Trying to be Patient!

On Tuesday May 11, a driver hit the front of my van. We were all okay, but it has changed my day to day life! She did not have auto insurance, and so my insurance and myself are left to pay the bill!! Unfortunately, my policy did not include coverage for a rental car. I have decided that you never know what you should have, or what you do not have in a policy, until it is to late! Oh, well! Such is life! So, basically I have been without a vehicle for almost three weeks. (Ben's truck is a stick shift, and I do not know how to drive it!) I have had to make some adjustments to my lifestyle. I very rarely stay home for more than one day in a week. So, since my van is in the shop, we have been walking or staying home a lot more lately! One day, the kids wanted to play in the water. It was much to cold for that, and so I filled their little pool with warm water from the house one pot at a time!! They had a blast!

On another day, we decided to go on a "Grand Adventure"! We walked and rode bikes all over town!

On one of our water breaks the kids wanted me to take pictures of themselves with silly faces!

We stopped at McDonalds! It took us over an hour to ride bikes to McDonald's, but it was well worth it to my kids!

She had a great time!

She really wanted me to take this picture!

They think it will take another week or so for my van to be fixed! We will be looking at three and half to four weeks!! Hopefully it will be fixed soon, but until it is we will be trying to make the best of it!

The End

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks of Benson's kindergarten:Benson's school had a field day, but it was much different than the field days of my youth! It much better, more like a carnival!Cecilia was so in awe of everything going on that she just ended up sitting there in the stroller trying to take it all in.

Julia was lucky enough to be able to do all of the field day activities.

Benson had a great time at the field day.

This is Julia going down a huge slide at the school's field day.

The last day of school families were invited to come watched a picture slide show. Benson was given a portfolio of some of his work from the school year.

Benson with his teacher and aide. I made this craft for his teacher. They sung a song where they walked around the lunchroom. I was lucky enough to catch this cute smile!
Benson received an award for compassion and friendship. Julia was passing out the pencils that went with the awards!

This is a video of Benson's class singing one of their many songs at their Kindergarten program.

The end of Benson's year of Kindergarten has come and gone!! We are now face with the long void of Summer.... Well, I am hoping to have enough activities to help the summer pass smoothly at least. Here's to a great Summer!

Bawling...

So, when Benson started his first day of school, there were no tears! When he went on his first major field trip, I bawled!!! I think it was the thought that he was all the way up in Salt Lake...without me!!! They went to the Aquarium. When in class, he was only a block away. He had a great time! This is a picture taken of him right before the field trip!

We had a primary activity this week about taking care of the lost sheep. Part of the activity included petting and feeding baby lambs. The owners of the lambs were so nice to let the kids feed the babies!

I could not get over how cute it was to watch the girls feed the baby lambs!

Yummy cookies were the treat:

I did not realize that I took a video for a minute, but I thought I would post it anyway.

A Farming We Will Go

For preschool the kids were able to go on a field trip to a local farm. This farm was not your typical farm. There were some exotic animals as well!Each kid had a turn to pet the turtles!

There were a few emus! The turtles on leashes were fun!

The farm had chickens that laid green eggs. The kids were surprised that when they cracked the egg, it was not green on the inside!

They were looking at the emu egg!

The kids all had a great time!

The baby goats were the favorite animal there!

They were so tame the kids could hold and pet them!

I had to admit that I thought they were pretty cute!

There were miniature horses

Horton...My Brother in Law...

My brother in law temporarily turned into Horton...Dr. Suess' Horton. Well, he did on stage at least! He was Horton in the musical, "Suessical the Musical!" We were so lucky to be able to go up north and watch him. I thought it was pretty cute, and the kids enjoyed watching it as well!

In this picture he is looking for the dust speck with Whoville on it!Now he is taking care of an egg!

It is a miracle in my mind that he survived! That costume looked so warm!!

Leonard Martin

Welcome to the world Leonard Martin Blau! This is my newest little nephew, John and Val's son! I am so lucky, I now have three nieces and four nephews!! What a blessing! He weighed 9 lbs. 14.5 oz. He was 21.5 inches long! He was born May 3rd. I stole these pictures of him from and email from John:

Ninety Five Years!!!!!!

My kid's Great Great Grandma Buchanan turned ninety five in April!! We are all so lucky to be able to go up for her birthday party! I think she looks pretty good for ninety five!

Here is my kid's Great Grandma Winger! We all love her so much!

Here is my kid's Grandma, my Mom! My kids love spending time with her! They are all putting dimes in the duck food dispenser!


Here is their Mom and Dad! It is neat to have pictures of five generations all in one day!

Julia

Cecilia

Benson