We Don't Need No Education, for two months or so

As the Crawfords kiss the '09-'10 school year goodbye, we reminisce our on golden last week...

Evie's 5th grade party was a joy - as a room mom, you love the grades that decide to combine their parties, make it free play at the park, and assign your class paper goods. You absolutely freaking love it. Here, Fashion Princess Evie and BFF Emily...
Ty's year-end project was the Mini Society, wherein each student earned money and created a budget to put into play the business plan that would introduce them to the market economy. Despite my misgivings, Ty's investment of both time and capital paid off handsomely: $8.00 worth of baseball cards and all of five minutes for poster production time netted him around $70 in profit - he never had to lower the price to move merchandise, and sold out within the first hour. Capitalism is alive and well, despite the government's efforts to abolish it. Ahem.

Admit it: if you were in the room, you would've bought a TON of these.

Shane's year-end project: handmade book about...well, you can read, I trust.

The first grade party also marked another facet of my ever-growing love for the educators of Clear Sky Elementary: the kiddos presented their projects, the room mom (me!) lined the kids up with standard zoo fare: popcorn, cotton candy and juice boxes, and we all went home. You've got to absolutely freaking love it. Again.

That's predictable, right?

Oh, and someone bought some of those plastic-chocolate-coated donuts. And there was much rejoicing.

Clear Sky's year-end tradition: as Jack Johnson's little Curious George song is pumped through the speakers, each class is led out though a tunnel of cheering parents. Shane's now a second-grader.

Ty's heading to fourth...

and Evie's my 6th grader, or, as I prefer to call it, my one-year-until-her-mind-is-blown-by-middle-school-and-I-spend-all-my-time-in-prayers-of-protection.

Goin' Private, with regret

How I hate, hate, hate to do this...what with the unknown visitors posting on the blog, I'm regretfully going private...please let me know if you're interested in an invitation, and we'll take care of all the details!

Movin' on Up

Our youngest has graduated from Pre-K, and though I had a bittersweet moment or two as I considered the end of yet another mini-era, I'm just flat-out excited for her and for me - how great is two full days of kindie per week, plus a few Fridays thrown in for good measure? No more days divided into two-hour segments - I'll either have her with me, or away from me. The possibilities are staggering.
She's been going to her preschool, all the whole year long. She's been going to her preschool, and she's learned lots of songs. Think "I've Been Working on the Railroad." There. It all comes together nicely, doesn't it?

The Graduate, flanked by Grandma K, Grandpa Paul and Grandma Norma, who staked out their seats 45 minutes early, I'll have you know. You have to play hard ball with these yuppie parents and their camcorders.

Mama-san and her gal. Grace gave me a profound thought, in song, of course: at her age, every day is Graduation Day. Now that'll get me teary-eyed.

The Town of Castle Rock's Adventure Club Preschool has been a fantastic experience for the two youngest Crawfords, who were more than prepped for the whole kindie experience thanks to Ms. Kendall, whom both of my kids loved and cherished wholeheartedly. Still not sorry to leave paid education behind, but all the same, truly grateful for this program, these people, and this opportunity.

C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E-S-O-N-G Song! And if you think we can't sing it faster then you're wrong...

With the end of May comes Pack 780's last meeting of the year at Chatfield Reservoir: a great afternoon of games, potluck/BBQ dinner, closing ceremony, campfire and campout. We went through this with Ty, and come October, when Shane turns 8 and joins the church pack, we will heave a sigh of regret to leave this particular group behind. They run such a solid program and offer the boys so much, we hate to leave.
Postcard perfect.

It's like clockwork, the agenda: old-school awesome activities like gunny sack races, balloon tosses, tag, kickball, and as the photo above illustrates with Shane, Eve, neighbor Colton and Ty, the ever-popular three-legged-race, promptly followed by...

canoeing! All the fellas...

and the portion of the ladies who possess swimming skills (ahem!).

The three Crawfords who remained dry throughout the festivities...if you're completely honest with yourself, you knew what would happen: at least one would fall into the reservoir before the evening was out, and the smart money was on Shane.

You can protect your children from a great many things in this world, but wet denim is not one of them.

That's one proud former Tiger cub receiving his new Bear neckerchief and handmade slide from the hand of a newly-advanced Wolf cub...

and as the sun set, wind enhancing the entire experience, Shane gives that inevitable expression. We get the best photographs and stories courtesy of our third child, but here's the thing: I've got nothing but admiration for this kid who just absorbs life and turns down very little it has to offer, and if more of us were like him, we'd be...wetter. Funnier. Happier. Better.

I'm Going There Someday...

The Foothills Ward Primary gave The Progeny the ol' one-two: a service project at the temple. Perfection! A big standing ovation for President Behr and his landscaping guru to trust this wily group with planting their new flowers...only one wedding party had to wait for their photo-op while the soil-caked planters were hosed down.
In the pretty garden, the flowers were nodding...I always thought the lyric was "naughty." Either way, it's nonsensical. You're with me, right?

Shane's an amazing creature: who knew he could single-handedly plant a flat of flowers behind the celestial room, long after his similarly-aged buddies had lost interest? That kid, I'll tell ya what...

Later, Gator

So Gracie entered the rarified atmosphere of the athlete this spring...the first day of practice granted her and the other squirmy 5-year-olds a gorgeous 80+ degrees in which to play. It was all downhill from there - as a Colorado native, you'd think I could remember that spring sports are a wash, weather-wise.
We've had a cool, wet spring - great for the flora, not so good for the fauna of the human species - lots of canceled practices and games, and lots of cold parents wrapped in blankets, attempting to make noise with the thudded claps unique to gloved and mittened hands.
The Gators listening in rapt attention to their five-star coach, one ever-brave, ever-handsome, ever-burned-out Matt Crawford.
That gal can kick! That one time only, but still! Check it!

The Crawford gals, doin' what they do best - distracting one another from what it is that they actually should be doing.

Coldest game to date, and Gracie's about 7-deep in the layers...head-on, with Shane's ski cap, red Angels wind jacket and old sweats, she's a dead ringer for the aforementioned brother. She's dainty and beautiful, but if you're gonna go for the boy look, you could do worse than Shaney - what a stud.

April 'n May, Microcosmically

Oh, it's all fun and games to play in the cupboards until you try to climb onto the counter to get sprinkles, only to lose your balance and have the cabinet edge scrape a 5 inch gash in your belly...
Another full year of scouting fun has flown by...tonight, Ty receives his Bear, and, for the third consecutive year, does not draw blood when pinning the token of his accomplishment on his beloved madre.
Shane was declared a full-fledged, warpaint-covered Tiger, as we stand in the hushed and dimmed gym at Meadow View elementary, standing before a ceremonial fire that had gone out, while Native American drums are pounded in celebration. Oh, the drama!

Evie's 5th grade musical program with a Safari theme...she is the official Glockenspiel expert. I may or may not be: I'm too lazy to look up the official spelling of that tantalizing Germanic musical instrument. Just keep your mind open.

Ty treated a gymnasium full of folks to the xylophone stylings only he can create. This is a back-stage simulation of his Waiting for Rapunzel concert virtuosity; the camera, coupled with the lady with the gigantic head in the row ahead of us, conspired to leave us without any good representations of the show itself. Grrrrrr....

Hippity, Hoppity, Happy Easter Day!

The best spring breaks wrap up with Easter weekend...much more time to fit in all the joy.

Our greatest accomplishment was staging a relatively meaningful Holy Week: using all of the Primary pictures, we kept a timeline of the Savior's last week hanging on the mantle, and beginning with Palm Sunday, held discussions, watched videos or play-acted the week: the Trimphal Entry, cleansing of the temple, the parables (the Ten Virgins was a BIG hit), ate our own version of Passover dinner Thursday night lying on cushions on the living room floor as the sun set, attempting to explain the Sacrament, Betrayal, Gethsemane and the Atonement as far as our feeble abilities would allow.
Easter Eve was incredibly blustery (check out Tigger and Pooh flying by!), but that afternoon we joined hundreds of others around the soccer fields of Bison Park and hunted down plastic eggs with the best of 'em...
by 9 that night, we were all worn down with errands and fun, but egg dying cannot be forsaken! The littles mustered as much as enthusiasm as they could, dunked a few, then ran to the comfort only blankets and pillows can provide as they fell asleep in front of "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark." Getting them to bed before a certain visitor came to call was a load of work, but nothing unusual for a break week.

The blessed bun did his work yet again...unnaturally-colored peeps, Cadbury eggs, M&M eggs, and miniature bunnies for all, along with the traditional offering of new flicks: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" for Ty, "Planet 151" for Shane, "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" for Eve, "Princess and the Frog" for Gracie.

The family hunt Easter morning was again breezy, but nothing a sturdy Crawford child wearing a jacket couldn't handle. A gorgeous day for Easter: I'm a fan of General Conference, but really do hate to miss the whole Easter-dress-up extravaganza, because I'm shallow like that.

The eldest egg-hunter.

Fox in the multi-colored egg-laying hen house.

Easter bounty!

We wrapped up our marvelously mellow day at Aunt Diane's for a fantastic dinner: great food, great company (all the Prusse's except for Collin), Kathy Prusse, Grandma and Grandpa Crawford and Grandma K. ANOTHER EGG HUNT. These fantastic sugar cookies, courtesy of Camille. Enough coconut cake and lemon cream cheese cupcakes to make you sick for a week. Small price to pay for an Eastertide this grand.