End of School Events

The end of the school year was busier than ever! 

Elliot was George Washington Carver in a 5th Grade Living Museum. The mustache was really perfect. 

Naturally, his presentation had a mini-game. He hid 8 tiny smiley faces in his informational poster. People who found them all won a single peanut from his prop peanut jar. 

Just like that, he's done with Elementary School! They had an advancement assembly. His class was the third to go. The first two classes were all given yellow certificates. Elliot was first up alphabetically in his class, and was handed a blue certificate. I was quite baffled by this, especially when the next kid got a yellow one. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that Elliot's class and the class after gave every other kid a blue certificate. Perhaps there were yellow paper shortages?

I have very photogenic sons. 

Annie's 2nd Grade Musical was soccer themed. Who knew that there were so many songs about soccer? Hits included "It's Not if You Win," "El Juego Bonito," and "Goal."

Annie had a great year in Ballet/Jazz. She says that Gymnastics is her true passion, but she still loves everything to do with performing on the stage. She would be sad to miss out on the outfit, hair, and whole general vibe of recital day. 

Her dance this year was to Meghan Trainor's "Better When I'm Dancin'." The highlight is around 1:40 when she lifts another girl (she's strong!) then gets to show off her side extension. 

At the gymnastics open house, she got to show off her skills on floor, vault, bar, and beam. Then they wrapped it up with a group floor routine. 

She has come SO FAR this past year due to some seriously hard work. This is the move she probably worked the hardest on- her backbend kickover. 

The splits are also a new development this year! It's so great that Annie gets to be with her BFF and neighbor for gymnastics and dance. They really support each other and have a great time. 

Here's their performance to "Determinate." 

Isaac nailed his line in the Kindergarten musical. He had a fun time singing on the stage. The music teacher does an impressive job of managing 5 classes of kindergarteners in one performance! Every kid who wants to say a line gets to, and I thought that the participation rate of kids doing the dance moves that go along with the songs was impressively high.

Isaac had an adorable Kindergarten celebration. They dressed up in fancy clothes and sang their favorite songs from the year. Hits included "Rise and Shine and Welcome to School Today," "Herman the Worm," and a parody of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off." The kids were so earnest and you can tell that they just love Mrs. Chittum. There have been times this year when Isaac struggled with all the rules and expectations of school, so it was extra sweet to see him so happy for the last few weeks of school. 

They shine bright with their sunglasses!

Each kid took home a very robust portfolio of all the crafts they did this year that hadn't already been sent home. Mrs. Chittum is impressively skilled with graphic design, and had a lot of crafts that incorporated pictures of the kids into them. Our favorite was a bat with Isaac's face on it that we have been taping in random locations throughout the house. 

We celebrated the last day of school with the traditional water fight at the park! 

Zicko was the master of the punctured balloon squirt

Elliot grabbed a shirt full of balloons then sprinted to the top of the playground to claim the high ground. It was very effective. 

Annie had stayed to play at the playground with friends for a couple hours before the water fight. She ran home, changed into her swim suit in record time, and then stayed for another couple of hours at the park. That's the dream!

Felix was very content with a cup and a cooler of water from popped balloons. 

Welcome to summer fun!

An Aaron in Paris

Aaron took an unexpected trip to Paris! A few days before his work's biannual in-person meetup in Chicago, his co-worker called him up and asked if he could travel to Paris to do an important vendor evaluation. We were a little nervous because I was 35 weeks pregnant, but it ended up being fine for us at home and a cool trip for Aaron.

 

On the second day in Chicago, the trip was finalized and tickets to leave that evening were purchased. His work got him a nice business class ticket! He had one of those pod seats that reclined all the way so he could try to sleep. It was in-flight luxury the likes of which we have never before experienced. He caught his last minute international flight with only the backpack he had packed for the Chicago trip and a suitcase full of testing equipment that is now in our bedroom. 

Here's the view out his hotel window. All the buildings are gorgeous! The location was amazing, too- he could see the Eiffel Tower from the roof of the hotel, and the office he was working at was just a few buildings away. 

This was a short trip. With the jet lag and red eye flight, he didn't have much time to calibrate before his big meeting. Then, his equipment testing took much longer than anticipated because one piece of equipment didn't make it into the hastily packed suitcase. His co-worker woke up at 3am US time to figure out some work-arounds with Aaron. 

He had some free hours before and after the long work day. ChatGPT was a huge help in figuring out the best sites to visit that were open and close by. We are usually planners, and everything about this trip was forcing Aaron to just wing it. He managed to soak up a good taste of the city in the short amount of time he had there.

The Arc de Triomphe looks like a giant game of frogger! There are cars driving about with no lane markings, and pedestrians dodging the cars to get close to the monument. Aaron says this was the closest he could get without risking life and limb. 

Aaron is more of an architecture guy than an art museum guy, so ChatGPT sent him walking to Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot. 

A few blocks away was another soaring cathedral! This one is the American Cathedral in Paris. Even though it was May, it was cold at night, and he only had his light jacket. 

Aaron indulgently took pictures of the food for me. He said they have smaller serving sizes but really high quality. He tried the Creme Brulé, which was incredibly delicious.

Salmon with yummy veggies? An Aaron dream come true!

This was an unexpected adventure, and I'm glad it worked out that Aaron was able to take advantage of such a cool opportunity to see a new part of the world!

Isaac turns 6

 Our Zicko is now a six year-old! 

He had a very clear vision about what he wanted for his cake. It was chocolate with vanilla frosting and peaches on top. Annie helped arrange the peach slices into a big number 6, and Isaac took charge of the sprinkle, chocolate and butterscotch chip, and candle placement. You will not be alone if you question his thought process for distributing those 6 candles. 

With his candles lit and the whole family ready to sing, Isaac had to skip a few laps in excitement before Breezy was able to reel him back in. 

Note his leis and birthday necklaces from school. This kid had a great day feeling appreciated, and got to stay for a sleepover at his happy place (Casa Johnson)

The next day was his birthday party at Get Air. I took a grand total of 0 pictures, so readers will need to use their imagination to picture Isaac having a great time with buddies from church and school at the trampoline park with some ice cream sandwiches in the lobby at the end. 

His favorite activity in the world is snuggling up to Breezy and watching videos with her. He is an imaginative kid who spends a lot of time pacing around in his own little world. He does like building toys, and the day that some teen employees at Mindforge built this marble track with him was legendary for him. 

Turning this box into a Felix bus was all his idea!

It's been a year of big changes for him as he started school and got generally more capable at life. He's still very much a head in the clouds type of kid who is very affectionate, and definitely has a trickster gremlin side to him. He has extremely strong opinions about a small number of things, and is completely ambivalent about everything else- like clothes being backwards or his shoes being ALWAYS on the wrong feet. He hates almost all dinner foods and would prefer to eat charcuterie boards for every meal. He loves non-fiction books and learning about new things. He frequently gets so excited about something that he has to hop a lap around the house with his elbows and knees going every which way. He really likes numbers and loves to play with timers. He has a great sense of direction, which allows him to very slowly get wherever he needs to go. This kid goes at his own pace, which frequently leaves him contentedly walking far behind everyone else on the walk home from the school bus. He's a one of a kind kid, and we love him to pieces!

Assorted Spring

 

The weather was so nice that we moved playgroup from the church to the park for several weeks. Felix is lucky to be growing up with a great pack of kids, and I'm lucky to have such a great pack of moms to hang out with!

The Tucson Festival of Books happened to be on pi day this year. We found a booth that was giving away pi related items, including a tape measurer thing that shows digits of pi. Elliot was able to blow away the volunteer by rattling off 56 digits of pi. 

Isaac and Annie earned some Book It pizzas at Pizza Hut. Usually we use those for Daddy Dates, but this time the whole family went along. 

I invented this game to try to help Isaac with his writing. Quite a few of his letters were backwards all the time. He's made some good progress!

The Priesthood Commemoration campout was at Calabasas this year.

All my boys at the zoo playground! Annie was off doing cartwheels with Ellie. 

I tried a new foraging adventure: Palo Verde Flower Jelly. I'm fairly certain that the Palo Verde pollen is responsible for my seasonal allergies and thought that maybe consuming some in a processed form might help. It's the same idea as eating local honey. I can't say if eating the jelly helped at all, but picking hundreds of flowers and getting coated in pollen definitely made things worse in the short term! If I make this again, I'll try twice as much flower extract and sugar for more flavor. 

Here's my breakfast in bed Mother's Day crew. I am so blessed to have them!

I Like Big Trucks and I Cannot Lie

One of my friends organized a trip to the fire station for preschool aged kids. We tagged along since Felix is a big fan of firetrucks. Although, he was daunted by high-fiving the firefighter with all his gear on and by squirting the hose himself. He now demands that we draw him firetrucks and tries to tell our smart speaker to play the "Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck" song all time.

We somehow had never taken our truck loving Felix to the mine museum for a dump truck lunch! He was duly impressed with the ore cart and various machinery. 

Annie found some graffiti that said "Elliot" on it and apparently was not impressed. 

We went to an RV show at the Pima County Fairgrounds to fuel our dream of owning a camper van. We love camping and road trips, and something like this would help us build the family culture we want. We decided that the Winnebago Solis with the rare sofa bed configuration would be the only one on the market that might actually work for us. It would be so cool to have a camper van, but we don't want anything bigger than a delivery van and need it to have 7 seatbelts. It turns out that people with 5 kids usually want bigger vehicles. We made a Codex program to scan the internet for options that might work for us. Stay tuned to see if we ever find a viable option!

Our last wheel-related news item: Isaac has made great strides with his pedal bike! He rode all the way to the skate park with Dad one day. 

Vistors

We had a number of visitors this spring! The most unexpected was my friend Jon Richards. We grew up together in McLean 1st Ward. His family was driving from California to a wedding in Texas and was passing through Tucson. He texted me if I knew any good areas to stay, so naturally I had to have him over! It was great to meet his wife and kids. I always love talking to old friends and having the feeling like we can pick up where we left off, even though it has been years since we've seen each other. 

 

Two McLean kids, all grown up

Felix greatly enjoyed sharing the wagon with his new buddies as we walked around the neighborhood. We also took them over to swim at the Casa Johnson pool to get them all tuckered out so that they would sleep well on the next leg of their trek. 

Grandma Blood came out to visit for Ethan's baptism! She was newly returned from her mission to the Philippines. It was great hearing all her stories. It was very apparent that she loved it there, and was actively trying to recruit replacements for her office missionary position when she came to church with us. Claudia's house was full with her cousins and their families visiting from California who also came out for the baptism. Her mom was also there. I'm always happy for opportunities to practice my Spanish!

By coincidence, Blake decided that he wanted to come down for a visit with his girlfriend on the same weekend that all the Bloods were in town. Max heard that Blake was coming and had some spare time, so he decided to take the train over from LA as well. Sahuarita was packed with relatives! We spent the week bouncing back and forth between Blood and Johnson activities, and we tried to show everyone around town. Fortunately it was great weather for a trip to the Desert Museum.

Why do kids love carrying around rocks when it is already hard to get them to walk around?

Let the record show that we did find the real javelina in addition to these cute statues! Felix saying "javelina" in his tiny little voice was a highlight for me. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have a pickaxe big enough for this rattler, and Annie was lost. 

Our other big outing was to the Museum of Miniatures. Felix was OBSESSED with the animal dudes riding motorcycles in a loop. Grumpa was very patient in escorting the little lad as he repeatedly bolted from other areas of the museum back to the motorcycles. 

Felix was also terrified of walking on the glass floor over the Christmas village. It took some serious persuasion to get him on there, but he eventually loved saying hi to Santa!

Our last visitor was quite unusual. We found this dead hummingbird centered on the little table outside our front door. At first, I thought it must be an offering from a neighborhood kid, but all the likely suspects denied any involvement. I think it must have just chosen this spot to elegantly breathe its last breath. When I told Breezy about it, she immediately decided this was an omen and looked up the meaning for me. Apparently, dead hummingbirds symbolize the end of a difficult or fast-paced phase of life, signaling a time to slow down and start anew. That sounds like a perfect message for this pregnant lady over here!