LRE with Tucker...

The Central Valley School District has a program called the Little Red Easel program. It is where parent volunteers are an art docent and come in once a month to do art lessons. I volunteered to be the art docent for Tucker's class and luckily, 3 other moms also did! So, between the four of us, we split up the lessons for the school year. I love being in the school with Tucker and his class and helping. I'll never forget this day, where I had to use the cut out machine for like 2 hours cutting out all of these flowers. It's a cool program, because they learn about an artist, their style, and then do a project similar. This was more of a fun spring project, they made these flowers for the secretaries to put up around their office to make them happy about the spring.  

Tucker also wanted to take a picture next to their map of post cards. They did a fun thing where they asked family members to send post cards from all over the world. It was fun to always go in and see all the new post cards. Tucker got some from Papa in Alaska, Grandma sent one that she got in Las Vegas. Aunt Meg sent some from her trip to Italy and Greece, I think. He was so happy to get them from family members.

 

We love Mrs. Barnes so dang much!

 

I love the signs like this that hang all over the school. I just hope that I never have worry about things like this. So far, we've been free of drama! Whew!

Tucker plays basketball...

We are in full swing of basketball season in February and March and our Saturdays seem to work all around when Tucker's games are. I'm glad Tucker loves basketball so much and that he seems to work hard at it.  He's learning to be more aggressive and learning more about the sport and I love that he loves sports and works hard.

 Him and his buddy, Nash who have played sports together for a few years now for the YMCA. He goes to Greenacres Elementary...

 Ben was the assistant coach for Coach Jim Plickett. He was so nice and is the grandpa of one of the players, Isaac. He wasn't always the best coach at coaching skills, but he was so good at teaching them teamwork and respect. He always taught them to thank the ref, thank the coaches, shake hands of the other team.

 Tucker was really good at defense.

 

 

 I missed picture day, luckily my mom was here and was able to take him, while I was home sick. I actually lost the team picture, but my mom sent me this and this is a more accurate depiction of the team. I'm glad he has such good buddies: Drew, Brayden, Carson, Isaac, Tucker,

 

 There must have been at least half of the team missing that day, so I'm not too sad about losing the picture! :)

 

 Tucker during his individual shot. I like this one a lot better than the professional one! :)

 

 Getting a pep talk from their coach before the game:

 

 

 

I love that the refs in this league are all pretty great with kids. If they blow the whistle, they will stop and tell the kid why the blew the whistle and stopped the game and explain and coach the kids almost. Pretty great!

 

 

End of February shenanigans...

One perk of having grandma here for a week is having a live in babysitter for that week. I was able to head out one day at lunch to eat lunch with Tucker at school. This boy. He's crazy. A little too crazy sometimes, but we always have a good time. We ate our Subway and then went out and played basketball during his lunch recess. I love getting to spend some one on one time with this boy of mine.

Taylor's gymnastics class got some class pictures. Here are the girls in her class and her coach, Whitney. Whitney is awesome, I wish she was a little bit more strict with the girls. I sometimes feel like I'm wasting my money, but then I have to remember that they are only 5 years old. I didn't want to pay and arm and a leg for pictures yet. One day I will for her, but just not yet. But they post them all on the wall at the gym, so I just white trashed it and took a picture of the picture on the wall.  ha ha

Taylor has officially discovered mascara, and wants to wear it all the time. She also likes to put it on herself, and just kind of jabs it at her eyeball.

After all of our company, we were all ready for just some down time. That means kindle time for this dude.

One of my good friends, Courtney and her family are selling their house and moving out of Spokane. First stop is to Alaska to spend the summer with her family. That is where she is from and they are going to live with her parents for the summer. Her husband works for himself and can work from anywhere, and he travels anyway, so they are going up to Alaska for the summer and then in the fall they are heading down to Florida where they will buy an RV and take a few years and travel the US. I think it sounds fascinating and fun and like such a great adventure. Would I want to do it with 5 kids. Hell no! But I am super excited for them! Anyway, I watched her 3 daughters (she, obviously, homeschools) during the day a few days at the end of the month so she could get things packed up and cute little Callie and I became buds. She is so cute, I had to take a picture of her when she fell asleep.

Katrina and I took Courtney out to dinner to say goodbye before she left for Alaska. I'm so sad to see her go. Can't pass up an opportunity to head to the White house in Post falls for their delicious Greek food and lots and lots of garlic! YUM!

Taylor's preschool notebook she brought home. Each of the kids write a page about the topic of the book. This book was 'My family is special because...' I love that little Taylor of mine and I love her mad drawing skills! We even have pig noses and all!

Two boys in the shower. These kids are so lucky to have a great daddy! I love these boys of mine!

My new OB.SESS.ION! I can finish off one of these containers in one sitting. I love this stuff so much! Had to document it! :)

Tucker's First Blue and Gold banquet...

I am, admittedly, very bad at this whole cub scout thing. But! Tucker did have his first blue and gold banquet and I was determined to help him get a good cake done. I didn't realize that you usually do a campfire theme. Or, maybe you don't, I don't even know. It seemed that all the cakes there that night were campfire themed. Tucker told me he wanted to do a dragon cake, so that's what we did! :) I made the cake, and put it together, but he decorated it all on his own. He showed me how to put it together.

Thank goodness for Google images, and pinterest. I was pretty proud of myself! :)

Tucker then went to town:

I love my creative boy:

I was so excited for him to be at his first blue and gold banquet. The theme was country and western and you can see Tucker's 'Most Wanted' poster, the 5th one in. He's so cute! :) I'm so grateful for the leaders who take the time to put these things together. I have a lot to learn and at this point, don't have a huge desire to get things done for him. But I know I need to muster that up and get things done for him. I know it's a great program and will teach him so many wonderful things. But I am going to have to get used to and learn to endure many more evenings like this! :)

Taylor went from this:

to this, in .1 second. This girl is so dramatic!

Tucker's cake with all of the others:

We actually high tailed it out of there a little early because it was grandma's last day here, so we went to Red Robin for dinner! :) Baby steps, people! :)

Papa & Kathryn's new house...

Papa and Kathryn finally closed on their house, and we were so excited to go check it out. It all happened so fast, that we hadn't even had a chance to go see it. I, of course, had driven by it a few times to see what I could see, but I hadn't seen the inside. It was fun because Kayla and her kids were also able to go see it with us. The deets are that they bought a 12 acre property out on Saltese Lake, which isn't really a lake, but more like a marsh. But it is totally beautiful and they have a gorgeous view of Mica Peak. It's in between the Valley and Liberty Lake in Greenacres. There are 3 of the acres that have the house and yard on, and where my dad will build his shop, but  the rest of the property is just land with animals roaming and it is this huge valley that is gorgeous. So, we got to go check it out.

The kids had a hey day running around in an empty house. It is so nice, too because the basement has a little mini kitchen and three bedrooms with bathrooms attached to each one. So, it will be totally nice when family comes to visit.

It's just nice and bright and new. I'm so excited for them.

It's a perfect size, too. And a perfect retirement home for them. All that they need for day to day life is on the first floor. No having to go up and down stairs every day all day. The upstairs has their master bedroom, my dad's office, and a spare room with a bathroom that will be Kathryn's room for all of her craft/work stuff. Not too big, but enough space for all that they need.

Their nice big deck that the kids love to dance on...

Dog Pile on Owen...

{Meg and Wes haven't even been out there, but Owen and Luke have! :) It was so cute, on our way out there, there is one turn in the road where you turn with the road and it kind of opens up to a big vista where you can see the valley and the mountains and some houses. And Luke says, 'WOAH! I can see to South America from here!!!' and he was so excited about it!

Of course, Jackson found a ball and Taylor is loving on Burton...

So jealous of the big white baseboards and so many other beautiful details in the home.

They have this awesome butcher block island in the kitchen with these under cabinent baskets. Perfect for breads and veggies. They are so cute!

The Master bath shower. My dad was really excited about how many people could fit in it. All the kids had to test it out! :)

Of course, Kathryn has her priorities right in getting things put in the house. She had this in the fridge first thing.

Papa and Kathryn sitting in front of their new fireplace!

You can't see it very well, but their beautiful view:

Their new front door:

So excited for this new beginning for them and all the memories we will make in their new home! :) And so happy that my dad FINALLY has a decent kitchen to cook in!!! :) HA HA!