Kindergarten Graduation

Raely had kindergarten graduation the day before school got out. They did the cutest program with songs and stuff. Of course it was WINDY that day.  What would we do without the Flagstaff wind?  Don't get me started....  Anyway, Raely had the best teacher this year, Mrs. Bucci. Raely loved her and she learned so much!  Hopefully she is still around when Addy goes to school in 2 years!

Raely & Mrs. Bucci

Raely, Sami, and Ms. Bern

Red Riding Hood (in purple)

Kaitlyn's 6th grade class put on a play about Red Riding Hood. They put the wolf and the woodcutter on trial to find out who really tried to kill Grandma. Kaitlyn was Red Riding Hood, except she had changed her favorite color to purple by the time of the trial. Here is a picture of some of the cast. Looks like they had fun!

Deer Farm

Raely's kindergarten class went to the Deer Farm by Williams last week so I took the little girls and met the class there. The kids all had a great time and I don't think that anything scares Sofie at all. She just wanted to get down and chase and pet the deer. There were a few of Raely's classmates that were almost terrified by the deer (they are very aggressive because you can feed them and they know it). I totally didn't get any pictures of Raely - since I was too busy chasing Sofie while they were in the actual animal part. After the bus left, I took some of Addy and Sofie in the parking lot.

Addy is 4!

Addy was so excited for her birthday this year (especially since Raely's was just a week before). I made marshmallow fondant and had the kids help me decorate her cupcakes. It was pretty fun but I couldn't get them to stop picking in it and mixing up new colors! Addy really wanted a horse and rider for her birthday. I never knew how hard that would be to find. I know that my little girls aren't the only ones who are in LOVE with horses but there was hardly ANY selection. I finally found one at a specialty toy store here in town but dang it - I don't think it's going to last very long - it's more of a collector's item than an actual play toy. Oh well, she loved it!

I just had to put this one of Sofie in - her face was too funny!

Whitehorse Lake

We went to Whitehorse Lake with our friends, the Oldroyd's over Memorial weekend. It was so much fun to just relax and enjoy each other. The kids had tons of fun fishing, canoeing/kayaking and just playing in the water! The Oldroyd's are such a neat family and my kids love to hang out with them. The weekend had a scary/horrible ending as Becky was driving home in their truck and it caught on fire and literally burned to the ground! Luckily the Lord was watching over them and no one was hurt!!!! Unfortunately the truck and most of their camping stuff were a COMPLETE loss. Incidents like that sure remind us of the MOST important things in life - our family & friends!

Mason & Bryant fishing - I think they have the rock caught right here!

Mason looking out at the beautiful view of the lake

Kaitlyn and Jessica pretty much claimed the kayaks all weekend long!

You should have seen their sunburned legs!

Sofie LOVED all the candy at her fingertips!

What a woman! Becky took all the little kids on a canoe ride. (I think they lost two fishing poles during the expedition)

Ricky trying to beat Todd at chess.

Dave offered to hold Sofie - he must have the magic touch.

Just hanging out in the shade

More food!

Fishing at Pomeroy Tanks.

What a cutie! Sofie loved being outdoors!

Mason so proud of his catch (a bluegill)

Addy on the hike

Bryant LOVED fishing and even caught one big enough to eat (a couple of bites at least)

Kaitlyn was so proud of her homemade fishing pole that caught fish without any bait!

This little pond was beautiful with the lily pads

Raely, Ricky, and Mason

Sofie, Jessica, Raely and Kaitlyn

Raely had to pose on top of this rock "mountain"

Raely has NO fear and will try almost anything

More fishing

This is how most of Kaitlyn and Jessica's canoe rides ended up. They always "accidently" fell in!

Happy Birthday Raely!

Raely, true to her love wanted a horse birthday cake. Kaitlyn actually decorated the cake and I think she did a fantastic job! We had to celebrate Raely's birthday a day late since she had a kindergarten performance the evening of her birthday and there was NO time to fit in cake and stuff. She wanted a truck and horse trailer and after searching all over town, I tried Amazon. She LOVED it and now Addy wants one for her birthday too.

Raely is on the bottom row right in the middle in a pink hat - gangster style. She had pig-tails and whoever helped her put her hat on put one of the pig-tails through the hole in the back. So cute!

At 6 years old, we let the kids light their own candles. Raely was so excited!

Arkansas

My mom, my sisters, and I (plus 5 little kids) flew to Arkansas on May 4th-7th to visit my brother Shaun and his family. I'm sure people wondered what kind of crazy ladies we were with so many little kids. They were all surprisingly good on the flight. Some of that may have been due to the EARLY departure time and half-asleep kiddos. Sofie actually fell asleep for a while. I loved how GREEN everything was as we flew into Bentonville. Coming from Arizona where nothing turns green until the monsoons come, it was so beautiful.

The kids loved playing in this water fountain in downtown Bentonville. They all tried to get a drink - sick! In the center of the fountain is a statue of a Confederate soldier.

Talk about utter chaos! The kids had so much fun playing together. Luckily no one got hurt jumping on the air mattresses!

On Thursday we went to Crystal Bridges trail. It was really pretty with the Ozark feel. They had lots of different species of plants including some cactus (which was really struggling from some much rain).

Friday we went to some craft fairs. Apparently they have huge craft fairs all over near Bentonville the first weekend in May. Some of them had been cancelled because of all the rain and flooding the week before but we went to one and it was really fun. Some lady made the most delicious caramels - all sorts of flavors and she was SO generous with her samples. For lunch we went to Beaver Lake and to then to War Eagle Mill. I still can't get over how GREEN everything was out there! You can see in some of the lake pictures the debris from the flooding the week before. I didn't even get the highest line of debris - pretty amazing. Too bad I couldn't bring some of that water home!

What an awesome grandma! She played with all the kids in the water forever!

War Eagle Mill

I had to take this picture for Bryant & Ricky. They dream of cattle ranches with lots of GREEN!



Well, the flight back home was not so pleasant. Sofie cried for at LEAST 20-30 min as soon as they said to put all lap children on your lap.... She was madder than I have ever seen her. I tried to distract her with all sorts of things and even the M&M's didn't work - she just hit the bag and made them fly everywhere. She even BIT my hand and left a pretty good mark that lasted about a week! Probably everyone on the plane was glad to have her finally calm down.... Oh and a couple of M&M's were apparently in my seat and melted to my bum the whole flight! LOVE it!