School's out for summer!

The kids are finally out of school! We had some snow days which increased the year a bit.
It's been a great year.  Both kids worked hard on their math facts to become "Math Masters".  After several different rounds of 50 problems in 2 minutes (addition and subtraction 0-5 then 0-10) Chani was the first to get her award and cool shirt.  To be fair, the kindergarten requirements were two levels below Emery's. Emery finally squeaked out a finished worksheet the day before all the final awards were given. He was so thrilled! I think it helped that Clint promised the kids each $20 if they brought home a Math Master t-shirt.
Chani had to build a kite for her last research project of the year. It didn't fly great but she loved it. We made a sled kite out of a plastic tablecloth and some paper straws.
At the awards assembly we were totally surprised when Chani received a Citizenship Award. Emery got one first quarter. She jumped right up and hustled to the front. It was awfully cute.

 

Emery showing off his cool poetry book.  His teacher compiled all his writing assignments for the year in two laminated books.  Very cool indeed! 

 

Chani, the Math Master! 

 

This is a sled kite, made from scratch. As a side note.  We went to the dollar store to buy supplies for the kite.  It's impossible to buy kite string by itself (at least in this town) so I told Chani to grab a kite as we were passing by them.  Emery was shocked and indigently told me, "Mom, you can't cheat on this!"

 

Chani with her citizenship award and medal.  

The yard

We decided this year to focus our fiscal resources to fixing our yard. We wanted a sprinkler system and some fruit trees as well as a water spigot at our garden.

Phase 1: Before we could do all the install and finish work, we had a lot of prep to do. We had 8 apple trees that were more like apple bushes. They'd never been pruned and in the past 2 years, we've only seen one apple. The trees came down. We also had 19 lilac bushes that were pretty ugly and scraggly that ran through the middle of our yard.  It was a huge amount of work, and we knew we couldn't do it alone. We asked for some help from the Elders Quorum.  We had about 10 men show up and one friend brought his backhoe. It made the work go so quickly. We started at 8 and most everyone was gone by 10:30.

These are just a few of the lilacs.  They made an L shape across the front of our yard and then cut back on the east side of the house.

To the side of the house.

 
 The backhoe made the work so much easier!!!



All the bushes are gone.  It opens the space up so much.

Phase 2: We hired a company to put in the sprinkler system and plant some fruit trees. We put the sprinkler system in about half our yard. We also planted an apple tree and a plum tree. We want to add more fruit trees when we can afford it.  We love the water spigot at our garden.
Phase 3: We got a beehive! It's very cool.  The bees seem very docile and we've only had 1 sting.  Clint got stung when we put the frames of bees in the hive.  The bees are working hard and it's fun to watch them come back from foraging loaded with pollen. We should be able to harvest honey this fall.
Our yard looks completely different now. We're so excited about it and our future here.

Trenching for the sprinkler system.

 

 

The bees settled in their new happy home. 

Potty training

During the snow days, I decided to dabble in potty training Saya. She's done great! We've worked our way through lots of bags of M&M's and dry panties. We took a long car trip last weekend and we didn't have a single accident. In Saya's words, "Wahoo!"

Snow

We had back to back snow storms at the end of April and May 1. We had a few days of no school and spent a lot of time watching movies in our jammies.

We went to Idaho...

...way back in March! We bought some wheat and other food storage sruff that we needed to transport home. We were able to be there for the Saturday before Easter. We had a great time and it was nice to see some of our family!  We were able to enjoy Friday with Clint's mom.  We went out for lunch and she spoiled the kids with ice cream and french fries at Rupe's. 

Saturday we hunted for eggs, dyed eggs, and had a big family dinner.  Papa made dutch oven chicken which is one of my favorites.  Even Grandma, Aunt Kristy, and Uncle Matt came.  It was so nice to be able to visit with everyone!

 

This is Saya with cousin T who is only 3 days older than she is.

 

 

Everyone loves Grammy's sandbox. 

 

Ben is always willing to saddle up a horse for rides.  The big kids love it! 

 

Saya followed the horse around for an hour saying, "Horse. Ride." But when it came down to the ride, she cried and whimpered the whole time.  Whenever we call Grammy, the first thing she asks is about the horses. 

 

My kids especially loved Papa's Dish Network.  For cable deprived kids, it was an awesome Saturday morning full of cartoons. 

 

Emery riding with a friend. 

corduroy pants

I fell in love with a boy, some years ago, who wore corduroy pants.  He doesn't so much anymore, although he might if I got him some.......but that's another post.

On Saturday, we were picking up some pants for the kids (they've been incredibly hard on jeans this year, and they've also both grown a ton) and Clint had Emery try on a pair of khaki colored cords.  Emery really liked them, so we brought them home.  Clint told Emery on the way out of the store, "You can't run in these or they'll catch on fire."  Emery wanted to know why, and Clint explained that the friction from the bumps on the fabric would cause a fire. 

Monday morning I told Emery he could wear his new pants.  He paused for a minute and then said, "I'm a little scared to wear them, Mom."  I asked why, and he said, "Because what if I forget and run.  I don't want to catch on fire."  I told him he'd probably be ok.  A few minutes later, he was hurrying to get his teeth brushed and he ran a bit.  Then he slowed way down and said, "Hey, I didn't catch on fire!" 

I love these boys of mine!

Strawberry Season

Those who follow my instagram feed will know that I got a killer deal on strawberries this week at Safeway.  They were $ .99 a pound.  I bought a lot of berries. 

I made 4 batches of jam.

 I made a batch of strawberry pie filling*.  This was a bit more tricky, as I couldn't find a recipe that I was really thrilled with.  I read several, and then made up my own.  It's delicious and canned really well.  It's a keeper for sure.

I only had one minor mishap, which ended up ok in the end, because look how clean my stove is now!

*Not that I make pie, but I will use it for cheesecake topping and pancakes with whipped cream.  Yum!