Playing Catch Up . . . or Catch Us if You Can

This has been a crazy-busy month with little to no down days. The year has flown by so quickly, and even more so when there's so much going on. I know it's busier than normal when I can usually get 10 days for one tank of gas, but lately I'm filling up every 4-5 days. Crazy!

We've been immersed in Track with practices 4x a week and meets all day every Saturday. This next season, John has been voted in as President (like we have time for that?) but the good thing is that activities will not be happening on Sundays!

Brooke (above) waiting for her turn to do the 100m dash.

Madison (below) starting the 400m.

Track is now officially over - now home projects can resume (remember the bathroom?). The end of season picnic was totally awesome. It was supposed to be on a Sunday, as it had traditionally been in years past. Not going to happen this time (with this man in charge), so we had it on a Tuesday evening, the time that practice normally was and had the BEST attendance in the club's history. We planned for 300 people, and 500 came. We ran out of pizza so I spent the night dashing to and from Tony's Pizza picking up more. It was great fun and we were so glad that it was successful so we can use it to show that things don't have to be on Sundays!

Driving and chaperoning the 3rd grade class to the Satwiwa Field Trip. Luckily, we have a National Park just around the corner, so we just caravanned the kids on over and the park rangers put on a great show.

An "ap".

Trip to Las Vegas

We visited temple grounds,

stayed in a great hotel that upgraded us to a huge suite (it pays to have clout at Marriott).

Christian ran out of the bathroom and yelled, "There's a booby trap in the bathroom!!!" as water is dripping down the front of him; A nice introduction to a bidet.

and the highlight of the trip is Serendipity . . . Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

utterly amazing and well worth every calorie.

We took the Hoover Dam tour - had to be educational since we took a day off school.

Annual birthday portraits

I was involved in two carnivals. First the school carnival, which was awesome and exhausting, then the next week we, as a Stake Primary Presidency, put on a Stake Primary Activity which was a carnival! It was so much fun and so much work! We were exhausted, but it was all good. We had record-breaking attendance and everything worked out smoothly. Lots of non-members came and everyone had a great time.

The kindergarten Peter Rabbit play. Christian was Peter himself - and a super cute one at that! He is quite the performer.

Swim lessons for four weeks. Ashlyn and Christian had two sessions, Brooke had one.

Padres baseball. Lots of games, lots of fun.

Driving and chaperoning the 5th grade field trip to the Maritime Museum and Floating Lab - which is just that: a lab that floats, on a boat, in the ocean.

It was a great experience. They learned how to test the wind and water; smell, feel, and taste mud from the bottom of the sea; hold sea cucumbers, slugs, starfish, and more. Did you know that if you kiss a sea slug you'll have five years of good luck? They examined sea water under a microscope and learned how many creepy crawlies are actually creeping and crawling in each drop of water.

Chaperoning the kindergarten trip to the Strawberry Farms.

We got to ride the tractor and pick fresh, deliciously sweet strawberries. We also got our shoes caked with mud.

The kindergarten songfest.

Mr. Newton, the music teacher, had them perform many fun numbers. they were very cute!

Andrea and Adam moved into their first home - we got to help and play with

baby Taylor!

Madison had to give a demonstration speech at school, so she demonstrated

How to Surf

The same day was the school talent show: Maple's Got Talent

Brooke and Madison played the piano: Heavenly Harp and Away in a Manger

and The First Noel and I Know My Redeemer Lives. The principal came over to me during the show to personally thank us for the selection of music!

Brooke's class also did a dance to THRILLER so she hurriedly changed into a zombie get up and put on an awesome performance!

Here we are, just the week before school gets out. Picnics, class projects and assignments, and culmination coming up. It's a crazy busy time of year - looking forward to summer, but NOT looking forward to the end of summer!

Very Outstanding

It's been a busy month, but I'll have to play catch up later.

But first I need to document a momentous day in the Merrill Family.

Madison was selected to receive the City of Thousand Oaks Outstanding Citizen Award sponsored by the Rotary Club.

We received a letter in the mail and didn't know what it was about until I looked it up and found newspaper articles about it from last year.

One student from each school who exhibits exemplary citizenship and character is selected by the Principal and teachers and is invited to a beautiful luncheon held at the Golf Course and is attended by city dignitaries including the mayor, superintendent of schools, and county supervisor.

Mr. Iezza, director of Elementary Ed; Mr. Contini, Superintendent of CVUSD; Linda Parks, Ventura County Supervisor; Dennis Gillette, Mayor.

We are very proud of Madison and her well-deserved recognition. It was an amazing day and an opportunity for her to shine and grow. We pulled Brooke out of school, too, as she wanted to support her sister and see her receive the award. My parents came as well and it was a very nice event.

The announcer said many wonderful things about Madison and she went up and shook each of the officials' hands as they each handed her an award and plaque.

We are very proud of you sweet Maddy and hope this is a springboard for you to accomplish many great things in your life!

Greg Chapple, Madison, Jessica Pace - The other LDS kids who also received the award. Greg has had a huge crush on Maddy since preschool! (She's squatting down a bit so she's not so tall next to him - to try and make him feel better! haha)

PINK! PINK! PINK!

It's time for a Pinkalicious Birthday Party!

Pink Cupcakes for All!!

Ashlyn's 4th birthday party was a fun, low-key affair centered around pink, pink, and . . . PINK. We celebrated the girlyness of the girls and had a great time.

Pink the star on Pinkalicious' wand -

Reading the Pinkalicious and Purplelicious stories while nails were drying.

Pinkalicious loves PINK so she eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink, which she thinks is pinkatastic, then goes on to eat more and turns RED,

She must eat a steady diet of GREEN food to counteract the effects of all the PINK.

Instead of brussels sprouts, okra and olives, we settled for grapes, edamame, apples and pickles.

We colored PINK eggs and painted their fingernails sparkly PINK.

Make a wish Ashlyn!

Happy Birthday Pretty Pinkalicious Princess!

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!!

Ashlyn was born four years ago today. She let mom have a great pregnancy, and a super easy and fast birth.

Los Robles Hospital

7.15 oz.

All smiles on her blessing day.

Lucky girl has two wonderful big sisters from whom to learn.

Ashlyn has never been afraid of the water. She will jump into any pool!

Love her red hair!

Lovin the Hawaiian life.

Our pale beach girl. Never leaves the house without SPF 70!

Easter - two years old.

Little pumpkin girl

I don't know if there is anyone as obsessed with lip gloss as Ashlyn.

She'll use the excuse that her "lips are chapped" so she can get into my makeup bag.

Ashlyn loves to dress up - no matter what the occasion. This time was putting her sister's track uniform on over her clothes to wear to track practice - and her mom's sunglasses.

At the pool in Kansas City while on vacation . . . snuggly girl.

Our little ballerina - she loves dance class now, but mostly because it involves pink, dressing up and girliness.

1. Ashlyn is strong-willed

2. Ashlyn loves to say the prayer

3. Ashlyn is silly, curious and adventurous

4. Ashlyn is a pinkalicious princess

Her birthday party will be on Friday . . . it's all about Pinkalicious!

It's All About the Padres

Oh Man the cuteness of little boys in baseball uniforms gets to me!

Christian started baseball and has a whole three games under his belt (bat?).

He's moved on from t-ball and is hitting coach-pitched balls.

Now that the boys are so much more experienced, as opposed to three weeks ago, they rarely run the wrong direction and can usually figure out where home plate is. It was so cute when one little guy was told to "run home" so he ran off the field into his mother's arms.

He's really enjoying himself and it's fun to see him improving each week.

Now our Saturdays are even busier with track meets all day and rushing to and from a baseball game. This cute little guy is worth it.

Happy Birthday Madison!

Eleven years ago you entered our life, and nothing has been the same since.

Lots of fun, lots of smiles

Lots of playing

Lots of learning and growing

Making your family happier each day.

With Christian, your buddy, always a wonderful big sister.

Always the beach girl

Cutie with jack-o-lantern smile

Getting older - and still the beach girl. Even in the winter.

Always enjoys her cousins. All 32 of them. Here with her cool cousin CJ.

Always on Santa's NICE list

Happy Birthday to our little surfer girl!

We love you and are so proud of the lovely young lady you are becoming.

Now, if you would please stop growing so you can stay in Primary forever . . .

We are so not ready for you to go into Young Women's next year!

Wasn't it a few weeks ago that I did your Nursery graduation?

There you are, in the black dress. Well, OK, I suppose from the looks of this it was quite a bit more than a few weeks ago. But still!!

Assumption

Take a close look at what my son brought home from kindergarten.

No wonder the teacher wanted a meeting with me!

(click on picture to enlarge)

You know what they say about assuming . . .

Now I have to ask, what is your interpretation of this picture? Think about it before you read the following dialogue.

Mom: Christian, did you make this picture in school today?

Christian: Oh yes! Do you know what this says? (pointing to the sideways printing next to GW)

Mom: Kind of OK?

Christian: Yes (proud that he wrote it all by himself phonetically, and that I could read it)

Mom: Tell me about this picture. Why does it say 'kind of OK' for George Washington?

Christian: Oh, because he has bows on his clothes. And I like Abraham Lincoln the best because he has a top hat.

Mom: Oh! (wasn't expecting that!). What about President Obama? Why did you write BAD?

Christian: Oh, because he doesn't have a lot of hair and he's almost bald.

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

I was very happy to report back to the teacher that my little boy was NOT making a political statement in kindergarten. And the beard, by the way, was started by a little girl sitting next to him. I can tell you that Christian truly does NOT like buzz cuts. Last summer his friend got one and I mentioned that we should do it to Christian and he immediately protested. I even reminded him that Uncle Steve has one, and he is a cool policeman. Christian agreed that he is a cool policeman, but he still abhors buzz cuts!

This has been a great lesson on jumping to conclusions and making assumptions. The workings of a child's mind is ever-so-fascinating!

Never assume.