Activity overload

 The end of the school year is always a bit hectic, but once we got through spring break everything else started to seem like one big blur.  This year was beyond hectic.  

But before that all set in, Dave and I got out for an anniversary (15 years!!!) ski on the Mesa in some spring snow, it was beautiful.   We skied an area we haven't ventured to in the past.  This vista is of the back side of the Mesa.  It might be some of the area that is involved in the major landslide that happened here a few weeks ago. Yikes!   I love this man of mine.  I am laughing at how bad the camera is angled.  But it makes me think how much I lean on him.  He is so consistent and patient, the best husband and father I could dream of.

It seems that any attempt by Amanda to get back into swimming has been thwarted.  Her foot is still aggravated by two of the kicks she does in the water, so her practicing has mostly been upper body.  Add to that a bout of strep throat in February, then pneumonia during the tale end of Spring Break, and a few weeks ago she broke a finger when she ran into a lane line at the pool.  Thinking it is a good thing she likes school and music as much as she does!  She played her oboe in the jazz band this year, as well as regular band.  She loved it.  I got to watch her play at festival, and the judges loved that there was an oboe in Jazz band. Her teacher has encouraged her to learn a real Jazz instrument so she can continue with jazz once she heads off to High School.  She brought home an alto Sax to teach herself to play over the summer, but only got a few days worth of  lessons in before she broke that darn finger.  And as you can see, she loves building various agility courses for Skai in the back yard.  At least he is happy she is not at the pool all the time!  

Maren finished up her ice skating class she started in February.  She was convinced that she would learn to do the swizzle after watching the Olympics.  Her teacher was kind and humored her, and she taught the basics.

Maren also participated in Girls on the Run again.  She loved it, and this time she wasn't sick for the 5K, and ran most all of it.  She finished in about 30 minutes, despite a recurring side ache she dealt with from about the 1 mile mark. 

 It was fun to run with her and prove to myself that I could finish a race.  I really have never liked running, it is hard for me.  But doing a lot of cross training over the last few years has made it a lot easier.  It was fun to have a motivation to train hard.  When not dealing with a side ache, Maren is a really fast runner.  I was worried about keeping up with her.  I wasn't complaining about her side ache.

Maren had a piano recital to show off all the hard work she has done this year.  She has progressed a lot and did a great time performing three very long pieces this evening.  She has a new teacher this year, and she expects a lot, but also gives fabulous rewards in return.  Maren loves going to lessons.

 

Jacob played his first season of soccer this spring.  He loved it!  He had a really fun coach, that made practices a blast for these little guys.  I got to be coach for most of the games as his coach couldn't be there, which was fun..most of the time.  He really loved playing defense, but was fast on offense too.  

 Jacob has also made huge gains by way of his speech this spring.  He has mastered the K and G sounds, which have been really tough for him.  But now that he has them his speech is so much more intelligible.  I had to post this picture of him and his therapist Rachel, whom he is graduating from, playing this goofy game.  She is fantastic and we will miss her too pieces.  She has worked now with Jacob for 3 years, and he has made such incredible headway.  Her fun ideas always inspire me to be creative with him during the week when we do our homework.

Spencer didn't do any activities this spring.
And I have to say I am grateful, we had enough going on.  He was a trooper being trucked around to all the other kids activities though.   

He continues to be my lego builder extraordinaire.  He is always coming up with fun ideas.  Plus he lost his first tooth!  I didn't get a great picture...but you can kind of see it in the picture on the lower right.

 We also discovered he really has a severe allergy to something in our front yard.  This picture was after we played out front in the sprinklers one afternoon.  Yikes!  Good thing benadryll and zyrtec have helped keep it under control.  I am looking into local honey to add to our arsenal as well.

 While the kids were busy with all these activities we were also wrapping up the school year.  They had amazing teachers this year.  I loved spending time in both Maren's and Spencer's classrooms during their wild Wednesday reading buddy time.  Both were lucky to have student teachers in their classrooms, Maren for 6 months, and Spencer for the whole year.  Which is so helpful with a classroom full of kiddos.  
Spencer was still pronouncing Mrs Vega as Mrs Begga until the last week of school when she finally had the heart to correct him.  Spencer loved Mr Brown, and I am sad to see him move from this classroom that was perfect for him.
Maren told me that she would stay with Mrs Golden forever if she could. I might just let her, she was up there as one of my favorite teachers for my kids through the years.   She told me several times this year that Maren has real gift of being a self directed learner, and her determination is inspiring to others.

Jacob finished up his second year of preschool with these fabulous ladies.  I love this picture!  He has been so happy with them.  And is so ready for kindergarten because of them.  I am sad he won't be going, but am excited he will move on to another great preschool this fall.  

 As for me, I ran myself pretty ragged this spring.  Between helping put together a spring carnival to raise money for Maren's graduation of elementary activities for next year, volunteering at the kids schools, helping coach Jacobs soccer team, and learning the ropes of my new calling at church as primary president.  On top of driving the kids to all their stuff, and keeping up at home of course.  But it has been rewarding. Somehow letting the house go and changing my focus has helped me to see that my kids won't be young forever and I don't want to miss out on the fun things about being a mom just to keep up with laundry.  I helped on the last day of school with this water game and it was fun to realize that I knew all the teachers that rotated through and about half of the students by name.  Maren was so happy to have me there all day.  In a few years she will probably be embarrassed when I show up at her school, so I will enjoy it while it lasts!