~Last Day of Smarty Pants Preschool~

We are so sad to say goodbye to everyone at Smarty Pants Preschool.  Garrett has LOVED all of his teachers and has made lots of cute friends.  He loves school and I know its because of the great experience he has had in preschool.

For the last day of school, the class went down the street to the local park to play, have snacks, and to get an award.

Garrett got the Bunny Award for being quick to follow directions and make good choices.  He is such a good little guy :)

We are ready for summer!!! Bring it on!!!

~Perfect Day For A Wedding~

It was the perfect day to go and see Jackie and Brandon be sealed for time and all eternity in the Ogden Temple.  Jackie looked beautiful!  I am so happy for the two of them and they life they are about to start together!

Katelyn, Lexi, and Sarah with Great Grandma Donna.

Garrett originally caught the garter, but I guess he just looked at it confused at what it was, so they grabbed it and tossed it again, lol.

Welcome to the Ropelato family Brandon!

~The Best Calling In the World~

"The joy in motherhood comes in moments.  There will be hard times and frustrating times.  But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction." ~M Russell BallardI can't think of anything that has brought me more joy than these 4 cuties.  I love them all so much and am so grateful that I was called to be their mom.  They truly are the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful, funniest, most talented kids around.  I am so proud of each one of them and the little people they are growing into.  This Mother's Day I was especially grateful for the handprint book and bracelet Garrett made for me, the stepping stone and letter that I got from Lexi, the German Mothers day card that I got from Hunter, and the extra help, hugs, and back scratches that I got from Mckell.  They all made my special day so wonderful.

I was also given a shining moment of satisfaction when I was surprised by a group of sweet young women showing up at my door.  They are all friends of Hunter's and they stopped by to bring me a mothers day treat and letters that they all had written to me to wish me a Happy Mothers Day.  Such a sweet gesture from these sweet girls.  I was speechless.  The letters all told me what an amazing mother I must be to have raised such an amazing young man like Hunter.  They all commented what a gentleman he is.  How he  is always holding the door open for them, will give up his seat so they can sit down, and how he carried all of the girls' hammocks for them when they were going hammocking.  They also said how he is kind to everyone, never says anything mean about anyone, and is a great missionary and example to these girls.  I was truly touched by these letters.  They made me cry.  It really reaffirmed to me that little acts of kindness can really make someone's day so much happier.  I truly am so proud of the young man Hunter is, and these letters letting me know what a kind, gentleman he is really made my Mother's Day the best!!!  Thank you Tessa, Kira, Kenna, Ginny, Kinley, and Grace.  I will cherish these letters forever!!!

~Ropelato Birthday Party/Mothers Day Get Together~

This year for Mother's Day, Randee had a great idea of getting an updated grandchildren picture to give to Darinda.  Randee used her photography skills and took a beautiful picture of all the grandkids.

We are lucky to have a photographer in the family who will do this.  I think the picture turned out great.  We decided to have a get together at our house to give it to Darinda for Mother's Day and to also celebrate the April and May birthdays.  We have a lot of them, lol.

The birthday kiddos (minus Jackie, she didn't make it in the picture).  Abby, Andrew, Mckell, Garrett, and Katelyn.  Stacey made a super cute dinosaur cake.

It is so much fun getting together with cousins and family and laughing, playing, and reminiscing about old times.  We really need to do this more often.

~Mother/ Daughter Cupcake Wars~

For activity days the girls planned a mother/daughter night.  It was so much fun.  We had cupcake wars and was given 3 different challenges of cupcakes to decorate.  I loved spending one on one time with Lexi.

Lexi and I were awarded the cupcakes with the most Bling, lol.  It was a fun evening.  I had to take a picture of Lexi by my favorite snowball bush in the backyard while it was in full bloom.  I absolutely LOVE this snowball bush because it reminds me of my Grandma Wangsgard.  I remember loving to look at and smell her snowball bushes when I was a little girl. She had them all lined up along the side of her house. Every time I see this bush in bloom I remember my Grandma Wangsgard :)

~Naked Teeth!!!~

Mckell first got braces and a herps in the 4th grade.  Today she finally is brace free.  Whoohoo!!!  Yay for naked teeth!!! lol  Although, Mckell wasn't so sure she liked them at first.  She said they felt so gross, lol.

Mckell with braces

Mckell without braces.   Such a pretty smile. :)  She got to ring The Good News Gong, and she and Dr John did a disco dance to "Celebrate good times", lol.

Dr John is so much fun!

~M Day~

Lexi's cute teacher has had all the kids take a letter of the alphabet these last few weeks and the kids plan and activity/treat around that letter.  Today was "M" day.  The kids all wore mustaches to Mcdonald's to get a treat.  Lexi has LOVED being in Mrs. Wadman's class this year.  She is the BEST teacher ever!!!

Lexi's cute 3rd grade class

Mrs. Wadman, Lexi, and Jackie.

Days like this are what make elementary school memorable :)

~Preschool Graduation~

May has been so crazy busy.  It feels like we are literally running from one thing to the next.  Tonight was SmartyPants preschool graduation.  I love watching Garrett perform at these programs because he goes all out.  He sings and dances with all of hjis might.  It is so fun to watch!

It's official.  My baby is going into elementary school.  I don't know whether to be so happy or cry that my baby is growing up.

These women are what has made preschool such a joy.  Garrett loves each and every one of them.  They all have been so cute with him and I know he is going to miss seeing them every school day.

Garrett was the star of the show.  I had people coming up to me for days commenting about how much fun it was to watch Garrett, lol.  He is quite the performer:)

Garrett and his little buddy Zac.  It will be fun that they will go to kindergarten together.

My Boys!

Garrett and his buddy Tyce.

I don't know why I didn't get a picture of the girls with Garrett, or with my parents with him??? It was fun to have everyone there celebrating with this cutie.

We sure are going to miss SmartyPants Preschool and the friends Garrett has made there.

~Jr High District Track Meet~

Hunter and his buddies decided that they wanted to try out for the track team this year.  They all made it and did really well and had a lot of fun.  Hunter participated in the long jump, the high jump, and several races including the 100, 200, 4 by 100, and a relay medley.  He and his buddies did so well that they all ended up qualifying for district.

At district, Hunter participated in the long jump, the high jump, and the 200 relay.  In the long jump he hit a personal record, jumping 19'2".  We thought for sure this would land Hunter 1st place, because no one had jumped this far all season long.  But a boy from Wahlquist jumped 19'5" on his very last jump, so Hunter took 2nd place, which is still awesome!!!

Hunter has made some great friends from being on the track team.  This is really a fun group of kids.
In the high jump, Hunter also hit a personal record of jumping 5'9", which earned him another 2nd place award just behind a boy from Sandridge.

I love that these boys do everything together.  They are such good boys and have been good friends since 3rd grade.  It's been fun to watch them grow over the years.

North Ogden Jr High Boys track took 1st place at District.  The girls took 3rd place.  Way to Go NOJH!!!

Hunter said the coaches told him he was the boy with the highest individual score at the district track meet.  He earned 16 points.  Way to go Hunter!!!  It was fun to watch him participate in track.