My little girls turns 5!!

June 20th was Ashley's 5th birthday!!  I can't believe she is alreaady five!  She is my hardest child, but can also be such a sweetie pie.  She has such an excitement for life.  She has two emotions:  really happy or really angry.
She is ready for Kindergarten knowing all her letters and most of her sounds.  She is a great counter and can add simple numbers together.  She is starting to sound out words too.  I am very proud of her and the little girl she is.
She is so kind and generous when she doesn't think about it, but if you point it out then her oppositional personality comes out.  We say yes, she says no.  We say no, she says (or usually screams) YES!!
Even though she can be such a challenge, I'm so grateful to have her in our family and in my life.  I love you more than you know, Ash!!  Happy 5th birthday!!

For her birthday, we went to eat at her favorite restaurant (Chuck-a-rama) and then went to Classic Skating.  Here are some pics:

Some of her birthday loot

 Wanting to eat the cake before we sing:  They sure love this cake!!

 Happy 5th Birthday sweetie!!  I love you so much!!

Free Day of Fishing

Saturday, the 2nd of June was free fishing day.  The girls had been asking Kenny to go fishing for awhile so he finally relented.  I stayed home with Ty so it was a daddy/daughters date.  It went.........okay.  The girls didn't like it much, Kenny didn't really remember how to bait the hook, it was hot, they didn't catch anything, etc.  At the end Emily got to swim in the pond so she came home happy.  Ashley...she was just happy to be home! :-)  Oh well.  At least their curiosity for fishing was quelled.  Kenny says he'll try it again sometime.  We'll see how soon that really happens. :-)

 The girls trying their hand at fishing

 Emily's favorite part

Ashley's preferred activity during fishing.  "It was bowing," she said

Emily's Dance Recital

Emily had her Spring Dance Concert a couple weeks ago.  She enjoyed this year of dance and was excited to show us her two dances.  Her dance company does a class dance and then they put on a musical and each class dances in that too.  This year it was the Lion King.  So Emily danced to "Shake your Tail Feather" and then "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as part of the Lion King.  She looked so cute and I think she did an awesome job!  Way to go, Em!!

My beautiful girl

 Her ward friends that were in her same dance class

 Each dancer gets a trophy

Grandma R was able to come watch

Ashley wanted to dress up too so this is her costum ;-)

End of Year Festivities

As I was looking at pictures, I realized I missed a couple events toward the end of school for Emily.
First: The last few weeks of school the 1st grade does theme days.  Emily loved Western Day and looked so cute (I don't know why, but I didn't take a picture).  For pirate day she wanted to be the pirate princess from Jake and the Neverland Pirates instead of just being a normal pirate. (she's such a girl :-) )  She looked cute though.

 Emily did great in our school's first grade fun run.  I think she came in 7th overall and she tried her best.  That's the most important!

 Before the race

 Emily with one of her best friends at school this year, Sarah

 It was a little chilly so Miss Hull let them all snuggle up together under this blanket

Our school also does a dance festival.  This year they did a cute dance to the Mickey Mouse clubhouse song.  They spelled out Mickey Mouse and Emily was the U.  She looked cute and danced great!

I love the end of the school year, even though as a teacher it's super busy for me.  I love all the fun activities in such a short span of time.

Ashley's first year of T-Ball

Ashley's now old enough for T-Ball so we signed her up.  She's so cute in her little helmet and watching four year olds try to play baseball is quite comical.  She's doing great so far, but definitely enjoys the treats at the end of the game the very most!

 I love my little cutie pie

 Her first time up at bat

 On base

 Running home!

 Trying to catch a ball in the outfield--the outfield is the hardest for everyone.  The kids play in the grass, come out to their parents, sit down, etc.  It's cute and frustrating, but hey they are only four right?!

This is Emily's third year playing ball.  In T-Ball she did the same things as Ashley is doing this year.  Last year in coach pitch, we practiced a lot of patience waiting for her to hit the ball (sometimes it took up to 20 tries).  This year, however, Emily is rockin' it!!  She is hitting the ball on her first or second try!!  She is rockin' the outfield too!  Her goal is to get to EVERY ball that is hit to the outfield.  She runs ALL over the field trying to get to the ball.  Her coach has told her more than once, if the ball doesn't get hit to your part of the field, you don't run after it.  She's learning!  And she's loving it!  Way to go, Em!!

Emily hitting the ball

End of School

Well I know I'm a week late, but the school year is over.  I loved this year so much and will really miss my students!  I especially got close to four of my students that I had for two years.  They were absolutely amazing students and young men and women!
I have three weeks of school meetings and after that then summer can officially begin!

 My awesome class at the Clark Planetarium!

Three of the four students I had for two years.  I sure love them!!

Ashley's Last Day of Pre-School

Ashley had such a wonderful year in preschool!  Her teacher, Miss Ashley, was so great and she learned SO much!!  On her final day, they performed skits, sang songs and got their graduation certificate.  Now it's on to Kindergarten for my little sweet girl!  Where did the time go?

 Singing the alligator song

 They acted out some of the nursery rhymes they learned.  Ashley was the spider in Little Miss Muffet.

 Her teachers, Miss Ashley and Miss Tew

Her wonderful teacher, Miss Ashley, that Ash loved so much!

Ashley can get stage fright (in addition to being a little pill) so this video is her trying to say what she wants to be when she grows up.  It demonstrates our usual Ashley.  As a sidenote, she originally said she wanted to be a plumber girl when she grew up :-), but the teachers, for some reason, made her change it, so she chose a fireman.