Kinder Es Terminado...

Friday was Mason's last day of kindergarten, and the completion of his first of 6 years in the dual language program.  They held a classroom awards ceremony, followed by a pizza party for the kids.  But before that began, the kids sang a few songs in Spanish for the parents.  The entire video I took was too big to upload here, so here is a short piece of it.  Mason is wearing the bright yellow shirt. 

Then the kids each received an award with an attached candy bar.  Mason received the Crunch Award (along with a Nestle Crunch bar) for his ability to "crunch" numbers, as the class' math award. 

Another exciting award that was given was the Johnson Jogger award.  This is part of their P.E. program, where every Friday throughout the school year, all the students jogged around the track.  Their laps were added up at the end of the school year, and the students with the most laps from each grade level won a medal.  When the medals were presented, it was stated that the top 3 runners in the kindergarten boy's division were actually all in Mason's class.  Mason received the 3rd place medal with 133 laps.

This school year went by way too fast.  It seems like only a moment ago that we were preparing for his very first day of school, and now he's officially a first grader.  As I've said before, we have been so blessed with the wonderful elementary school he attends, amazing programs provided for him, and the most awesome kindergarten teacher ever, Mr. Mosqueda. 

Being The Baby...

...is sometimes a tough job.

(Ellie gives new meaning to the term baby sitter.)

Kindergarten Field Day...

Mason's school held their annual end-of-year field day last week.  Each student got to choose 3 events in which to participate.  Mason chose the 100m relay, the egg and spoon race, and (very low to the ground) hurdles.  Mason's team won 4th place in the relay:

And also 4th place in the egg and spoon race:

Mason won 2nd place in the hurdles, but because I was busy juggling Ellie and Mollie, I didn't have my camera ready to take a picture until after he ran...ooops:

Ellie had fun hanging out with Mason while he waited for his events:

Mother's Day...

Mason brought this assignment home from school on Friday.  The kids were supposed to fill in the blanks about what they thought of their moms.  It was funny for me to see what he wrote about me:

My Mom

My mom is the most wonderful mom in the world.  She is as pretty as a flower.  She weighs 130 pounds and she is five feet tall.  Her favorite food is enchiladas.  When mom was a little girl she liked to play with her dog.  I think mom looks funny when she laughs, but I know she's really angry when she stomps.  I like my mom to play with me everyday.  I wouldn't trade my mom for ten million dollars. 

For Mother's Day, Matthew and the kids took me out to dinner, and showered me with lots of handmade gifts.  I will never ever ever get tired of seeing my children's traced hands and fingerprints drawn and decorated into beautiful pictures for me.   I love being Momma to these precious three:

Happy Mother's Day!

Elephants!...

The circus is in town!  And the kindergarten classes at Mason's school were lucky enough to be invited by Ringling Bros. on a behind-the-scenes field trip to Reed Arena this morning (where the circus will be held) to get an up close view of the circus elephants.

Mason's class:

Ellie kept saying she wanted to see the leopards.  Unfortunately my dear, I don't think I've ever seen any circus leopards. 

The three stars of the circus coming into the arena:

The elephants having a snack. The kids got to witness an up close view of the elephants eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and hay, while having a question and answer session with the elephant trainer. 

Ellie didn't have a chair to sit in, so I caught some pictures of Mason trying to pick her up into his lap so she could have a place to sit.  Sweet brother.

Game Ball...

At the end of every t-ball game, one of the players on Mason's team gets to take home the game ball.  For Mason, his night was last night.  He did such a great job.  He had several great hits and catches and multiple outs.  Here he is with his team waiting to hear the announcement of which player will take home the ball:

It's Mason!

A proud Bull!

There's More Than One Way To Pull A Tooth...

Mason's top two front teeth have been wiggly for a while.  But over the past couple of weeks they have gotten really loose--very loose, but probably not quite ready to fall out on their own.  Which leads me to Ellie.  She has become notorious for getting out of bed at night and climbing into bed with Mason to harass him while he's trying to go to sleep.  Well last night Matthew and I put the kids to bed, and then sat down to watch tv, when out of nowhere we heard Mason screaming.  I ran into his room to find him sitting in bed crying with Ellie sitting right next to him.  As it turns out, she had once again climbed into his bed and started jumping on it while he was dozing.  It was dark, so I'll assume it was accidental when, while jumping, she gracefully landed on his face and knocked one of his teeth out! It was a sight...blood on his pj's and bedding, blood on the carpet on the way to the bathroom, and all over the bathroom sink area.  But like a good big brother, he quickly forgave her and once we got the mess cleaned up, he was right back to sleep.  Ellie on the other hand, was so excited and intrigued about the whole incident, she sat in her bed jabbering about it for quite a while.

Here was Mason before school this morning showing his new smile. I could see Ellie having a future career in dentistry, though she'll definitely have to consider changing her method of extracting teeth.