Field Day

Courtney's class had Field Day.  This is the last one that she will have because the older grades no longer have a field day.  There were problems and safety issues with the elementary students using the high school track, so they discontinued field day for the older grades.  Courtney did a few events.  I was only there for the three legged race.  It was fun to watch.

Courtney and Vienna, her partner

Waiting to be tied together

Some of the kids in Courtney's class

Give Me Liberty!

Every year the St. George Rotary Club gives money to Santa Clara Elementary for their "Give Me Liberty" program.  For the 5th grade history/social studies curriculum, the students have to focus on American History and the symbols of our country.  The money from the Rotary Club is used to print up booklets with 13 things for the students to memorize about our country.  To pass, they have to do 4 of the things.  If they do all 13, they are given a shirt and a trophy.  To give you an idea of what the things entail, they had to memorize the entire Gettysburg Address, the symbols of the United States, the preamble of the Declaration of Independence and a lot more things.  It was amazing.  Ethan did his 4 and then was finished.  He worked on getting others memorized but didn't quite get them passed off.

Last week they had a program so the kids could show off what they had learned.  They sang a bunch of songs and they recited everything that had been learned.  It was a great night!

Here are a couple of their songs:

Here are Ethan's friends from the neighborhood: Kyli, Brayden, Ethan and Brennon.

Camping at Quail Creek

Last weekend was supposed to be our first family campout of the season but...my cousin, Connie, was going to be in Provo from Virginia for BYU graduation and I wanted to see her.  So we planned for Bryan to take the kids while I went to Provo.

We were nervous about them finding a camping spot on a Friday afternoon, so I called Zion to see if there were any spots.  It was free entry week so the park was full because you didn't have to pay to get in.  So I drove out to Red Cliffs to see if there was a spot there.  But it was full.  So I called Sand Hollow Reservoir...full also.  It was probably full of Ironman competitors getting acclimated.  So Bryan and I talked and decided that I should check out Quail Creek Reservoir, since I was already close by it.  They had camping spots.

I don't really like Quail Creek because there aren't shade trees, but the kids wanted to camp and we decided to try it out.  I reserved a spot, put our tent on the table to show we were there and then went back home.  Bryan had loaded the truck with camping things that morning so I dropped the kids off at his office then took off for Provo.

The kids had a lot of fun!!  Courtney helped Bryan set up the tent and Ethan made the fire.  They went camping, exploring and saw a snake in the camp site.  I was glad I wasn't there for that.

The camp site

The snake!

Happy kids in the morning

Cute Ethan and his Finger

I just had to put a cute picture of Ethan on the blog and show you his splinted finger.  He has another month!!  We have another doctor's appointment after school lets out and we'll see then if the splint has helped or not.

There's a NEST!!

Last week Bryan and Courtney were in the backyard playing and noticed this on the ground:

They started looking around the bench where it was found and noticed that at the top of the arbor where the Banks Rose covers the lattice, there was a nest.  If you look really closely, you can see it in the pictures:

Bryan called Ethan and me out to see the nest.  We were careful not to get too close to it so we wouldn't hurt whatever was inside.  We looked around and saw a daddy and a mommy bird that were sitting on the fence watching us very carefully.

Yesterday morning Bryan went outside to pull weeds and saw 2 baby birds learning how to fly.  One had figured it out and was pretty strong.  He was on top of our neighbor's house.  The other bird wasn't so strong and so he was on the ground by our house.  He would fly a foot and then have to rest.  We watched for a while and Ethan took A TON of photos.  We left them alone and hope they didn't get eaten by a hawk.  Eek!

The nest is still in the arbor and the mom and dad were flying all over yesterday morning.  We are going to keep watching to see if they come back to the nest or abandon it.  We are pretty amazed that the nest stayed in the arbor because we have had some really strong winds lately and you would think the nest would have been knocked out.  Those are some tough birds!!

Pizza Party!

Courtney's class earned a pizza party so I was asked to go and pick it up for them.  Her teacher had me buy 5 pizzas for 25 kids with the pizza "double cut" so the slices were smaller.  I had a cake order for the weekend that was going to be a small cake so I used the left over batter to make cupcakes for the class also.

They had a great time eating pizza and cupcakes and sipping juice boxes.  There was an entire pizza left over so Mrs. Thomas sent that home with us.  Score!!  I didn't have to make dinner!

They are trying to earn another party but I can't remember if it is an ice cream party or popcorn party.  Fun!!

Softball

Courtney decided she wanted to try playing softball this year.  I called and was told that softball was going to be played on Thursday evenings.  That was perfect because she has dance and soccer on Tuesday, piano on Wednesday but nothing on Thursday!

I was a bit nervous because a month after I registered her I still hadn't heard from her coach.  Then one day I got a phone call telling me that their games would be played mainly on Tuesdays with only a few games on Thursdays.  I was so upset!  I wouldn't have spent the money if I knew she wasn't going to be playing much.  But she wanted to try it out.

So we have been going to her Thursday games.  She is having fun but doesn't love it.  She told me that it's been fun but she is a "soccer girl."  So I think we won't have to try this again.

Here is one of her at-bats.  She is number 2 so she is either second in the batting order or second from last.  They only play 3 innings, I think, and everyone bats.  There are rarely strike outs because the coach pitches until a ball is hit.