It was the last week of school!!  Which for the elementary school kids meant a theme every day!

Crazy hair day!

Hat day!

They also had crazy sock day, wear green day, and tie day.  Mariah helped plan the themes as part of student council.  I think it was tons of fun!  Friday was the sixth grade celebration and Grandma Gazdik and I listened as the sixth graders sang some great songs (with choreography!) and Mariah got her National Fitness Award.  We saw the sixth grade slide show and clapped for the students and the teachers.  I felt totally nostalgic.  Where does the time go?  Nevertheless, I'm so pleased with the beautiful, capable person Mariah is becoming.  I can't be sad about that!

For my junior high kids, the last week of school meant yearbook signing and the LAGOON trip!  They had tons of fun.  Sarah lost her yearbook full of signatures on Thursday.  They hadn't seen it in the office when she checked on Friday, but they gave her a new one -- which was nice.  Still, she was sad to lose all the signatures!  Megan filled her book full, too.  They were both pretty bored by the end of the week, though.  Apparently, the kids just roamed the hall on the last day.  They were all glad to be DONE!  Friday night they got a group together to play night games.  Fun times!

For my high schooler, the last week of school meant end-of-year assembly, graduation practice, and GRADUATION!  Savannah attends all those as a part of the choir.  She still had a chemistry and math assignment due this week, but once it was done, she was done.  She didn't even go back to school once graduation was done!  Which was happy because then I had a babysitter for sixth grade celebration!  She also headed over to a party Saturday after work.  Yay!  Some fun!

For Bethany, it meant PRESCHOOL GRADUATION!  I really love the curriculum we used this year.  The kids can write all their letters and they can put together and read three-letter words.  It's so great!  Graduation was a small party with picnic lunch and certificates.  Great job, Bethany!

For Ben, life was pretty much the same.  He thought it was really cool when Dad mowed the lawn on Saturday.  He thinks it is vacuuming.  He found out that the lawn mower is a bit tougher to push than the vacuum, though!

He and Beth are still great friends!

My mom came to visit us this week!  . . . and I don't even have a picture.  How's that for taking my mother for granted?!?  It's awful especially since now I don't have her around to smile at me anymore!  We just basked in her love the whole time she was here.  It was lovely!  She arrived late Monday night and stayed until Friday morning.  It was great fun!  We even got to get away by ourselves Thursday morning and go see the new Star Trek movie together!  What a treat for both of us.  We loved it!

Savannah got inducted into the National Honor Society on Monday evening!  We got to see her walk through the line and get her certificate and sign her name in the book.  It was pretty cool.  She is accomplishing cool things.

Savannah also performed one last time with her choir at the Spring Showcase on Thursday night.  They were incredible, as usual.  Grandma got to see that, too!

Savannah had her last AP test this week:  US History.  She felt like she did really well on 2.5 of the 3 essays.  We'll see how that pans out!  She has done a lot of hard work for that class.  We're really proud of her and know that she's learned a lot!  She worked this week, as always, but also got to go on a date Friday night with a bunch of college kids.  She had a ton of fun.  After work Saturday night she also got a chance to run see the new Star Trek movie with her girlfriend.  (She loved it, too!)

Sarah played tennis twice this week and also started her new job as a scorekeeper for the city rec softball games that are played over by our church.  She is really enjoying it.  She likes being a part of the softball scene with none of the pressure and all the fun!  (and getting paid, too!)  She did that Tuesday and Thursday nights.  On Wednesday night she had her final choir concert.  She did great!  The final number was a Disney medley including dancing and hand jives.  It was tons of fun!  Grandma even got to be there, too!

Kevin and I got invited to a banquet in Sarah's honor on Friday night at the junior high for having a 4.0 all three years at SJHS.  It was super cool!  What a cool kid she is!  We are so proud of her and her accomplishment.

Megan started her job as an umpire for girls city rec softball.  She is on a different field than Sarah and under a whole lot more pressure!  It kind of scares her to death.  She worked three nights this week and kept showing up to fulfill her commitment.  I think it's getting better!  She's starting to feel a bit more comfortable and less like she's going in front of a firing squad.  I'm proud of her for giving it a chance.  She's a cool girl!  She also finished a history project, made a catapult, and finished her book report.  She had a big week!

Yes, that is Megan as umpire!

Mariah played in two softball games this week.  It turns out that she's her team's best pitcher!  In fact, it may be that she is the league's best pitcher.  She is fun to watch.  The best part, though, is that she is really happy out there and having a fun time.  She did another cool thing this week.  She organized her own bookclub!  She and her friends decided on a book and they met this Saturday at our house to discuss it.  She cleaned up the house and had the meeting in her own room and they all decided on a new book for next month.  She gave out reminder notes, too.  She also made notebooks for everybody to take notes in.  She knows how to make things happen!  What a great ability.

Cheyenne finished a late book report and turned it in all on her own this week.  I didn't even know about it until her teacher called to tell me to let Cheyenne know that she had found it on her doorstep and not to worry.  Wow!  How's that for taking responsibility?

The elementary school had the author's party on Friday so Mariah, Cali, and Cheyenne all read to me the stories and essays they'd written this year and showed me some of their best work saved from other subjects.  They've done a lot of cool things this year and I'm proud of the care they take with all their assignments!

Bethany had two days of preschool and also a rehearsal for her ballet performance.  The ballet performance was Saturday afternoon.  Both sets of grandparents had already left town and Kevin had to be in SLC, but Sarah, Megan, Calianne, Ben, and I all really enjoyed it.  They had the recital at the church so that the kids could perform on stage!  Bethany loved that!  She looked adorable and did a great job.  She couldn't find her spot on the last dance, so they did the whole thing a second time.  I love neighborhood dance classes.  :)

Benjamin talks and talks and feels a pretty strong right to be a part of things.  He's always a part of Bethany's play no matter who is with her.  We watched a little boy for several days this week, and Ben loved having him around!  He stubbed his big toe probably three times this week because he runs so fast and won't wear his shoes.  He also is pretty filthy at the close of just about every day.  We love that crazy kid.

We also love our new tree throne.  If you're going to cut down a tree and have a stump in your yard . . . you might as well make the most of it!  Didn't it turn out great????

We should also mention before we quit, that Kevin had a crazy, crazy week and lived to tell the tale!  He was one of the lecturers at the Utah Association of Mariage and Family Therapy that was held Thursday thru Saturday this week.  He taught a three hour class to over 60 therapists on how to help couples trying to deal with a pornography addiction.  That was Thursday.  Wednesday night he stayed late after work to give part 3 of the class he's been teaching for women who are dealing with the trauma of having discovered a husband's sexual addiction.  Friday he attended the conference again all day.  Saturday he couldn't attend the  conference because he needed to be at the Utah Coalition Against Pornography annual conference where he had a table set up to sell books and CDs and answer questions.  He talked to more people than ever before.  It was a successful week!  He is really glad it's over, though!

I taught preschool this week!  Beth and I and Auretta, Braxton, and Siena put words together, practiced handwriting, and talked about crocodiles.  It was great fun until we played monkeys and crocodiles and Bethany ran away screaming . . .  I guess I don't need to worry about her getting too close to one in real life.

On Tuesday, I was in charge of the young women activity in the evening since it was for camp!  We had the youth camp leaders introduce the camp theme and then we made water bottle holders out of duct tape.  It was loud and crazy and hard for the girls to wait for their turn with the tape . . . but it worked out pretty well!  It was fun to be there with all four of my oldest!

On Thursday Cali and Cheyenne had their Hershey Track Meet.  Calianne ran the 100 meter and the 400 meter and also did the long jump.  She ran hard and did great!  Even though she didn't place, she is a strong runner and did well!  Cheyenne ran the 50 meter.  She thought she had signed up for the 400, as well, but she ended up competing in the long jump and softball throw instead.  She ran fast enough in the 50 to qualify for the semi-finals, so she did get to run twice!  It was fun to watch her, too!  They had a really fun day.

On Friday, Savannah took her Language and Composition AP test.  She said that it wasn't as bad as she had feared it would be.  The coolest thing she told me about the test was that when the students were given a ten minute break between the multiple choice and essay portions of the test, the kids went outside, stood in a circle and chose someone to say a prayer for them all.  Sometimes . . . I love Utah.  I ALWAYS love Savannah!

Thursday and Friday were the district finals for junior high track and field.  Megan ran the 800 leg in the medley on Thursday.  She improved her 800 time (which she had only run once before) by 20 seconds!  Her team came in fourth!  On Friday she ran in the 400 (8th place), the 800 (5th place), and the 4x400 (1st!).  Springville Junior High came in second place in a field of eight schools!  They had a great team this year and Megan had a lot of fun.

Saturday we took down the Sycamore tree.  Actually, we watched the men we hired take down our Sycamore tree.  They started around 8:30 in the morning and left around 8 that night.  It was a BIG job.  It needed to be done, but it was sad to see it go.  Our yard feels very different without it.  Still, we tried to have fun with the process.

Ben especially thinks we have made our yard tons more fun!

Also on Saturday, Megan and I got the garden in.  Yay!  Meg will be "in charge" of the garden this year since she will use it for personal progress.  She also tended two boys for most of the day on Saturday at our house so she was busy!

Mariah spent most of Saturday organizing our sheet music collection.  We have a new file cabinet since Kevin moved offices so Mariah is organizing all the books of music we've collected over the years for a personal progress project.  She worked hard and it is already looking great!

Sunday was Mother's Day and everyone treated me wonderful!  Kevin made me breakfast, I got two giant cookies at church, we had a wonderful dinner at Naoma's, I got some nice presents, and lots of sweet, sweet cards from everybody!  It was a nice day.  I love being a mom!!!

Megan had an orchestra concert this week on Tuesday night.  She played great.  She has really improved.  It's fun to watch her and listen to the great music.  Kevin and I and Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik went to the performance and we all really enjoyed it.  Their last piece was called, "Rosin-eating Zombies from Outer Space."  I recorded a bit of the scary music for your enjoyment:

On Wednesday night, Savannah had a choir concert.  The high school choirs always put on a stellar show and we really enjoyed that, as well!  Grandma Gazdik, Sarah, Bethany, and I had a great time.  Savannah's choir was the best.  They did a couple of African songs that were my favorite.  I didn't record any of the first one, "Rain", because I was so mesmerized, but here is the last of the second:

On Thursday after school, Mariah had her choir concert.  She is the only 6th grader in the 5th-6th grade choir that has been meeting on Tuesday mornings before school for the past six weeks.  It was great fun to hear her group sing, as well.  Bethany, Benjamin, and I really enjoyed it!  I recorded a bit of my favorite song.  It's a song I used to listen to when I was a kid, so it was extra fun.  Ben started pulling on my arm about half-way through so I had to stop recording before the song was done, but you'll get the idea!

On Friday, Megan had another track meet.  She ran the 400, the 800, and the 4x400.  I got to watch her run the 400 and she was at least 50 meters ahead of everyone else in her heat.  She is FAST!  Her meet was at Springville High School, but I brought Beth and Ben with me and they were misbehaving, so I had to leave after that.  Kevin said she did stellar, though.  She placed 3rd in the 800 and brought her team the win in the 4x400 even with her contender right on her heels!

Here she is speeding along!

This is under the bleachers where I can't reach!

Sarah's back taking tennis twice a week.  She has a comprehensive Biology test on Monday and she's been studying all weekend!

Cali and Chey got to go to a birthday party this week and have played with friends everyday.  They got to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's Friday night and they didn't come back until almost 4:00!  They love being with Grandma.  Bethany got to go with them, too!

Bethany played with friends all week, too, in addition to doing ballet and preschool.  Ben has followed her lead and has found two little boys about his age who he can invite over sometimes.  He loves that!