We whipped out the bubbles and played outside while Andy took Elizabeth and Olivia to the Senior Honors Night at the church. I had a cold and didn’t want to go share it and Abby is too loud and wild at things, so we opted to stay home and play. They tried out all the little shapes we had in the bubble solution.
Vincent found a bug to observe. He’s always so scientific and learns a lot about bugs and anything else he’s interested in.
It was kind of a warm, stormy week the first week in June.
My camera was making pictures blurry for a little bit this bubble night, so I was playing with it more than I normally would. I love this picture of Abby’s big, blue eyes so serious.
And a fun one too! She’s a hoot.
We watched the movie Matilda as a family so our kids would understand why everyone keeps telling us that Abby looks like her.
More observation in the dirt.
I guess the other two fourth grade classes had a pioneer breakfast that they didn’t let Olivia’s teacher know about (for the second year in a row…brats!), so she decided to have a pioneer activity afternoon for her class. Abby and I helped. Abby chatted with a lady spinning wool (she’s carding it here.)
Abby and I both wore our pioneer outfits (minus the modern sunglasses). Luckily I had some things from the pioneer trek Andy and I did with the youth a few years ago and I found a cool apron my sister in law made me years ago while I looked for aprons to bring to this event. We helped with the washing station.
Each kid was asked to bring a dirty sock to clean.
Abby helped hand out the clothespins and by ‘helped’ I mean bossed the kids around telling them which clothespins they could use and they all listened to her and obeyed. Nice kids.
Good thing she’s cute!
The kids made homemade lemonade at one of the stations. (Olivias big bow is something she bought from the marketplace some of the other classes did-again not her’s…-that she bought with the Cougar Cash she had saved up from the year that’s awarded for positive behavior.) One of the other mom’s made delicious old fashioned molasses cookies.
Abby had a turn to make homemade ice cream in a bag. She even shared some with me. =)
Olivia made a handkerchief doll at one of the stations.
At the end there were enough supplies for Abby to make a leather stamped keychain. I showed her how to do the first letter and she did the rest. She’s super confident.
Looks nice, right?
Abby even had a turn to make some lemonade.
I worked several nights this week, including Saturday night during part of the ballet recital, but I was able to watch both of Olivia’s dances at the rehearsal Saturday morning. Here she was all fresh and ready for the day!
This was about half of her class on stage during the rehearsal. She’s there on the far right.
Somehow I managed to get a picture of her in focus here and I kind of love it. She’s confident and composed and does a really good job in her ballet class (and anything else she decides to do.)
My parents came to watch the ballet performance before heading to more activities on a busy Saturday. It was so nice to see them and to have their support.
Olivia was also in a tap performance and had to change her outfit and hair in the middle. We found her shirt on sale at Kohl’s because she was supposed to wear a neon shirt.
Olivia’s there in the middle of the stage in the front during the tap rehearsal. They tapped to that “If Your Lips are Moving” song by Meghan Trainer, but just the music without lyrics.
Olivia had a good time.
Between the rehearsal and the recital we went to a triple graduation party for some of our former cub scouts. I snagged a few of our other former scouts for this picture since they were there too. We had such a good time being their cub scout den leaders (when they were NINE!) These boys are going to do great things. I think three of them have mission papers in the works, one opened his mission call at the party, and the other two are planning on going on the missions after a semester at college. Such good kids!
These five have been buddies a long time and all graduated this year.
We headed back to the park for the recital right after the party. Nathan joined us there (behind Elizabeth’s untamed fro.) She’s drawing a giant dragon eye.
Olivia’s ballet performance with the added skirt and headpiece. I love that costumes are not required at our dance studio. They are asked to wear their tights and leo from their regular class and then the extras are provided just for the dance. I don’t need all that kind of thing laying around and I don’t want to pay for them either. Simple.
Such a happy girl! It was super hot and the spot I was in for the morning rehearsals was too sunny to sit in so we invaded a kind friend who had a canopy set up for the recital. Andy and Nathan and the other three kids just watched the ballet performance before heading home. I watched until I had to go to work and then had a friend bring Olivia home. There were 59 performances and her numbers were #11 and #52, so it was a long day.
Sunday night Elizabeth wanted her hair straightened for school the next day. Olivia said they were twinnzies.
Monday I dropped Abby off at Andy’s parent’s house and helped with Vincent’s play day at the park. It was over 100 degrees. Luckily,they were at the park with the most shade, but the kids were still going through water like crazy.
The kids played on the big toys and ran around with each other for a while and then had lunch before dividing into groups that went to five different stations. The first station Vincent’s group went to was the water one. The red tubs in the back of the picture were full of water and their job was to carry as much of the water across the space with the ladle and then dump it into the cup on a board (so it wouldn’t fall.)
Vincent was lucky enough to have the winning ladle of water for the first round. I love that you can see his team cheering behind him.
Station #2 was the parachute. So fun!
Station #3 was Duck, Duck, Squirt. It’s played the same as Duck, Duck, Goose, but with a squirt bottle, which was awesome in the heat!
Station #4 was the “Mr. Fox” game that’s kind of like “Mother, May I?” game, but I didn’t get any decent pictures of that one.
Station #5 was the hula hoops and jump ropes. Some of those kids (mostly the girls) are really, really good at hula hooping. They can walk with it and could probably have kept the hoop up for ten minutes! Vincent, not so much… He does have enthusiasm though!
They all joined hands and did the game where you can’t let go of hands but you pass the hula hoop around a big circle. They had five hula hoops going at once. It was kind of cool. (FYI-The hand holding Vincent’s in front of the tree was someone’s dad’s hand, not a first grader’s…)
Vincent had to really bend to get the hoop where it needed to be.
After school Olivia had ballet, so I dropped her off and then went grocery shopping.
We were invited to go swimming with some friends Monday night, so we jumped at that offer, especially with the 100+ degree weather! Abby and Vincent really liked the kiddie pool most, but spent some time in the big pool as well.
Vincent loves to dive for rings. I bet he enjoyed the refreshing water too!
There is still a little bit left of school, but it’s really winding down and soon Lego’s will take over my house even more than they already do.
Ransom Family 