Homecoming

Jonathan had his first date.  He and Tara have been friends since middle school and even went to preschool together.  They looked adorable!  They had Chinese food for dinner and then went to the dance from 9-11:20ish.  They said it was super crowded and roasting hot, but they seemed to have had a good time!  I was happy to be the chauffeur and went to see the new Footloose movie while they were at the high school.  I am wondering how he got to be so old??!

School Carnival

Look at all the bouncy houses!!!

WHEE!!!

Jayden's kind of fishing...you catch candies!

See the big kid in the pic (right)?  He was in my first class at Utsalady.  He worked the booths because he is in the National Honors Society.  I said hello and he remembered me and said I was his favorite teacher of all time!  It was so sweet!  He will be a high school senior next year!

Face painting...Jayden chose a flower with her favorite colors...yellow and blue (like me!)

Waiting in line.  This was her favorite.  It was a dual slide with a blow-up car on top.

There he is!  Jake doing some games.

Tonight was the annual end of school-year carnival.  Jake and Jayden had lots of fun.  Jake was off with friends for the most part (yeah!!!), so I tagged along with Jayden.  It was a sunny day out (rare), and I had fun chatting with tons of people.

Jonathan has his PERMIT!!!!!!!

Holding his permit!  So excited and proud!

In action...

Holy Cow!  Jonathan started Driver's Ed through the high school and got his PERMIT last week.  He is SOOOOO excited!  We put in 6 hours last weekend, and I am surprisingly calm.  He is so darned good already!  I didn't think he'd be awful, as he's pretty charmed when it comes to pretty much anything (he does most things well naturally -must be nice!!!).  BUT, I didn't think he'd be this good either... He doesn't panic and follows ALL rules to a T, as I'd expect w/ his personality!  The funny thing is that now he critiques MY driving, pointing out every last little "California Stop" I commit...UGH!  They teach him to drive 2-5 MPH UNDER the speed limit (weird) AND to stop before the line at stop signs (where you can't see a blessed thing...).  Anyway, despite me wanting to roll my eyes at times, he is so proud to have his permit.  He started with a paper copy on June 10th, and when the real laminated copy came in the mail from the DMV on Tuesday (6/14), he was on cloud 9!  He just stared at it grinning from ear to ear!

Elementary School "Play Day"

Faith and Jayden...Cone Heads!

4 Corners.  Jayden's in the red jacket.

Soccer.  She was smiling from ear to ear the whole time!

Running under the parachute when the leader called for "January Birthdays"

Jayden's teacher is just to her left

Gunny sack races... Jayden is on the far left

Obstacle course.  Jayden is going through the hula hoop on the right.

Pals Lindsey, Jayden, and Kayden

Halie and Jayden at the popsicle station.

Hula Hoop/ Jumprope station... Jayden's favorite.  She is SO excited that she can now hula (which to my knowledge, she really can't, but that's ok!!)

Jake (gray) at the water balloon station.

Jake at the sack races.

GO JAKE!!!

Obstacle Course

Play Day is our schools Field Day equivalent.  Jayden said it was her best day ever...except going to Jake and Maddie's.  She even liked it better than her field trip to the Children's Museum (which she loved!).  It makes all the work of running it worth it!  Jake enjoyed it, too!

4th Grade Rocket Launching

Jake waiting for the launchings.  He's in a red shirt in the front row.  4th graders got special, priority seating!

The Flying Squirrel... BLAST OFF!

Flying high...

Jake's Masterpiece...

It's tradition at Utsalady Elementary for the 4th graders to make bottle rockets.  Jake dubbed his camo duct-taped rocket "The Flying Squirrel".  It didn't go super far, but it certainly wasn't the worst either.  The rockets just didn't launch as well as normal this year.  None went over the fence.  The whole school came out to watch though, so it was fun for the 4th graders!  Jake came as a preschooler and launched one with Jonathan's 4th grade class years ago.  Hard to believe it was actually his turn this year already!!!

Baseball Season #2

First base...waiting for action

Sliding into 3rd... Somehow he was safe...phew!

Pitching

Jonathan is the second from the right.  After every game his coach makes them run to right field for a brief team meeting.

Jonathan enjoyed 2 "seasons" of baseball this year!  The first was the high school JV team, while the second was SCLL rec team.  He liked the rec team better.  He prefers the kids, the playing time, and the less stressful nature of the team.  I always love watching him play!  I also got along well with the other moms and enjoyed spending hours talking to them!  Jonathan went to preschool with one of his teammates!!  Each game typically lasted 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours.  We lost most games, but so many were close.

Trampoline Fun!

Jayden can now reach the rim!  She couldn't wait to show me!

Jonathan taught her a game called "Buns".  They count to 3 and yell "buns", at which time they both land on their buns and Jayden goes flying!

Jayden showing me her stunts...

My beautiful girl!

Jayden and her trampoline buddy Jonathan.  I love this pic!

Never short of energy, Jonathan does flip after flip after flip...

The kids LOVE the trampoline!  Any time the weather has been even remotely nice this spring, the kids have been going out to jump in the evenings.  Jayden just learned to touch the rim and Jonathan loves flips still.  Usually it takes about 10 minutes when they're all out there together for Jake or Jayden to come in crying, but when they ARE playing together nicely, it is fun to watch!  Jayden is only about 42 pounds, so she flies when the boys or I bounce her!