Marvelous May

May started out with a not-so-marvelous moment.  I was going into the car wash and took the corner too sharp and made another dent in the side of the van!  (I'd done a worse dent, on the other side of the van last year, at the same gas station where this happened).  

May the Fourth we wore our Star Wars shirts and I did Sophie's hair like Ray.

While we were on our spring break adventure, Cedric bought a geode at one of the gift shops.  He loves to hammer rocks and was extra excited to hammer this one open.

There were pretty, white crystals inside.

Our bees survived the winter and we've already gotten some honey from them this year.

Interesting story... Lily was taking German her 8th grade year, but was not doing well.  She said her teacher was not the best at communicating and she'd gotten behind on some work.  So she went to her teacher to talk to her about bringing her grade up.  Her teacher said "let's talk after spring break".  So spring break came and went and she approached her teacher again.  This time she said "get back to me after our German field trip".  So the field trip came and went and Lily was ready to talk to her again, but she was not there.  The next day, she was not there again.  Day after day Lily would show up to a substitute in her German class.  So after about a week I told her to talk to her councilor.  Her councilor couldn't do anything about her grade and said her teacher was sick, so to wait until Monday.  Well Monday came and still no teacher!  Despite this, Lily's friend helped her figure out her missing work and so she was able to turn it in.  But without a teacher to record her work, her grade did not change.  Another week went by and Lily went to her councilor again for advice.  That's when the office finally admitted that they couldn't get a hold of her teacher!  The students looked her up on Instagram and saw she was still alive, just not coming to work.  After a few weeks and the end of the year fast approaching, Lily sent me this text one day...

So she got a permanent sub, that didn't even speak German.  Lily said she actually learned more with all the substitutes than she ever learned from her actual teacher!  They gave everyone participation points for the crazy weeks they were there with no teacher, Lily's work got recorded and her grade went from an F to an A in just a matter of days!  Crazy!  I'm sure it's hard to get a good middle school German teacher, but it's also one of the hard things about public school... getting qualified teachers that actually care.

On the reverse side, Cedric's had an amazing teacher that's gone above and beyond to help him.  So I volunteered to decorate her door for Teacher Appreciation week.  The theme was "Fly Guy" (each door was a different book theme).  Cedric helped me decorate her door.

I found this cute idea on Pinterest for the fly guy.  I was quite proud with how the door turned out.

Jeff got his Webelo and Arrow of Light award at Pack Meeting.  We are proud of his hard work in scouts.

For Mother's Day/birthday I compiled a book for Grandma Kay about all her adventures.  She seemed to love it!

Mother's Day for me was nice.  Nothing too exciting, but it's nice to have an excuse to not have to do everything.  We hosted Tom's family dinner, and he's always good about getting the house cleaned up and prepared.  I'm so lucky to get to be a mom to these four kids.

Here's a letter Cedric made for me...

Here's Sophie and her buddy, Chase.  She would go over to Chase's house every Tuesday and Thursday morning when I taught preschool so they've grown to be close friends.

We always have a big pool clean-up party at the Dairy pool.  Jeff didn't come because he had a headache, and Tom was working late.  So Lily, Cedric, Sophie and I went.  These three were the best helpers!  We were in charge of the sports court and it was very messy.  I wish I'd taken a before and after picture, because I couldn't believe how much we got done.  

For Sophie's final preschool field trip we went to Wheeler Farm.  I love this field trip and although it was a bit cool and a little threat of rain, it ended up being a very pleasant morning.

Since both classes went on the field trip in the morning, that meant I had the afternoon off.  So Sophie and I decided to make cookies together.  It was nice to have a less stressful afternoon.

My friend, Laura just had a baby and I went to her baby shower.  Laura was a nanny the same time I was a nanny.  Her sister, Heather was a nanny and worked with the family I worked for before I got the job.  Laura's nanny kids and my nanny kids were friends, so we would get together often for play dates.  So it was such a fun reunion to see Heather, Laura and Perla (plus Justin and Lars), whom I was a nanny for for three years.  

One Friday night we went and helped our friends, Tiffany and Kenny paint their family room.  It was a fun night hanging out with friends, eating food, listening to music and painting.  We ended up painting from around 6:30pm until 2:30am!  We sure love our friends!

I had another successful preschool graduation.  It was my first time with a microphone and I also did a new program.  I felt it went pretty good!

Sophie graduated and will be starting kindergarten soon.  I'm so grateful I was able to teach all of my children, but it's also the end of an era when my last child is done with preschool.

I always help with the school fun run because I'm done with preschool a week before my kids are done.  Here's Cedric running with a big smile on his face.

Here's Jeff as he completes in third place for his grade!

Memorial weekend we didn't have any plans, so we decided to take the kids to the Seven Peaks Fun Center in Lehi friday night.  It was a little cool, but not bad, and not crowded at all!  We did laser tag and mini golf.

The kids had fun on the rides.

Trying to do selfies on the carousel.  We were the only ones on it!

The boys went on the go-karts over and over.  It was there favorite. 

We then found out the roller coaster was open!  So we got in the very short line and Sophie was stating how nervous she was.  When it got time to get in, she started to cry and backed up to the fence.  Well, I knew the roller coaster wasn't too bad, so I picked her up and put her on the ride anyway.  As soon as it started, she realized it wasn't that bad and loved it!  We ended up going on it four times that day.  Three of which were over and over because no one else was in line.  

 May it was Sophie's turn for a date night with Mom and Dad.  She chose Wheeler Farm since she had so much fun on her school field trip the week before.

Afterwards, we went to Cold Stone for ice cream.  I had a gift card for Cold Stone, so the whole date only cost a few dollars.  I love how cheap our dates with Sophie are.

Lily's been teaching Sophie how to play Minecraft on the XBox.  It's really cute to hear Sophie's "trash talk" as she plays.  Also, Tom bought himself an early Father's Day present.  A Bengals recliner.  I think the kids have used it more than him. 

Memorial Day we had a barbecue with the CLaW Club and Maren and kids.

I watched Maren's girls one day.  They are over often and the kids love seeing their cousins.

Lorelei is getting so big and is such a happy baby.

Jeff got a whole bunch of rewards at the school awards assembly.  He brought home a flier inviting me to the assembly.  Normally I can't go because of preschool, but I was done with school, so I could actually go!  Unfortunately, I thought it was on Wednesday and put it in my calendar as such.  So when Jeff came home and showed me all his awards on Tuesday I felt really bad that I'd missed it!  He's purposely doing a bad smile because he's a funny kid.

Cedric got an award too and also put on all his old school medals for the picture too.

Lily had her final choir concert.  It was fun to run into her choir teacher while driving up to our family cabin a few weeks later.  After her concert, she was in tears realizing it's the end of another school year.  Most of her friends in choir are ninth graders, so she knew it was the last time she'd see them (thank goodness for social media).

Lily did enjoy going to buy new clothes for the summer though.  She is such a teenager when it comes to clothes.   She's such a good helper at home, that I felt the shopping spree was well deserved.

May was a marvelous month!