Jed is your Father kiddies!

Most of Jara's life she has called Jed, well...Jed he rarely blinks an eye.  In fact calling him "daddy" is more surprising than Jed.  She has repeatedly told us Jed IS Jed and has refused to call him anything else.  Well, unfortunately, the other two will occasionally call him Jed too and let me tell you, it leads to a lot of long explanations in church. Anyway, whatever they call him, he is still their FATHER and a pretty awesome dad!

A little pre-dinner coloring.  Daddy is good at connect-the-dots.

Good at dress-up.  

In case you didn't know this is a lovely picture of Kristoff and Elsa and Sven the trusty(crusty in E's words) reindeer.

Good at teaching.

See kids "one dirt hill + one more dirt hill...means a bunch of ants and you should smash it!"

Good at taking one for the team.  

Any man who would spare his wife the humiliation of wearing a velcro suit while children throw balls at you is a hero!

A good coach 

Good at swimming.

The children would never learn to swim if I were the sole source of their inspiration.

Tricky!  

He's also a fun, hard-working, AND loving dad!  (In case the Kristov costume didn't convince you.) 

Happy father's day Jed.

Ballet Revue

 A year of ballet!  Jara's last recital of the year was May 31st.  She did ballet all school year, every week, for an hour each week.  Her spotlight dance move of the evening was precious.  Ballet is a very fitting, proper activity for this little girlie.  Performing has been hard for her, it is stressful for her to think of messing up but she has loved going/practicing each week.  The first time she went and came home and said "ahh it is so calming" I knew we had found a winner!  She has never taken or been exposed to ballet in her life (well unless you count the Nutcracker at age 3) but was invited to learn along with the Ballet II class.  It was a big step but she did it!  I loved watching you Jara!

By the way-Jed is banned from texting other ballet dads during recitals.  Well, technically it wasn't during the ballet portion I looked at his phone and saw an image of a very robust woman in an inappropriate reference to opera singing but still....

T-Ball

Everyone should have the opportunity to have a T-Baller.  There is probably nothing more entertaining in this world than watching 4-6 year old children in their first encounter with organized (I use the term loosely) sports.  Kids running from first to third base.  Kids running bases backwards.  Kids watching as a ball goes rolling by.  Someone's kid winding up like a softball pitcher before he would throw the ball.  Kids with batting routines. Kids running past first base with no intention of ever stopping.  Hilarious!

Once Jack turned five, I told him he could pick a sport to play.  He had been talking about T-ball for a year and we have been practicing for about that long, so T-ball it was!  He was very determined, worked hard to improve (mom did you see how fast I ran, i was a blur) and it was the highlight of his week.  Three months of waking up for Saturday games at 8:00AM almost did me in.  Nonetheless we, I, made it.  

I'm proud of you Jack!  I loved watching you play.  I treasured your excitement/seriousness/drive/crazy wind-up/love of the game!

Also-

Jed helped coach.  With a little accidental volunteering from me.  Jed can have the patience of a saint which is helpful when standing next to a little person armed with a BAT!  

Memorial Day

A Little Relaxing

Jed refuses to visit cemeteries with me.  He thinks I'm morbid. He dragged me to the lake.  Wicked man.

The END of Pre-K

Jack has this preschool business down.  I don't even want to calculate how much it must have cost me, but he has loved every moment!  Three years of it, that's what happens when your birthday is in November.  He is READY for Kindergarten.  I am sad he is a big, school boy now but he has reassured me he will come home and cuddle me every day. I really don't want him to grow up but part me is wondering what I need to do to convince the school district some kids really do need ALL day kindergarten!

River Run

We found a little man(woman) cub living in the wild, we think we'll keep her.

Crocodiles not in the Nile.

Most May's we drag them out to the Virgin River and let them have a little, muddy fun.  This year the river was very widespread and shallow, perfect for small people.  No one got stuck, no one drowned, no one was captured by bush people, no one was trampled by a cow, and no one was croc food.  Not much more you can ask for.  Afterwards Jara did tell me "mom I still feel like I'm walking through mud."  She was right. After sludging through mud for a couple of hours I felt my steps dragging too.  A strange aftereffect of mud walking I guess.

Jara is an Author

Jara's teacher is amazing and had all twenty of her students write/publish their own "Adventure Story."  It makes me tired just thinking about it.  A lot of hard work was put into the process of publishing their books.  They brainstormed, created the first draft, edited, created the second draft, edited, illustrated and FINALLY published.  Jara's book had three stories:  Halloween, Ballet and The First Day of School.  I loved the detail she included in her book such as a dedication page and an "about the author" page.  Jara was able to have an author share and read her book to the class, answer any questions about her book and party afterwards.  May this only be the beginning of her illustrious career as an author!  Momma needs a new pair of shoes.