Spring!

It's the end of the school year!  A few years back I read a blogger write about crawling to the finish line and it did feel a bit like that.  Here are a bunch of photos of various things we did over the past two months.

These first pictures are from all the way back in April.

The kids went rock climbing at the indoor rock climbing place in Arcadia.  While there were some walls that were perfect for them, there were quite a few that were super challenging.

One Friday evening, Ashlynn and a few of her fifth grade friends went to a movie with the fifth grade teachers from their school.

Another day in April, I went hiking with my friend, Katie, in Glendora.

There was more soccer.  Oh yes, season #3 for the year!  Spring YDP.  Eric again got suckered into coaching.

One afternoon, the kids got to work with some clay that was left over from a project we did in my classroom.  They really enjoyed creating bowls and other items.  Hopefully I'll remember to get them fired!

Ashlynn and I got to watch our friends perform in a local production of "The Music Man".  It was well done and featured my friend, Gretchen, as the mayor's wife, Mrs. Shinn.

Ashlynn was honored as a Mariner Climber at school.  It was rather amusing because it was the same day she was helping with the Morning Announcements, so she was already up there!

Just a random picture of Pippa cuddling with me.

Carter's class hiked in Monrovia Canyon on a lovely day.  Fortunately, it was my day off and I got to join them!

It is a pretty, mostly shaded hike

It's been nice that Carter has had his buddy, Josiah, in his class every year.

Check out this cool caterpillar we found crawling across the picnic table

We spent two evenings a month with our small group friends from church.  On one of the evenings, we met one family's baby chickens.  There were lots of giggles as the kids tried holding the chicks.

My parents are trying to clean out some of their rooms and the garage, so I inherited a box of hats that belonged to my Nana.  It was fun trying a few on with my mom and Ashlynn.

Carter has taken a liking to climbing up onto the roof of my parents' garage.  This is the kid who was freaked to even be on our roof a year and a half ago.  Now I need to tell him to be careful (although that may also be influenced by my fear of heights).

In May, we got to spend most of a day with our friends, the Mountains.  We made our second trek out to the Cal Poly Pomona Strawberry Festival and Tractor Show (or something like that).  It was Julianna's birthday, so we celebrated with a tailgating cupcake party.

Gosh, I love my cute boy!

The strawberries weren't very ripe (the ones pre-picked looked much better), so we picked blackberries.  Our kids used the berry-picking skills they learned in Vermont last summer to pick some pretty juicy ones!

Berry juice stained fingers

Embossing leather

This year I was room mom for only Carter's class (first time I haven't since kinder for Ashlynn), so I only needed to make one teacher appreciation week door poster this year.  Every year I try to create ones that match the teacher.  Carter's teacher this year loves nature, so I went with some local wild animals.

May is peony season.  Aren't they beautiful?

Monrovia got back to hosting a Monrovia Day parade, which Carter and I walked in with his school (Eric and Ashlynn were at soccer playoffs).  After, he performed with the school district's 1st and 2nd grade choir at Library Park.

One of my favorite parts of the cute small-town style carnival was seeing the police chief in the dunk tank.  He was a real sport and had a smile on his face the whole time.

After losing in two final playoff games, soccer season finally ended.  It's been a good experience but we're glad to have a break from it!

That night (after the parade and two soccer games) was Camp Mayflower.  It's the event where school families can camp out on the school field.  Eric and I had plans to attend our friends' 40th birthday party, so my brother agreed to take the kids.  They had a lot of fun!

Here are the kids (and my 3rd child, Lydia), with their rolly polly settlement, which they created after church one morning.

In May Carter discovered a culinary delight... salad bars.  He was in heaven as he selected items from the Claim Jumper salad bar.

My parents went to Costa Rica in May, so their dog Beau (Pippa's brother), got to stay with us.

We had our annual evening at Shogun to celebrate Brian's 36th birthday.  I got this picture of the 3 generations of Vales boys.

Carter had his second grade heritage festival at school.  He was very proud to bring shortbread and show off his display while wearing his hat.

This is a classic Carter scene.  The other boys were pretty much wrestling and he stands back and watches, probably feeling a bit self-righteous.

There were two district music concerts that the kids performed in during May.  The first was the whole school district, with students from 1st grade to 12th, and took place at the high school.

The end of May brought some big days for Ashlynn.  One day included the fifth grade maturation video and presentation, followed by the fifth graders being invited to attend their first dance at the middle school they will start attending in August.  We did find out later that the dance was less dancing and more hanging out with friends while eating tons of candy.

May 31st was the second music concert.  It took place at the middle school auditorium and featured just the elementary music groups.  Both kids performed and a BIG thing about that concert was that Ashlynn performed a violin solo.  

Carter performed with the 1st and 2nd grade choir.  He was funny to watch perform.  He alternated between having no expression and barely singing to being super animated.  The people behind us were even commenting on the smiley and expressive blond boy. 

 Ashlynn playing with advanced strings.

 Ashlynn had chosen a tough song, Minuet 1 by Bach, and had to practice a ton to make it solid.  And she ended up doing a great job and hit all of the tough notes!

 The performers and their cheering section

 After the concert, we celebrated with Yogurtland with our friends, the Stonicks!

 That Saturday we had a family trip to Knott's Berry Farm.  We joined my mom, David, David's girlfriend, Kaylah, and Kaylah's sister, brother-in-law, 7-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew.  We really had a fun time together!

 My mom really enjoyed the swings!

 We tried to go out to dinner at a restaurant after Knott's but ended up in the Cerritos Mall food court.  The kids had a blast playing some game they made up using chopsticks and an empty milk container.

 And that was pretty much the spring.  More to come, as I share about the final days of the school year!