HerWray4Martin

Monday, June 23, 2008

Swim lessons 6/12/08

Daddy surprised the kids and snuck away from work for a few minutes to watch their swim lessons.

Club Star at Farmington Bay 6/12/08

After last weeks lesson on birds, we visited Farmington Bay to observe them in their natural habitat. Our guide issued each of the kids binoculars, helped them build a wetland layer cake, and pointed us towards Goose Egg Island. We hiked to the top. While on our hike we saw eggs, a snake and heard many different bird calls.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Salt Lake Bees game

Our family loves to go to the Salt Lake Bees baseball games. Tonight, we made it to our first game of the 2008 season. Devon and Makenna had their arms autographed by Bumble. Jayden wasn't interested (wink, wink). Awhile later, Bumble rode around the field on a four-wheeler and Jayden raced to the side to give him a high-five. You can only be a "cool-almost-ten-year-old" for so long:-)

Day 2: No Training Wheels 6/8/08

It was the second day without her training wheels and she did not need a balancing hand from Daddy. He still ran behind her (just in case) and to help steer her away from cars (and those dang curbs that come out of nowhere).

Makenna learns to ride a bike without training wheels!!!

Makenna is truly a Princess. We weren't sure what to expect when we made the decision to take her training wheels off. She has never really enjoyed her bike. When we are on family bike rides it is not out of the ordinary for one of us to ride home and grab the van. Little Miss' "legs hurt" and she "couldn't pedal anymore". To our surprise removing the training wheels made a positive difference. She loves her bike and pedals to her hearts content.

Matt ran and ran while holding onto Makenna. He is the most wonderful Daddy in the world!

The boys rode up and down the street cheering her on.

Somewhere in the middle of all the excitement the boys helped me weed.

Club Star

This is the second summer that we have had Club Star. What is Club Star? Five families who each take two weeks in the summer to teach a lesson on their subject of choice. The first week is kind of like classtime. The second week is a field trip. The kids then earn a patch. To kick off the summer this year the kids learned about birds, made bird feeders, took a nature walk, and completed a scrapbook page. They can hardly wait for the field trip. Next month we will go on a Club Star camping trip together. Then, as the summer closes we have a BBQ. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Safe Kids Fest

Today we spent four hours at a safety fair. We walked from booth to booth, listening to advice on everything from electricity safety to staying away from drugs. We also saw a K9 police presentation, rescue helicopters landing and taking off, Radio Disney dancers, and many special guests.

Makenna met some of the Utah Jazz dancers and they encouraged her to keep dancing. They autographed a picture for her (which made her day). Smokey the Bear was there.
So was the silly bee named Bumble from the Salt Lake City baseball team.

The kids got to learn about and then test out their archery skills.

After a day of perfect weather, we were heading home. There was a lawn to mow and a three mile bike ride in our future.

Last day of School 2007-2008

Friday, May 30th, was the last day of 3rd grade for Jayden and 2nd grade for Devon. The boys were both happy and sad to move on. They both had wonderful teachers this year.

I told Devon this was the last time he would ever eat lunch as a 2nd grader.

Jayden brought flowers to his teacher, with a nice thank you note attached

Makenna spent the day at the school too. The kids are so used to her being there. They had her signing their yearbooks. Before I knew it she had her own piece of paper that she started having people sign.

Free dress day is another added bonus for the last day of school. Of course, both of the boys had to wear Pokemon.

Monday, May 26, 2008

In Remembrance on Memorial Day

Today we went to the cemetary to visit with Matt's dad. He died a year ago, this past April. Losing him at 63 years of age was a complete shock to our family. It puts a lot of what is truly important in perspective. Life is so very fragile. Please hug your loved ones and keep them close.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Makenna's Preschool Graduation

Our sweet baby girl graduated from preschool today. How did the last five years pass by so quickly? It's only when I say her age out loud that I even realize how old she really is. Miss Margo, one of Makenna's preschool teachers, wrote each of the students their own personal letter. Here is the letter that her teacher wrote to her:

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Dear Makenna,

What a pleasure it has been to have you in our preschool this year. What fun that your mom got to help teach too! You are a special girl. You always seem happy and sweet. You come through the door with a big smile on your face and it makes us smile too!

You are such a smartie! You have such a yearning to learn new things. What a great quality to have. You always do your best work in whatever you try. We love that!

Thank you for helping the other children feel welcome. Thank you for being such a good friend to the other children. You know how to be kind and loving and accepting to the others. You will always have lots of friends because you know how to be a good friend!

Thank you for being polite with your teachers. Thank you for being you, Makenna. We love you and will miss you next year! Have fun in kindergarten.

*********************************************************************************** We thought it was so special that each of the children got their own personal letter. Makenna loved receiving it and listening as her brother, Devon, read it to her. It is the special touch like this that led us to enroll all three of your children at this preschool.