Max Graduates

Max had his preschool graduation on Tuesday. He was so excited all day until he walked in the room and saw all the kids sitting in front of everyone and suddenly he his whole attitude changed. He would have nothing to do with "graduation" any more. He didn't want to wear a hat, he didn't want people clapping at him, and he definitely would not be sitting up with the rest of his class. We begged, we pleaded and even his whole class chanted, "Come on Max!"; Finally, Neal threatened. He told him if he didn't go up he would not be able to play soccer this fall. (Neal has been talking to Max about playing for awhile and he is so excited about it.) All the sudden, a very hestitant Max walked up toward the front at about the pace of a wounded turtle. He made it to one of his teachers and there he stayed. He never sang one of the songs. He sat there very still and stone faced. I guess he has a small case of stage fright but in the end he got his certificate, a present from his teacher, and lots of cookies. Graduating wasn't as bad as we thought. The pictures kind of go in backwards order. You can kind of see the order of events in reverse. The first picture is of his two teachers, Teacher Kerri and Teacher Joann. Max loves them!

Fraser Gardening Attempts

So here are some pictures of our Family Home Evening activity on Monday. It was fun. Tanner and Josh were brave enough to help Neal till and all three boys enjoyed planting the seeds and plants we had purchased. A list of our vegatables we hope will grow: corn, peas, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers, yellow peppers, Anaheim peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, and a "prize winning pumpkin" (We bought that particular plant due to the title on the plant. We will see how prize winning it will be.). We also have our raspberry starts and fruit trees. I would also like to plant some melons when I gets a bit warmer. All looked very promising until Wednesday. It's been raining for the past three days and so consequently our garden spot looks more like a small lake right now. Can plants and seeds drown?

Hard Work and Lots of Play

My parents stopped by on their way back from Logan on Saturday to help us get going on our garden. Neal spent a good amount of time tilling the very hard ground. The boys all helped by spreading compost everywhere but in the garden spot, testing their abilities at climbing up the compost, and seeing how well their bikes could ride through the compost. As you can see, they were a little obsessed with the compost. I think if they knew what compost was made out of, they probably would have been even more obsessed. I guess you can see why the bath was much needed by the end of the day. They actually, at times, tried quite diligently to be "hard workers." It was so nice to have my parents here to help. Dad took us to a local nursery and helped us pick out some fruit trees and various other vegetable plants and Mom took care of the boys while we were gone.
Dad also helped Neal dig holes to plant all our trees and also a few raspberry starts. It was a long day and we were all exhausted by the days end. We actually will be continuing our endeavors this evening. We need to till the garden again and then finish the planting process.

Official Birthday Pictures

My parents and Kara and Jeremy made it for the big event. It was great fun with lots of presents and cake. The big gifts from Mom and Dad were the exciting Big Wheels. When they were first seen, they both yelled out, "Motorcyles!" (They are kind of obsessed with motorcyles right now so that was a good thing.) It was another fun day.

The Twins Turn Three! (Tomorrow)

Avast Matey! We had a fun pirate birthday party for the twins yesterday. They actually turn three on the 12th (tomorrow) but we thought it would be fun to have some friends over on Saturday and have a big party. They made pirate scopes out of toilet paper rolls and then Neal took them on a exciting treasure hunt around the park. He even used his special map making program and printed out a real pirate looking treasure map. We encouraged all the kids to dress up, we had about half of them completely decked out. We brought extra eye patches and hats for anyone lacking. Neal, I think, had more fun than the kids. He wore an earring and eye patch and talked like a pirate most of the time. We finished off the party with some yummy pirate hat and treasure chest cake and ice cream. It was officially a hit with all involved.