Busy May

(Yes, this post is a little late...)
May has been a very busy month! First there was Mother’s Day. Joseph was great, he got me a two-pound box of See’s candies, which even cost extra to ship because they have to keep it cold! It was a bit expensive, but very thoughtful of him. I also got two cards, from the kids and Joseph, and the one from Joseph had butterflies that were connected with fishing wire. This string of sparkly bugs could be removed from the card and became a beautiful mobile that can be hung up! It is very pretty.

                When I got up that morning, Elora had planned an “animal hunt” for me. She gave me a plastic grocery bag, and told me to go around the living room to find all the stuffed animals she had hidden. It was very cute and thoughtful of her. I know she got the idea from her Highlights Magazine, which suggested doing a treasure hunt for father’s day…she didn’t quite get the part about there being a prize at the end.

                That day at church, we were the only ones there! We knew beforehand that we probably would be, but they wanted us to go to the building just in case someone inactive showed up. At first the kids were disappointed and didn’t want to do church, but it actually turned out pretty good! Joseph conducted and blessed the sacrament, and shared an impromptu talk about the stripling warriors. I ran the player piano, and everyone got to sit on the bench and gather around as we sang songs about family (most of the mother’s day songs weren’t on the playlist on the piano.)

                After sacrament meeting, we went in the multipurpose room, where everyone sat at the table and I shared the Sunday school lesson. It was about prayer, and there were plenty of stories that I could share to keep the kids interested. After our lesson, we had a snack of chips, then went home.

                 

 

That night, Joseph had more plans that I didn’t even expect! After I put the kids to bed, he had prepared chocolate covered strawberries and a sparkling strawberry lemonade drink he’d secretly purchased the last time we went to town the Friday before. He even did white chocolate drizzles over the brown chocolate; they looked so professional. That was a good surprise..he’d gotten the idea the week before when I’d seen a commercial on the computer for chocolate covered strawberries, and I’d mentioned how good they looked. What a good listener!

             A few weeks later, they had the Family Fun Night at the school. This time I remembered to bring my camera, unlike last year. Outside they had a dunk tank, and inside there were lots of blow-up toys for jumping. This time they put the toys for the bigger kids in the other gym, so we didn’t have to worry so much about the little kids getting trampled! In the afternoon before we got there, Joseph was in charge of the dunk tank. Sadly he was finishing up when we arrived, so I didn’t get a picture of him sitting on the dunking seat. All the kids got a turn throwing the balls though, and both Elora and Josh were able to hit the target on their turns.

 

 

The next week Elora's school had field day and some awards ceremonies. Elora did great! She won a bunch of ribbons at field day events, and got a certificate, trophy, and ribbons for winning first in the Math contest and second in Spelling in her class.

good job, Elora!

Finally, it was Elora’s kindergarten graduation day! I expected them to have music and some kind of program like they have in Utah, but nope, it was like a high school graduation. They had pictures before hand, they had a speaker, and they had the kids walk and get diplomas. In between they had a slide show of things they did through the year, and they had some of the elementary kids performing hoop dances and a drum ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all this, they had lunch in the lunchroom, then we had cake in the kindergarten room. We got there late because the kids took so long to eat lunch again, and we got the last few pieces of the cake. The teacher had bought all the students gifts with the classroom budget- really big gifts. Elora got a lifesize babydoll, and two paint sets: one watercolor and one water soluble kids’ paints. We also gave her a wristwatch, and she was very excited about that. It had butterflies on the band, and she’s been really excited figuring out how to tell time. (They’d just started learning about time in school, so she has the basic idea down already.)

 After this, we went out on the kindergarten playground and the kids got to play for an hour and a half with some other kids who were there; they had a great time!