Kindergarten picture, I figured I'd stick it in here.  Mrs. Y. was a great teacher and friend.  I loved, loved, loved volunteering in her classroom.  Mr. Orange loved her too.

Track

Track conditioning ended tonight.

Mr. Orange had to run the mile again.

It was hotter than hot.

He did so well - 11:21!

I couldn't talk him into doing track for the summer.

Maybe he'll want to next summer after watching the Olympics. :)

I'm so proud of him.

He improved so much in 6 short weeks.

Way to go Mr. Orange!!

Sidewalk Paint = Lifesaver

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.

I love all of the great ideas I find on the site, but really hate how uncreative/unorganized/unawesome it makes me feel.

Tonight I loved Pinterest.

My kids were driving me crazy around dinnertime.

(What?!  My kids?!  I know, they are complete angels - always.  Mmm, hmm.)

I remembered seeing a recipe for sidewalk paint.

 Hooray!  Hooray!  It saved my day.

 The kids were entertained for an hour while I made dinner.

Thank you Pinterest for helping me be an awesome mom today.

Miss Pink's Dance Recital(s)

We just ended another fun year of dance for Miss Pink.

I never got around to posting pictures of their Halloween "in-class" performance.

 Miss Pink started to dance as soon as the music started...

and danced away until she saw Mr. Blue recording her.

Then she stopped dancing.

 She absolutely refused to dance at their little Christmas performance.

She cried every time I took her to dance.

One day I had had it and I told her, "Fine.  If you don't want to go to dance, you will stay in your room the entire day."  Guess what she said.  "That's fine.  I'll stay in my room."

And she did.

I was at my wits end with her since the only time she wouldn't dance was in dance class.

Finally I gave in and sat near the class and read a book - for several weeks.

The deal was I would stay if she would dance.

Then one day she was ready to dance without me there.

I wasn't sure if she would dance at her recital, but she assured me that she would.

 And dance she did.

She danced beautifully.

(If I wasn't so technologically impaired I would even post a video.)

I was super proud of her.

 Miss Pink's "best friend in the whole wide world" was in her class this year.

 Their favorite thing to play at our house is "dance party".

I love seeing the poses they come up with.

Some of them are pretty spectacular.

Miss L has been a fantastic teacher.

We will miss her so much next year!

Heebie Jeebies

We had this guy come to our Pack Meeting this week.

Since we only have about 5 Cub Scouts, the entire Primary came.

He started out with some pretty mild stuff...

small turtles, a large tortoise...

 Then he moved onto some lizards.

I was still doing okay.

 Then he pulled out a giant tarantula.

I'm not kidding, it must have been 7 feet across.

Okay, not really, but it didn't matter, I ran to the other side of the field.

And stayed there.

Until the spider, wait, they are not spiders.

They are arachnids.

Whatever, they have 8 legs, fur, and are the size of a chihuahua.

I wouldn't come back until he put it back in it's box.

(Insert major shivers here!)

My kids didn't like the tarantula much either, but the both liked the lizards and the snakes.

(Mr. Orange is trying to figure out how he is going to sneak this snake into our car, I can see it in his eyes...)