The End of the School Year...

School's over until August!  May was a busy month.

This was Erin's first year to participate in the science fair.  She got 3rd place in her class!

She's also been staying after school every Tuesday to participate in a 4th grade engineering design squad.  They had a district-wide competition last week where each school's design squad had to build a table out of paper and cardboard.  Erin's team didn't win, but they were able to stack 27 books on their table.  She had a lot of fun doing similar things every Tuesday.

Because Erin was on Principal's Honor Roll for the first three semesters, she got to go to Honors Night again.  This is her fourth trophy in four years - she's hoping to end up with eight of them before she goes to high school!  Rob and I think that's a pretty good goal  :)

Today was the last day of school.  Erin's class was supposed to dress up as NERDS.  Last night as we scrounged the house, I was pleased to discover that we don't have anything nerdy, ha ha.  But we were able to come up with a pretty horrifying outfit, complete with Richard Simmons pin, a "Star Student" sticker, a bun, and a clip-on tie.  Her teacher provided the black-rimmed glasses with white tape on the bridge once they got to class.

Robbie was all dressed up for kindergarten graduation.  I don't really agree with the idea of kindergarten graduation... but if they're having one and our kid's going to be in it, of course we're going!  It was really cute.  He had the same kindergarten teacher Erin had, and we really like her.  She's so good at making every kid feel special, and you can tell she really loves what she does.  I'm a little sad that our kids are past kindergarten and we won't have her for a teacher anymore!

He got a little diploma and some extra certificates for reading and attendance, and he got to talk into a microphone to say what he liked best about kindergarten.  (His answer: "Going to kindergarten")

We also had to get a picture of him with one of his best friends, Elijah P.  (there was another Elijah in the class)  His mom and I exchanged contact info so maybe we can get them together to play sometimes in the summer.  Robbie is excited they're going to be in the same class next year, too.

I've never posted a video on the blog before, so let's see if this works:

AGFD Outdoor Expo

We missed the Tres Rios Festival this year, so we decided to go to the Arizona Game & Fish Department's Outdoor Expo in April.  Rob was playing in a softball tournament that day, so the kids and I stopped by and watched a game before going on to the expo.

This is an annual event AGFD puts on, and it's HUGE.  It's geared mainly toward hunting & fishing, so there were lots of vendors there showing new guns, knives, bows, you name it.  Not particularly interesting to me and the kids, but there was lots of other stuff, too.  Plenty of live and taxidermied animals and pelts, giant fish tanks, target ranges, a rodeo arena with different competitions, ATVs and RVs on display.

Erin got to hold a snake!  I thought Robbie would want to, with how much he loves animals, but maybe snakes aren't his bag.

The kids got to shoot BB guns and keep their targets.  One of the guys at the range gave them bright orange shooting vests to wear.  Erin quickly realized they were dorky and decided to carry hers.  Robbie, on the other hand, wore it proudly and for about a week afterward, it was his eating vest, his playing with Legos vest, his drawing vest, you name it.  He still wears it around the house every now and then.