Kindergarten, sleep over and Alaska

Jake's Kindergarten graduation was Friday. This is unfortunately the best picture I have of the event. I didn't realize the 'ceremony' was going to be a school wide event, so even though I got there 20 minutes early, there was no place to sit. So I had to stand in the back to have a chance of getting any decent pictures. Well, not having a good zoom on my SLR and bad gym lighting equals really sucky pictures. :( Oh well. At least we got this cute one with his teacher Mrs. C.

Yes, she is the tiniest person I've ever met. Not tiny as in short (because she's almost my height) but tiny as in ti-ny. Seriously, her hip width is as big around as my arm. When we first met her we thought the kids would knock her down, run her over and surely kill her. But this woman is much stronger in so many ways than she looks! She was an awesome teacher. We were so lucky to have a really great experience for our first time dealing with public schools. I've heard horror stories, and I really feel like we were blessed. Jake did really well on his report card. The Kindergarten report card is basically a list of all the standards: ABC's, sight words, gross motor skills, social skills etc... Well, he got an X in everything which means at or above grade level. The only thing that wasn't marked with an X was music. He got an X the first and second trimesters, but in the last he got a --- which means below grade level. Ummmm......how does one get below grade level in music? In Kindergarten?? I just kind of had to laugh at that.

So yeah. That is that. Kindergarten down, 12 more years to go.

After school was out I ended up with 4 kids. My two and two of my nieces. Apparently during the school BBQ, the girls cooked up a plan to come spend the night at Jake's house. How could I say no? I have to admit, I was a little freaked out. I mean 4 kids all to myself? Pete had hunters at the ranch so it was just me. They were actually really good though. They were up at 6:30 am the next morning (!!!) but they were good. No one cried and asked to go home at 2 in the morning! I call that success. But by around 8 or 9 Saturday morning, Jake had pretty much had it with all the girly-ness. It's hard when there's 3 anyway, someone is always left out. So there was much whining and hurt feelings and pouting going on. Of course there was even more when the girls had to go home. Why does that always happen? They fight like crazy, but then don't want them to go home either.

Oh and as for the crate of camping gear on a boat on it's way to Alaska....you guessed it. Pete is on his way up there for a hunting trip. He leaves tomorrow morning, in fact. He'll be gone for 2 weeks. I've done this many times before but this time I think will be a little different. 1) I won't have work to distract me from the children. 2) School is out, so there is nothing to occupy me in the middle of the day--all kids all the time with no relief. Which, I mean, I deal with a lot anyway, but after the middle of the 2nd week it really starts to wear thin. So I'm hopping to find us things to do. I'll probably go spend a weekend with my dad, maybe go to the movies once or twice and find some play dates somewhere along the way. Hopefully it will all go by fast.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Here's some recent scrappy pages :)