so put your feet up and grab a diet coke (i've already had two) because i'm behind and this is going to be one long catch-up post... the last week of school is a whole melting pot full of emotions which i am just now starting to get in touch with, mostly because i ran around like a mad chicken all week long with no time left over for feelings. that, and i've been repressing those feelings as best as i can by avoiding my blog and staying busy. now i have no excuse, so here we go.
last friday was spencer's last class play of the year and the best by far, there was george washington
and disco dancing so you know it was at least entertaining.
i know i've said this before but we
LOVE spencer's teachers, he has had the best year and i'm so grateful.
friday night the community council parents (a.k.a the blogger moms) all met up for the
mccall clark fundraiser concert. we're smiling in this photo because we're glad it's finally OVER!
mccall put on a fun show and was darling with the kids after the show and stayed to sign every paper that was pushed at her.
it will be fun to say we knew her when. it was also patsy's anniversary but that didn't stop us from going to chili's to celebrate!
i love these girls!
wednesday was field day! field day is definitely the funnest day of the year and our school's field day is the best! every year patsy and i, and several other moms do the face painting, and we always have sworms of kids for the entire three hours.
there were some pretty hillarious requests this year, more than once i had to say,
"no i can't paint 'i love basketball, basketball rocks, go jazz!' across your face, how much skin on your cheeks to you think you have? how about just 'go jazz!' " seriously, i kept getting the requests for the long sentences and i wanted to say, "how about a smiley face or a heart?"
ethan was so good, he saw what was going on an decided to give it a try by painting his own cheeks.
then he decided to let allie take over and was thrilled to see what she had drawn in the mirror.
this year was especially fun because it was so nice and cool outside, usually we bake like potatoes out there!
wednesday night -as if i hadn't spent enough time painting on wednesday, i was also in charge of helping the young women learn to paint black and white photographs.
a few weeks ago we went to temple square in salt lake to take photographs of the beautiful tulips, the girls really did a beautiful job. i developed all the photos and we met wednesday night to learn how to color them. the girls were so creative and such fast learners, i was so impressed with their artistic abilities.
it also made me excited to go to camp and get to know these girls better.
thursday was the big day for allie, sixth grade graduation! funny skits, lots of singing and some tear-jerking videos made for a fantastic program! it was a little surreal, i'll be honest, to see allie up there all grown-up and ready for the second half of her schooling.
she's so excited for jr. high and my level of anxiety about it is less with her because taylor has had such a good experience so far, i think she will be fine. after graduation they celebrate with a dance!
only a few moms get to witness the fun, one of the perks of volunteering! i had to teach the kids the art of the electric slide but other than that tried to lay low and not embarrass allie too much - is it wrong that i just wanted to go out there and dance with them?! they were having so much fun and their energy was infectious!
thursday night we headed into rich's work for a little gaming.
rich has been working crazy hours as the lead programmer for "ultimate band" for the wii. now that the game is more solid and on it's way, they invited the employees' kids to come eat pizza and play the game and to give feedback about what they thought.
it was fun to get a little tour of rich's brand new office. (you know you're a computer nerd when you have more than one giant monitor on your desk.)
a few months ago the building next door caught fire and so now rich has an interesting view out of his very high office window. (that's a tractor down there!)
ethan loved seeing pixar action figures everywhere (rich works for disney) and sitting in rich's chair.
what do you think - future computer nerd? the kids gave the game two thumbs up, spencer even played it on expert level - that kid has mad gaming skills. anyone know how we can channel those skills to his school work?
on the drive home i started to feel the dreaded symptoms of a migraine coming on, oh the joy, and had to deal with that for the rest of the night. who invented these dabilitating headaches anyway? migraines suck, that's all there is to it.
friday morning i managed to get everyone out the door for the last day of school. i made some really cute movie themed gift baskets for spencer's teachers but never got a photo -
that's how bad my head was hurting. then went back to bed with some ibuprophen and spent the rest of the day teetering on the brink of the migraine coming back full-blown. do you know this feeling? you still have migraine residue but it's managable as long as you don't look directly into too bright of a light, or raise your arms above your head, or sneeze, for fear it will slip back into the
un-managable stage again? allie's school has a wonderful tradition on the last day, something i was really looking forward to documenting since it's our last year participating in it. a flag ceremony, the school song, the pledge of allegiance, hugs and yes, a ton of crying.
patsy did a great job documenting and so i snuck these photos from her blog - thanks patsy. i decided that in my delicate migraine-residue-state that it would be best to skip the flag ceremony this year - the crying alone would send me right back to my darkened bedroom with no sound. i'm so sad i missed it but patsy did get a great photo of the puffy-eyed allie with her fabulous teacher.
she was lucky enough to have her in the second grade also so we knew ahead of time that it was going to be a fabulous year and it was! as i picked allie up from school i thought to myself...wow, no more pulling up to this curb to pick up a load of kids. while i'm extactic to eliminate this errand from my daily routine, it's also sad to say good bye to this great school that we've loved and served and felt proud to be part of. bitter-sweet. the rest of the afternoon and evening came with each kid headed in a different direction for parties and pizza and movies. luckily rich showed up with a bajio salad so i didn't have to cook anything.
welcome summer! i can't wait to soak you in! - with sunscreen of course.
**phew! if you made it to the end of this post, you love me more than i thought! now do you know why i had no time to blog last week? sheesh.
the kids ended up spending most of their time in the hot tub which was great until...it was time to get out. we tortured them long enough to get a photo though, is it just me or is their skin purple?
and spencer looks like a serial killer. i even caught the reluctant teenager who thought she could escape my camera lens by hiding behind a pillar! silly girl!
the moms, who were smart enough NOT to get wet in the freezing rain, had fun chatting and laughing at our die-hard kids. brrrrrr, hopefully next time we go it will feel more like summer.
every morning since school got out, ethan thinks he's died and gone to heaven, because all the kids are home and i'll admit i haven't seen him as much as when they're gone all day. he's too busy to hang out with me because he's following spencer and taylor around like a puppy. but really it's heaven for him because his favorite person is home now...allie of course! every morning this past week he wakes up and starts calling her name, when he used to call mine. lucky for him, allie loves him as much as he loves her and entertains him all day long. his favorite activity lately is sitting on her lap with his hands on hers while she practices the piano. he's the luckiest kid in the world to have three older sibblings who adore him, most of the time. it's going to be so hard in the fall when they go back to school, and once again, he's stuck with just me all day long. for now, we're both enjoying every minute of it.
ever since i was a little girl i have looked forward to seeing my grandpa and having my guts squeezed from one of his family-famous hugs. everyone in the family, even my dad, agrees that he is the world's best hugger. i used to think that it was because he was a big cowboy kind of man and he maybe didn't know his own strength. but as i got older i realized there is no accident about how tight he holds you, it's all about letting you know how much you are loved. they're the kind of hugs that say, "you are the most important thing in the whole world" and "you are my favorite granddaughter" and there's nothing in the world quite like them.
i'll be honest that i was a little worried when i saw him on memorial day, it's been a few years and he's definitely looking more frail and aged. but when he saw me, he hugged me just as tight as ever, and i was so grateful. in fact, i hugged him more than once just to get my fill until the next time.
i've been working on enough graduation announcements this last little while that it was fun to edit some of my own photos for a change. love the rain, love this little boy.
it is so comfy and dressy enough but casual enough and so cute, and let's face it, that's a magic combination - thanks jenny! wednesday was also great because around dinner time our kitchen smelled like calzones - mmmm.
it hasn't smelled like calzones for a long time and oh man are they good. there's not really a recipe for them, but to see how we put them together you can check out our 
this one is called sunshine but we all know why i bought it, it's the daisies of course! check out their cute line 
i was so certain that david archuletta would win that i told my kids, seconds before the reveal, that if it was david cook i would take them all out for dairy queen even though everyone was already ready for bed! when ryan said "cook", our whole family jumped up and started screaming! we couldn't believe it. we watched his song and then headed to DQ in our pj's. it was so fun telling the lady at the drive thru window that we were there for celebratory blizzards in honor of cook's winning. she thought we were nuts but we were too excited to care.
we are faithful idol watchers and do you know that this is the first season since carrie underwood that who we cheered for all season actually WON! what made season seven a fun season to watch was all the incredible talent from everyone...well everyone except kristy lee cook, yikes. we wish david archuletta well, i'm sure he doesn't even need our well-wishes, because we really do like him....we just 
as i was doing the laundry today i realized i didn't have enough "lights" to do an entire load so i left the ones i had sitting in the washer until i could grab the rest. of course on my way up my room to get them i got distracted by some other project and didn't make it back to laundry room for another two hours. am i the only one that suffers from this? anyway, once i made it back i realized that the washer door was closed and the stuff inside was wet. and look who i found inside? this could only mean one thing...a toddler lives here. a toddler who decided to run the washer - which only requires closing the door and pushing ONE button - and give buzz and woody and bath while he was at it. i laughed to think of him sitting in there watching through the see-through washer door as buzz and woody wooshed around in the water. i bet they looked pretty funny to him. the best part is that later when i went to rotate that load to the dryer (after it was run with soap and additional laundry), i also found jesse. i guess she got two baths today, i missed her the first time.