Governor's Program

Savannah decided to join many other 4th graders this year in participating in The Governor's Program, a program that involved memorization of important facts about the state of Maryland. After passing off all the requirements, Savannah would earn a trip to The National Zoo in Washington DC. It took several months to pass everything off but she finally did it! Here were the requirements:

• Memorize the Pledge of Allegiance (easy!)
• Color in the picture of the Maryland Flag (another easy one!)
• Memorize the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner
• Memorize all verses to Maryland, My Maryland!
• Be able to identify important Maryland persons in government, such as Senators, the Governor, etc. (there were 8 of them)
• Name all the counties
• Name surrounding states
• Name state rivers
• Name state symbols, which included State Capital, Bird, Flower, Crustacean, Dog, Tree, etc.
• Memorize the first 2 verses of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe (this was the tough one!)

At the beginning of June Savannah headed down to the National Zoo for a fun day with her friends.  Her favorite animals were the lions and she even picked up a new lion stuffed animal to add to her collection.  I'm so proud of her in successfully completing this program!

A Moth Story

I don't know about the rest of you but we have never seemed to have much luck with caterpillars and butterflies or ant farms or crickets or any other kind of insect. We eventually had to release the caterpillar that Savannah had when she was three because after several months the thing was still alive but clearly had no interest in doing any changing. A few weeks ago the kids saved a caterpillar from our front lawn right before David was going to mow. Xander put it in his little insect jar that he received from his teacher and was so excited to see if it would change into a beautiful caterpillar. I didn't hold out much hope but, lo and behold, that very night the caterpillar spun a cocoon! After several weeks I thought maybe it had died in there but one night, while getting something in the kitchen, I heard this strange buzzing noise. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw something flying around in that insect jar. SUCCESS AT LAST!!!

I excitedly called the kids down to see our beautiful moth and we decided to let it go out on the back deck.

We had a little bit of a hard time getting it to leave us; in fact, it flew onto my shirt and clung to me with all its might, never letting go despite my loud screams and efforts to "gently" brush it off.

What a fun little experience for me and the kids!

Memorial Day 2012

Our Memorial Day celebration has become extremely traditional: we always arrive early at our ward's Memorial Day Breakfast so David can help cook the pancakes.

The kids will take a bite or two and then head off to take part in all the fun activities going on.

We hang out with friends,

visit the water,

play a little soccer,

hang out with friends some more (especially the cute ones),

and then end the morning with a water fight!

Although I didn't take any pictures, we ended the day with a BBQ with friends at the Washburn's house as we have the past few years. The kids all hang out together and the parents chat. It couldn't get any better!

Field Day!

Noah and I headed over to the elementary school one day to watch Savannah and Xander participate with the other kids in their grades in the fun-filled Field Day! Savannah's was in the morning so we were able to, for the most part, avoid the heat. It was so fun to watch her and her friends do all kinds of races, relays, and tug of war.

Noah sure loves his big sister.

We weren't so fortunate with Xander's grade. He had his Field Day activities at the end of the school day and boy, was it hot!!! Noah and I tried to stay cool while we cheered Xander on.

After the fun the kids got to enjoy nice, cold snowies.

Our Little Graduate

It's official! Noah has graduated from preschool!

Walking to the Graduation March music.

Noah looked so cute in his graduation robes!

Getting his diploma and a huge hug from his favorite, Ms. Carol. She and Noah were buds!

Diploma in hand.

Hanging with his buds one last time in the classroom.

Noah's Olympics

Okay, so it wasn't really Noah's Olympics, more like his whole preschool class, and all the kids had a blast! The kids were divided into teams and participated in different relays. I loved watching the kids race against the parents in the different events because everyone had the competitive juices flowing! It was also really sweet to hear the kids chant every one's name as they were finishing up the races. A picture of Noah's team.

The "writing your name" relay.

It's hard to see because Noah was squeezing his legs so tight but there's a ball in between those little muscle legs of his.

Look at that concentration!

Cheering on his classmates!

All the kids loved this one though I'm bummed that I didn't catch a shot of Noah going over backward with his legs up over his head. Pretty funny! Good thing he can laugh at himself.

After the Olympic events the kids got to play on those big blowup, bouncy things. Unfortunately for me I challenged Noah to a race through it and as we were coming down the slide, in my great effort to beat him, I dove down it head first and ended up with huge, painful burns on both knees and an elbow. Maybe I shouldn't try to beat my kids when its just for fun!

Mother's Day

What a wonderful day Mother's Day is! David and the kids always treat me so well! For starters, Noah and his classmates got to attend a special preschool class at night with their dads to prepare gifts and goodies for the moms. Then, the Friday before Mother's Day, all the moms got to attend a special Mother's Day Tea. Noah dressed up in a jacket and tie and I got to dress up for something other than church and we had a great time together.

My beautiful place setting prepared by Noah.

After some songs and poems performed by the kids, I got to try and figure out which profile hanging on the wall was Noah's. After David did this with Xander a few years ago I thought he would have been a bit more successful with outlining Noah's profile; apparently Noah was a bit more wiggly than Xander had been, thus a profile of my child that looks as if he has a snippet of a nose and no lips.

Our Sunday mornings are always a bit hurried due to early church so David and the kids always deliver my breakfast in bed on Saturday. Sunday I was treated to fun songs, cards, and hugs. I truly love being a mom to my three wonderful children!

The Last Preschool Field Trip

This was it, the very last preschool field trip! Noah's class headed to the Eden Mill Nature Center for an afternoon of fun and education.

The first stop was the pond to see if we could find any fun little creatures. Noah was SO excited to wear the boots!

Scooping around in the pond.

A snail was the most interesting thing Noah scooped out along with some mud and weeds. Other things the kids found were tadpoles, eggs of something, a frog, and tons and tons of insects!

Next we headed to the little center they have there to check out some stuffed as well as live animals. They have some beautiful animals to look at as well as touch which Noah loved doing.

For the few days previous to the field trip Noah kept talking about how Miss Kelly had told him he would see a snake and he was adamant that he did NOT want to touch any gross snake! So when the guy brought in the snake I caught Noah's expression on camera! Too funny!

And then he totally surprised me by being the first in line to touch it!

The rest of the trip included finding worms out on the grass, playing a game of squirrel and fox, and enjoying the beautiful nature that was all around us.