Lydia's Year in Kindergarten

One benefit of having a fantastic kindergarten teacher that we love, is said teacher taking the time to pull out each of Lydia's pictures throughout the year and email them to me. Isn't Mrs. Riggs awesome? Because of that I have pictures to document all the fun things that Lydia did her first year of school. And boy did they do some fun stuff!

From the first day of school coloring Mickey Mouse pictures,

and getting a picture with Minnie Mouse,

to making new friends,

and learning numbers.

Lydia had lots of fun fall activities like making apple crisp that was "sooo good",

taking a turn to draw on the white board,

and having Mom come for the pumpkin day,

AND Halloween party.

Art projects with leaves and being thankful,






Turned into winter boots,

and reindeer antlers.

A first field trip to the Children's Museum

came after bowling day,

and was quickly followed by a Christmas party where Mom got to come again.

The Seahawks first made it to the Playoffs and then won the Superbowl, causing all sorts of celebration,

and more art projects were accomplished.

Crazy hair day came and went,

and so did the 100th day.

Spring came and brought a pajama birthday party for Mrs. Riggs,

 a Three Piggy Opera,

and science workshops with chicks hatching from eggs,

tadpoles turning into frogs, and caterpillars that escaped from cocoons to be released by the class outside as butterflies.

With spring also came the last field trip to the zoo,

and sadly the last day of school.

We are so sad to say goodbye to Mrs. Riggs. She was the best! Truly a star in our books. Lydia loved kindergarten and was sad to say goodbye, but is super excited to start first grade and go to school "the whole day!"

Mom has other feelings about that, but we're just focusing on enjoying the summer together for now. :) It was a great first year of school and this little lady sure did good.

Tappana Times: Our Mayhem in May

It's almost halfway into June and I haven't documented our activities in May. And we've had some fun ones!

First of all, Lydia was in a play at her school that all kindergartners do: The Three Piggy Opera.

I thought she was the cutest little piggy of the bunch.

Here is a couple tiny little snippets of the songs they sang.

It truly was adorable. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I couldn't help get a little teary-eyed at my baby growing up and performing at school. I guess I'm one of those crazy moms.

After watching the Opera, we went back to the classroom and had piggy cookies. Ammon and Lydia enjoyed them thoroughly.

The days that we're not watching Lydia perform at school, Ammon and I like to work hard on our "emails" together.

Ammon types furiously next to me on his laptop while I pay bills and do other REALLY important activities on my computer next to him like facebook candycrush blogging checking my email.

We've had an especially warm and beautiful May and we've taken full advantage of it, spending most of our free time outside.

Ammon went with Brigham to father's and son's with Brigham prepared to eat "ten hot dogs and one hundred marshmallows." (he ended up only eating one of each, but was satisfied nonetheless). They had a blast and Ammon had everything he wanted camping with Dad and Uncle Ryan.

While the boys were gone, Lydia and I had a girls night together with a delicious dinner at Arby's.

You can't go wrong with some quality time with this girl combined with curly fries. I loved spending some time chatting with just Lydia.

The very morning the boys got home early from father's and son's, we decided to go for a impromptu hike to twin falls.

Twin falls is close by and is a nice hike along a river, and you get to view a waterfall at the end.

We took the normal pictures on the big rock, and had a great time.


We ate cupcakes in the sunshine, outside after baths on a Tuesday night.

We went for over a four mile hike to Green Water Lakes. It was a fun hike with lots to explore along the way like bridges,

waterfalls,

and two different beautiful green lakes,

We ate lunch on the banks of the second lake and enjoyed the serenity of the view...while ignoring our rocky seats.

The kids were so impressive hiking and rarely complained. The hike was pretty muddy and had some difficult places, but they kids were troopers and enjoyed throwing rocks in the water any chance they could. Ammon learned about birds, bugs, and what the color of the water on the river means while hiking. I loved teaching him and fostering his natural curiosity about the world around him.

Ammon was pretty tired when it was time to make the trek back, but he found his step by holding Grandpa Nils' hand.

At one point my dad stopped holding his hand and Ammon complained, "Mom, I want to hold Grandpa Nils' hand!" My dad heard and gladly took his hand again. They made the sweetest duo together, one giant man leading and helping a sweet little boy.

Speaking of my dad, he turned 54 this May.

He received some quality gifts like gallons of water from Kayleen,

peanut m&m's from Ryan,

a restaurant gift card from the Tappanas,

and much more. I think he had a good day and we enjoyed celebrating with him. Happy Birthday Dad! And happy May to everyone else!