Kindergarten Promotion

Megan has completed Kindergarten. I always think it's a little funny to have promotions after Kindergarten, but it seems to be the thing to do. They all got a little certificate, they performed some cute songs and we all had some cake. Megan has had a great year. We love her teacher, Mrs. White, who we just found out is switching to teach first grade next year. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

It's Spring Sports Season

Caelan has been playing girls softball this season. She is really enjoying it. Since there are only two East Mountain teams, they also have to play several teams in town. She is making a lot of good friends on her team. And she has the best coaches. Some of the coaches we see at the games are pretty high strung (yelling, coaching the girls constantly during the game, getting after the volunteer umpires), but the three coaches on this team are awesome. They each bring their own strength and most important they are very positive in their coaching strategies and towards the girls. It is great. The team is doing okay - both winning and losing some. It's fun to see them improve throughout the season. There are two other girls from our ward that are on the team, so that's fun.

Ben is playing soccer again. I volunteered to be an assistant coach. A couple of weeks before the season started one of the regional representatives called because they hadn't secured a coach for the team yet. They were calling all the parents to see if anyone could do it. I usually would totally volunteer but I told them that I was due the week before the season was over (which also means I would be 8 and 9 months pregnant throughout the season). He said he would call around to see if he could find anyone. A week later I emailed to see if they had found someone. They still had not - they had one guy that was an option but lived in Albuquerque and would want all the practices to be in Tijeras. Well all of the members on this team lived in Edgewood or even farther East so that wouldn't really work out for them. They were thinking they might have to dissemble the team and refund the money. So, I volunteered to be the coach and I volunteered Sean to be my assistant (so that he could easily take over if/when I had the baby). So, here is our soccer team. They were an active bunch of boys. Some of the boys have played with Ben before so we knew them and their parents. Some others were new - but a few of them were from the other Edgewood ward. We had some challenges, but overall if was a great season. It was neat to see them play better and better and especially to watch some of these newer players really start to find their own way. We're doing okay too - winning some and losing some. Hopefully I can make it through the season (with my record I don't think it will be too much of a problem - I might miss the last game...we'll see). With all the time we are spending at the fields for soccer and baseball practices and games, Austin is really getting in his practice with the balls...and loving it.

Cliff's Amusement Park

We got tickets to Cliff's Amusement Park for Christmas. They expired at the end of May, so we figured we better get there before school got out for the summer. We took the kids out of school one day and spent 5 and a half hours at the park (it had just opened so it wasn't yet opened for extended hours). I got there and noticed bunches of school buses and school groups lined up out front - I didn't think about all the end of the year field trips that would be happening. It actually wasn't too bad. Some of the bigger rides had long lines but most lines were quick. Plus we spent a bunch of time in the little kid area which was totally empty. The kids had a blast - going from ride to ride. Megan went on some of the real twisting rides and totally loved them. There wasn't one ride that any of the kids were too scared to go on (I mean this isn't anything close to a Magic Mountain or anything but it still has some pretty fun and fast carnival type rides). Austin could ride all of the little kiddie rides and loved those. Honestly the only one who didn't go on hardly anything was me...because I was due later that week. I went on the Carousel one time. Actually I didn't mind at all - it was kind of fun to let the kids take the lead and just follow them wherever they wanted to go. It was a fun end of the school year family trip. It did make Sean and I decide that it's about time to take Caelan and Ben to Magic Mountain for some serious roller coasters....and to take everyone else to Disneyland. I think we might try to make the trip to CA in the Fall sometime.