The End of the Big K

Sadie had lots of fun celebrations the last few weeks of Kindergarten.

Sadie's cute carpool buddies, Jersey and Bentley, getting a donut after school one day. 

Kindergarten program. They sang lots of adorable songs complete with choreographed dancing. Sadie took it very seriously. 

Last take home reading of the year. The school library is open once a week during the summer where we can pick up 5 more THR books and check out 3 library books. 

Sadie was thrilled to celebrate her July birthday one of the last days of school. She had been anxious to be recognized for *almost* turning 6. She actually wanted me to curl her hair and she was glowing from all the attention when I picked her up.

Sadie's school does a dance festival where each grade does a choreographed routine. Kindergarten did the Mexican Hat dance and Sadie did great. She was nervous because she had missed the last 2 practices when we went out of town, but she didn't miss a beat.

On the last day of school Sadie made lunch for herself and Elise (with a little bit of help from me). Mimi gave her a Mom & me recipe book for Christmas and she has been getting more confident in following recipes. These are the sunny scrambled eggs from her book.

 I snapped one last picture as I dropped the girls off for their last day. 

 Sadie is so excited to be in 1st grade next year and eat lunch at school. 

I am very proud of her for working hard, learning a lot, and making new friends. 

Running Fool

A few months ago I wrote a post about how I had been running more. I am proud to say I am still running! It has been 5 months. This is the longest I have consistently exercised in about 10 years. In the past I was always on extremes- either somewhat sedentary or exercising a ton, but it only lasted a few months. This time I have toned it down so that I don't dread it. I run 3 times a week and walk 2 or 3 times. I created my own training schedule kind of based on a couch to 10K program that I liked.

Anyway....the past couple months I have been running outside more on the Murdock trail, which goes up behind our neighborhood. There are some really pretty views.

I am super curious about this big beautiful house by all the farm land. This farm actually borders Sadie's elementary school. 

For Mother's Day Daniel got me some workout clothes, which I asked for. I feel very self conscious/somewhat silly in tight leggings so I took some pictures and asked my friends for their opinions. I still feel a little funny in the pink ones, but who cares. 

One morning when I was scheduled just to walk Sadie asked to come with me. We ran when she wanted to, which ended up being about 1 mile and then we walked 3 miles. We had a great conversation and it was really fun.

 Finally, an embarrassing selfie. I ran a 5K in May and went directly to Sadie's last soccer game. I wanted to see if I looked really gross so I took this picture. It is the only picture I took close to the race so it will have to serve as my documentation that I ran in my first 5K. It was kind of anticlimactic because I run more than 3 miles frequently so it didn't feel like much of an accomplishment. I wish I had gotten a friend to do it with me.

Miscellaneous May

Stripes on stripes on stripes

Payson Temple open house

Sunday nap

Sadie's first severe headache. She came home from a play date early and slept for 2 hours.

Faucette play date. We kind of repaid them for watching our older girls while we went to the NCAA tournament by having their 3 kids for a Saturday. 

 The 4 big kids played in the basement while Camille and Treyson hung out with me and Daniel.

 The 1-year-olds were pretty cute crawling around the house getting into mischief together. When Treyson was tired he literally just laid down on the floor and went to sleep. I moved him to the corner of the living room for his little siesta.

Cute matching suits for the John grandchildren

Librarian story time

The peonies in our backyard. They bloomed right before we went out of town so I cut most of them and gave them to a friend.

Lots of storms this May

Soccer season #1

 Sadie's first soccer season is in the books. 

 Sadie had tons of fun with a bunch of her friends from the neighborhood. She is already signed up again for the fall. We loved watching her play. She hustled so hard. 

 Sadie's team:

Zoey, Bentley, Sadie, Alexis, Jersey

Demi, Charlotte, (girl I can't remember- ha), Jasmine

PS- We are not counting Elise as having played soccer yet. You have to actually go on the field and participate to be on a soccer team

Millie in May

Just some pics of the Millie Monster from the month of May...

Side cheek

Playing with Elise through the kitchen windows.

One afternoon I was playing the piano with her on my lap and she was making hilarious faces. I kind of failed in my attempt to capture it.

Just a smiley girl. I may have taken this to document one of her first ponytails.

This girl actually inherited something from me! Her tongue out when she is concentrating. I love it.

1 year appointment. Camille has been skinnier (around 20th percentile) and shorter (around 60th percentile) than our other girls so we thought she might be more my size, but she shot up to 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height at her 12 month. She was a champ with the shots and stopped crying immediately when she was rewarded with her first lollipop.

Birthday lingerings

 Elise was happy to model one of her new necklaces and stick-on earrings from Mimi and Paco, as well as the darling dress they sent her. 

The girls have also had lots of fun in Lou's new car. It's only made for one but they like to squeeze 2 of them in there. Elise is terrible at steering. She thinks the way to drive is to turn the wheel back and forth sharply. 

 A couple of days after Elise's birthday we celebrated her best friend Quinn's birthday at Kangaroo Zoo. The Sullivans are our old neighbors and are one of many of our friends who have 3 kids the exact same ages as ours. These 2 blurry photos are the only documentation I have of the 4 oldest kids. The youngest 2 kids were much more amenable to pictures. Andrew and Millie are 2 weeks apart in age.

 Afterwards we went to the Sullivans house for dinner and cookie decorating. Elise surprised me by taking her time and placing each sprinkle individually on her cookie. Maybe now that she's 4 she won't dump entire containers of sprinkles on 1 cookie.

Spring Yard Fling

We put it off for weeks and weeks, but we finally got our yard in order. It took us 2 full days to do the front yard, part of the backyard and clean out the garage. It proceeded to rain for the next 6 days so we have yet to finish trimming the bushes and weeding the flower beds in the back. I am already burned out and it was only the first run-through. We are getting all new mulch in the flower beds next week so we have to do the rest of it.

 Camille and I watched everyone else clean the garage. And I look slightly nuts, but I want to be in more pictures with my kids. 

The new and the old of the backyard: new picnic table, which gets used every time the weather is nice enough to eat a meal outside, and our sad, but well-loved playhouse.