Fun with Cousins

Yesterday we got together with our cousins in Boise. We had a lot of fun catching up with each other while the kids enjoyed swimming in the pool, trying out the slip n slide, and playing on the swing set.
























When it began to get to cool for the girls to play in the water, we went inside and warmed up. The girls treated us to several dance and marching shows. I tried my best to snap pictures, but they were just to fast for the camera. Here's a couple of what I could get. Sam was clapping for the girls while JJ was just trying to figure it out.

Arts and Crafts

Wal-Mart has these really cute flower pots this year that I admire just about every time we go there, but I just can't bring myself to pay that much for them. But I did need some flower pots to grow some seeds we had. I thought that it would be fun for the girls to decorate their own flower pots for our flowers. I was right and according to them, I didn't have enough flower pots.

The girls each painted two flower pots. I was a bit surprised at how exact their brush strokes were. Every bit of paint was intentionally placed.

At first, Samantha just did a little here, a little there. Her second flower pot she was a little more exact, like she had a plan.









Andrea started out with many colors on her flower pots, but they ended up mostly blue. The blue paint had a bigger brush, and I think that is what she liked.










Aunt Valerie made us this ball and all the kids love to play with it. I think this is a great ball for JJ because he can pick it up easily and it doesn't always roll as far away. Yesterday while the girls and I were cleaning their room, JJ played with this ball. He would crawl over to it, then start doing his excited wiggle and kick the ball away and start it all over again.

For you Katy

JJ is discovering the many sounds that toys make. I was excited when the girls found this piano in one of our boxes that had been packed up. He really enjoys pounding out "songs."






Another of JJ's new favorite things is to pull up on everything, especially the tv. There are several times when the channel suddenly changes, the volume goes up, and even a few times he has turned the tv on.






One day after school, we joined some friends at the park to feed the ducks. They had so much fun. We had a hard time convincing the kids to break up the bread in smaller pieces. Even a couple weeks after we did this, the girls were still asking if we could go to the park and feed the ducks. Even when we go to the store and they see the bread bags, they ask if we can go again.




After the bread was gone, the kids thought it would be fun to catch water in their bags, and see who could collect the most water. The boys got their pants wet and the girls got their feet wet. The weather was perfect for this activity and they all had so much fun.

Graduation

On May 28 Samantha graduated from Kindergarten. She was so excited. They practiced and talked about it for a week and that was all Sam would talk about when she came home from school. It was a cute program that they put on.

The last unit that Samantha's class study was "By the Sea." Samantha's teacher used that as the theme for their part of the program. All four classes (the two morning and two afternoon classes) graduated together. Samantha's teacher prepared her part of the program so that each student had their own line. Samantha's was "I swim like a fish."

Samantha is very excited about summer vacation being here. I am not sure if she is more excited about taking a break form school (which I thought would never happen) or the things that are planned this summer. Either way, she is excited about being in fist grade next year.


I felt lucky and happy that all of us were able to attend Sam's big day. Jamie was able to get the morning off (did I mention how much I like his new schedule and supervisor) and come to Samantha's graduation. Samantha spent so much time talking about the program that Andrea was very excited to go and watch her big sister. JJ, as always, was happy to come along for the ride. He enjoyed taking in all the sites and sounds. He also kept the other parents around us entertained by sticking out his tongue. So far all three kids are happy to be at home, although we haven't had much at home time. I hope that this summer I will find time to fine tune some of Samantha's skills and I am sure that she will be more then happy to help me start teaching Andrea some of the school skills that Samantha learned this past year. I think Andrea will be excited to learn from Sam, she tries to be like her in so many ways.