Happenings in June

We officially marked the beginning of the summer season with a trip to the beach the day after school got out.

We drove to our usual Butler beach, which is about 1.5 hrs away. The weather was great, and we all enjoyed ourselves. All the kids finally figured out how to ride the body boards, so we realized we need to invest in a few more (especially since the two we have are kind of broken). We found a sea star, and saw lots of very small fish. If you sat still in the shallow water the fish would come and nibble on your fingers and toes (it tickled). We all got variations of a sunburn in sometimes random splotches, reminding us of how thoroughly we have to sunblock ourselves. We stopped at Krispy Kreme on our way home for our free donut in honor of National Donut Day.

June 12th we celebrated Jared's birthday. He requested Thai Peanut Noodles for dinner, and we hurriedly sang and ate carrot cake before he had to head off to a stake meeting.

Father's Day was nice, see here.

We picked blueberries at a nearby farm (and missed the Kay family while we did it). I tried a new blueberry muffin recipe this week that was delicious, and we enjoyed eating as many blueberries as we wanted all day long all week! 

We had a fun Family Home Evening lesson getting to know the family members we will see in Utah in July.

The current favorite pastime of the children is playing Terraria. The children beg every night for special Terraria time with Dad. 

And that pretty much sums up the month so far (at least what I have a picture of)!

The End of the School Year

Zach (and myself) participated in a preschool co-op this year. The 5 mom's in the group took turns hosting the 5 little kids on Wednesday mornings for two hours. We had a cute group of little kids and explored lots of fun things: space, Dr. Seuss, noodles, feelings, etc. 

I got to host the group for the last day, and we celebrated with a letter party! It is really hard to get a photo of 5 active 3-4yr olds, but I decided to try. Unfortunately, I found out later that my camera setting was set to manual focus, so all the pictures turned out blurry! This is the best I got.

Zach, Ella, Ira, and Eden (missing Zada)

Here is a picture from a school day in April. Ella, Zada, Eden, Ira, and Zach.

Zach also got to do two weeks of private swimming lessons with  Ms. Lauren. After the first day, he loved it. She got him over his fear of putting his face in the water, and now he is a regular little fish in the water (we have been practicing a lot!). Unfortunately, he was a stinker and wouldn't let me take his picture on the last day, so no photo proof. But here is a little video.

Lily was in Kindergarten this year. She had a great teacher, Mrs. Skipper, and she made some good friends. We were really happy to discover that one little girl in her class lived just around the corner in our neighborhood. Lily and Jenna spent a lot of afternoons playing in the common grass area across from our house. Jenna also had a little brother Zach's age, so the four of them were little buddies. We were really sad when they moved away in April. :(

Lily and Jenna

When I was at the school in the last week, we were excited to discover that some of Lily's artwork was framed and hanging in the hallway near the front office. Pretty neat!

Anwyn was in third grade this year. She especially enjoyed the Enrichment Science/Math class with Mrs. Thomas. Her final science project was an experiment she conducted on nails and rust--she called it Outstanding Oxidation, and she studied which type of liquid would rust a nail the fastest (so we had a number of cups with various liquids and rusty nails sitting on our kitchen counter for a few weeks!).  She made a large poster that was on display at the school's STEM night.

This year I babysat a cute little baby part-time. Paxton was a little cutie and a good-natured child, and we all enjoyed having him around. The girls especially loved to feed him his bottle and play with him.

The girls with Paxton, our part-time baby.

Last day of school, ready for the summer!

I also finished off another year of piano teaching. I had three great students this year (Claire, Kylee, and Raiya) in addition to Anwyn and Lily (who was part-time, whenever the right motivation struck). Zach also started up music lessons, using a preschool program called WunderKeys. Somehow I forgot to take a group photo at the recital (rats!). But here are some videos of Anwyn performing, and then Lily and Zach.

Lily Writes a Story

Lily (6 years old) is at a really fun stage of learning to read and write. I love to see her creative spellings as she sounds out words. Last week she sat down at the computer and wrote the following story, all by herself:

The tigr savs the cat ritin by lily tanner wupunutim thar wsu little cat an thar wus u thedu an it wus hunger for little cats an the thedu omgou u cat an thin the tigor cil the thedu the en

Translation

The Tiger Saves the Cat

Written by Lily Tanner

Once upon a time there was a little cat. And there was a cheetah. And it was hungry for little cats. And the cheetah almost got the cat and then the tiger killed the cheetah. The End.

Just love this funny girl!

Note: the glasses are not real, just a fun dress up pair she likes to wear. 

The 2014 Father's Day Interview

Once again time for the annual Father's Day interview and photo shoot. At least this year the kids all know how old Jared is...some of the other answers aren't quite so accurate! They definitely know (and share) his current enjoyment of the Terraria game.

 How old is your Dad?
Z-34
L-34
A-34

How tall is your Dad?
 Z-tall as you (mom)--10 ft!
 L-3 ft
 A-5 ft 8 inches

What is your Dad really good at?
Z-playing Terraria, because he never dies
L-making biscuits
A-taking naps

What is your Dad's favorite food?
 Z-long noodles
 L-fish
A-enchiladas, with lots and lots of hot sauce

 If your Dad was a cartoon character, who would he be?
 L-a Terraria guy

What do you like to do with your Dad?
Z-play Terraria
L-play Terraria
A-math and play Terraria

How do you know your Dad loves you?
Z-because of Father's Day
L-because he snuggled with me today
A-because he does nice things for me and he says I love you

My dad likes to relax by...
Z-reading on his phone (his BIG phone)
L-taking a nap
A-naps

The best thing he cooks is...
Z-biscuits
L-french toast
A-mashed potatoes

When my dad shops he likes to buy...
Z- bananas
L- chicken nuggets

 If he could go on a trip, he would go to...
Z-Washington, D.C.
L- Canada and Utah
A-Utah

 My dad's favorite show is...
Z-Terraria
L-that silly movie (Rocketman)
A-he likes to watch scary shows

Jared is a wonderful father, and we are so thankful he is the dad in our family!

You can view past years interviews here.