Just Serve

Mormon Helping Hands is now called "Just Serve" in an effort to get the community more involved in the service projects we do. I'm not sure I saw a single non member there, but I could be wrong. I don't know everyone in the Stake after all. But this is the first year I have gone since it's always been super unappealing to think of taking Carter to a service project. He's getting older though and even though the kids pretty much undid a lot of what the adults did, they were helpful and I'm glad we took the time to go. 

This year we cleaned up a stretch of highway by the High School. It was a lot of digging up weeds and picking up trash. Then the city came and dumped mulch down for us to spread out. It looked pretty good when it was all done though and lots of people came out to help so that was really awesome.

That's my cute crew ready to work.

 They did pretty darn good too. 

 But the best part was probably hanging out with friends while they worked.

That's my handsome man staying till the bitter end after the kids had all called it a day and I took them home.

It was a pretty warm day. One of the warmest we've had so far, so after all that work, a swim in the pool was definitely in order. The kids have all made friends with the neighborhood kids so even though they are all younger than mine, my kids love playing with them and had them all come down to the pool with them. 

It's gonna be a fun summer.

Paul and I got to go on a date that night while the kids stayed home and watched a movie. We went to CPK with a gift card we had. The manager came by to talk to us and ended up offering us a free strawberry shortcake dessert. So it turned out to be a pretty awesome day!

Doctor's appointments

Ashlyn had her semi annual appointment down at Children's hospital so she got to miss school for the day. I don't think a doctor's appointment is her idea of fun and since she also had to get blood work too, I thought it was necessary to stop and get a little lunch at The Habit. Lucky Carter got to tag along. 

And he even got an ice cream cone. 

Then we went to the Chiropractor's because Ashlyn got a letter home from school saying she might have scoliosis (oh joy). I need to take her to her pediatrician, but since I was going to the Chiro anyway, I thought I'd have him look at her spine too. He said if she does have it, he thinks it's pretty mild and can be corrected with adjustments and stretches. So here's hoping he's right.

Carter LOVES the chiropractor. Especially when he gets his own little chair massage.

Rough life this kid has I tell ya.

LACMA

I've been loving going on Field Trips with Ashlyn. This time we went to the LACMA down in LA on Museum Row. I've never been before so it was really cool to get to see some stuff. The LACMA even sent up two air conditioned comfy busses for the kids to ride down and back on. They got an hour long tour (which only scratched the surface of what there was to see, but we were the only ones in the museum so it was pretty cool to get a private tour), they ate lunch out on the grass and then we walked all around the museums and the kids got to play a little too. 

Ashlyn's class has been learning a lot about Ancient Eygpt and the "weighing of the heart" ceremony so the tour guides took them to a mummy coffin that depicted the whole process in pictures. It was really cool.

They talked about ancient religions and mythology and they learned about meditation and Buddhism. 

Then they got to walk through the noodles exhibit hanging outside. Haha…pretty funny!

 This is some 3 ton boulder that was brought in to the area and placed here with a crane. So of course the kids thought it was super cool to walk underneath it.

Playing in the lamps exhibit. I don't know what these are all about, but I know they're a hot spot for engagement pictures. The girls played Hide and Seek in them. Good thing they're skinny little things.

Memorial Day Weekend

We started out with a Birthday party for Gracie (Leah's BFF) at the roller skating rink. Leah was THRILLED to get to go and had a blast skating and hanging with her cute friends.

I even jumped in and skated with her because she was begging me to get on the rink with her. I think she was quite surprised that I could even skate. Not that I'm great, but I can still make it around the rink without falling. Woohoo for me!

Callie sent me a picture from when she was here for Marci's homecoming talk. So I had to post it. It's too cute. That Carter loves his Callie.

On Memorial Day, we headed to the park with the Osmond's for a picnic, some badmitton and a quite rousing game of kickball. We decided to stop when 3 out of 4 of Becky's kids were either hurt or bleeding and 1 of mine had peed his pants because he was having too much fun to stop and go to the potty. It was super fun though and we're gonna have to go do it again. 

After that, we got our swim gear on and headed to the pool to swim and BBQ hotdogs. The kids had a blast and even though it was a bit chilly, they didn't let that stop them from getting in the pool.

Another field trip

I had to be goofy to get Dalia to smile so that made for a blurry picture, but she was refusing to smile for me. How the class president and super outgoing girl is bff's with my shy quiet sweetheart, I DO NOT KNOW?! But they are so cute together and hang out nonstop. 

Ashlyn's class has gone on so many field trips this year that I have literally lost count. These lucky 6th graders. There are only 3 weeks left of school and she still has three more field trips. One to the LACMA, one to the Aquatic Center and then one more walking field trip for lunch. I caught up with the class on this one today and met them outside of our complex (so I didn't have to carry Carter up the Green Mountain hill since I know he would not have made it on his own). It worked out perfect since they were walking right past our house on the way to Chipotle anyway. The weather has been so nice so we weren't sweating to death on the rest of the walk. Lunch was fun and her class is so well behaved. Guess their teacher told them at the beginning of the year that if they don't behave the Principal will come pick them up for representing their school poorly. Apparently it has happened once (not with this years class, but in the past). That's enough to make the kids really behave. Who would want to take a personal car ride back to school with the principal who is an ex cop. NOT ME!!! haha...

Open House

I love Open House. Mostly because my kids are SO excited to show me and Paul everything around their classrooms. Brandon had a scavengar hunt list to follow and goodness were we in trouble if we detracted from the correct path. So cute how serious they take it all. 

First up, Leah's class and darn it, I always get pictures of the kids with their teachers at Open House and I totally spaced it this year. I'll have to do it on the last day now. Oh well!

Leah's bubble gum math facts. She passed all her timed multiplication tests and is well into her division tests. Woohoo!

Now to Brandon's class. The poor butterflies have not hatched yet. Hopefully soon. His teacher told me Brandon watches these like a hawk constantly asking to check on them (by himself with no other kids around he says). Haha…

This picture cracks me up! Love his cute face he drew. 

And his snake fangs. I was dying. At least he didn't put blood dripping down.

His book report charactors. Bird and Squirrel.

On to Ashlyn's class. Definitely quite different from the other two classrooms. Most of the things Ashlyn showed me was on her IPad. They've been so fortunate to have one on one IPad's this year in class. She's learned so much and has made at least 4-5 presentations using Google slides, powerpoint, keynote, Imovie and other apps I've never even heard of.  

I love that her teacher cut up her door poster and kept it up for Open House. That one took me the LONGEST!

Can you find Ms. Ellingson's name? I tried to make it super tricky.

They've spent the last portion of the year learning all about Ancient Eygpt. 

And there are so many technology and engineering type projects now with Common Core. It's pretty cool though. It's their future. They might as well learn it young.

This was super cute too. I'm sad to see Ashlyn leave Elementary school, and I know I say this all the time, but I'm so proud of her and how hard she has worked. I definitely don't understand everything about the new Common Core curriculum, but what I do know is that it has forced Ashlyn to interact more and work in a group setting better. She'll be better off for it. 

It's fun to know I have many more years of elementary with my three other kids and I hope to have some of the teachers Ashlyn has had. Love teachers that do it simply for the love of the kids and teaching. We may not have the newest or prettiest school (well until the new addition is done) or the best demographics, but we've had a pretty great school experience so far. I can't complain.