Wild, wild west and so much more

Yesterday in Billings we had a fun raiser for our local theater so the kids and I went down to it. It was a wild west theme complete with a gun show and games, Cody loves the gun shows so I knew it was right up his alley. The gun show started at high noon with the sheriff telling us how to put one finger in our hear and the other in the person sitting next to us. I have to say the guys were very funny with references to eBay, American idol and other pop culture things. Here is a couple minutes of the show, the sound isn't the best I forgot to put the battery back in my camera so I had to use my phone. After the show they had the Texas Roadhouse girls come in and teach some line dancing and Emily was all about that, so she got up and learned how to do the Boot Scootin Boogie. Its kind of a hard dance for a seven year old but she had fun doing it. The gunfighters did a new show every hour on the top of the hour so in between we did some other things. They talked to the gun fighters,
Cody learned how to draw a gun and had a gunfight of his own,
Emily got her face painted with a glitter butterfly, they both learned how to to rope a cow.

Then we would go back and wait for the next show, laugh and start all over. The coolest thing was when we stoped by to see a guy that bends iron and while he was hammering it and bending it Cody said "hey its a screwdriver" and the guy thought Cody was so imaginative. Him and Cody then went on to make this screwdriver together and allowed Cody to help. It is now hanging on his wall, he was so proud of that.

These are my two favorite photos from yesterday.
On Sunday we went to Lake Elmo for some more fun times in the sun. We decided to have a picnic so we packed up some food and up we went.

The kids played and played in the water until Grandma came to pick Cody up.




She called when we were there asking if Cody could go fishing, and the funny thing is five minutes before Cody had asked if he could call Tom to go fishing. After Cody left Emily played a little bit longer then she decided to lay down and read a little. On the way home we headed to a different spray park to play, and to rinse off the sand she had on her.

We stayed there for about a hour then headed home. We stoped one more time on the way and went for a nice walk along the rims. They have a great pathway up there and you can see most the town from it, with all the rain we have got everything was so green and the sky was so blue. It really made our town look good. . After we came home and relaxed for a little bit we went to the Symphony in the Park untill Cody got home. It was fun to see all the people, this is what it looked like when we got there by the time we left it was double the people. Emily wanted to sit close so we got a drink sat down and listened to the music, it was just the local group but it was very good. At one point however Emily started to zone out, lucky for us that was about the time Cody called and said they were on the way home. We then headed off to Grandma's house and she got her second wind. It was so much fun this weekend, I wish it didn't have to end. However as they say all good things must end, but that leaves a space for more good things to come. I hope you all had just as much fun this weekend.

Water filled fun weekend

Last weekend we finally had summer weather here so we spent the weekend doing fun water activity's. On Saturday we went to the out to Lake Elmo for the afternoon. It is the first time we got out this year so it was like summer really is here. We stayed there for awhile, the kids played in the water and we built sand castles. After that we went to Target and picked up a Slip-in-slide and headed to my Mom's house. She had my brothers boys so my kids showed Eli how to use the slip-in-slide. They played and played for the rest of the afternoon and I do have to admit I wish i was a kid again so I could go down it. The next day we had a birthday party to go to. The little girls Mom rented out the pool for the morning, so the kids had full access to the water slides and there was only about 12 kids going down with them. It was so nice to just sit back and relax while they went up and down the slide all morning long. They got to play with friends they haven't seen sense school got out so they were so excited about that. It was so much fun to hang around water all day long, here are some of the photos I took. I decided sense there really isn't to much to say about the photos I would put them into a video. After we finished at the party we stoped by to say happy fathers day to my Dad and my Step dad and then headed home as another storm was moving in. Over the last few weeks I have learned that the storms we have been getting can really dump alot of rain so I hate driving in them and this storm I was very thankful I wasn't out. At about 4:30 the tornado sirens went off and the first tornado sense the 50's touched down in Billings. Thankfully it didn't hurt anyone or do to much damage, however it sure left its footprints in Billings. I am so happy all I had was some minor flooding which didn't last to long.




It was an amazing weekend, even with the not so great ending. I hope all the Dad's out there had a great day and I would like to say Thank you to all the Dad's I have had in my life. You have all taught me great things about life and shown me how lucky I am to have so many people that care about me.

Camping at Martinsdale Reservoir

This weekend the kids and I joined my Mom and Tom to for the first camping trip of the summer, however we forgot to pack the summer. We went out to Martinsdale Reservoir, which is only about two hours away and a nice little place to go. It has been on the cooler side here lately but with the hopes that Montana is a big state, it might be nice there we headed out after work yesterday. Mom and Tom had gone out earlier so the kids and I got there about 5:30 and this is what we saw when we went into the campground. Now starting off with a rainbow has to mean something good right, well it does and it means you will have a weekend to remember. Friday night it was nice, we needed jackets but other then that it wasn't to bad. We got the stuff out to do smores, found the kids head flashlights,
and they even got to do a little fishing. Cody made sure the worm was extra yummy for the fish with some blowup stuff and some worm gravy. Then we got the campfire going and sat around looking at how pretty the area was.


Then we woke up to today and it was much cooler, the kids however could care less. On Friday the mountians not far from where we were got fresh snow, it looked very pretty from where we sat.
They still went for the boat ride, even with the 10 layers of clothes they had on. We played all kinds of games and had fun but in the end I decided it wasn't warm enough to stay one more night so we headed home a day early. It was so much fun to get out camping again and I can't wait to go many more times this summer. Now that I know I can start a fire we might even try it on our own, or drag some poor sucker along with us so he can keep the kids busy while I try to light another fire.

Field Day and the End of '09-'10 School Year

Yesterday the kids school had field day and I was lucky enough to get to go and help out. We started the morning off by looking at the ducks Emily's class had hatched, they ended up with 15 of them that hatched.
Her class also hatched two chicks but they already went back to the farm before I had a chance to see them. I got put in charge of Popsicles and I do have to say that was the coolest job. What is even better is mine only took two minutes to hand out so I was able to watch the kids at whatever activity they were doing around me. My favorite to watch was the flash freeze dance-off. Cody and his buddy Khy were doing some fancy break dancing, they even got the flips and flops.

When it was Emily's class to do it her and her BFF Kim did some fun hand holding dancing.
They also did the limbo next to me so I could see how low they could go,
I even got to join in on the fun and limbo a little with them. Once again I was grateful to be short. The kids also got to do tug-a-war, bean bag toss, over under, jump rope and hola hooping. I heard one kid say "this is the best day ever" and I have to admit I wish we had done things like that when I was in school. Here is Cody's class all chilling with Popsicles,
I had to help a little boy that fell down so I didn't get Emily's class when they did hers. However I did get Emily and her teacher Mrs. King and one of Cody and his teacher Mrs. Heidner. Once again this year I was blessed to have great teachers for the kids, I really couldn't have asked for better ones. I hope next year we have as much luck with the teachers, with a principal like we have though I am sure we will. Today was the last day of school so report cards came home. Cody has improved in a few area's such as Music, Pays Attention and Works Independently and the biggest area he has improved on is his reading. It has gone up 3 levels sense last quarter, which is the biggest jump he has done yet. Emily's report card was the same as it has been all year, which is all G's and 3's both of which are the highest you can get. Her reading has also gone up two levels and hit "Exceeds grade level expectations". I am so proud of them both they have worked very hard this year and done the best they could do and there is nothing more I would ask of them. Now it is time to sit back, soak up some raindrops... I mean sun rays and enjoy what is going to be a very fun and exciting summer. Summer time here we come!