Zoo x2, DARE Graduation, Volunteer, Slurped, Out of Town

It has been a busy week, but a fun one.  Of course the week wouldn't be complete without Daniel updosing at the Allergist's office.  Afterward he bats his puppy dog eyes and me and asks me for a treat. How can I turn that down.  I stopped by and let him pick up a small Slurpee on his way back to school. In true kid fashion he did 'Slurp' himself when he turned on the Slurpee machine and missed the mouth of his cup.  Lucky for  him he wasn't too sticky when he got back to school, just a little fluorescent green on his hands and clothes--doh!!  He said it was worth it so I will believe him--haha!

Aaron has been out of town part of this week.  He left Sunday night and just got home.  It was hard having him gone since I really can't divide and conquer by myself.  I had to split my time which meant I could only go to part of Daniel's baseball game while I split my time getting Sarah ready for her dance pictures.  It was pretty crazy, but we managed.  Here's Daniel up to bat:

Then it was off for Sarah's pictures.  I took a few pictures of Sarah after getting her pictures done and she looks so old!  Where did my baby girl go?!

Since Sarah is on a performance team for dance this year she has a few extra performances at different care/ and assisted living centers.  She has enjoyed working with a team and she has also improved as well.  It has been interesting to watch her progress.  Here's Sarah during one of her performances:

Last week Daniel had his DARE program graduation.  All the 5th grade had a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program taught by the resource police officer at the school.  At the end of the program they held a graduation ceremony where all the kids wore their DARE shirts.  Here's Daniel entering the gym with his class awaiting the graduation.  Instead of waving he gave the 'cool' head nod:

Here's Daniel getting his certificate by his teacher, the principal, vice principal and a few others that I didn't know who they were:

Here's Daniel's class:

Here's the entire 5th grade:

After singing a few songs, the REAL Salt Lake Soccer Lion came to entertain them for a little bit.  I am always amazed at how the mascot can do flips, jumps, etc. with a costume on.  It was fun to watch him, too:

Here's my cute DARE graduate with his certificate:

Speaking of Daniel he completed his 40 book challenge this year.  They give the 5th graders a challenge to read 40 books of different genres and if they complete the challenge they get a reward.  When Josh completed his a few years ago he got to go rollerskating.  Daniel's reward is he got to go swimming during school hours with all the other 5th graders that completed the challenge which, surprisingly enough, weren't very many.  He had a good time and really loved that he got to do it during school hours.

As I was cleaning up the desk the other day I missed one of my favorite Mother's Day presents from Daniel.  I really love these things!

Friday was my last shift of work until about November-ish time.  In addition to going to the facilities with the CNA students the teachers also asked the Clinical Instructors to come and help out in the classrooms as well.  We help with teaching/practicing vital signs in the classroom with the students and their partners so they can get comfortable in their skills for when they do their state testing at the end of the semester.  Friday after class the teacher gave me and the other instructor a surprise thank you card, a big candy bar and a gift card to Chili's.  Wahoo!!  That was a nice surprise!  

We are getting Matthew ready to go to Camp Kostopulos for three different weeks this summer.  He is so excited.  He will be going to a regular residential camp, a travel camp to Yellowstone and a week of horse camp where they get to take care of the horses.  In order to do this he has to get a physical from the doctor to clear him.  We didn't get his paperwork until three weeks ago so I had to scramble to try and get him an appointment for a physical because those usually are booked a few weeks if not months out.  His primary care doctor didn't have any openings so I called around for anything and was able to get him in the middle of the day.  I HATE checking the kids out of school, but when you need to you need to.  I worked the morning I had to check him out and ended up getting off later than what I had planned for.  I had to drive from Bountiful to Syracuse to try and get him before he went to lunch.  Unfortunately I missed it by 5 minutes--DOH!  Luckily, his teacher was kind enough to walk through the craziness of a high school lunchtime to help me search for Matthew. It was CRAZY!!  While I was looking for him I did run into a few girls from our ward and our young women that came up and said hi to me.  That made my day!  After searching we finally found him surrounded by a bunch of girls which really surprised me.  Matthew really knows how to get the ladies--haha!  Actually I was so glad that he has friendly people to sit by and watch out for him during lunch.  I always worry about that!  After checking him out we got to the doctor's office a few minutes late to realize I had brought all the forms, but the one I needed for him to fill out--DOH!  It just wasn't my day!  Anyway, the doctor filled out a scout form for a physical and I hoped that would be good enough which thankfully it was because I called Camp K to ask them about it as soon as I got home.  I was so relieved.  Anyway, we got his paperwork mailed off and his first session starts in two weeks.  He's so excited!  Another awesome thing that happened with Matthew is that his after school program leader had some free time with Matthew and she knows how much he LOVES dogs.  She decided to take him down to the animal shelter to see if he could volunteer.  That was so thoughtful!  I had to fill out some forms and he has to attend a training, but until he can get to the training she took him down again and he was able to take some dogs on a walk.  He was in HEAVEN.  I am so glad she had that idea and acted on it!  Matthew would love helping out at the shelter!

Last Saturday was a Department of Defense free day at the zoo.  All DOD employees and their families got free admission so, of course, we had to go!!  We hadn't been to the zoo for a long time so the kids had fun seeing everything.  They had redone some of the enclosures so things are looking a lot better than it used to.  We HAD to stop and take a picture by the lion fountain:

Giraffes:

Lions:

Gorillas, monkeys, etc.  I had a hard time keeping my kids straight from the animals--haha!

They had some Canadian Geese wandering around with their chicks.  They happened to walk right by Aaron without him noticing until I said something.  He was not a fan as soon as he noticed.

Rhinos:

See what I mean between the kids and the apes?!

Matthew was interested in the train:

Seals, Sea Lions:

Sea Otters:

We even got to see the seals get fed and do tricks for their food:

As the day went on Noah started feeling sick and it got progressively worse the longer we were there.

They had another lion fountain on the opposite end of the zoo that the kids HAD to get another picture at:

Josh can hardly bend down to get a drink:

The kids thought it was hilarious to pick the ape's nose and take a picture--sigh...

By the time we got home Noah didn't feel well at all.  Unfortunately, Aaron had to leave to go out of town Sunday morning. Since Noah is too young to be left alone I stayed home from church to be with him.  I kept Matthew home with me because he needs some parental supervision at church and neither one of us were going to be there.  I ended up sending the three middle kids alone.  I hope they were well behaved.  I am just thinking that no news is good news, right--haha!

Monday morning Noah was feeling great so he and I got to go on his first grade field trip to...the Zoo.    The whole first grade made some cute lion shirts to make sure everyone looked the same and made it easier to keep track of everyone.  Anyway, despite having already been to the zoo two days before Noah was still interested in seeing everything again as long as I let him and my chaperone group play on the playground at lunch.  Here's Noah getting ready for the bus ride down:

There wasn't enough room on the buses for the chaperones so I drove separate and met them down there.  They are having a big 'Bugzilla' exhibit where they have huge animatronic bugs and information about them.  All the boys in our group were really interested and stopped by every single one.  I only had four boys in my group so it was not too bad keeping track of everyone.  Here's the Grasshopper:

Praying Mantis:

We also looked at the animals along the way, too.  Here's the giraffes:

They needed their pictures taken by every statue, too.  Noah thought he'd add in some parkour to the picture--the crazy kid!

Sea Otter:

The lion fountain:

Polar Bear sculpture:

The caterpillar sculpture:

We got to see the crocodile up close:

Since Aaron wasn't with me we did stop and watch the bird show which was pretty cool:

The Gorilla sculpture:

Although Aaron was out of town things didn't stop for that.  I went to baseball practices, nagged to get homework done and piano practicing out of the way.  Finally when it was bedtime I sat down only to have Noah sneak out to snuggle with me on the couch.  How can I say no to that?!  I ended up getting trapped in place when Sophie fell asleep on my legs and Noah on my shoulder.

It made being home by myself a bit easier--haha!!  However, I was really glad to have Aaron back home later in the week!

Josh got a note last week from the Yearbook teacher that made his day.  Since he is creative with his Lumberjack club Pancake Guy announcements every other week, the yearbook teacher asked Josh to announce for them, too.  Josh was super excited.  Here's the note the teacher gave him which said, "Josh, Could you please make an announcement for yearbooks on Wednesday?  Our staff would really appreciate it because your announcements are fun and creative."  Way to go Josh!!

Last week Josh had an eye exam.  We were hoping to get him fitted for contacts, but I don't know if that will happen until our Flex Spending resets in January--poor guy!  Contacts ended up being a lot more than what we had originally planned for.  Luckily, his prescription hasn't changed too much so hopefully by January he will have contacts.  He got his eyes dilated for the first time and thought it was pretty weird.  He really didn't like wearing those sweet plastic sunglasses they give you at the office, but when you need them you need them!