Waiting...

Before Wyatt got out of school, Sadie and Blake and I met Matt at his office one day to take him out for lunch and he had an usually long-winded patient....can you tell?

Lasts

I once heard a mother say that you treasure your child's 'firsts'---first smile, first steps, first day of school--but we rarely stop to treasure the 'lasts'. In many cases, we don't know when the 'lasts' will be---the last time they ask us to kiss their scraped knees or the last time they want us to tuck them in at night. But the last day of school is one of the lasts that we can predict....so each year I take pictures of the kids' first days and their last days. I already posted about Sadie's, since her last day was almost two full weeks before Wyatt's. So here are a few pictures of Wyatt's last day of 1st grade....

Sadie's attempt at a picture of Wyatt and I 

(boy, i didn't realize how badly he needed a haircut until now!)

And of course I had to have one with my girl!

And thank goodness for my little girl, because she is the first to stop and 'smell the roses'....like pointing out this white moth on our front porch!! 

I really enjoyed my time with Sadie and Blake all day during the few weeks when Wyatt was in school, but boy were we all excited when he was finally done and could join us!

Do you think these guys were excited to see him get off the bus? Look at the air under Blake's feet!!

seeing the bus pull up....

...meeting the neighborhood kids on their last day of school.

I now have a Kindergardener and a 2nd grader....how did this happen so quickly?? It doesn't seem like all that long ago I had three little ones at home and I was trying to find things to fill our days or make the days exciting, and soon, I will have two kids gone to school during the day (thank goodness Sadie is only half-day Kindergarten).

Some things haven't changed since I was in school....like bringing home what seems like endless papers and projects and junk to sort through. Wyatt had a great teacher, Mrs. Edwards, and she put together memory books for each of the kids with monthly journal entries that they wrote as well as some of their artwork. So I will have that as a keepsake of his first grade year. He also brought home his animal report that they did and I have to say, I love that he picked the badger!! And we all learned a few things about it as well.

And on the 100th day of school, they drew pictures of what they thought they would look like at 100 year old....love the wrinkled paper for his face and the hair on the sides (he is already embracing the baldness)....and interesting that he still has glasses. Because I am sure in his mind, he will always have glasses!!

Wyatt had a really great year and it was also a learning experience for me as well. Prior to this year starting, once we found out who Wyatt's teacher would be (we get a letter about 2 weeks before school starts) I had several parents tell me what an awful teacher she was for their kid. Now obviously every kid is different, but I was pretty concerned and was tempted to march right into the principal's office and request a different class for Wyatt. But I remembered a sermon we had heard a while ago, talking about what it would teach our kids to just go in a fix a problem for them or to help them by praying through it and dealing with it like it will be in 'real life'. So I prayed about it and found that God used this situation to teach me so much! We ended up LOVING his teacher for the first day and on the last day of school, I said to Wyatt, "Aren't you excited? It's your last day of school and then it's summer break."
He replied, "No....I'm sad." He leaned in to hug me and then said, "I just want Mrs. Edwards to be my teacher next year. I don't want to be in 2nd grade....I won't know my teacher or the kids in my class."
I emailed his teacher to tell her right after he got on the bus and when we went to meet him for lunch that day at school (at his request), Mrs. Edwards came up to me and said that Wyatt gave her the biggest hug when he got to school and she teared up!! What a blessing she was and hopefully Sadie might have her! (It was also a reminder that our school can have some seriously overbearing 'helicopter' parents that want to make sure their kids' life is easy!)
Wyatt is an avid reader, loves art and recess and LOVED going to school everyday! He grew so much this year and I am excited to have him all to myself this summer!
And it's now officially summer in the Sorensen household! 

Livestock 5K

A few weekends ago, the kids and I headed down to our good friends, the Lundquists, to run in the Livestock 5K (Matt was speaking at a conference in San Fransisco). Drew and Jen organize the 5K and it is part of an entire day of free concerts, food and fun to raise money to purchase livestock through WorldVision for people in third world countries whose lives can be dramatically changed just through the gift of one cow or goat. We got to their house on Friday night and played and had a great meal. Then Drew and Jen were gone by 5am on Saturday so the kids and I all got ready to meet them at the race around 7. Blake and Beckham stayed at their house with a babysitter---someday I may have all 6 kids with me!!

The kids were all so excited about getting their own race numbers and running a 'big' race--5K!! Wyatt and Kael were planning on winning it:)

Yes, that is my jogging stroller in the background...and I did bring it along. I knew there was no way all 4 kids would be able to run 3.1 miles without a break, so the plan was to bring the stroller and everyone would take turns getting a break while I pushed it. I wasn't quite sure how it would all go but I thought, we won't know unless we try, right?

And they were off.....

They all started running and then around the half-mile marker, the girls hopped in the jogger. From there until the end of the race, the girls and boys were take turns running or riding. But I ran the entire race, which gives you an idea of how much running these kids did. Well worth the water along the way...

Time to shed some layers..

The final stretch...they all ran the last 1/4 mile which ended down this hill and then around the corner. (There was one point, just before coming down this hill, where we had to run up a decent sized hill and all the kids were pretty beat and I didn't want to stop running at that point, so I let them all pile in the jogger and push them up the hill---I think with the weight of the jogger, it's over 200lbs, so I definitely got my workout in for the day--mind you, I wasn't running real fast up that hill!)

The finish!!! I was running while taking all these pictures, so they aren't the best. But you get the idea...I was SO proud of these kids. Watching them get tired and want to quit, yet keep running and pushing through it was so amazing!! They did awesome and were so proud of themselves when they got done--much more proud than they would have been if they had given in when it got tough. As we always say in our house, "We do hard things because hard things make us stronger"

Getting some well-deserved food and juice

Don't these look like some serious runners taking a break after a long race?

Drew and Jen--the masterminds behind it all!

Of course the kids loved being at the awards table with Drew and Jen

Those awesome bags you see on the table were given to every person who ran the race--quite possibly the coolest bag I have ever gotten from a race!

There were a few people who won their age division but had left before the awards were handed out, so Jen gave the kids the leftover medals...cowbells!!

And of course, Sadie and Elli's photography skills at work (I never realize Sadie has taken pictures on my camera until I upload them--but usually it's a fun surprise!)

And now on to the fun for the rest of the morning....

I took this one of my phone to send to Matt...Blake climbing up this huge slide (of course he wasn't too interested in climbing up the back side where the steps were..that would be too easy!)

The kids were mesmerized by the dunk tank!

Blake and Beckham...I think they bonded that morning while we were all at the race!

With the cow...Blake was terrified of this thing at first, but then...

...he had to be the one giving him a few last hugs!

And what would an outdoor music festival be without a huge bag of kettle corn!

The kids and I left St. Peter around 1pm to get back in time for Sadie's soccer Jamboree! The entire Woodbury Recreational Soccer Program has a huge Jamboree all weekend, but thankfully for the 5 year olds, it consists of two back-to-back 30 minute games. The plan was to have the kids take a nap in the car on the way back to Woodbury, but Blake was the only who fell asleep. I was a bit worried about how the soccer games would go after getting little sleep the night before and running over 3 miles that morning....

Since I am the coach I never get any pictures, but once again, i came across a few Sadie had taken while she was out...just an indication of how into the actual game she is.

I had to include this picture because Blake was standing right behind this little PUG goal that we use for the girls and I kept telling him to move. (Yes, it was quite a circus...I was coaching these girls while attempting to keep an eye on Blake and Wyatt since Matt was gone--needless to say, I was exhausted that evening!) Anyways, Blake at one point stuck his head in the goal from the back side right at the same time a girl from the other team scored a goal and it hit him right in the head...of course he cried but I just had to laugh because he wouldn't listen to me and had to learn the hard way!

self-portrait

Sadie actually played very well---she was tired at first but then she scored a goal (yes, her first goal!!!) and that turned it all around for her. She finally got a bit of fire in her and went after each ball with some serious determination! After the games, we stayed and watched my friend Dixie's daughter play a bit and then headed home. All the kids were sleeping by 7pm! But what a great day it was!

(on a side note...Matt's flight was supposed to get in at 11pm but his flight out of California was delayed and they had to put him on the red-eye...so he didn't leave Cali until midnight their time and arrived at our house at 6:30am...needless to say, we were ALL dragging Sunday afternoon!)

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderfully relaxing Memorial Day weekend and STAYED HOME!!!! YEAH!!! That's probably why it was so relaxing! Matt usually only works half-days on fridays, so combining that with having off Monday made for an extra long weekend, so we had a lot of time to just spend together and hang out--Wyatt had his last two hockey games for the spring hockey session over the weekend and we got together with some good friends for dinner one night, but other than that we just relaxed and had a great time at home. I should add, however, that our good friend just won a Dove Award (christian music version of a Grammy) for Children's Album of the Year and I was giddy about getting to hold it and take my picture with it. All my childhood dreams of being like Amy Grant when I grew up came true in that moment...

A few more pics from the weekend....

(The chalk on the driveway=sign of kids having a great summer)

On Memorial Day, we had a cookout with some of our neighbors, which is always lots of fun. I had to take this picture and point out that we have quite possibly the best babysitter ever...what other 19 year old would come and sit down with Blake at a cookout and hang out with my kids?! We are seriously so blessed by Andrea!

And of course Blake thinks he is one of the big boys...

A holiday weekend as it should be