The Final Frontier

The past week has been so crazy busy, but so much fun too!

It started out last Saturday with a little “field trip” a few of us mothers planned. Because of a snow day in April, the 4th grade class’s field trip was canceled, and they weren’t able to reschedule it due to the museums’ availability. The kids had so looked forward to the trip, and I had taken the day off work to be a chaperone, so I was disappointed too! My friend Dawn suggested that we take our kids anyway, so we called up a few friends and rounded up six kiddos for our weekend field trip to the History Colorado Center and the Denver Art Museum!

If you haven’t been to the History Colorado Center, you simply must go! It was super fun, and it was actually quite affordable too ($6 for kids)! We all learned a lot about our great state!

There were a lot of interactive exhibits perfect for elementary-aged students!

I’m not sure the kids understood the significance of the Barrel Man exhibit, but we adult Broncos fans did! :-)

We had lunch at the little cafe on site, and the kids were begging to go back to the history museum after lunch; they insisted that they were having so much fun! So we voted to skip the art museum altogether and just stay at the history center! It was a good plan. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryley also had her school play on Tuesday night (look for another post coming soon) and her choir concert  on Thursday evening.

My aunt Coleen and uncle Paul are so faithful to come to all of Ryley’s “events”! They live on the other side of town (30-40 minutes away), and last week they came over for both the play and the choir concert, even after I tried to tell them they didn’t have to!  That’s tough on week nights, after they’ve already worked all day and then commuted home! We so appreciate the fact that they’ve taken such an interest in her activities, often sitting through hours of performances before Ryley’s itty bitty one at the end. :-) Anyway,  these pictures below (and many of the school play pictures) were taken by Paul.

 

It was a nice little concert! They certainly had a lot of fun!!! :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BEST MOTHER’S DAY PRESENT EVER…

“Tell me about Star Trek, Daddy,” she says.

“Not today. Not on Mother’s Day,” he answers.

And she understands.

So now, as I type, a day later, Ryley is sitting at Ryan’s feet in our family room, while he sits and explains the plots of all previous Star Trek series and movies. His Spock impression is pretty spot on.

I wish you could see them. It looks like the student is learning from the master. And she’s eating it up!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryley has blossomed so much in the last few weeks. I think it’s interesting as a parent to suddenly have these epiphanies where you realize that you haven’t had to deal with such-and-such an issue for awhile…where your child suddenly seems to be growing out of certain behaviors or problems. Of course, there are always new challenges to deal with…new issues to tackle. But it’s refreshing to have those encouraging moments once in awhile.

For instance, when she plays outside with the neighbors, we don’t let her go past the mailbox. And you know what? Even when all the other kids go around the corner and play on the other street, Ryley stays on our side of the mailbox. We can trust her to obey the rules. We may be over-protective, but so be it. 

Does she still not count “studying for tests” as homework, leaving us in a pinch when she’s said all night that her homework is done and we just realized there’s a big old science test tomorrow?

Yep, that’s our baby.

And when Ryan questions her about it, she insists that if she’s paid attention in class, there’s no need to study.

Ryan looks above her head and meets my eyes with a hidden smile. Because he realizes that she’s his child and that she thinks like he does. And despite the progress she’s making in some areas, we are still in for a world of trouble. :-)