Last day of school

Today was the last day of school and in true Iowa fashion it was cold, gray and raining (just like last year) even though it's been in the 80's and 90's the last few weeks!

Ammon has Mrs. Hackbarth this year. He did a great job in school and really improved his reading. This year he only had 17 kids in his class versus the 28 last year. Having the small class size was a great thing for Ammon.

 

Corrine had Mrs. Johnson and LOVED her. What can we say she is an amazing teacher! Corrine excelled in math and science. Corrine is hoping with all the changes to classes next year to still be in her class.

Simeon has Mrs. Gordon. He did amazing in math and science and his reading has really improved this year. He had some focusing struggles this year, but he didn't let that slow him down. He'll have her again next year.

It's Great to be a Lemme leopard!!!

Best friends

These 2 are the best of friends. They love to hang out and play together. One of them becomes the dog or cat and the other the owner. They follow eachother around making beds and getting food for their "pet".

Rebecca loves to have Ammon push her on the swing. He has a way of getting her to laugh so hard. He'll push her then let her run into him and he falls down. No matter how many times they do it, she still gives him the biggest laughs every time.

Ammon loves to take care of Rebecca. One day she brought in a whole bowl of peas from the garden. He got all the peas out for her and then fed them to her! The other day he put her down for a nap on his bed and she fell right to sleep. He kept going in and checking on her to make sure she was ok. That night she slept on his bed, and he was going to sleep in her bed. But he ended up changing his mind and slept on the floor by Rebecca instead.

Memorial Day Weekend

This was the weekend we have been saving and getting ready for for a long time. Our old crumbling roof was coming off and a beautiful new one was going on!! Our friends the Aamodts offered to come be the contractor on the job, which saved us a TON of money having to pay labor in food, ice cream and a clean bed to sleep in.

Our garage became a place to eat, sit and relax and play. It was a mess it here!

We had 8 kids running around this weekend, and amazingly kids got along the entire time. Not a single time did we have an argument or disagreement. The Aamodt kids are so fun to play with and most the kids had a instant friend.

Grant & Rebecca flying on the swings.

Simeon (11), Taite (11), Corrine (9), Meredith (9), Ammon (6 almost 7), Julia (6), Grant (3), Rebecca (2)

The adults enjoyed ice cream, sour patch kids and dominoes after the kids went to bed, or at least after they headed out to the tent, but spent the next hour talking and laughing. When we lived in Utah we would play dominoes together all the time.

Birthday Boy Simeon

WaHOOOO Simeon turned 11 on Wednesday!!! 
We don't seem to do birthDAYS, rather we do birthWEEKS! He was super excited for his birthday week and all the fun he got to do all week long.
He started his birthday celebration a day early with Daylight Donuts for their Spanish class in the morning, and chocolate cupcakes for his baseball team that night.
Then came Weds morning. We had waffles with strawberries and whip cream ( a mighty big treat in our house, especially on a school morning.)

His presents to open were a bit smaller on the actual day because we got him an early present last month. He really wanted a baseball bag, since he truly was the only kid on his team without one. So we decided to get him one with his name, number and Little Hawks logo on it as an early present. So on his birthday he got a new Chargers Jersey (Mathews for those interested) and a King sizes Resses peanut butter cup, which he nicely shared one with his siblings (and then one little hungry sibling finished off for him later that day.) 

He brought chocolate cupcakes to school for his class. He got to pick a prize out of the birthday box which we heard from his teacher he had been talking about for a while. He told us about a bowling set and that is exactly what he came home with.
We are doing home dinners this year instead of going out. He picked homemade mac n cheese for dinner.
This afternoon we were able to keep open from any activities (until scouts), so he got lots of playtime with our neighbor Joe and siblings, which may have been one of the highlights of the day. We've been so busy lately and with Joe also playing on a Little Hawks baseball team there are more days then not when one of them can't play together, so this afternoon was a treat for them both!
He got to go to his 1st Boy Scout activity that night and they had chocolate drumstick ice cream cones as a birthday treat!
Throughout the week he got a few cards in the mail, 2 with giftcards included! (I see more Lego's in our future.)
He finished his birthday week off on Sunday when he got to open more presents from his Smith grandparents. He was excited to get the Lego Master Builder Academy set. Every 2 months he'll get a new lego set in the mail. Each kit teaches a different concept of building and progressively gets harder as the kits advance throughout the year.

Also this week Simeon had some end of year activities.
Friday he had his band concert and WOW those kids have improved so much since the winter concert in December. One of the songs they played was Rumor has it. So now every time it's on the radio he wants it LOUD!


Saturday he had a baseball tournament where he scored the winning run in both their Saturday games. His team played 2 more games on Sunday and ended 2nd in the tournament!

Then this Weds was the 5th and 6th grade track and field met at West High. Simeon ran in the 300 meter dash, the triple throw and the agility course. His triple toss team had a rough start, but on their 2nd try they did much better and got 22 throws in in 30 seconds. On the agility course he was fun to watch. He got to do it twice. The 2nd time he busted some crazy rolling and jumping over the hurdles to finish with a very fast time.



We so love watching Simeon growing up into a young man.We love you!

Double Promotion

Back in the beginning of May Ammon tested to promote from white belt to yellow belt in Taekwondo. The promotional testing took an hour and a half! The entire time he was focused and did everything he needed to. He broke his board in 2 kicks and earned a yellow star for his uniform for kicking over 100 times in a minute. He was so proud of that yellow star and broken board!

On Monday when we went to class Master Choe pulled Ammon and myself into his office and told Ammon that he was doing such a great job that he wanted to double promote him. Meaning that instead of being a yellow belt, he would be a yellow belt green tip! Master Choe said that mom needed to say yes that he could double promote (and pay for the 2nd promotion). I of course said YES, with tears in my eyes. He went into class and was taught the green tip form, bypassing the yellow tip form.
Later that week when his new card was made (each person has a card for them to mark when they go to class, and it's a certain color for rank) his was a green tip one.

In class the next week he got his yellow belt tied on. He was so proud to get that belt!!

Ammon is loving Taekwondo. Somedays he's rather stay home and play, but as soon as we get there he is all business and gets really into the class. We are so proud of Ammon and the energy and effort he is putting into Taekwondo!!

Is this the Smith residence?

This afternoon we got a phone call. I didn't recognize the name or number but still decided to pick it up.

The voice on the other end of the line says
Man: "Is John there?"
Me: "There's no John here."
Man: "Is Joanne there then?
Me: "No there's no Joanne here."
Man in a confused tone"Is this the Smith residence?"
Me "Yes it is, but there's no John or Joanne here, but there is a Johann and a Kari."
Man sounded even more confused "A who?"
Me getting somewhat impatient "My husband's name is Johann."
Man "Not Joanne?"
Me "No Johann."
Man now pretty embarrassed "Oh. I'm so sorry. I'm calling about a voter survey. Is he home?"

After the survey that I took to be kind to this poor guy who slaughtered Johann's name and felt so bad about it.

Man "Thank you for taking the survey, and again I am so sorry that I got the name wrong. I say a J and thought it was something else."
Me trying to keep a straight face "It's alright, we get it alot." I started laughing at this point because the guy really slaughtered our names and he was so embarrassed about it and you could hear it in his voice.
He also started laughing (which he tried so hard to cover up) and apologized and thanked me again.

This phone call made me think of the quote by sweet Marjorie Pay Hinckley: "The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."

This was so true today. I got such a kick out of this guys confusion, but if I hadn't I could have totally snapped at the guy and then I would have felt bad the rest of the day, and he probably would have felt bad too. Instead I decided to be nice and laugh and I had a smile on my face the rest of the day. I remember what it was like to work telemarketing and it's hard. So hopefully I put a smile on this guys face, because I know I had one!

 

Rebecca

When did you get so grown up looking? Is it the freckles starting to appear on your nose and cheeks or the ringlets that frame your sweet face?

STEM day at the Capital

Today I went to the Des Moines with a few kids from our Science Club. I did science projects for Stem.What brought some of our science projects and our Lego Robot. We got to show off our projects, tour the building and have lunch.

This is our group that went.

Will, lady from State Capital, April, Arriana

Nick, myself and Joshua