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Charlotte loves watermelon.  I put out a plate of it and before long, Charlotte had a plate of rinds:On Monday night we went into the canyon to make s’mores for family night.

Grandma and Grandpa Cochran joined us. Grandpa mocked Charlotte for her pose:Nicole was telling me she needed to wear a helmet for the 1K/3K walk/run at school.  Luckily she forgot about that idea before the race the next day.

She told me she was a Unicorn.  I love the fierce look on her face here:We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa on Tuesday for Grandpa Cochran’s birthday.  They also invited our neighbors because they’re like family to us: Instead of birthday cake, we had Twinkies: Thomas was zoning out. . .. . .until he saw the camera.
They topped the Twinkies with strawberry topping and whipped cream.  They put candles on for each kid to blow out.  I guess when you get to be Grandpa Cochran’s age, the fire hazard is too great to light the appropriate number of candles for him to blow out. Zach used his phone to Skype Bethani in for the birthday song: This always happens when Grandpa has a can of whipped cream: The Barney bag is a family tradition.  Heidi commented on how she will be very disappointed if it does not show up at her wedding. This was our gift, it’s a tool that helps take walls apart and other such things.  After the birthday celebration, we walked over to feed our watermelon rinds to the chickens.

Charlotte kept picking up stuff off the ground to throw in the air. Ila has the worst bedhead some mornings:

The day of the big race.  Almost all the kids wore their bright orange shirts to school. The school is next to a golf course that closed down.  All of my kid’s classes signed up to play mini-golf last week.  Nicole’s class played on the morning that I volunteer at the school.  Nicole basically pushes her ball along the course with her putter:I’ve been getting a lot of this face for the camera  lately.  She tries to smile for the camera, but she’s too distracted by something else to look at the camera: This is her other method, when pushing the ball with the putter is not sufficient, she picks the ball up and walks it to the other side holding it against the putter as if that counts as still golfing: After kindergarten, I brought Nicole home and picked up my other kids.  We packed a lunch and went back to the school to get ready for the 1K/3K walk/run.  Here are Charlotte and her best friends, April and Alyssa: Nicole was excited about the race until she found herself in a sea of orange shirts, then she seemed a little distressed. The older kid’s race started.  I couldn’t spot my kids.  It was just a sea of orange, much like Knoxville on game day. Nicole seemed even more distressed as the race was about to start.  I felt a little panic myself.  Thomas has been throwing a fit and I had to drag him here to the start of the race and I had Ila with me too.  As soon as they started off, I was so anxious for Nicole that my eyes filled with tears.  I was a little embarrassed about it, but I couldn’t force myself to stop until I spotted Nicole running along the route.  I was so worried that she’d be in a panic and I wouldn’t be able to get to her.
After the race we met up with Charlotte and Isaac and sat in the shad together to talk about the race. I even asked a stranger to snap a picture of me with the kids (the blonde on the end is my neighbor–she’s in Nicole’s class and I brought her with us for the race).They had music and dancing.  Charlotte danced with her friends.  The rest of my kids were a little shy and just wanted to hang out with their mom.  I can’t blame them, I am quite awesome.

After school, the kids helped their Dad release ladybugs into the flower beds and garden: I spent all day on Thursday painting our master bathroom (refer to my previous blog post), but I did manage to snap a cute picture of my youngest two. On Friday the Kindergarten had their field day.  I stopped in and took a few pictures on my way to join Charlotte’s class on a field trip.  Nicole is in a circle where they’re kicking a soccer ball around.  I guess this is her ready pose: Charlotte’s class had a walking field trip where we hiked to a park in the Canyon.  (Yes, her school is close enough to the canyon that they can walk an entire class there on a field trip).  Charlotte’s best friends walked in a group with us.  From L to R:  Celeste, Alyssa, April, and Charlotte.  They sang songs all the way and had so much fun together.  I was glad I could go with them. Charlotte told me that at lunch time, her group of friends all lay out their lunch and eat it together as one big meal. They played games and made crafts after lunch: This is Charlotte with her class.  There are two other 2nd grade classes at the school and they were both also on the field trip. On the way back to the school, Charlotte and her friends picked wild flowers:That evening we had Charlotte’s friend Alyssa and her two sisters over to play and have dinner.  Isaac’s friend Evan was here too, so we had 9 kids and one adult.  But everything went well and they all had a blast together.  They had a nerf war and played soccer in the back yard. Friday night was movie night with popcorn.  We watched Despicable Me 2 which is Thomas’s favorite movie.It rained that night and Saturday was wet.  By late afternoon I thought it had dried enough to mow the lawn, but soon after I started, I felt the drips of rain start again.  I was just about to call it quits when Thomas came out with his little cart to mow with me.  I thought it was so cute and creative that I had to mow with him for a few more laps before putting the mower away.
Saturday night was Nicole and Ila’s dance recital.Here are videos of their dances:

They gave their teacher flowers.  She said it was the first time anyone had ever done that which made me really glad that we did.  As far as dance classes go, her prices were really low, but I can tell she puts her heart into it.  She spent hours making the props for each of the dances. I got each girl a half dozen roses in their favorite color.  Nicole told me that she “won” the dance recital because she got flowers. Sunday morning:  The girls found Charlotte’s camera and I found them taking pictures.  Ila would say:  “say Mom” and then take a picture. Thomas looks too grown up in this picture.  Nicole complained that she she couldn’t back up far enough to take Ila’s picture: My kids love to gather around a tablet and play together: