Stow Aways: May. Kids. Much.

I'm tellin' ya. May is going to be the end of me. I remember feeling this way last year too. I thought it was mostly because I had 2 kids at 2 different schools so the end of year activities were doubled and in no way coordinated. I found out that having them at the same school only means that the venue is the same, but the activities are still doubled, and still, in no way, coordinated. When you add on the overlap of summer activities that start in May (volunteering regularly at Galloping Grace, swimming lessons, etc.) with what we had already committed to do each week (regular volunteering for me at the school, evening lessons, church activities, etc.) You have a recipe for... a flaky mom, a house that could be featured on Oprah (not in a good way) and sheer exhaustion every night. It's pretty rare that I fall asleep in the FIRST show we start watching at bedtime. It's happened every night for at least 2 weeks.

Actually, I don't say it all to complain. I relish in all of the hustle and bustle. I am grateful that my kids are active and involved and that we are spending our time doing things like this instead of what some of the alternatives could be. I usually don't feel too overwhelmed, and I'm getting better at letting less important things slide (sorry babe - grocery shopping and making dinner DID make it to that list too.)

Enough said - here's the first installment for May (second to follow later, complete with Talent Show, Kindergarten Graduation, etc.)

Kindergarten Zoo Field Trip: This really was a trip of a day. We spent the day with the little girls Harriet likes in her class. Gracie, Ava, Christiana, Emma, and Hannah. The girls were so funny about getting their picture taken at every turn. They were quite the little supermodel posers.

Look at the cute mommy chimp cuddling her baby chimp in the background:

funny girls - held hands as they walked and skipped

and, of course, the rhyming and clapping games

The kids were supposed to inspect the animal habitats to see if they were similar to the habitats they studied in science. Harriet's assigned science habitat was the abbysopelagic layer of the ocean. No "abyss" at the zoo, so we settled for watching the sea lions.

We had such a blast seeing all the animals though and even got some special treatment from a kinder parent who is also a zookeeper in the elephant enclosure. She gave the kids a special lecture about elephants and then showed them how the elephants get treats and stuff during the day. We were supposed to go on a "backstage" tour, but there were too many kids to do it.

The polar bears rarely disappoint with their cuteness. I know this guy could swipe me down with one paw and eat me for breakfast, but I kind of still want to snuggle with him on the couch and watch a movie.

Harriet ended the day with a splash. Literally. Seconds after I took this picture, I turned my head to talk to another mom and then heard a scream. I looked back to see Harriet running towards me, soaked from head to toe. She fell in the duck pond. Apparently, a lady walking by was right there, and grabbed her and pulled her out. David and I kind of wonder if she accidentally bumped into Harriet and knocked her into the pond since she pulled her out and disappeared without trying to find me in a matter of about 5 seconds.

It was seriously traumatic for Harriet and she scraped her arm and got a bad bruise on her hip. She doesn't like to talk about trying to become a duck or swimming with the fish. But, I hope it will be a

fun memory for her later when she gets over being embarrassed and hurt.

Then, onto the gym field days (play day.) I am still peeling from my sunburns I got this week.

3 legged races

balloon stomp - I personally tied 120 ballons on 120 kindergarteners and then cut 120 strings off their ankles. really?

Coach "D" spraying all the kindergarteners with the hose. She is ruthless. These poor kids are so tiny. They were already soaked to the bone, blue lips, teeth chattering, had just dried off their best with their towels, and here she comes with the hose. She is hard core - you don't mess with her. Even the parents are scared of her. I kind of like her actually. I've grown to appreciate her, but she still scares me. I was 5 minutes late this morning and a little afraid...

Both girls were chosen from their classes to serve on student council this year. They really loved it and faithfully went to their early morning meetings twice a month. I was particularly proud of Harriet doing something like this, being so shy as she is. For the end-of-year service project, the council organized a giant food drive and were able to fill 3 giant bins with food to donate to the local food bank. Then, to top it off, their advisor (also Harriet's kindergarten teacher) offered a field trip for the student council members to go work at the food bank. I was seriously disappointed that out of 70 members (2 kids from every class) only 10 kids went to the food bank. I was really proud of my kids for wanting to go and working very hard while they were there. They felt so good about their service that they have been begging me to go back and also begging their dad to go with them too. The administrator there did some math with the kids at the end. They ended up sorting 10 pallets (500 pound bins) of sweet potatoes and feeding 6000 people dinner. Not too shabby. Grace said "I'm proud." She is usually proud of herself (being the extrovert and center-of-attention girl that she is,) but I was really proud of her too and happy that it made her happy to do this work.

(some of the sweet potatoes were seriously infected with black mold - hence, the face masks.)

Mrs. Johnson and crew:

Probably the highlight of last week was our ward mother/daughter activity-day-girl party. It was a really rare moment that I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with Grace. Even though she doesn't like the girly girl stuff, she had a great time making a bow for Harriet (I convinced her to wear it for this picture), giving ME a manicure, and making a few other fun crafts. Hats off to our amazing activity day leaders - they really went all out and made such a special night for the girls and their moms. Thanks Grace for taking me and doing all the stations with me!