May

Ivy had her clogging competition at Lagoon on the first Saturday of May. This is such a fun day, the best day for Ivy. She competed first thing in the morning, which was no fun getting up at 5 am but great because we had the rest of the day free. She did so good and her team got a 1st place medal!

fourth from left

Ivy with Grandma Kay

Ivy and Ali Robinson

The rest of the day was spent playing at Lagoon. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather! We spent the entire day with Ivy's clogging best friend, Ali, along with her mom Brianna and sister Olivia. We let the girls set the schedule and we did whatever they wanted the rest of the day. I loved my day with Ivy!

Brianna Robinson and me

Ali and Ivy

Ivy and Ali

Ali, Olivia Robinson, Ali

Justin was in charge of arranging a service project with his market. That was an easy one for him! He got his managers and co-workers and they did yard work for a single sister in our ward. Yay!

Justin is fourth from left and Sister Courval is third from right

Ivy checked out a Harry Potter baking book from the school library and was very excited to tackle one of the projects. She chose 9 3/4 cupcakes. She did all the work, start to finish, on her own. I wasn't even home when she did the actual decorating. She did a great job and was very proud!

Coco had kittens! We knew she was pregnant so the girls were checking every day and found them the very next morning after they were born. Google said wait 1-2 weeks to pick up new kittens so I told them 10 days. They were still very, very tiny! There are 4 kittens in all.  

Ivy made a countdown to summer sometime in April. It was touching the floor when she first made it and so it was ever so exciting to see it get off the floor, above the windowsill, etc. Summer was close!

Ivy got to go on a field trip to the Bee's stadium...with Justin! She was excited to take her dad on a field trip, since it's usually me. They watched a baseball game (not the Bee's but two high school teams) and Justin especially loved the bus ride there and back (wink). 

far left

far left

After a very long baseball season, Stockton made it to the last game! We had been counting down the days (sadly). I was proud of him for sticking it out. The last game actually ended up being so fun. Stockton pitched the first three innings and did amazing; I think he was responsible for 7 out of the nine outs, either by strikeouts or fielding. He still had to dress for varsity games for the play-offs but we knew he wasn't going to get playing time.

we are so grateful Stockton had Joe, who was just as miserable as Stockton this season - Joseph Ritchie and Stockton

and Bryn, who supported him at all the home games and was just as incensed as the rest of us - Bryn Danley and Stockton

Baseball was hard this year. I usually try to keep this space positive but I am going to jot down the biggest frustrations for Stockton and for Justin and I as we watched the season unfold.

-Stockton played JV and Sophomore last year, his sophomore year. Baseball is a very trackable sport with stats taken for literally everything. Last year playing second base on both teams, he had zero errors for the season. Let me say that again: ZERO ERRORS at 2nd base. That is impressive and rarely happens. He is a very clean, fundamental, smart baseball player. He played JV and Varsity all summer, fall, and winter and had three errors over that time period...again, very good. Despite his nearly-flawless record, out of nowhere, when the season started early March, Coach McCoy decided to play a freshman (his son's best friend) over Stockton at 2nd base. How many errors did that kid record for the season? Nearly 15...I lost track after 10 plus there were a handful that were not recorded but should have been. This was extremely frustrating.

-Last year, Stockton, as a pitcher, had the highest strike percentage for the entire Wasatch baseball program-varsity, JV, sophomore. He was told he was going to get a lot of pitching time...then he ended up pitching something like 10 innings this season: a season that was 2.5 months, with at least two games each week. 10 innings is pretty sad for someone who is good at throwing strikes.

-Coach would tell the boys things like "if you play clean, you'll get playing time" and "if you throw strikes, you'll pitch" and "you get two strikeouts and you're out of the line-up" then he did the complete opposite for the 3-4 freshman (his own son and son's friends) or anyone else that was a favorite. They had the longest tether and could never do anything wrong. When they made errors in the field or were in a hitting slump, they still got in every single line-up and started every single game. Others who were not his favorites would get yanked out at the very earliest sign of error and be benched.  

-We were told the following information: in a coaches meeting about three weeks into the season, the assistant coaches brought up the amount of errors the freshman second baseman was getting and questioned why he was still playing over Stockton. Coach McCoy responded by saying that he is the coach, he sets the line-ups for all the teams, and that his decisions should not be questioned. He then proceeded to start the freshman for every single game for the rest of the season, despite accruing several more errors.

-Coach also slighted other boys: he had a short fuse and would scream at them for making mistakes (even demeaning one boy by screaming a derogatory name at him in front of all fans and both teams), pull certain boys out after just one error in the field, yell at the dugout if they weren't being loud enough and then turn around and make them run when they were too rowdy on the bus (both of those literally happened on the same day), finding any way to put his favorite freshmen in on varsity over handfuls of older, more experienced boys (going so far as to put one of them in the outfield during play-off games when he doesn't even play outfield).  

He really was not consistent in his treatment of the boys throughout all the teams. If you were a favorite, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted with no consequence, but if you were not a favorite, he could blow up on you at any minute. A lot of the boys found that they really could not trust anything he said; he made a lot of empty promises to a lot of boys. It was sad and it was frustrating and Stockton pretty much hated baseball every day which made me sad and frustrated and angry and disappointed. We have never complained but we did send an email to the athletic director and we know several others did as well. Coach McCoy will definitely be questioned about his choices this season. But it is out of our hands now, thank goodness. The season is done, Stockton made it through, we are very proud of him for showing up each and every practice and game and working hard and we know lessons learned this season will carry into other areas of his life. Now we are done and are very excited to move to a new program with a new coach.

Now I will get off my baseball soapbox and move along to better things! 

For my mom for Mother's Day, I gifted her a morning activity of going out to breakfast and doing iniatories at the temple. I thought that would be better than anything I could buy her. We had a great time and I'd like to do this again with her!

my mom and me. Ogden Temple

On Mother's Day, we had a French Toast breakfast, went to church, had a lovely RS meeting which was mostly a brunch, and then we came home to a whole day open for whatever we wanted. We took some after-church pictures.

very rare to have a picture of just me

It was a nice day so we decided a drive to a mountain lake sounded just about perfect (one of my favorite activities). We went to Mill Hollow where we have camped before and where we used to get wood for our fireplace. There was still snow! We walked around the lake but the majority of the time was spent playing hacky-sack. I was the photographer but everyone else jumped in to play. Their goal was to get a "hack" which means that everyone has to touch it before it falls to the ground. It took quite a while but they finally accomplished it! It was so fun and I loved what it turned into.

We went back to the house where dinner was waiting for us in the crockpot: Asian beef lettuce wraps with pickled cucumbers. We had dinner together, Come Follow Me study, and banana splits for dessert. I didn't cook or do dishes. It was a great day.  

Deer Creek cheer went to their required safety clinic. This means they can stunt now! Yay! Brynn has loved all practices and get-togethers this team has had and she is so excited to start for good in the summer.

she is bottom middle

Ivy presented her "science expert" project. Each student was given a topic that they researched, wrote a report and made a poster about, and then presented it to parents and teachers in a sort-of science fair set-up. Ivy's topic was invasive species and she spent a lot of time learning about her topic and preparing for her presentation. 

I took Ivy on her Valentine date on a Saturday night that we had nothing going on. She wanted to try going to Chick's for dinner since we usually only go for breakfast. She enjoyed her salad, chicken strips, fries, and scone that night - and the leftovers after church the next day as well! We also went to Walmart to get some supplies for Primary the next day and to shop for a couple more pairs of shorts for Ivy this summer.

Ivy had two field trips this month! Ending her elementary school career strong. Justin went to the Bee's game so I went to the second one. It was originally supposed to be Timpanogos Cave but logistics for that didn't work so we went to Wasatch State Park for a hike, Main Street Park for a picnic, and Dairy Keen for ice cream. I was bummed not to go to Timp Cave but promised Ivy we would go this summer. (I went on that field trip with Molly and it was so fun!) I had the best day with Ivy and all her cute little friends. She has excelled this year, and really just the past six years at Daniels Canyon.

Ivy and Kallie Gehring

Ivy is about fourth in from right

Millie Phillips, Olivia Christiansen, Kallie, Ivy

Mrs. Vanhouten, Ivy

Justin and Stockton got this game going one night where everyone had to give their best pitches. Of course I was trying to get Ivy to bed but that's the way it seems to go sometimes!

Memorial Day weekend: most of the extended Moyes family was heading to the cabin. Justin had to be home to attend seminary graduation/hand out diplomas Sunday night, which meant he couldn't go. I stayed home with him but Molly drove all the kids up Saturday afternoon thru Monday so they didn't have to miss out on the fun. From what I was told, there was a lot of 4-wheeler/golf cart/Rhino rides, shakes and Zipz, a campfire with s'mores, and all the other cabin things. It's a perfect way to kick off summer (we still had a week of school, while the rest of the cousins were done).

Ivy, Lucy, Josie

I ordered Brynn some new cheer shoes for the new season. When they came, she put them next to the old ones she's been using for a while...you can see that they got put to some good use!

The last week of school-

While the older kids were in and out of school that last week, Ivy was there for all the fun! Her last last week of elementary school and we were both soaking it in. Chalk festival was first. She came home completely filthy with chalk stains that I was not able to get out of her clothes. But her sunset looked awesome! They got some rain sprinkles while they were coloring and Ivy said it made her sunset even better because it blended the colors together. Way to look on the bright side!

Kallie, Millie, Ivy

Technically, school went until Friday, May 29th but Stockton and Brynn both turned in their computers Tuesday morning so there was nothing to do after that. Stockton was still finishing a project for his woods class so he went in a couple more times and they both went back to get their yearbooks, but they were done by Wednesday. So that's when they told me they were having their last days and to take their picture. Haha!

Big sigh of relief to have junior year over. It's a tough one. Stockton took two college level classes (Math and English) and they were hard. But he got by and earned the credits he was needing. He also got some concurrent enrollment credits as well. The last semester was the trickiest and he found it difficult to keep up with the baseball and school stuff-I was relieved he had that extra week after baseball was over to get caught up! He is very much looking forward to summer...then senior year for him, yikes!

Ivy had field day. I didn't sign up to volunteer but I did stop by to say hi and hang out with her for part of the afternoon. It was a really windy day! But a classic tradition for Daniels Canyon Elementary.

she is fifth from the front

Brynn: freshman year, check! She had a great year and she rocked freshman year. Cheer was obviously the highlight, she had such a great time cheering. She missed it the last couple months and was chomping at the bit to get started again. I'm so proud of who Brynn is, she is mature and grounded, and she is kind and supportive to everyone.

Stockton and Brynn said good-bye that day to Wasatch High for good...they are ready to be Deer Creek Riverhawks! An ending in more ways than one-it has been a great place for my kids but they are excited for something new as well.

That night we were sitting around the counter and I said something like, "Wow, Ivy, tomorrow is the last day I will pack you lunch" (they don't take lunch on the last day since it's only a half day). So then my brain started to do some math...Molly started first grade in 2013, which means I have been packing school lunches for 13 years of elementary school. It has been easier the last few years with just Ivy to pack for but for a few years I was packing up to three lunches every day and it was a very detested chore for me. (And, yes, I could have made them pack their own or eat school lunch but I never did either of those.) 13 years of school x 180 days of school each year = 2,340 days of school. I'm sure there were days here and there when I didn't have to pack a lunch but if you factor in the times I packed two or three lunches, we figured I had packed at least that many lunches in my time. Whew! I made it a rule long ago that, once they reached middle school, they had to pack their own lunch or eat school lunch. We'll see what Ivy decides to do...and maybe, just maybe, I'll keep packing her lunch if she really wants me to...perks of being the youngest, I suppose.

Brett had a birthday on May 27th. We don't always have parties for him, but this year we did! It was a surprise and I think we pulled if off. It was just a simple get-together...dinner and cake and hanging out...but it was a good night to celebrate Brett. He's a pretty great guy. We made him a candy bar poster and gave him some cash.

Eric, Gene, Justin, Brett

Ivy, Molly, Brett, Stockton, Brynn

And that brings us to Ivy's last day of school...her last day of elementary school...and our family's last day having a kid in elementary school. In theory I know this but my mind is having a hard time comprehending this fact. I am not very happy about it. Anyway, Ivy wore her Daniels Canyon T-shirt for the first time all year, as it's a tradition to take a Sharpie marker and have everyone sign your T-shirt.

They did the 5th-grade clap-out that day before school was dismissed so of course I had to go to that. I was totally fine and then I got there and got a little emotional. What happened to all of my babies? Why did they grow up so fast? They are so great and fun and I am loving this stage, but every so often I just want them to be little and all at home needing their mom for everything. It kind of hit me watching Ivy do her final lap at elementary school how fast time has gone. She was emotional too. There were actually lots of emotions when I followed her back to her classroom to bring her home.

bottom left

We took a few pictures on our way out...sayonara DCE! Middle school here she comes!!

 

I always have had my kids write thank-you notes for their teachers and put it with a little gift at the end of the year. I read through Ivy's note to Mrs. Vanhouten before sending it to school with her and I was very impressed by her writing! She was sincere and heartfelt and I know it meant a lot to Mrs V. (because she later told me).

 

"Dear Mrs. Vanhouten,

Thank you for everything you've done for me. You have been an amazing teacher, you have taught me so much, and you have helped me grow. I had high expectations for you coming into your class because all of my siblings LOVED your class, but you have exceeded them by miles. I love your class, I love the positive energy I feel anytime I'm in the same room as you (which is most of the time at school), and I love how you always try to make everyone the kindest, most positive and best person they can possibly be. If that is your goal, then you have succeeded with me. I can't imagine my 5th grade year without you. You are the best!" and then it continued for a few more lines on the back. We are very thankful for all the years Mrs. V has spent with our kids!

 

Brynn was having an epic "last" day (she hadn't been for two days haha), planned by her friends. They met at Brook's house at 9:30 that morning for a waffle bar and then a hike to Bridal Veil Falls. They climbed all the way to the top of the waterfall. That took a few hours, after which they went to the store for hair dye before getting dropped off at our house. I had lunch waiting for them and then they spent the next several hours dyeing the underneath of their hair pink. They maybe did or did not make a huge pink mess in the bathroom (luckily it was taken care of with bleach, a magic eraser, and some elbow grease) but the result was just what they had wanted! They were planning to go to Oakley's for snow cones but the dyeing took longer than they thought (and one trip back to the store for more dye), so they skipped that part of the day and went straight to Ari's for pizza and a movie. I picked her up that night at 11. She had a great time and these girls are so fun and cute and I'm grateful Brynn has them.

Oakley Keys, Ari Apostol, Brynn

Brynn, Brook Moore, Ari, Abby Hansen, Oakley

Ivy's day was no less fun: Joanna came over after school and Ivy painted her nails. (Ivy had saved up her money and recently purchased a nail kit and was loving doing nails.) Joanna was very pleased by the end product. When they were done with that (it literally took 2+ hours), I drove them to Kallie's house for her end-of-year/bounce house/ice cream neighborhood party. I picked Ivy up at 6 so that she could come home, have a bite to eat, and then host her own end-of-year party. We had popcorn, everyone brought a bag of candy for a candy salad, and they watched Matilda the Musical. Easy-peasy for me and great fun for the girls!

Ivy and Joanna Quinn

Rocky Crane, Joanna, Lydia Evans, Ivy, Emery Pearson, Kallie Gehring, Millie Phillips

Molly's BFF of forever had her farewell on the last day of May. Regan is heading to Barcelona Spain and will make the best missionary! We all love her so much and recognize the tremendous friend that she has been and continues to be to Molly. We are so grateful for her. Molly will miss her very, very much.

Molly, Regan Heywood, Carolyn Ritchie