Bike Rodeo and Fun & Be Fit Day 2016

Our local police department hosted a bike rodeo for the kiddos in May.  They set up a bunch of obstacle courses for the kids to ride their bikes through.  

Some of the obstacles were quite challenging to complete.  But they worked hard and had a lot of fun with their friends.  

A Des Moines Register photographer was there snapping pictures for the paper too.  The idea of being the newspaper really made the kids excited.  

The annual Fun and Be Fit Day highly anticipated by Will.  He was SO excited he could hardly contain himself! 

It was a warm enough day to have a few water obstacles this year.  Kate loved hanging out with her BFF all day!

"I'm Ready!  Give me that soaking wet sponge!"

The popsicle break is always good on a warm sunny day after a lot of running, jumping and playing :)

Mother's day and Music

Mother's Day was a great day with my family once again.  It turned out to be a beautiful day.  We went to church and then had a super yummy brunch.  

Then it was back home for fun and lots of giggles! 

Will made me a very special lego creation for me to keep on my nightstand next to my bed. 

And Kate made me a beautiful card.  I had a great day with my loves! 

Will has changed his hairstyle a bit.  He use to go short and easy.  But now he is interested in the spikey look.  He asked me to send this picture to Papa so he could see what a great hair day he was having :)

Kate had her 4th grade recorder concert in May.  She read the introduction to the event and did a great job. 

There was lots of squeeky recorders, clapping, stomping and smiles from all the 4th graders. 

And the driveway becomes a canvas each spring and summer.  Kate gets 1 side and Will gets the other.  No one crosses the center line!

Let's Work Out!

Kate has finally reached an age where she can work out on the treadmills at the YMCA with Brett and I!  She has been so excited to start running with us and she has done really well.  Poor Will still has to sit on the floor behind us with his Kindle and play quietly while we work out as he is NOT interested in going to the daycare anymore.  I don't really blame him :) 

Kate was invited to a bday party at Climb Iowa.  It was her first time climbing and she was up for a new challenge. 

Will on the other hand passed on the rock climbing.  So while Kate climbed, Will and I went over to Chuck E. Cheese to play a few games.  Much more up Will's alley than climbing at this point in his little life. 

And boy did he come out a winner!

May Day and 4th Grade Projects

Our annual May Day Basket creations continued again this year.  Pinterest was again another great resource to determine what we were going to make this year.  I think the dum dum flowers were my favorite so far!

Our neighborhood is FULL of kids!  It seems like almost every year we are adding to the total of baskets needed.  Kate and Will LOVE pulling their wagon up and down the street, placing the baskets, ringing the doorbell and RACING AWAY!!

Kate studied the United States this year.  I remember having to study and memorize each state, its capital and location in the U.S. when I was in 5th grade.  Well, Kate's school is a project based learning school so they put a little spin on it.  The grade was divided into groups. Each group was assigned a state. Their project was that each group was a travel agency. Their job was to research their state and design a presentation to convince travelers that their state was the state to visit.  All parents and family members were invited to the school where each group had a travel booth set up and was ready to present their information with a goal to persuade you to select their state as your travel destination.  All visitors were given 3 tokens to vote for their top 3 choices for travel.  

Kate's group presented on the great state of Alaska!  They worked very hard and demonstrated a great persuasive presentation to the "travelers" despite being super hot and sweaty in their winter gear in the middle of warm May :)

Kate's second project for 4th grade was to research to develop a therapy dog program for Clive Learning Academy.  The program was approved, the dog was selected and the dog training was completed.  Then the 4th graders had to meet with each of the other grades to educate them on the rules for interacting and working with Bogey, our therapy dog. 

Kate's group worked with the kindergarten classes.  

Kate did a nice job talking to the class and learned that it takes a lot of patience and repetition when you are working with little ones! 

Finally, each kindergartner got an opportunity to meet and pet Bogey.  The smiles and giggles on their faces were priceless!