I am alive and well...

I thought I would pop in on the ol' blog and update everyone that I have been spending my time over on Instagram lately. This year I have decided to participate in a photo a day challenge again (like I did last leap year 4 years ago). This go around I am posting all my photos to my Instagram account which is allowing me to be a part of that fun photo a day community. So, if you want to follow along, find me over there - I'm @superbree1.
See you there!!!

Up to the end of school....

We had a full and fun spring - lots going on. Here is just a taste of the action leading up the last week of May:

During the month of March Eva's first grade participated in the IditaRead race. They had to read 1,131 minutes to equal the miles run by the dog racers up in Alaska going on at the same time.  Eva was DETERMINED to get first place just like her previous two sisters - she was a reading machine and after only 3 weeks had reached her goal and slid into home in first place! Way to go Eva!

She was really just excited to get her own Husky Dog Webkin as her prize.

Abby entered the Arbor Day Art Competition this year and was very happy to find that she took first place in her grade and her drawing was moving on to the State Competition!  Way to go Abby!!

Eva's class finished reading Charlotte's Web and then had a fun celebration party to watch the movie together with the entire 1st Grade.  Once again I was put in charge of making the Wilbur cupcakes and Eva was so delighted with how they turned out and even more proud to take them into her class to share.

The music teacher puts on a talent show in each class twice a year.  This spring Olivia and Eva decided to play a piano piece for their classes. They each picked a song from their lessons that was a little challenging for them and put in the extra time and practice to get it right.

They both did a great job, even though they were both SO nervous.

Spring time means soccer time at our house, and LOTS of it!  Abby practices three days a week and then has a game on Saturday. She is still playing right wing defender and really loves the challenge of stopping those players.

Eva practices on Wednesday and and also has a game on Saturday.  This year we were happy to see her get even more involved and had several passing assists for some goals.

Lucky for us we only had one week that the games overlapped and we had to split up.  Otherwise we are all there to support each other.
While Olivia has become a great fan of the sport (she knows all the rules and likes to cheer for her sisters) she likes to spend most of her time out playing in the fields.  By the end of the season we had mastered the Dandelion crown and bracelet creations!

Sometimes we are lucky and the ArtCity donuts truck is parked at the Celtic home field and we get to have a yummy treat of Cinnamon Roll and Strawberry shortcake donuts- Yes Please!!

Then our great school year came to a close, sad and exciting all at once.
Eva was excited to be presented with many awards including the Most Self Governed in the class- this let her take home "Bubbles" the Seahorse doll that was the student of the day friend. Nothing else really mattered to her after that- it was the ultimate recognition and award!!

Olivia was having a hard time with this year ending.

She truly grew the most socially (making all new dear dear friends) and academically.  Her teacher Mrs. McIntyre was the best she had ever had! Many times throughout the year she would tell me that they have so much fun in class, but get so much work done too. Her teacher really took her under her wing when she discovered that she was behind in several subjects, especially math and spelling.  She and I worked together to get her more confident and not to be discouraged.  By the end of the year Olivia had mastered all her Addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts, as well as getting better and more consistent on her spelling test. Way to go Olivia!!

Her favorite award that day was the "Homework Hero" award- for having her homework complete and turned in everyday this year. I like to think that I earned that award as well!!

Abby had a great year! She made some wonderful friends, I like to call these girls the four amigos, they did everything together.

She LOVED her teacher Mr. Cornell so much.  He really instilled a love for history and what can be learned from the past in her.  She gave Olivia a hard time that morning for having tears about leaving her teacher and class that she loved- so I found it funny when I showed up to her class to take some pictures that I found her and the entire class of students bawling their eyes out to say goodbye!  Now that was a sign that she had been in the right class this year. She also set a goal of having a perfect 4.0 this year and she did it!! We were so proud of her. ALSO her huge surprise of the day was being called up in front of the school and given an award from the State Arbor Day Art Contest- she had been awarded Honorable Mention and they presented her with her certificate. She was so excited!!

The funniest part of the day - during the all school assembly they share different achievements by the students and guess who popped up on the screen with perfect attendance?

How did one get it and not another? Also I don't think this was remotely possible!! Funny!!

This was also my mother's last day of school.  She has been teaching at this school for 18 years! We are going to miss seeing her everyday before we go home. I will miss working with her in the Math Department.

I know she is going to miss the students and the work but she and my father are heading out on new and exciting adventures together! Love you mom, and I'm so proud of all that you have accomplished over the years as well as all the amazing things you are going to do on your upcoming mission for the church!!

After all the emotion of that day we did the only thing we could do:

We went out for frozen yogurt with all the toppings that they could load on top!!
Goodbye school - Hooray for Summer!!

Moving right along...

Next up in the month of April was our Easter Holiday. Unlike last year, I was able to get the girls out in their new dresses for a photo shoot and I LOVED how they turned out! Here is just a sample of the cuteness that they gave me on film:

The Saturday before the holiday we had two soccer games scheduled but that didn't stop us from meeting my brother and his family to attend TWO city egg hunts as well!  We did the PG one that is at the Discovery Park:

Abby and Asher spotted the golden egg as they were lined up to make the run, but then got all chatty and missed the sounding horn, so they sprinted out as fast as they could but just missed the prize winning egg. She was a bit bummed out :(

Then we went over and participated in the Cedar Hills one as well (because Eva's game was at the same park right after the egg hunt: bonus!)
This time Abby was NOT going to miss the golden egg and sure enough she came out holding that thing of beauty!!

It earned her an extra packet of treats!

Easter Sunday they were up bright and early to see what the Easter Bunny had left them and he did not disappoint!

The hit of the day were the new skip-it's.  The girls are still skipping around the neighborhood outside 3 months later!

It was also lucky that our tree out front was in full bloom so we had our nice neighbors snap a shot of us after church because it was just too pretty to pass up.

That's all I have time for today- I will be back with the rest of April shortly- stay tuned!!!

Well, hello there stranger!

I feel like I am thumping on a microphone while up on a stage overlooking a pretty much empty audience and hoping that there is someone out there still listening and waiting for me to start talking!  What can I say, it has been a LONG time since I posted last and when you let that happen it is almost impossible to get started again. There is just too much to say and too much to share, but I am going to try.

So, lets begin by saying that my life at the beginning of the new year took a turn when I applied for a part time job up at the girls school and despite my completely ridiculous resume (truly pathetic after being a stay at home mom for 11 years!), the school board and head of administration decided to hire me as the Math department Aid for the Jr High and High school department.  Before you all start laughing, yes me who is not the best at math, am working in the math department. Just know that I am basically a clerical worker- I correct papers and test, input scores into books and the computer and generally help keep all the math teachers organised.  I have also found myself being a class substitute when needed, but that is just a glorified title for babysitting a bunch of teenagers for an hour!  While working part time doesn't seem like that big of a deal on paper, it was a very hard and stressful adjustment for me.  All my free time schedule during the day was now taken from me.  I have to be dressed (in a dress by the way) and in the school by noon (sometimes 11:00) Monday-Friday and then go home at 3:30 pm with the girls to start the after school marathon until bedtime.  It was touch and go there for a while, lots of me dropping the ball, lots of late night grocery trips and dinners through a drive thru when I just couldn't get it together.  However; by the time school let out in May I think the family and I had worked out the juggling act and I will be resuming my position again next fall.  The hours really are ideal and I couldn't ask for a better situation than to be working at the very place that my girls are while still home with them in the morning to get them ready for school and  home again with them after school.  Also I get all the holidays off as well as the summer, so it is pretty much a mother's dream.

Now that I have explained all that, lets do a quick run through of the last 5 months:
January:

Abby played in a soccer tournament in Las Vegas. We had a fun 4 day weekend away with our family and enjoyed the warmer weather as well as the competition.  Sadly during the 3rd game Abby tripped over a sliding player and landed on her extended right arm! This resulted in not only having to sit the bench and watch her team lose the game

but sent us to the emergency room where it was determined that she had a fractured radial head and had to wear this cumbersome splint for the next 5 weeks.

She looks really upset about it doesn't she!! Mostly because some of the boys in her class made her this cute candy card to help cheer her up - such good friends :)

During her right arm incapacitation (making school work rather difficult) the school put on the annual dance festival.  Abby was unable to take part in the 5th grade linking arm social dance but Olivia was thrilled to be a dancing weaver of the May Pole with the 3rd grade. (Olivia is right in the middle)

Eva enjoyed doing the Mexican Hat Dance with the 1st grade

and was just "OK" to be paired with Phillip who has frequently been heard telling her "You are so pretty and can I hold your hand?" She thinks it is annoying, I think it is hysterical!

In science Olivia created her body of which there were 5 systems represented and working together to make her body work. Her favorite part was the Ramen Noodle brain!

Eva had her 1st grade devotional - or play.  The topic was Utah history and the Mormon migration west to settle the state.

She was delighted to play the part of a Native Indian who the settlers encountered and learned from.

February:
Abby was able to take her splint off for good just in time to participate in the 5th grade presentation of the Patriotic Program.

This is a HUGE deal at the school, full of elementary and high school choir performance and the 5th grade acting in scenes covering the founding of our country.

Abby had a speaking part as a Lady in Waiting in the Queen of Spain's court while Columbus was pleading for help to set sail and find a direct route to Asia.  She did a great job and loved participating and learning what it takes to put on a play of this size.

Let us now take a moment to celebrate the lost blog post of Olivia's 9th birthday!!!

She opted to not have a party this year in lieu of a one on one dinner out with mom and dad.  I think this has become such a fun thing.  We booked a reservation at the Macaroni Grill (because pasta is her favorite thing on the planet - well, next to a big bowl of cold cereal).

They sang her happy birthday and brought her out an ice cream with chocolate sauce- her favorite! After all that fun we went over to the mall to let her pick out shoes and jewelry! She had a great time.  She also wanted to have new bedding and paint her bedroom a really pretty lilac color to go with the new bunk beds that she and Eva received for Christmas.  It turned out just perfect!

March:
Looking at my picture files I see that this was a pretty uneventful month.
Paul had a birthday - Happy Birthday Paul!

(Sorry Abby, this is the only picture I took before your camera shy Dad told me to put the camera away)

I was able to attend Eva's class one morning to help the students learn how to cross stitch during their study of the Abigail Adams book.

Eva took to it very well, but choosing to have her full name put on that piece made her work at it for a VERY long time! Evangeline has a lot of letters to complete. :)

Olivia had her class devotional.

She played an Israelite and did a wonderful job reciting her memorized lines about the life of Christ.  Her favorite song they sang was "Show a little love" because it had lots of actions and choreography that made everyone smile and have fun.

April:
Abby had braces put on this month!!!

Don't they make her look so grown up! This was a huge deal and we had to go back for adjustments just about every day for a week before the brackets stayed on and the wires weren't hurting.  I loved being back in an ortho office and seeing how things have changed and yet remained the same since I was working on kids all those years ago.  Eventually we just ordered a couple of ortho tools on-line so I could get in there myself and snip a pokey wire or put a hanging elastic back on.  And now we also start making payments to them for many many years to come....  I'm sure you can all relate!!

We had Silly Sock Day at the school and things were getting all CRAZY over there!!! It's funny what kids get excited about when they wear a uniform everyday!

We had a lot of fun during spring break including the day we went up to Tracy Aviary and spent the afternoon enjoying all the different birds.

The highlight of the day was getting to help feed the Pelicans.  Unlike this picture where we were being fed too the Pelicans!

Yes, they did touch those fish and I couldn't believe how big those bills open up to catch them!! What a fun afternoon.

I think I will end this post here- part II of April is jam packed with Easter and May is full of end of year goodness.  Stay close - I WILL be back shortly!!