The Karate Boys

The Karate Boys have done it again...............................

They worked very hard and passed their belt tests. Joe is now a low orange belt, and Ryan is a Green belt.

About a month before the test Sensei told Joe he did not think he would be able to test, because he did not seem focused and ready enough to do it. Joe showed Sensei how much he wanted his new belt, by working really hard the next month. I was really impressed with how hard he worked to get to test.

Ryan was also not too sure about this test. He has trained into the harder levels now, and he was not sure he had his technique down well enough to do this next test.

But they both did a great Job and I am really proud of them.

Joe is really excited about his new belt, and he was happy to get to show it off at the 1st Grade Talent show. I was a little worried when I saw how the stage was set up, but Joe did great at improvising his Kata to go up and down the different levels.

He was not sure about doing this in front of his class. I thought he did a great job, and his friends seemed to like it.

1st Grade Zoo Day

When Joe brought home the permission slip for his class field trip to Hogle Zoo he was really excited. He told me all about it, handed me the permission slip and then walked off. The next morning I handed Joe the permission slip and happily told him that I marked that he would bring home lunch and that I would come too.

I thought first graders wanted their moms to come to school things, so I was a little surprised and sad when Joe's reaction was an unhappy "Ohhhh, Why!"

He reluctantly took the slip back to school.

A few days before the field trip Joe came home and happily handed me a note about the field trip. Joe showed me the list of kids I had assigned to my group and told me that because I was the mom coming he gets to be the group leader. So that made it a really good thing that I was coming.

My group was Joe, Charlie, and Max. My friend Angela had two boys in her group ,Cooper, and Gibson so we decided to go around together.

The weather forecast for the day of the field trip had been saying rain all week. So I picked up some rain ponchos at the dollar store for our group. I am really glad I did because, it made it really easy to keep track of the boys, and it rained the entire time we were there. The kids didn't seem to mind the rain though.

We started out at the tigers. They were eating when we got to them and the boys thought that was great.

I loved the new baby elephant.

There was a special dinosaur exhibit going on at the zoo. All over the zoo were animated dinosaur statues.

They had this one for the kids to climb on for a picture. If you look at the dinosaurs mouth you will see that Joe is not the only joker in the class.

These two dinosaurs were their favorites, because they sprayed water. The boys loved this.


The original plan was to go to a park after the zoo and have a picnic lunch, but because of the rain we just headed back to the school.

But the kids still got a little bit of a special lunch, because they got to eat it in the classroom.

I am glad I got to go on the field trip. It was a little cold and wet, but I loved being with Joe and his friends. I hope he was glad I came too.

Under The Sea

Preschool is almost finished, and Josh is so excited for it to end so he can go to kindergarten. He keeps asking me when the last day of Preschool is, and when I answer he says. "And then the next day I start kindergarten?"

However, I am not quite ready to give up my preschooler to elementary school, and am glad I have the entire summer to get use to the idea.

Josh has loved his preschool and is always excited to go. He has made some great friends this year, and has learned a lot.

He has great teachers who really care about him, and are just as excited as I am when Josh achieves his goals. When Josh started bringing home his reading books, His teacher, Mrs. Valerie got to the car first to tell me the exciting news.

Now that school is wrapping up it is time for the programs, and once again Josh's preschool put on a great show.

The theme this year was "Under The Sea." Josh and his speaking buddy started the program as crocodiles

and their speaking parts introduced the song, "Never Smile at a Crocodile."

But the part Josh was the most excited about was his duet in "Puff the Magic Dragon." This is one of Josh's favorite songs at school.

Puff was one of my favorites too.

They ended the program with "Yellow Submarine." I think Josh's second favorite part of the program was getting to play a kazoo in this song. Ryan had told Josh to sing this song really well, because it was originally sung by Grandma's favorite band "The Beatles."

Josh was a little confused by this, so he asked his dad, "Were they black Beatles, or the ones with the white stripes or were they brown?

I love watching Josh perform, because I can tell he loves performing. He sings loud and does all of the actions. It was a great show. I love you Josh.

Easter Morning

Happy Easter

Heros and Hares

Saturday was Grandma's Annual Easter Party. The theme this year was "Hero's and Hares."
Each guest had to come dressed as either a Super Hero or someone they thought of as a Hero.


Uncle Keven came as Smokey.

Valerie came dressed as her brothers. She is always putting on their clothes and following them around.

Grandpa dressed as a member of his favorite baseball team, The Dodgers.

Asher was a Dinosaur.

Grandma came as a Gold Medal Olympian from the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Ryan dressed as Thor Hushovd, one of his favorite cyclists. He also brought his Thor Slurpee cup to represent his two favorite Thor's.

Emily dressed as Black Widow.

Josh came as Bumblebee.

Joe came as GI Joe. (Pun intended)

Alisa came as Elphaba

I followed suit with Ryan and colored my own t-shirt (with the help of Valerie) and came as Super Mom.

Grandma had a few games planned, and we had "Hero Sandwiches" for dinner.

Then it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt.

The eggs were all marked so the kids had to look for the eggs with their names on it.

They had fun running around finding all of their eggs and a few prizes.

After the hunt the kids dug into their Easter treats, And found a treat left by the "Easter Snow Bunny." Who is the Easter Snow Bunny? That is a post for another time ;)

It was a great party.

Thanks for all of the fun Grandma and Grandpa!

Coloring Eggs

Friday night we colored Easter eggs. My kids really get into this so I try to make sure they have enough eggs. This year I boiled 1 dozen for each kid. (4 dozen total.) They had them all colored in less than 30 minutes.

I did help Valerie with one or two of hers. (I like to color eggs too.)

Can you tell which one I did?

The other kids were not too happy and made sure they had BYU ones in their cartons, but for some reason those eggs did not show up as well in the pictures. Josh wouldn't dye any of his eggs anything close to red.

When we finished the kids all wanted to eat an egg. I took an egg over to the sink and started peeling it for Valerie. When I turned back around she had dug into another egg.

She figured out fast that eggs taste a little better peeled. Just now when she saw the picture above she said, "Eww Yuck!" I guess she won't try that again for a while.

Egg Hunt

To kick off our Easter celebration, Friday Morning we headed to the park for a neighborhood egg hunt. The group was a bunch of nursery aged kids with a few older kids. (the other older kids are not pictured.)


When we first arrived Joe looked out at all of the eggs just thrown on the lawn and decided that this was going to be the easiest hunt of his life.

Then the mom in charge told the older kids that they were not allowed to pick up any eggs off the ground. Their eggs were hidden in higher places.


Joe was able to find plenty of eggs. Josh did pretty well for himself too.

I had already warned Emily as we drove to the park that the egg hunt was for younger kids and that it might not be vary fun for her. She decided she would probably just help Valerie find eggs.

When she found out there were harder eggs hidden for her she looked for them, but she still helped Valerie find some too. Valerie didn't understand at first, but after the first two eggs she started "finding" them on her own, and putting them in her basket. She didn't figure out there was candy in them until after the hunt.

Like I said before the hunt was geared toward toddlers, so the prizes were too. Joe and Josh loved the candy, but they happily gave their Dora stickers to Valerie and the other little girls at the park. I am so grateful to the moms who put this hunt together.