Graduation!

 I guess Kindergarten graduation has become a big thing. I was amazed to hear that there was a graduation ceremony but was even more surprised when I found out they all dress up in caps and gowns.  I will admit it was fun to see all those kindergartners in caps and gowns.

 They called each kindergartner up to give them their deploma. The deploma came in this nice case similar to the case my high school deploma came in! We all enjoyed the program, even Daddy was able to make it but he had to leave during the calling of names to make it to work.

 Calvin's Graduation

Calvin's graduation was a little more low key. We had a little program where each child resited a few nursery rhymes and then they did a few things together as a group.

At the end each child was given their certificate of completion and a memory page tied to a graduation balloon. We then sat and visited while we had some snacks.

I have really enjoyed doing preschool this year, having Calvin in my class makes me love it even more. It is so fun to be apart of the growth and learning of children!

Mother's day

Mother's Day was a wonderful day! Both David and Andrew left early in the morning on Mother's Day, so Michael was gone in the morning because he was up in Phoenix dropping them off at the airport.

Alden and Calvin came in early to see me, I explained to them that on Mother's Day mommy's get to sleep in.  They did a great job letting me sleep in.  When I did come down stairs I saw that they had gotten out, eaten, and cleaned up breakfast all on their own!! (Usually on Sunday's they get breakfast on their own but they don't always clean it all up on their own, so that was really nice!)

I came down to find three vases full of lovely flowers Michael had made for me! Then the boys had me sit down and they got my breakfast for me, and cleaned up my dishes for me.  (I have taught them so they know that on Mommy's special days...Mother's Day, Birthday, etc they do Mommy's job. It is so fun to see them step up and do so much.  Sometimes I forget how much they really are able to do.)

Both boys had made me cards, which is another one of my favorite things.  Calvin gave me my card a couple of different times each time he gave it to me he would give me a big hug and a kiss.  Alden always gives me the sweetest cards.  He had a couple of different cards that he had done all by himself. He had written I love you a bunch of times and then in his own spelling he wrote, "I will help you with everything".  Then he put three dollars in one of the cards and one dollar in the other, which is most of his lemonade stand money that he has earned.  He is a very generous and loving boy as they all are.  They amaze me with their generosity and love.

I am incredibly grateful to be the mother of these three sweet little boys!

uncle David comes to visit!

On Thursday was Michael's day off.  It started with everyone going for a good run and then David gave Michael an eye exam.  After they returned and after Alden returned from school we headed to the U of A where we visited the science museum.  I wasn't expecting much but was surprised to see how well they planned out there museum in a small amount of space.  There was plenty to learn and plenty of fun activities for all ages.  We all really enjoyed it!

Benson our animal lover, loved looking at all of the pictures of animals.  Alden and Calvin enjoyed the interactive computer games, the rock tumbling thing, and the rock climbing wall.  It was nice having so many extra hands to help the boys do anything they wanted to do!

On Friday Michael had to work so he missed out on this next adventure... This is a place that we pass every time we drive between Phoenix and Tucson and I said from the day we came out to interview that we would have to visit but we've never gotten around to it.  It was the one thing I put on the list to do when David and Andrew were out here.  It is an Ostrich ranch.

We started off by feeding the Donkeys, we then fed the deer, the goats, the ostrich, the prairy dogs and then these colorful birds.  I think Benson and I were the biggest into the whole feeding thing.  I think eventually everyone was willing to let the donkeys eat out of their hands.  I'm pretty sure I was the only one to feed the deer.  (The deer leave a nice slobber all over your hand and sometimes you can feel their teeth...I should not have explained this after I fed them because then nobody was willing to try feeding the deer.)

You can see in these pictures how they chose to feed the deer... do you see Andrew stretching his hand out to set food on the ground so that the deer can eat, that is how everyone else chose to feed the deer.

Benson would laugh every time he fed an animal.  It was a lot of fun to see how much he loved feeding the donkeys and the goats!!

I was definitely the only one to feed the goats with my mouth.  I told them that maybe we shouldn't show these pictures to Michael because he might not want to kiss me after he saw them...it turns out that after seeing them he was still willing to kiss me!  (He just made sure to ask if I had done a thorough cleaning of my face and mouth. :) )

Calvin loves animals but from a distance and did not want animals feeding out of his hands.  He did feed the Ostrich though.  (The ostrich you feed them by putting food in a bin because you don't want to get to close to them because as you might imagine they bite.)

Benson feeding the goats.  He really loved feeding the goats!  One time he left his hand out too long and actually got bit but he still wanted to feed them as soon as the pain subsided.

This next place was an adventure, and through us all off guard.  When walking into where these birds were the only thing they told us was that the kids could not hold the nectar to feed the birds.  Once we walked in we understood why.  The picture above was taken right after we walked in the room.  A bird came right and landed on my head and soon thereafter they all started flocking over and landing.  In my hand by Benson I have the nectar that right after this picture was taken two birds swept down, landed on my hand and opened up and proceeded to drink.

The pictures above are the only ones we got of the initial shock,  So great!! I really loved this part.  The picture below is of Andrew after the nectar was all gone and the birds had calmed down.  All of the co-motion had scared the boys.  David let them out of the room because they really were scared.  I was able to convince Alden to come back in to look at the birds once they had calmed down but Calvin would not come back in.  So other then scaring the boys a little I would have to say this bird house was by far my favorite part of this little adventure!

Uncle Andrew comes to visit!

We had wanted to get Andrew out to Tucson sometime this summer so when we decided to make the trip for graduation Mom said she would get Andrew a ticket on our flight coming home, that way he could help with the boys.  It did make the coming home trip much nicer.  I sat with Benson, and he sat across the isle with Alden and Calvin.  Benson slept the whole way as did Calvin, so Andrew was able to sit and do all of the homework we hadn't done with Alden.

The first week Andrew was here was a just a nice relaxing week.  The picture at the top is a lake that we go fishing on every now and again.  We went there a couple of times with Andrew.  We were really hoping we would catch a fish, because he know how to gut a fish and we are all clueless in the matter. I guess whenever we do catch our fish we will just have to rely on youtube to help us with that.
We also visited the Children's Museum satellite location. It was fun and good but nothing compared to the Children's Museum.  Benson's favorite section was the arts and craft area.  He loves to write, so it was fun for him to have markers, crayons, pencils, and a number of different medians for him to write on.  He loved it!

Benson in his favorite spot again! I need to change out the sand box so he can play in it, because I think that would be his real favorite spot if he was allowed in it.  (Right now it is really a wheat box.  At first I thought this was great because it made a use for the wheat I could no longer eat and since Benson put everything in his mouth, I thought great now when he puts it in his mouth at least he is putting food in his mouth. Now knowing that wheat is something he is allergic to, I mostly just avoid having him go in there.  Last week I let him in there, ran inside for a second and came outside to see Calvin handing Benson a hand full of wheat and Benson taking it as though it were food right up to his mouth. Now it is off limits for Benson and I really just need to change it out for sand because he would love it.)

The day we went to get David from the airport, I went to the temple while Andrew watched the kids.  I came out to see them picking fruit.  This is a new tradition that the boys love.  We always pick fruit around the temple when we go up, the boys really enjoy it, and I think it is a memory that they will remember from the Mesa temple.

We also went swimming a number of times.  Benson is not a big fan of the water and enjoys walking around the deck while we swim.  At first I would push him to get in, but found I never got to enjoy the water myself.  Now he has fun on the deck and I get to have fun in the water.  We are both happy, hopefully as the summer goes on he will start to like the water a little more.  But for now at least he sure is a cute happy little guy walking around the deck and throwing things to us in the water.

Utah trip continued...

Graduation day 2

All the cousins with Uncle Austen.  There couldn't be a bunch more excited when they saw Austen walking up the stairs.  (This second part of graduation was the first time these cousins had seen Austen.)

Benson running the track at the Smith Field House.  He is a good little runner!

During a big chunck of the graduation the cousins and my boys all played over in this half of the Smith Field House.

After graduation we all went over the the Bean Museum.  Mom and Dad had ordered catering from the BYU creamery but we had about an hour before it was ready, which was just the perfect amount of time so we could spend some time looking at the animals at the Bean Museum.  Benson loved it!! Of all my boys  Benson really loves animals! Maybe the others did more at his age but Benson gets so excited when he sees animals.  Sometimes I will take him to petsmart just because I love seeing how excited he gets when we go see all the animals.  So as you can imagine Benson loved the Bean Museum!

When we go on trips without Michael this is usually what happens, all four of us end up snuggling in the same bed.

Playing in the backyard.  How I love the grass in Utah! I love to run on it, roll in it, sleep in it and just look at it. This is a pretty time of the year there.

On Sunday afternoon Austen, Andrew and all of us went to visit Temple square. Which was the perfect close to a perfect trip.  I got to see all of my siblings, and visit all of my favorite places in Utah.  It was a great trip!