Stupid gophers!

Yesterday I planted this (or something very similar to this- I lost count of what I planted, too many to keep straight!)-



And tonight when I went out to check on things and plant a few more, I found this....



Stupid gophers! Stupid voles!!!

At least he was nice enough to leave one tiny twig of the flower left!!!! ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

Ok I'll get over it! My last full day of kids in school is tomorrow(sigh) Now I can't use the "Not until school is out" excuse for just about anything I don't want to deal with.
Can I go swimming in the backyard?- Not until schools out.
Can we have a water fight? - Not until schools out.
Can we have a late night? - Not until schools out!
Can we stay up late and roam the neighborhood? - Not until schools out!!
Can we make smores, go camping, sleep outside on the swing set, have dinner? - not until schools out? Oh wait except for the dinner!
Quick I need to think of a good excuse now! Although the summer seems to have already started - I'm way behind on house cleaning and grocery shopping and laundry and dinner isn't even thought about until I'm outside with the neighbors and it's 4 o'clock and we're asking each other what they're having. Problem is, no one has thought of anything- the blind leading the blind! I really need to get better at this or it's going to be a long summer of pancakes, hotdogs and cold cereal!

This past week Jocelyn had her preschool program and she did great! She sang a few songs and recited some nursery rhymes and afterward we had a picnic lunch. She has really enjoyed preschool and loves her teachers. She is also excited for next year and being able to go three days a week. I'm excited too!


Also last week Ethan sang in the 4th grade rock concert.(they sang about rocks) It was cute and he did great. Riley left singing something about a rock in mexico, so it made and impression on him!

Saturday was his last soccer game-Yeah! and today was the dance festival. The 4th grade did a square dance and the 3rd grade -Jake- did some kind of luau song. For once the weather was perfect- not too hot and we were able to enjoy all of the schools performances- partly because Ethan and Jake were one of the last classes to dance. They did great and somehow managed to smile even though they were embarrassed.
Ethan's in the striped shirt and cowboy hat.

Jake is in the yellow shirt and pretty much looked a way from me the whole time!


Among all the school stuff and backyard landscaping I am just trying to survive a very cranky 8 month old who is teething! That tooth better be in tomorrow. I don't know how much we can take! You wouldn't know it by this picture though- the power of tylenol- it's great!

May days....

This month has been over the top busy for us and here are a few of the highlights-
At the beginning of the month Riley,Owen and I were able to go with Jocelyn on her preschool field trip to Thanksgiving Point farms. A fun time. They saw baby chicks, a baby cow, goats, horses, and a peacock among other farm animals. The highlight was the wagon ride and being able to feed the animals. They even got to milk a cow- a pretend cow with rubber utters!?! And they were also able to see how much they weighed compared to farm animals- I stayed away from the scale for fear I would rank up there with the horse and cow!




Jake had a mothers day program at school that I attended and was so happy to watch Jake and his classmates sing for all us moms. We also were served a small snack and Jake made me a cute paper flower arrangement. Ethan's class didn't do a program but he did make me some nice coupons(one day off, and dishes done). I have already put some to use. He also made me some cute flower pens that have been well used. Here's a picture Jocelyn took of us... the reason for my forehead being cut off and only having Rileys eye in picture.


Jocelyn did a great job at here dance performance on Saturday. She did 2 dances-Zip a de do da and a tinkerbell song. She was so cute and really has learned a lot especially how to shake her bum! Ben's a little worried. She loves to dance and listen to music Cheetah girls christmas and more recently my twilight cd (which she thinks is hers!). It's just cute to sneak peeks while hse's dancing in her room when she thinks no one is looking. I really hope she keeps dancing for a long time. I love to watch her dance. This is Jocelyn and her teacher Miss Brandi. She loves her teacher and dance friends.


Jake received and award for a hundred percent attendance and 5 dollars! Where was my 5 dollars when I was younger- I had a hundred percent for a few years in a row! What is it coming to these days! He was pretty excited and has put his money toward a bionicle game already. Way to go Jake!


Owen is now eight months and has had a couple of first- his first tooth- yeah! and his first otter pop. He's hooked and gets upset if the kids walk past eating an otter pop and don't share! He is just growing up so fast. He is also army crawling everywhere and follows me from room to room. Although he gets stuck in places and hasn't figured out how to back up- that will come, but for now he just screams until we rescue him.



Ethan has kept us busy also with soccer games and I was able to talk to his class on career day. They enjoyed the xays of the ring and necklace in an abdomen film, the missing pinky and a broken ankle. ( there were many other xrays I could've taken but lets just say explaining them to a bunch of 4th graders may not have been appropriate! although I did show them what gas looks like on a xray and they thought that was pretty funny-they have the best senses of humor). I love my job -most of the time and liked sharing it with his class.

So now we're down to the last 2 weeks of school and programs and dance festival and field day and ..... it just goes on. Ben has been really busy with scouts-camping and trek prep and in between it all we are trying to plant our garden and put the finishing touches of landscaping on the back yard- not easy to do in pieces here and there but its coming along. I at least got most of the garden planted- peas galore! yeah I can't wait.