misc from May

Well, we're down to only 3 days of school left for Haden.  I'm left wondering how in the world the school year flew past so quickly.  I really have a hard time comprehending that I'll soon have a 1st grader- that just sounds so old and I still picture Haden as a toddler when in reality he was become an independent young man.  In reflection, there are plenty of bad things he's learned this year at school, the worst being the back talking and attitude.  He also learned that the middle finger is bad, although he thinks it means "I hate God."  Haden has taken a notice to radio music this past year.  He'll often come home singing popular radio songs, usually with the lyrics completely wrong but it's still pretty amusing. 

On the other hand, Haden has an awesome teacher, Ms. Knupp.  He just adores her and I'm pretty sure he was the teacher's pet this year.  He is such a good boy at school, and was chosen to attend "group" sessions where some of the more naughty kids were sent to spend time with a counselor to learn better behaviors.  He attended "group" as the positive role model.  Haden was already reading when he began kindergarten, but he's become an even stronger reader and has been enjoying chapter books and will even occasionally sit and read to himself.   A couple of days ago, Haden and I were each huddled on opposite ends of the couch reading to ourselves and I had one of those yep, he's just like me moments.

So, as the school year wraps up, I took to Pinterest to come up with gift ideas:

Ms. Knupp's gift

Bus driver gift

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend - one of the biggest camping weekends of the year.  We had sites reserved for us and Barb & Ron at Sugarbottom and we were all so excited for a fun weekend.  Unfortunately, it rained nearly non-stop the entire weekend.  We only had a few hours total of outdoor time the entire weekend.  The kids still said they had fun, but I was bummed that we couldn't bike, hike, or be outside very much.  I did get one run in at the campground.  I had forgotten how hilly that place is, but I love running at campgrounds because it's a change of scenery.

While we were camping, James made a girlfriend and hung out with her every chance he got.  She was riding her bike, so James decided he wanted to ride his too.  Up until then, he has taken very little interest in riding his bike, but he hopped on and took off (but still has the training wheels).  The beach area at the campground is flooded and we watched the waters rise even higher while we were there.  I think it'll be quite a while until the water recedes enough to use the beach, which is a bummer because that is a huge reason why we camp there.

While we were stuck inside the camper this weekend, James spent some time practicing his name.  He is so proud of his writing skills.

Sunday afternoon, we all packed into the minivan (including Barb & Ron) and headed up to Dubuque for Grandma Lois's surprise 80th birthday party.  On the way back home, we hit a deer.  I'm glad that Kye was driving because he was able to control the vehicle and keep us all safe, while if it were me I'm pretty sure I would have swerved or ended up in the ditch!  The van sustained some good damage, the estimate today was $6800 in repairs.  Luckily, it struck the van in such a way that we lost the front headlight, but were able to get to a gas station, grab some duct tape, and then drive back to the campground.  Somehow, James managed to sleep through the entire ordeal, which is amazing because I screamed pretty loud as it happened and it was a pretty hard thud as it hit!  Haden was pretty excited by all of it and thought it was neat for the police officer to come with his lights flashing.

 

This weekend, I'll be running Dam-to-Dam a 20K race in the Des Moines area.  I'll be running with a couple of friends who just became runners last summer and have done an awesome job of training and getting fast!  I'm kind of glad to get this race over with because I've been feeling really burned out of the race training since my 1/2 marathon back in April.  Going forward, I need to decide if I'm done training for a while or if I'm still thinking about pushing forward and doing a full marathon this fall.  One of my knees has been giving me problems so I'm not sure my body can handle more training so I love how much food I can eat when I'm running 25 miles a week.  I read a blog called "runs for cookies" and that is seriously how I feel about running some days!

Other random fun stuff from May:

We got 5.5 tons of dirt delivered - to distribute in various places around the yard.  The boys loved playing on the huge mound of dirt all day as Kye worked his butt off to move the dirt around

not sure if you can see,but notice the neighbor's dandelion filled backyard, how in the world are we supposed to keep our yard looking nice when both of our neighbor's yards look like this???!!

I got the garden planted at the end of April and it's looking good.  Here is a pic of James picking the first strawberry of the season -

Another crafty moment came when I needed to buy some graduation cards.  Apparently, I waited too long because Target was cleared out and had the Father's Day cards out instead.  There were like 5 cards to pick from, none cheaper than $4.  I've always had a hard time buying greeting/birthday cards because most cost $3-5 and I know that most people just throw them away.  So, I was not willing to pay $4 for a crappy card so I headed home and made my own with my Cricut.  I think they turned out cuter than what the store had anyways!  Please tell me that I'm not the only one that finds buying cards is a huge waste of money...