Amanda's 6th Birthday

So a few months before Manda's birthday, she started seeing World Wildlife Fund's commercials telling her that all the tigers are dying!  "We need to save a tiger, mom!  Or there won't be any left!  We need to save at least one, because then that one can have babies, and then there will still be tigers."  

I told her if she really wanted to save a tiger, maybe that could be her birthday present.  But it would be her big main present and she wouldn't really get much else.  She decided that it was worth it.

(I actually donated to a different charity that would send her a stuffed tiger, certificate, and coloring book for a one-time donation instead of a monthly commitment.  Seriously, how much of that money actually gets to the tigers?)  I love that the certificate says that she adopted a "tiger family."  She's pretty proud.

She decided that she wanted to decorate her own cake!  

I'm sure you can tell that it's a fish with bubbles.

A few days later, she graduated from kindergarten!  (she wanted a picture next to Clifford, he's her fave.)

Mandie loves:
The color yellow
Playing with friends
Disney channel (Good Luck Charlie, Jessie, Austin & Ally)
Minecraft
Reading chapter books
Visiting neighbors
Playing with dolls
Her kitty, Boots

Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's

The kids and I went to Flagstaff to see my parents for Memorial Day weekend.  Jana's fam came too!  We had such a nice time together!

My dad took the three biggest girls horseback riding!  They loved it.

Emma, Jessica, Natalie, Grandpa

Natalie wanted to do something fun for the kids, so she made two treasure hunts-- a big kid one and a little kid one.

Blake, Annie and Mandie did the little kid one

Jess, Josh, Missy and Emma did the big kid one

We also went on a perfect little hike!

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Jess in her element

Nat loved having little cousins to dote on

Josh caught a horny toad!

I call this one "Being in Green"

On our last night we had a big fun bbq dinner on the deck.  The kids were very enthusiastic corn shuckers.

Oh and also!  While we were there Jana did photos of my kids!  They turned out so great, I am so lucky to have my photographer sisters!  And also it's awesome that my parents' house is such a great place to take photos!  I'll have to do a separate post for those.

Missy's 9th Birthday

Missy turned 9 this year!  It was her year for a party and she made some very green and froggy plans.  Natalie helped a TON with the party.  She designed some awesome froggy party hats and supervised the kids in painting them, she made a "pin the tongue on the frog" game, she came up with 2 different crafts for the kids to make at the party, and she decorated the cake!  Missy only wanted to invite 4 girls, and of course only 2 of them could come. (I just got a return call from one of the moms today.....4 weeks later.)  But Missy didn't mind!  They had tons of fun.

Playing "Pin the Tongue on the Frog"

This is that game where you wrap a candy bar in tons of newspaper and roll dice to get a turn opening it with a fork.

They had green sherbet and sprite floats.

Here they are with the crafts they made: bookmarks and giant flowers!

First Day of School, 2013

This year I have THREE kids in secondary school.  How crazy is that??  The big kids are really excited that Jess gets to ride the early bus with them, and Jess is so ready to be a grown-up 6th grader!

Jessica: 6th grade!

Natalie: 10th grade!

Josh.......the "special one." 

About 4 pictures later when I finally got a smile.  8th grade!

3 big kids!

They leave to catch their bus at 7:10 AM.  This year the secondary schools are instituting a "late start" day.  They'll start at 10:00 on Wednesdays.  The kids are super psyched.

The elementary girls leave at 8:10.  And now that Mandie's a FIRST GRADER, all five of them are gone all day!  This is the year that I definitely would have gotten a job or started school if life had gone as I'd planned.  As it is it's so nice to be able to stop worrying about rushing home in time for Mandie to be home from kindergarten.  I think I'll be able to be home a lot more in the evenings now that I can be at work during all the school hours.

Amanda: 1st grade!

Melissa: 4th grade!

Notice Missy's green shoes.  We knew they were the ones the minute we saw them!  Melissa is in a 4th-5th combo class this year and she just loves it.  She loves school and loves to feel challenged.  On the first day she asked her teacher for homework, and he gladly complied.  

The big kids get home at 3:20 and the littles at 4:00.  They waited till they were all home to have their special first-day-after-school treat.  We have big plans for this school year!  We're going to turn in all our work and get good grades and do our chores right after school and not skip our piano practicing and spend less time on the computer.
Wish us luck.