He's 11!

The craziness this time of year just continues with Luke's birthday.  Luke at age 11 has grown up quite a bit.  He's very interested in friends and even girls a little bit!!  His great love though is soccer! He is never far from a ball.  He could eat, sleep, and drink it.  All of his practice has paid off and he has improved dramatically.  He was really in need of a new team and was finally ready to make the move.  He went to the Aggies FC tryouts and made the callbacks, but in the meantime he went and tried out for the team he was really hoping to make.  It's an existing team called Valley Force that is becoming a La Roca team.  They are based out of Hyrum.  He tried out for that Thursday night, and they called me about an hour after tryouts saying they wanted him.  I was so proud of him!  He did play awesome at tryouts and there were only a few spots available.  He made the decision to go with this team and not even go back to the Aggies tryouts.  He was so dang excited when we woke him up and told him he made it!

Luke loves his cousins and spent his birthday day with them.  We went to the Jump Zone and Twizlberry.  He also got to go spend the night at grandma's house with his siblings that night.  At age 11 Luke loves ice cream, staying up late for a movie night, reading a good book, archery, hanging out with his mom and dad, playing with friends, and playing soccer with anyone, anytime, anywhere!

 

End of School Year Craziness!

May is such a busy month!  Ian's kindergarten program was first.  It was so cute.  They sang a bunch of songs in the library.  I got a new phone and did not splurge for one with a nice camera.  Now I'm rethinking that because I use it as my camera so much now and it's terrible!  Ian enjoyed his year with Mrs. Parish a lot.  My hat goes off to kindergarten teachers!

 

 
Leah also had a little preschool graduation ceremony.  Don't worry though she will be back for a repeat next year!  She absolutely loved preschool and Teacher Cassie.  We still see her several times a week at the ball park, and Ian and Leah love her so much.  Yay for good teachers!

 

 

 

 
Seth and the other 2nd graders did a program in the gym.  They sang a bunch of songs about what they have learned this year and all the places they went.  They went on so many field trips--Eccles theater at least 3 times, a farm, Dinosaur park, and a few more!  Seth liked Mrs. Bilodeau a lot and is excited for 3rd grade.  How is he that old?!

 
The 5th graders are probably too cool for a program, but they did have world's longest awards ceremony.  Seriously it was 90 minutes!  Ian and Leah climbed me the entire team.  I was done! They all graduated from NOVA and gave out some academic awards.  Luke did earn an academic award so good job!  I wish I had a picture with Luke and Mr. Maughan.  He was a great teacher.

The day school got out the 11-year-olds (and soon to be) went on their overnighter at the Mt. Sterling Stake Property.  I got to go up and have dinner with them.  They had a lot of fun.  Maybe too much.  This group of boys is big and quite a handful.  They were the rowdiest bunch up there and had some pretty annoyed dads and leaders at like midnight when they wouldn't be quiet!  After Norm Wells got fully dressed and threatened to take the next boy that said a word home they finally quieted down.  I have a feeling there's more where that came from with this group.

Spring Soccer 2015

 

 

Arrow Of Light

On Seth's birthday, May 21, it was Luke's last pack meeting and Seth's first.  Along with Tanner and Gabe, Luke earned his Webelo, Arrow of Light, and religious knot.  I'm not going to lie, Webelos was a struggle.  I'm happy to say though that so far Luke is loving his 11-year-old scout leaders.  Liz does such an amazing job with pack meetings, and she went all out for this ceremony!

 

Eight is Great!

This year was a big one for Seth because he turned eight!  At age eight Seth is smart and artistic.  He often has a notebook with him that he's drawing or writing something in.  He still loves Legos and wants to be a professional Lego builder when he grows up.  He is extremely creative!  He still likes to cook, loves his family, and loves riding his bike and electric scooter.  He played soccer again this year and is becoming a great little goal keeper.  He actually decided he wanted to tryout for a competitive team which surprised me a bit, but we did that the week after his birthday.  He made the callbacks from 35 to 19 and then made the team!  He's officially a member of the U9 Aggies FC team!  He's playing baseball this month and seems to be having fun.  Seth is very sensitive, and it can be a problem for him sometimes because his skin is not thick, but in general it makes him a kind, caring kid that looks out for others.  We sure love this kid and are proud of him.  He can also be the silliest kid out there.  Those two front teeth seem to stick out more each day, and I'm pretty sure we have some braces in our future.  Seth's feet are officially bigger than mine and he is catching me in height quick!  We sometimes need a bulldozer to get through the junk in Seth's room and his backpack is a disaster of stuff.  He is so disorganized and messy, but he is a straight A student and very bright!  He reads at a very high level and can often be found with his nose in a book.  He usually has multiple books in progress at the same time.  I could not get him to bring home any papers the last few weeks of school.  He finally brought home a mountain of stuff the last day of school and literally dumped it out on the floor.  Among other things there were some library late slips in there, so we had to find his MIA library book and take it back this summer!  Seth is such a fun, awesome kid and we love him so much!

I think Seth had a fun birthday this year.  On his actual birthday we went to his choice of 'Mo Bettah's for dinner.  We then went to pack meeting.  I was a little worried because Luke was getting his Arrow of Light, so we really needed to be there.  Seth was so excited though about being a Cub Scout that it was no big deal.  I got his his uniform and brought a cake and everyone sang to him, and he had a blast.  We came home and gave him his present of a new, adult size mountain bike that should last him until he's 18!  He was excited to say the least.  The next day afterschool I took him and three friends to Boondocks where they had the time of their lives.  They literally ran from attraction to attraction, and I had to drag them out of there.  He also had a family party with Luke where he got to eat his favorite sherbet dessert.  He basically partied for a week straight!

 

 

 

Running the Mile

Luke had the opportunity to run the Wellsville Mile for the last time this year.  He took it a bit more serious and was much faster but only practiced once outside of school that I know of.  He has become such a fast sprinter but still isn't a fan of the distance.  Before the real thing all of the kids did a trial run at the Mountainside Mile.  I got to help and it's such a fun event.  I just love seeing all those kids running their hearts out!  I took a series of phone pics that in Luke's case didn't even include him followed up by a few really blurry shots at the actual mile.  I think his time was 7:15 in a strong wind, and he seemed happy.
 

 

Sassy Sue

Leah is such a cute combination of tomboy and girly girl.  She loves to play with her little Frozen dolls and wear bracelets but you are also likely to find her sitting in a pile of dirt, riding her bike, and manhandling bugs.  Leah did dance with Miss Katie and gymnastics with Teacher Trina this year, and they were both awesome!  We sure love this cute, sassy girl that can chat your ear off in the cutest voice ever.  She still can't make an "r" sound and has a darling little singing voice.  Love this free spirited girl who has grown like a weed and no longer even looks short!  There were things muttered that shall remain nameless while trying to put that bun in her hair.  I am not cut out to be a dance mom!!!!

 

I must admit that I was a little teary watching Leah up on stage dancing.  She did so awesome and I was just so proud of her.  She is pretty shy when it comes to performing, and I was worried she wouldn't even go out there but she rocked it.  This girl is beautiful inside and out, and she does amaze me constantly.  Before you think she's an angel though here's a line she threw out today when I pinched her bum and told her to get buckled in her car seat for the umpteenth time.  She turned to her brothers and said, "mom just nipple twisted my bum!"  It was so inappropriate yet funny.  Thanks Nacho Libre for teaching my kids this sort of thing.  We also owe Ian's comment on Easter morning that he has "had the diarrheas since Easter" to that fine piece of cinema!

After the recital we headed to Cesar's rocking graduation party where Luke joined a group of soccer players outside and the other kids danced the night away inside.