Monkey Business

Summers in Boise are fantastic! We usually spend lots of time at the park and the neighborhood pool. But, every once in a while there is a super hot day and it's nice to have somewhere indoors to take the kids. There is a new place in town called Monkey Business that the kids absolutely loved!

There is a great little toddler area where Sophie could play and not get clobbered by the bigger kids.

Jake climbed about one fourth of the way up this wall, and then climbed right back down. He got that fear of heights from his dad.

This is the bottom of a huge inflatable slide. They came down so fast with smiles on their faces all the way down.

Brin cried the first time I took her down the slide. I convinced her to try it again, and then she was hooked. Three hours later, I had to drag her out of there. Good times were had by all!

Ice cream for FHE

One of our very favorite summer FHE activities is ice cream of course!

Those faces say it all! What could be better?

Kindergarten Graduation

O.k...so I'm just now posting this, but I'm still trying to catch up, so give me a break!

Jake's school had a darling little kindergarten graduation ceremony on the last day of school. They sang a few songs, and here he is walking across the stage.

Here are his proud supporters (Mom is here, I'm just behind the camera documenting the important moments in my children's lives!)

Best buddies! These are Jake's best friends, Jayden and Evan! Handsome little devils, all three of them!

Jake absolutely loved his teacher this year. Great teachers are such a blessing, and make the school experience so wonderful! We just found out she is moving to 2nd grade next year, so we might get to have her again. Thanks for everything, Mrs. Megee!

So, this is actually the first of two kindergarten graduation certificates that Jake will earn. Yes, he will be going to kindergarten again next year! After much deliberation with his school administrators, we decided to hold him back so he can be the oldest in his grade. Because he was on target academically and emotionally, the school was totally against it, so Ben and I decided to let Jake be the final say. We explained how some of his friends would be going on to 1st grade, but that if he stayed in kindergarten, that he would be the oldest, and he could show all of his new friends the ropes. He was surprisingly a big fan of that idea. He was really excited to ride the bus home and be able to have lunch with Mom again. I wasn't ready for him to be gone all day anyway! His biggest concern was actually whether or not his new teacher would have legos in her room. And the school was worried that he was going to get bored...Hah!

Simple Interest

What a Stud!!!

So Jake has been super interested in money lately. He was always gathering it up and asking me how much a handful of coins was worth and what he could buy with it. I took him to the dollar store a few times to spend it, but the toys we picked out usually never even survived the car ride home. With Ben proding me to open a bank account for him, I finally decided to give him a lesson on simple interest and what happens when we put our money in the bank to save for college and his mission. I wanted it to be his choice to save. I explained to him that mommy and daddy put their money in the bank (so we don't lose it), and every month, they give us some extra money back. I explained that if he put all his quarters in the bank, that every once in a while, they would give him an extra quarter. His eyes got all sparkly and wide. By the end of our discussion, he was so excited to put his money in savings! We spent the next few days rolling all of his coins, then he was ready to take them to the bank. Wells Fargo has a great program for kids. Everytime they make a deposit, they get to earn points towards different prizes. The first one he earned was this carriage piggy bank. He looks forward to getting his statement in the mail every month and to see how much he has saved, and to see how much the bank "gave" him. We haven't been as diligent about reading this summer, but he is really learning about money and how we can accumulate more of it when we save. What a chip off the old block. I'll let those of you who know us well to figure out which block I am referring to. That's one valuable money lesson out of the way, now on to tithing :)

Spring Pics

These are my favorite spring pictures of the kids. My sister in law, Emily got a really good camera and was practicing on my kids. I think she is getting the hang of it...as you can see. They weren't super cooperative, except for Jake, and these are some great pics! It'll probably be a while before I get a good one of the three of them together...oh well!