Get Caught Reading

Dylan & Cole Sprouse from Disney Channel's Suite Life of Zach & Cody

May is officially 'Get Caught Reading' Month. There's even an entire literacy campaign of Get Caught Reading. It's sponsored by the American Association of Publishers. Before May is out, I wanted to post a few of our favorite posters from the website as well as my own kiddos 'caught' on film.






I'm excited to see Andrew's new middle school is absolutely dedicated to reading. Three days a week they spend their 20 minute homeroom time reading. They had posters of every teacher reading his/her favorite book.


And while May is 'Get Caught Reading', it's a lovely prelude to June and July--Summer Reading Clubs. If you have children, I encourage you to read to them, with them--and in front of them. Studies show that children who observe their parents reading for pleasure (the newspaper counts) are more likely to continue reading as they get older.


Here's one last shot of Nathan and his new bank. I was able to earn all these books for the kids, his bank and much more for FREE. I worked as a volunteer at the local book warehouse and we are paid with gift certificates to use during the big warehouse sale. I was getting some $15 books for $0.10 in the bargain alley. Picked up prizes to use for school next year and gifts galore. What fun!!!

Silly String Fight

School's Out!!

After school on the last day, one of Nathan's friends invited the entire class over to have a silly string fight. It ended up being COLD and rainy. The rain stopped long enough for the fight, then the party had to move indoors. Natalie (the crazy mom who invited us) was a gracious hostess and took 18 wild and crazy kids in stride. Two of us moms from class came to help, but she seemed to have it under control. After the last of the kids left, the three of us moms left all our kids with the dads and went out to relax. I had such a fantastic time and feel like I have two wonderful new friends as well.

Here's movies of the fight:

Here are a few photos of the fun. Nathan's teacher is in the tan coat (and no--the silly string at close range did NOT come out of the jacket). Nathan's para is in the orange jacket. They took the brunt of the silly string.

A very windblown Rebekah. (Doesn't she look like Nathan??)

Art Show at School

The school had an "Art Show" set up during Fun Day. We were able to find some of what the boys did, but I think we missed some other pieces. Here's a sample of what we saw.

Nathan's Art--Here is the description of what they did and the entire wall. Then it's Nathan's Wild Thing that he created. This book was one of my sister's favorites as a child, so I knew Tia would love to see it. If you click on the photo of the whole wall to blow it up, you can see the Wild Thing stuffed animal on the flagpole.

Andrew's Art--He didn't think they would allow his first piece to be shown. It's the picture of the cross on a hill. Below that is his Mosaic description and artwork. (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Fun Day At School

Andrew running away from the camera to the playground.

Remember those days at Elementary school where it was Track & Field Day? Well, boy do times change. I used to only do well at the jumping things. I hated the rest of the day. Now, we have "Fun Day" instead of Track & Field Day. What a difference that makes!

I only saw a few events, but everyone had a grand time. We saw the 3-legged race and a game involving big balls and a volleyball net. There was also something with hula hoops--I think they rolled or tossed things into them.

Since it was also the all school BBQ, I didn't get to see the boys at their events. We went and had lunch with each of them and that's about all that Rebekah is willing to do. She wouldn't have been able to do both the activities and the lunch.

It was sunny, but WINDY on the back of the school where we ate. The wind made it feel a little chilly. We had a great time with the boys and a good lunch.

Field Trip

I guess with all that's been going on, I forgot to blog about the field trip Andrew & I went on. We went to the capitol with his class. Since the governor's wife (First Lady) is my cousin, I was able to arrange a meet & greet with her. She was so wonderfully gracious--as always--and what I was told would be 15 minutes ended up being a 45 minute question and answer. She made sure all 50 kids got to ask at least one question.

We also went to the university museum and got to see and do all kinds of fun things. It was a great (and exhausting) day.

Park Fun

Went to the park with Granddaddy the other night. He had to leave today and we miss him. Andrew kept trying to do the curved monkey bars. He wanted a great video of his eventual success. Grands decided to give it a go as well. Halfway through this event, he turns to me and says, "You'd better not be taking pictures of this." You'd think as smart as he is that he'd know better to do something funny when the scrapbooking/blogging momma is standing there with the camera already on. Duh!

So, I hope you enjoy our park fun, too. Here's Andrew's attempt at monkey bars.


Finally, here's a great video of Andrew. He wanted to ride his scooter down the big hill by the park. He almost had a BIG wreck when Dad jumped out to scare him. Dad thought he was back farther on the path. We all laugh about it now, but Sean scared himself as well as Andrew.

Rebekah Fun

Here are some cute outfits (aren't girls clothes more fun than boys clothes) and playing outside on the deck.

First off is the 'fun' of trying to catch her in a photo. When you ask if she wants her picture taken, she IMMEDIATELY runs to the nearest wall and says, "Cheese!" However, when you lift the camera to take the shot, she runs to you to see the picture--or just runs away. First she took off with a ball. Then, I asked what was on her shirt so she had to check it out. She informed me "woof" is on her shirt.

Next, she ran off again.

I finally get her back to the 'photo wall' and she runs to me. Here she is mid-stride.

FINALLY--We get a photo of the whole outfit and child. However, she doesn't seem to happy that I actually managed to get one whole frame of her. Oh well, mommy's happy.

This outfit was a gift from my dear cousin in Fremont. Rebekah loves the flowers on it.

Here are some videos of Rebekah's Deck Fun. She loves to jump on the deck to hear the grates in the grill rattle. Noise is a good thing in her mind. Then she was looking for an 'acky' that she dropped. She found it to be lots of fun to look between the boards on the deck.

After dragging out books, her dolly stroller and her horse, she decided horse needed some exercise.

This is the cute outfit she chose to wear to Andrew's graduation. She picked it because of the hat. Then she refused to wear the hat. I think it's done to frustrate the mom. In the first photo, she is picking her nose to show her displeasure at the hat. The second hat photo is catching the blur of motion before she runs away and rips the hat off. In the end, nice photos--no hat.