We survived!

Wow. The first year at our new school has officially come to an end. I can't believe how fast it went! The kids absolutely loved their school and their teachers and their new friends. It was a great year. Kayla actually didn't want school to end at all. I guess that is saying a lot, especially coming from a kid who couldn't stand school!

Evan graduated from Kindergarten! He is so excited to be a 1st grader. He kept asking me "Am I a first grader now?" He feels like such a big boy! In order to graduate from kinder, the kids had to "slide" into first grade. Here is Evan sliding:

  Nice form!

Evan and Mrs. Swanson

The last week of school was insanely crazy. Evan had a field trip to an animal place that takes in exotic pets that people either don't want anymore, or they smuggled them into the US or they just got to big for them to care for. It is full of creepy, crawly insects, turtles/tortoises, iguanas, snakes, pythons, lizard things, parrots (very loud parrots) and many other animals.

Before you have a heart attack that Evan is holding a tarantula, it actually is just the eco-skeleton that the tarantula sheds. I didn't know that they do that. A "hatch" like piece opens and the tarantula crawls out of their skin leaving this fuzzy, furry tarantula eco-skeleton. It was pretty cool and gross and neat and freaky.

 He also got to pet this lizard thing. I can't remember what it was called but the kids thought it was pretty cool. They have themed rooms, (like the reptile room, the bird room, etc.) and the kids got to walk through see (and pet some) other animals. I had been there with the girls when they were in school. It was fun to go with Evan too.

Also, the last week of school, Hailey got to go on an overnight field trip. She did great. Kurt and I had more trouble letting her go. We don't allow sleepovers so this was hard to let her go for the night but she did great, had a great time and learned a lot. So all was good.

A few months ago, the City of Roseville sponsored an art contest for all 5th grade classes within the city limits. It was optional for all 5th graders but Kayla's teacher made it an assignment that the kids had to do. There is a sculpture in Roseville and the base had bronze (I think) artwork but people had been stealing the bronze (or whatever metal it was) to sell for money. The city decided to remove the remaining pieces and have an art contest to replace the pieces. I think over 200 kids entered and only 90-something were chosen. Kayla's was one of the pieces chosen!!!! Congrats Kayla!

It had to be a mosaic of a nature scene. Here is Kayla's original artwork submitted to the contest. It is 2 wolves in front of a mountain with the moon in the night sky.

 The kids that were chosen got to go to an actual art studio and create their pieces out of real tiles. Kayla thought that was pretty cool. She had a lot of fun as we had scheduled the day with her other friends that won so they got to work together. 

We were also invited to attend the unveiling ceremony. It was pretty neat. Here is Kayla with a few of her friends that also had art pieces displayed.

Here is our little artist with her work. It's on the bottom right.

A close up.

 Kayla loves art and is very good at it. She is always amazing us with her artistic flare. Here is a flag that she did at school. She is really getting into shading and smearing.

Well, that is just a little bit of what has been going on around here. I have a whole list of things to blog so hopefully, now that school is out, I might be able to get caught up!