1st and Kinder Rodeo...

Our Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Chamberlain is retiring this year. As her last hoorah, her and the 1st Grade teacher, Emily's teacher, Mrs. Leigh decided to throw a rodeo together for the two classes. The classes were split up into groups of 6 and then rotated from one station to the next. While Brayden, Kylie and I were waiting for the classes to come out Brayden was able to take a ride with the miniature horse. He loved it!

Knowing it was rodeo day. Miss Emily dressed the part! All of the kids were given a 

cow boy hat and a kerchief.

Emily asked that I dress Kylie up in rodeo attire. This was the best I could do!

One of the station's was cow tipping, aka bowling.

Brayden and Emily.

Duck Tossing.

 One of the best stations was making a "stick horse" out of swim noodles.

Milking the Cow.

 Who could fill there bucket with the most "milk", aka water.

Not only did they get to ride on the miniature horse cart but they got ride a real horse too! 

It wouldn't be a real rodeo with out a little ropin'.

They also got to play "pin the kerchief" on the cowboy!

Following all the activities we had a "real" cowboy as the kids called him bring everyone lunch. I was too busy serving so I missed out on the picture taking. We served dutch oven potato's, baked beans, corn bread and the kids favorite part, cup cakes! The weather cooperated and gave us nothing but sunshine. 

 It was a great day! Glad I was able to be a part of it. 

Kylie's 1st Hair Cut...

Somebody got their hair cut.....

and it wasn't by mom!

Mom was standing at the stove getting dinner ready. Kylie was sitting in front of the computer watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, the only show that will hold her interest and Brayden was sitting at the table playing with play-doh. 

Madelyn's cousin Ruth was over to play and as she was coming down the stairs to head home I heard her say, "Brayden, don't cut Kylies hair". I whipped around real quick and asked him if he had cut it. In typical 5 year old fashion he said "No!!!". After a quick discussion of how we don't play with scissors nor do we EVER cut someone's hair I made him put the scissors away and went back to fixing dinner. 

A few minutes later while the girls were setting the table I heard Madelyn say, "Whoaaaa, Where'd all that hair come from?" 

3 1/2 inches of hair was laying on the ground!!!

I am so glad that Brayden only cut off the bottom of Kylie's pony tail and not at the top of the pig tail. 

I know he didn't cut very much but when we have as little hair as she does that 3 1/2 inches makes a big difference! 

 It was one thing to have cut her hair but then to lie about it..... I'll admit I flew off the handle for a few minutes. Having a wooden spoon on the counter next to me I grabbed it and gave him a few hard whacks on the bum and then made him stand in the corner for a very, very long time.

He was not a happy little boy!

On the bright side he said he'll never cut her hair again or anyone else's!!

He also said he wouldn't lie to me ever again

I hope he's telling the truth this time... about both instances. 

Kylie knows that Brayden cut her hair. When daddy got home she ran up to him and started pointing and pulling on her hair and then pointing at Brayden while whimpering. When Aunt Natoshia came over a few hours later she did the same thing. It was kind of funny to watch her "try" to tell others what had happened.

This is the 1st time one of my children have taken scissors to a siblings head. I know it could have been much worse but I really hope this was the first and last experience with these type of hair cuts!

Brayden Graduated from Preschool

Thursday was a pretty exciting day for this little boy.

He graduated from Preschool!

 Brayden and Miss Wendy. Best teacher ever!

 Brayden's first part was to spell his name out loud for everyone to hear.

Some of the kids were speaking very LOUDLY into the micro phone. 

Brayden does not like loud noise!
I looked over and laughed to see his hands covering his ears.

Brayden's 2nd speaking part was telling what his favorite things were about preschool.

He loved playing with his school friends, legos, cars and having time on the computer.

Miss Wendy loves to sing songs. 

She has taught the kids a ton of songs that involve hand motions. 

These are Braydens favorites.

His last song the class sang involved glow sticks.

He had a blast singing in the dark. 

He warned me before hand so that I wouldn't be afraid of the dark.

It's official....

He graduated!

Cheesy smiles!

Brayden was quite excited to show off his poster.

He painted his name all by himself.

After graduation each child was able to bring home a goodie bag and notebook. 

The notebook is full of kinder-ready papers. His bag had a card game, easy-reader books, crayons, colored pencils and popsicles. 

My little man is already for Kindergarten. Miss Wendy kept telling the kids that they are kindergarteners now. Brayden was pretty disapointed when he woke up the next morning and I wouldn't let him go to school. He kept telling me that his teacher said he belongs to kindergarten now and that he needed to go. He doesn't seem to understand that there is a big summer break in between school years. 

 Sure hope his excitement about kindergarten lasts through the summer. 

Here piggy, piggy, piggy....

It's that time of year again...

Getting ready for the summer fair. 

 We've got 5 little piggies running around in Uncle Klynt's back yard. 

 Emily with her pig. 

She thinks she chose the tamest pig this year.

 Her pig, that is still nameless, was content to sit and let her pet it over and over again.

Brayden picked the smallest of the bunch. His pig was born 2 weeks after the others but should still make weight come auction time. His pig ran the fastest and I haven't been able to capture a "un-blurry" photo yet.  

He named his pig Spot because he is all white with the the black head but has a black target like spot on his side. 

While the bigger kids were taking care of their pigs Brayden decided to chase chickens. One of these days when the wind isn't blowing 40+ miles an hour I'll bring the camera back out. I still need to take pictures of Hunter and Madelyn with their pigs and good one of Brayden with his new super-duper friend, Spot!

Look who's 5!

We had a birthday at our house.

Brayden turned 5!

Brayden loves super heroes and right now is fascinated with 

TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I wasn't surprised when he asked for a TMNT cake.

 His was thrilled with his 5 stacked pancakes for breakfast.

His birthday fell on a Sunday this year. With Dad and Madelyn having early morning meetings we let him open one gift before church. He was so excited.....

But I think a little disappointed to see it was a new church shirt and tie. But hey... it was an angry bird's tie. He was sure quick to let his friends and Primary Teacher know that it was his birthday and his Sunday clothes were brand new.

When we got home from church he was able to open the rest of his presents. His older siblings were so excited for his birthday that the previous week each of them bought him a gift with their own money. They were pretty stoked to see all the cool toys they had to choose from on clearance at Wal Mart. Many of them were super hero themed.

Brayden was super-duper excited to receive a TMNT wii game.

Love his eyebrows!

Look Dad, more super heroes.

Look at that pile of super-duper coolness!

I kept telling Brayden that I didn't want him to turn 5. I wanted him to stay little and remain only 4. I told him I was only going to put 4 candles on his cake so that he couldn't turn 5. Before blowing out his candles he insisted on counting them. Making sure Mom put all 5 deserved candles on his cake.

Happy Birthday little man. He sure had a good day!

He played in his room all afternoon with his new toys and we didn't hear much from him.

When our kids turn 5 they get their 1st friend party. Unfortunately, there aren't many little boys in town his age to invite this year. Even though the road goes both ways it seems like Alton is just too far for people to travel to from the Valley. I was told if I had his party on the school lawn I'd have a better chance at getting little boys to attend. Not really wanting to have his party away from home and having the conflict of baseball games using the field we decided to hold off on his party until he turns 6. Hopefully next year with different circumstances he'll have an awesome birthday party with new friends. Love his carefree attitude. He wasn't bothered by this at all. 

Brayden's favorite color is yellow. His favorite breakfast food is "panpakes" and favorite dinner is rice. He loves to play wii and be outside. He loves playing with super heroes. He loves to ride his bike up and down the street and swing at the park. He loves to have books read to him and tries to read them on his own. He loves to help mom in the kitchen. His newest stage right now is using the word "super-duper". We hear quite often how he's super-duper tired, super-duper hungry, super-duper excited and how he's a super-duper baseball player. I recently got a little note from his teacher. In it she says how she's "super-duper" sad that pre-school is coming to an end. Pretty sure this is where he picked up this new word. We sure love this happy little boy. So glad he's a part of our family! 

Happy 5th Birthday, little man!