Last day of school

It takes a fair amount of donuts to make a 2 and a K.  We ended yesterday with donuts and began today with them, we're on a roll.  I am so grateful for the school year Jared and Lydia had.  They both loved their teachers and made some really great friends.  They did well academically and were both a little sad to be leaving their classes and teachers.  What a blessing.  I can't actually remember a day that Jared wished he could stay home instead of go to school.

Lydia and Abby

Lydia and Ms. Hunter.  Ms. Hunter was a great fit for Lydia.  I know she will be back to visit her many times. 

Abby, Connor, Lydia, Ms. Hunter, and Noah. 

They pretty much just jumped in the picture.  Cute kids. 

I was able to volunteer in Lydia's class each Monday.  Sometimes I really felt that my life would be a lot simpler if I didn't because Monday was my one weekday to have time to myself to get all the house and errand things done but in the end I am really glad I was able to do it.  Ms. Hunter had me take the kids who brought their reading folders back to school into the hall and read their book with them.  While I would have enjoyed watching Lydia interact with her peers I know this was something that really helped Ms. Hunter and I loved seeing the kids grow into stronger readers.  Noah was the boy who I heard the most (positive) stories about.  He and Lydia stayed at the top of the class for most of the year.  His mom works at Baker-Butler and he has a brother in 2nd grade.  He and Jared have never been in the same class though.  There were actually 3 sets of siblings in Lydia and Jared's classes.  Jared and Lydia, Eleanor and William and Tomitica and Thomas.  Sadly Eleanor and William are going to move to their mom's school in the Fall.  We will miss seeing them.  Eleanor told us on a few occasions that William had quite the crush on Lydia which is funny because Sarah, their mom told me that Eleanor has had a crush on Jared since the middle of 1st grade (they were in the same class together last year too).

Jared, Ms. Martin, Marcus (Mason) 

Jared had quiet time each day in class.  During this time they could read, rest, or create something.  A few months ago Jared started talking about "the scroll of ancient-ness" that he and Marcus were working on.  I really wasn't sure what it was until today.  At the end of class Jared and Marcus presented it to Ms. Martin on a red pillow nonetheless.  She knew they had been working on it and was "honored" to receive it.  She even commented on the water they dribbled on it to make it look more ancient.  Such an awesome teacher.  She is actually going to teach preschool at her new school next year which will be a big change for her. 

We said goodbye to friends at school and then came home to get ready for our annual last day of school ice cream sundaes.   The ice cream was delicious and over all the kids had fun playing together.

Jared, Sam, Tyler, Carson, Elsie, Tacey, Sam (Carter) Lydia, Jackson and Katie. 

Mallory, Kim, Julie and Aprillee. 

These Ladies.  There are so many things I admire about them.  Mallory and Kim are both moving this Summer which makes me so very sad.  We hope that Mark wants to keep working at the airport so we can go see Mallory in England and Kim in Alaska.  I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by such great examples, all with different strengths.  The people in our lives are such a blessing.  There were so many prayers answered this year with the help of these friends and others, their teachers at school and the students they met.  We are grateful.  Now to get ready to hang out in airports all Summer.  I wouldn't be surprised if when Jared and Lydia go back to school and are asked what they did on Summer vacation they say, "spent time at the airport."  England, Ireland, California, Iceland, Brazil, Utah, Arizona and Utah again here we come!

Macarons and farewell picnic

My sweet friend Mallory is an awesome baker and person in general.  She is talented, generous, fun, thoughtful and sadly moving to England this month. Awhile back she posted some pictures of some macarons she made and suggested getting a group together to make them.  Macarons have never been my favorite treat but after today I am a much bigger fan.  A few of us met at Mallory's and made 3 batches of them. I had never made them before and am not sure I would take the time to make them often but I certainly enjoyed eating them and visiting with some great friends.  We made chocolate and plain cookies and for the filling we did:  lemon (my favorite), Peanut Butter, chocolate and raspberry.  They were all delicious.  She mentioned a great macaron shop in Harrods so we will now be stopping there when we head out next week.  I can't believe how soon it is!  We had already planned this trip and meeting up with friends currently living there before we found out that Mallory and one other friend was moving there.  Looks like we will just have to go back to visit them!

April, Kim, Jessie and Mallory. 

Speaking of people moving, so many great people, families who we hang out with regularly are moving this Summer.  I remember when I moved here my friend Laura mentioned how wonderful Charlottesville was and in the same breath how often she had her heart broken here. I am really feeling it this year.  Seven+ strong families are leaving our ward.  Its over 35 people. Three families we regularly get together with and love, (Grovers, Carters, Leavitts) and so many other just really nice people are moving away and it makes us so sad.  We are so grateful we got to know them and truly hope to meet up with them again.  Our smart friend Sarah put together a farewell donut picnic at Pen Park so people could have a chance to say goodbye together.  Lots of people came and it was nice to see everyone together.  It was the most beautiful weather.  Jared had a great time roaming the trails which have been expanded and cleared out a lot since we lived over there.  Lydia got to play with a friend she doesn't see much and they had quite the mermaid adventure together.  It was just one of those perfect Summer nights with great people, weather and location + donuts so it could not have gotten much better.  We are so blessed to have such awesome people in our lives.

 

Maybe half the group. 

We got home around 8:30, *found and removed a tick from Jared and quickly got ready for bed.  As Lydia walked by the front door she saw her first firefly of the season. That was a plus for being out later than we normally are.  The three of us (Mark is at the airport) walked over to the front door and watched them blink around for a few minutes.  They always give me a little thrill of excitement.  I do not love Summer but I do love fireflies.  I remember last Summer being much better than I thought it would be and will do my best to have a good attitude for this year.  Tomorrow is the last day of school so I better gear up!

*On our whiteboard in the Kitchen we have started a tick count for summer 2018.  So far Jared is winning.  He has had 3 ticks, Lydia 1 and Mark and I are still at zero where I hope it stays. He is welcome to win this contest.

Field Day

Field day started off a little shaky but ended up being a really fun day. I was scheduled to help out at the water slide but when I went outside there was no water slide!  Apparently the company (it was a blow up slide) thought they were supposed to arrive at 10:00 when in actuality they were supposed to arrive at 7:30.  The PE teachers quickly improvised a water game but it was pretty sad for most of the classes.  Lydia's class was scheduled to do the water activities first thing so she actually never got a chance to do the water slide.  Fortunately for Jared, all the 2nd grade teachers brought their classes over at the end of the rotations so each kid could slide down once.  Hands down the best station was the fire truck.  One of the larger trucks came and parked at the school and sprayed the kids.  They loved it.  With all the excess water we have they were not stingy and there was water shooting everywhere.  It was super fun.  To add to the shaky start almost as soon as the first class of Kindergartners (Lydia's and one other) came out the firefighters actually got a call and had to leave the school!  So we improvised again and had them eat their popsicles at 8:40 in the morning.  It all ended up working fine.  The truck came back really quickly and didn't get called away again for at least all of the morning session. I don't know about the afternoon but I was happy it worked out.  It was fun to see the kids happy and having a fun time.  We had the most perfect weather for such a day.   If only all of summer could be 74 degrees.

Lydia loved the fire truck and the large deep puddles it made.  She said she loved field day, that it was the best day.  Jared had a great time too.  Running around with friends and playing all the games.  I'm not sure what the other stations entailed but when we talked after school they both seemed to like them.  Jared more than Lydia but still a fun time for them both.  Neither got sunburned which I was happy about or lost any of their things.   It was a great day.

Ms Martin releasing them to the fire truck. 

Pets

Last week we took care of our newly acquainted neighbors' pets.  We were in charge of 3 hamsters, 3 aquariums of fish, 1 bird, 1 bunny and 3 dogs.  We fed them and changed their water, cleaned cages, played with them and collected eggs Monday - Thursday.  We are glad we could help our neighbors and Jared and Lydia loved taking care of the animals. Overall it was a good experience but it did reaffirm in my mind that we are not pet people.  Jared and Lydia got a sweet deal as they paid them really well.  I knew they were planning on paying us but didn't tell Jared or Lydia so they were pleasantly surprised.   They have a fun house with a swimming pool that had tadpoles in the cover, a large trampoline and flat space to run around.  They have cute baby chicks and we enjoyed fresh eggs all week.  Jared and Lydia have already asked when they can go play with the kids and animals. Its nice to know more people on our street and I hope we can hang out with them occasionally.  They seem like really good people.

Jared also had a class performance last Friday.  As a class they decided to put a on a play together.  It was pretty cheesy but the kids seemed to really enjoy doing it and I think it was a great end of the year activity. It was called Lightning Larry.  Jared was thrilled that he got to be the leader of the bad guys.

Jared and Marcus

It looks inappropriate but Jared is making a gun here. 

As a thank you to Ms. Martin one of the parents got her a pair of converse shoes (she loves them) and had all the kids sign them. She and her fiancé bought a house in Goochland County so she will not be returning to Baker Butler. She already has a job near where she is living.  Such a bummer!   

I'm currently (happily) serving in our ward nursery.  At the end of class we do bubbles with my bubble machine.  Jared and Lydia each come to nursery after primary since I need to stay till the littles are picked up.  It helps that Lydia's class is next door and there is a door connecting our classrooms. Anyway.  We do bubbles and Jared and Lydia (and quite a few other primary kids) like to come in and pop the bubbles.  The last few weeks they have asked to do bubbles when we get home from church too.  Its funny to me that even 6 and 8 year olds still love bubbles. The fact that we have a fancy bubble machine brings them in.  Lately they have been into catching the bubbles on their hands by getting their hands all wet.  They were pretty cute Sunday.  They have been looking so grown up lately I am happy to see them playing with bubbles.

 

The rain came down and the floods came up

 We had so much rain last week, I lost track of how many flash flood warning texts I received. The weeks forecast had thunderstorms every day and they happened pretty much every day.  Last Wednesday night (May 30th) nearby areas got 9 inches of rain.  In our neighborhood we got 3 inches of rain.  There was some serious flooding.   Sadly two people have died and one is still missing after 2 separate cars got washed away in the rising waters.  School was canceled Thursday and Friday had a 2 hour delay.  A water main near our house broke so there was a precautionary water boil.  We have a well so were not really affected but now I wonder how we would know if there was something wrong with our water? We were very fortunate and didn't suffer any real damage or setbacks.  Mark was at the airport that night and many flights were canceled and delayed.  He was soaking wet the whole night.  It is so strange to go to bed and wake up and read about events happening just down the road from you.

The North side of our road, not where we typically drive but just a 7 minute walk away. Our street has 2 one lane bridges with significant drops and both were spilling over from what I heard. The beach at Chris Greene Lake was covered in water and the changing rooms had about 2 feet of water in them. The news said that Chris Greene Lake was 8 feet above where it normally is.  The dock we launch our kayaks from was underwater.  Quite a few parks had flooding and many roads were washed out or impassable. I definitely did not expect this when I saw the forecast or went to bed that night.

Riverview Park

Thursday the day after the flooding was my last day of preschool.  We had plans to hold regular class and then meet at Chris Greene Lake for an end of the year picnic and ceremony. I found out later that the lake was actually "closed".  We were at the playground not by the water at all, but I felt sort of bad going when technically we should not have.  We were really fortunate that the rain stopped so we could have our picnic.  I had the kids pick 4 songs to sing and then presented them with their photo collage, collection of class stories and graduation balloon.  We had popsicles and played on the playground.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of myself with the class.  Mark was there and totally could have taken it.  Oh well.  It feels so good to be done with preschool.  The parents seemed to really enjoy the ceremony and seemed happy they sent their child to my school.  I was so thrilled to have 8 students when school started but now know that I don't want to do it again. It worked out and we had a good year but 6 or maybe 7 is all I want for next year.

Last Science experiment of the year.

 

Speaking of next year I only have 1 student signed up.  I am pretty sure I had 3 by this time last year.  Its slightly stressful.  I really hope people start contacting me soon.  If not I guess it means its time to move on and find some other job, most likely at the airport so Mark can stop working there. He has been working a ton lately.  He has been covering for people so he can then have his shifts covered for our trips to England and California later this month.  He was so grateful there was no school last Thursday so he could catch up on sleep.  We head out to England via Detroit on the 15th.  We are staying with friends for a night in Detroit so we can attend the temple Saturday the 16th then we fly out that night.  We will stay with friends in England Sunday - Thursday then head to Ireland for a night.  Its coming up super fast.  We have some fun activities this week and finish school on Thursday.  This week has no rain in the forecast which will really help out the area.