Kindergarten Performance

 Owen was so cute in his end-of-the-year kindergarten performance.  All of the students wore tshirts they painted with potatoes.  Each dot represents one of the students.  The students sang five songs and then each read to us what they had learned in kindergarten.  Owen did a great job in front of  everyone!  He is officially a first grader in one more day!

Dallin and Trenton came along for the fun - or maybe it was the ice cream they served after the performance. 

Happy 3rd Birthday!

The birthday boy!  At his 3 year check-up today, we found out that he weighs 35 pounds, which puts him in the 80th %, and is 38 1/4 inches tall, which places him in the 75th %.  The best part about his check-up today was that we didn't have any shots!  Dallin was very excited to go to the doctor and was unusually cooperative.  He loved getting his blood pressure taken.  I wonder if it is because of our frequent doctor visits with his eye specialist.  Anyway, I think we can confidently say that Dallin had an awesome third birthday.  We were worried that he wasn't going to accept being three because he had been insisting that he was two up until the night before his birthday, but as you will see below, we rang in #3 with a bang!

His day started with being surprised by the transformation of our kitchen into Mickey Mouse central overnight.  Dallin currently loves Mickey Mouse and Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  After seeing everything he turned to me and said, "I'm three!"  We figured up that this was our 31st child birthday celebration at our house.  We have had 31 birthday cakes, 31 sets of presents, and 31 sets of decorations in our parenting history.  No wonder I'm so pooped!  Dallin is such a sweet boy.  He loves his older brother, Owen, and wants to be just like him.  He is a big talker and is a outdoorsman.  He would move his bed outdoors if we let him.  He is also a tool guy.  He is always carrying around an armload of tools.  He loves playing with children his age and really enjoys seeing his friends at Nursery class each Sunday.  

Since we weren't going to be opening presents or eating "Mickey Mouse cake" until after everyone got home from school and work, I decided we needed to get out of the house for the morning to distract us.  We headed to our favorite place, the zoo.  It was another perfect zoo weather day!  We rode the train...

 ..."petted" giant turtles...

 ...and had fun taking care of farm animals in the children's petting zoo all before lunch.  Our favorite animals today though were the penguins.  There were babies and they were very active in the water.  Owen thought they were hilarious.  He could have watched them for hours.  There is nothing more heart warming than seeing Owen genuinely, openly laugh and giggle, which really only happens when he is watching animals or watching America's Funniest Videos :)  That's why the zoo is our special place.

 Once everyone got home, it was time for cake and presents!  We invited a couple of neighbors over to help us eat the massive cake, so it felt like a real party.

 Dallin was very excited to get a "Mickey Mouse cake" and might have been happy getting just that for his birthday.  When we would ask what he wanted for his birthday he would only tell us a Mickey Mouse cake.

 Present time!  Dallin got some tools, Jake the Pirate gear, a penguin Dream Lite...

 ...and a new bike, just his size!  He loves it, but can't get the pedals going yet.  He especially loves the little backpack on the front and already has it filled up.

 As if cake and ice cream weren't enough, we ended the night with shaved ice outdoors.  It was a beautiful night and it was really hard to call it a night.  Dallin didn't want his birthday to end when our friends began leaving as it began to get dark.  He wanted them to stay and keep the party going because bedtime meant his birthday was over.

 Love the headband - you're never too big to love Mickey!

 All little kiddos are drawn to Ashleigh.  She is going to be an amazing babysitter, and mother, someday.  She loves to play with them and pay attention to them and they eat it up.

 Our multi-tasker.  Only Trenton would mow the lawn while finishing his shaved ice.  We are thinking about getting a cup holder installed for him.

My little ninjas the day after the birthday celebration!  The day after is a great time to make ninja belts and headbands out of the streamers.

Wild Kingdom

 We are used to seeing all kinds of wild animals when we are camping, but it was a little bit of a shock to find a deer in our backyard since we live in the middle of a subdivision a few miles from any woods.  Dallin did not know what to think about a deer in our yard.  He was scared of it, but curious about where he was at the same time.  Mr. Deer hung out with us for a while before heading next door when Nathan started the lawn mower.

 Mr. Deer made it all the way up to our kitchen window and wasn't scared away when he spotted me through the window.

The D-Man

 This handsome suit got Dallin a zillion compliments at church this past Sunday.  He was so proud of himself wearing it and loved all the attention it got him.  He is following in his big brother's footsteps with the bow tie.

  I caught Dallin talking on a toy phone last week and couldn't help but snap some pictures of him.  He walked around in circles talking and talking like someone was really on the other end of the phone.  He made serious faces, laughed, and jibber jabbered for quite a while, which is not something he learned from me because I rarely have phone conversations.

Academic Excellence Award

 Trenton received a very special award last week at his school's annual Academic Excellence Award night.  Students who achieve a certain GPA are invited to be recognized and are awarded a medal at the ceremony!    We are very proud of Trenton for earning such high grades especially since he is in all advanced classes!

 Of course my camera acted up right when it was Trenton's turn to walk across the stage.  This is the only picture I got of him and you can barely see him.  He is getting his medal before walking over to the principal to get his award certificate.

Look at how much taller Trenton is than all of his classmates!  They were lined up waiting to sit down after getting their awards.

Camping

We continue to spend a lot of time at our campsite near Dayton.  The kids (especially Dallin) ask to go there every other day, which hopefully we will do during the summer.  After a lot of de-winterizing work in April, we can actually enjoy ourselves there without having too much work to do.  Our favorite pastime is driving our golf carts through the woods (thus, the really dirty cart).  We have a lot of fun adventures looking for wildlife and have already seen baby foxes, a wild turkey, deer, and a raccoon in the woods.  We have also taken a hobby in catching snakes this year and have already caught three!

The three youngest love the creek behind our camper.  They spend hours here moving rocks around to create bridges and looking for creatures.

Dallin was washing his hands in the creek, but I wasn't sure he was actually cleaning them since the water was so shallow there.  But...

He showed me that they were clean when he was finished :)

Telling ghost stories around the fire while eating smores after dark is another one of our favorite camping activities.  Dallin is easily frightened though of the stories as you can see by his serious face here.

I love how the face on the tree shows up behind Ashleigh in this picture.  Dallin was scared of a story Owen was telling or mad at Ashleigh for taking his flashlight here.  It's hard to say with him since he is a very vocal boy and doesn't let anyone get away with anything!

Blue Dynamites

 The Blue Dynamites.  They are really good!  If they kept score at this level, we would be going to tournament for sure.  This league is very competitive, so I am hoping they try to keep teams together each year.

 The goalie box.  Owen's favorite position and Mom's least favorite.  He begs for it every quarter and his coach usually gives in at some point in every game because most of the players don't want to do it.

Owen is getting better at keeping up with the ball and being aggressive instead of following the pack.  He has definite potential, so we will see how the season continues.

Of course Owen is still Owen, often being silly after goals and trying to talk to his teammates.  During one very cold game when all the players wore hats and gloves, Owen had taken his hat off and was playing with it in the middle of the field when the ball started heading his way.  He barely squeezed his hat back on his head by the time the ball got to him.  The games are very entertaining!