More Moab camping pics!

A few more pictures from Moab, that Steph took (I snagged from her blog).  Viv and Carli playing in the sand... it was one of their favorite things to do! 

 The boys and Sebastian have always been close friends.  I think they had a great time spending time together.  They don't get to see each other as much as they did pre-school so this was a great bonding time for them! 

 Bri and the girls running down the huge sandhill

 our campsite

 the gang on our last day

 this is basically where the kids spent all of their time - playing on this sand hill.  they had a ball! 

Party time!

We had an end of year party, like last year, which also happened to be on my birthday.  I have to say it was the best day, I saw all of my friends that I am close with and was around my kids and all of their friends.  It was perfect! 

We invited all of the kids friends in the neighborhood and a few of their closest friends from school and a few others that are from previous years that we are still friends with.  I think there were about 50 kids here. 

 Brian gave me this patio set, for my birthday, which is something I have wanted for a long time! 

 Some of the food at the party - all kid friendly.  Otter pops and capri suns, cookies, chips, popcorn, etc.. 

 Kaitlin and 3 of her closest friends

 After the party, we went to my parents' house and had dinner.  The kids played pin the tail on the donkey and then won bubbles as their prizes.  We had my favorite dinner that my mom makes - the most divine creamy chicken and rice and broccoli, and a salad.  Then my favorite, strawberry shortcake with real whipping cream.

Jackson's 2nd grade teacher, Mrs Miller, does an elaborate puppet show each year.  The puppets are the most amazing things you've ever seen. The kids work on them for over 3 months - from the costume design, to making the faces, to writing their puppet shows.  Jackson buddied up with his 3 best friends in his class, James, Markus, and Enzo.  They wrote a cute story about two adventurers, Jack and Cool Dude (Jackson) who went to find a treasure but there was an evil wizard and a goblin trying to keep them away.  It ended up that Jack and Cool Dude found the treasure, but it was chocolate gold coins.  Cute! 

 Jackson and "Cool Dude"

cub scout

Jackson is Cub Scout now and he LOVES it.  He looks forward to it each week and comes home so happy. He even went to scout camp last week for 2 days and was so thrilled!  He got to shoot BB guns, bow and arrows, and he came home filthy but so happy! 

The pinewood derby was a few weeks ago.  He and Brian worked really hard on his car.  The man that ran the race track (and owned it) was an interesting individual with very strict rules.  If you jumped over the track you owed him money (people have done that and broken it), no more adding graphite to the cars once the race started etc...  

Jackson's car originally didn't do very well.  He came in dead last every time.  It was so sad, he was heartbroken but tried to be a good sport.  

Surprisingly, the man running the track, announced after the first round that everyone could add more graphite to their cars.  Brian jumped up and another leader had some that he added.  The man came up to me and said that he did this because he thought Jackson's car needed it.  And he was right! 

His car came in first or second the entire second round.  He was so happy and so were we! :)

 Logan adores his big brother! 

End of year programs -Jackson and Kaitlin

May is filled with the kids class programs... The picture below are the kids at Rosecrest, we had a Teacher Appreciation week and had a red carpet down the center of the gym and the teachers walked down the red carpet.  This was a really fun event. I loved it, the kids loved it, and the teachers loved it.  I love this school! 

 The 2nd graders went to Sweets Candy Factory for a field trip.  It was my first time going on a field trip with one of my kids, and it was a lot of fun.  This is Jackson's class! 

 Kaitlin's kindergarten spring program.  Kaitlin is on the far left, and one of her good friends, Helen, is on the far right. 

 Logan's spring program:  I have to say that he wasn't overly thrilled the whole time. However, on one song his face lit up and he was so excited.  We told him later that we knew which one was his favorite song (the jungle song) and he said, "How do you know?"  We told him it's because it's the only song he wasn't yawning through! :)

Camping

We have done some camping so far this summer.  Our good friends, Steph and Paul (Steph is the one that introduced Brian and me) posted a message on Facebook that they were going to Moab over Memorial Day weekend so we invited ourselves and we went with them.  We don't tent camp very often, so we were grateful they let us tag along and show us the ropes (like how to make tinfoil dinners!)  We go camping with my parents a lot, but we are lucky enough to use their bathroom and kitchen in their trailer, so this type of camping, was really "roughing it" for us! Here are a few pics:

We went to Arches National Park, one day and it was really cool.  I'd love to go back and hike some more. 

 We also checked out Dead Horse Point which was an interesting place.    The story is that "cowboys" would bring horses up to this point that was surrounded by cliffs and close off the small entrance so that they couldn't escape.  The "cowboys" would pick a few horses they wanted then would leave the rest on this point to die.  It was such a sad story!  I doubt they were cowboys, I like to believe they were outlaws.  :)    The site was amazing, it was like looking over the Grand Canyon.  The kids loved investigating and climbing around.

Last Saturday, we went to Ogden and had a camp fire with Cammie and Lanny and kids (Kaitlin's BFF).  Cammie and her family have become really good friends of ours.  We love spending time with them.  They were camping and invited us to come up to have a camp fire.  It was quite chilly - Jackson is below all covered up! :)

 Jen and Cammie (and Carli)