Storm

So we are having a major storm here tonight with Tornado Warnings and all. To prove how smart we are (not), we went outside with cameras in hand trying to catch a lightening strike. Jared caught a bunch on camera, me...I caught one going across the sky. Must be old age creeping in!

Playing at Ft. Ben

We went and played at Ft. Ben tonight to put an end to the day. The kids had fun taking Lizzy for a ride down the slide, playing on the swings, skateboarding and watching the clouds roll in.

Hiking at Ft. Ben

We went on a little hike at Ft Ben and tried to identify some of the foliage. Some of it was real easy 'cause they had a sign for us to read (haha). The one we liked the most is the Liriodendron tulipifera - Tulip Tree - the Indiana State Tree. The kids collected 'flowers' for us along the way and we made a little bouquet out of them.

Picnic Day at Soccer

Every year the soccer league puts on a picnic for all the soccer players. They had a couple of bounce houses, face painting, tattoos, free Hot Dogs, drinks and cookies. The kids had a blast.

Jared's Soccer Game

Jared played really well today. He made 2 goals, one of them being a winning goal - GO Jared! He's got 2 more games to play and then it's on to summer fun.

Heron

While we were outside a really cool Heron flew over our heads.

Roof Game

When Jared has his friends over they play a game called the Roof Game. It's basically throwing a Football on the roof and then seeing who can catch it without stepping on the concrete. They get pretty physical with it, but I guess they are just being boys.

Skateboarding

We bought the kids a skateboard each today and after a little bit of a shove Jared gave it a try and he was great at it.

End of the day

We finished our day with soccer practice and a trip to Toys r Us to reward them for the most totally awesome grades.

Pickin' Berries

We made our annual trip to pick strawberries today. The kids were picking them and then throwing them in the air and catching them in their mouths and then eating them. They weren't always smooth about it either.We ended up making strawberry shortcake and strawberry ice-cream with the strawberries we had left over.

Last Day of School Celebration - After Dark

After everyone had left, we decided to set the rest of the fireworks of to celebrate both the kids getting straight A's on their report cards. We think they are the Bomb!

Last Day Celebration - Smores

So after feeding the gang chicken, bacon, beans and Mac and Cheese, we dedcided to offer dessert in the form of Smores and a Campfire. We also had a couple more friends drop by.

Last Day of School - Fireworks

We ended the days activities with the kids playing with Morning Glory fireworks and Sparklers.

Cool down at home with the Sprinkler

So we spent 4 hours at Snapperz and the kids were really hot and we hadn't had any rain in a week so we turned on the sprinklers for the kids to run through.

Last Day of School Celebration - Snapperz

We took the kids to Snapperz to celebrate the end of school. They played arcade games, Laser Tag, Bungee Trampoline, Rock climbing, bounce houses and slides and a 4 story playcenter. Can you see J in the mirror?

Pick-up from last day of school

We picked the kids up from school and we let them invite 1 friend each to go out and celebrate the end of the school year over at Snapperz. But before we did that we had a couple of surprises waiting for them at home.

We had a bunch of candy, cupcakes, cookies and some decorations and balloons.

They quickly ate the cupcakes and cookies, pulled down the decorations and had a balloon fight.

Last Day of School

Here is the fam on the last morning of school. We're looking forward to spending the summer with them.

Rose

Here is my rose today. I wish you all could smell it. It's really pretty.

Rose

My rose is finally starting to open up. I know it's a lot of excitement for A SINGLE rose but I don't have a green thumb it's more of a dull brown color!(haha)

And the winner is....

Helio Castroneves and Sydney. She hasn't decided where she wants to go yet!

Indy 500

So it's race day and Jeff wanted to do something fun, so he cut out the driver's listing in the Sunday paper and we each picked 8 drivers and Lizzy got 1, 'cause it was uneven. The one who picked the winner will get to choose what we do Wednesday after school to celebrate the end of the school year. We'll see what happens!

Jared's Field Day

Jared's 3rd Grade Class Today the kids got to go outside and play games for about 2 1/2 hours. There are about 14 stations that parents volunteer to run. I decided not to run one of the stations but to walk around with the kids and be a helper to the volunteers. I was hoping to lessen my involvement with trying to rally the kids and make them pay attention, but that was not to be. It was a chore keeping 20+ kids in line for that amount of time when they are so full of energy. As luck would have it, I had to go to the morning and afternoon session as the 3rd (Jared), 4th and 5th grade went at 9:30 to 11:55 and the 1st and 2nd (Sydney) graders went from 12:45 to 3. But I made it out alive and always enjoy being with the kids.

Jared's favorite station was being wrapped in toilet paper and then breaking free.

I think my favorite was when they had to pour water into a container that was balanced on another child's head!

Sydney's Field Day

SO...... after surviving the morning I headed back to school for more torture with Sydney's class. I actually think that the 3rd graders were better behaved as a class, but the 2nd grade class has some really awesome kids.

Sydney's favorite activity was being forced to do 15 push-ups to get sprayed with water.Her next favorite was trying to pick-up marbles with her feet in soapy water.I think I liked the belly bumpers the best.

Cirlefest part Deux

This is the picture I got of Jared, Sydney and Kyle after Circlefest. I don't know if you can see but Kyle and Jared had their hair colored! Sydney just wanted to show off her Ice cream and be with the boys (no circlefest until next year for her.)

CircleFest 2009

Every year at school, the third graders have a Circlefest. It was named Circlefest because it is held in the Drop-off/Pick-up circle. The kids have to earn (teacher - fake) money through-out the year by behaving correctly and meeting goals. They then get to go spend this money on games, a sweet shop and raffles. For each game they play they receive stars that they can trade in for items at the 'Swap Shop'. At the end of Circlefest they all sit under a tree and listen to who won the raffle items. This year there was a record breaking 48 raffle items.

I wish I had remembered my camera, but I guess I'm glad I forgot because Jeff and I did the crazy thing and volunteered to set-up, run a game and break down. The 'game' I inherited was tattoos, which isn't a game it's plastering child after child with, basically, stickers. Jeff's was a Sunflower seed spitting contest. Eeewwww.

So being a little more tanned and a lot more tired, the fest was over after breaking everything down. The best part was seeing all the kids and our Jared have fun and winning a raffled Bakugan. Another good thing, I get to do it all over again next year for our Sydney. Here are a couple of Cell Phone Photos, but you cannot tell which child is Jared and it really doesn't do it justice but it's something.