Raine’s kindergarten class has been working hard on their play for graduation — memorizing lines, learning choreography, and practicing songs. The much-anticipated event finally arrived on Thursday.

But first, Raine came home with a second honor eagle award! The award is only presented six times during the year, recognizing a student who exemplifies the five R’s of behavior (respect, responsibility, relationships, righteousness, and reliability). Receiving it twice in the same year is quite a statement about Raine’s character!

That evening Raine put on her costume and we headed back to the school for the ceremony.

The play was titled “Under the Sea” and was about a snorkeler who was looking for the pearl of wisdom. It was full of fun songs, all adorably choreographed, and plenty of excited kindergartners!

My favorite was the “chicken heart” song. (Unfortunately, our videographer, aka Daddy, failed to hit the record button on that one, so we only have still shots. When I get the DVD from the professional videographer, I will try to upload it.)

Raine was Cindy Snapper, in the Temple Fishing School. Here she is during her scene. I’m pretty proud of how well her and Zoe’s costumes turned out. Zoe’s mom and I worked on them together — she cut out all the scales and I sewed them to the shirts.

Below is a seven minute video showcasing snippets from a few of their songs as well as Raine’s lines in the play. Here are the lyrics to all the songs (as remembered by Raine). They are such precious lyrics and brought the sweetest spirit to the program.

While the kids changed out of their costumes, we watched a slideshow of photos from all the activities they did during the year. It was fun to see just how much Raine has matured during kindergarten . . . and how many teeth she has lost!

The kids came back in wearing their caps and gowns and received their diplomas.

Next, Mrs. Boegner handed out six achievement medals — for bible, conduct, numbers, math, writing, and reading. Raine received the medal for conduct — no surprise there!

She also received the medal for reading. We were really surprised by that. Raine is a fantastic reader, but we didn’t realize that she was the best reader in her class!

She was very proud of her two medals.

Each student received a certificate recognizing a trait that they share with a bible character. Raine received the Priscilla award for being a “teacher by example.”

Raine’s teacher, Mrs. Boegner, received the teacher of the year award. She is a fantastic teacher and Raine really loved her. Mrs. Boegner knew how to make her feel important and made Raine always want to do her best.

We picked up a very happy Raine back in her classroom where we took some photos and turned in her robe.

I’ll be honest, when I first learned about kindergarten graduation I rolled my eyes with a dismissive “Seriously!? Why do kids have to ‘graduate‘ from EVERYTHING! She’s still going to be at the same school next year!” But in the end, I was very glad they held it. The play was so polished and well done and it was such fun to see Raine receive awards for her hard work this year. It really started off her academic career in the best possible way. She loves school and has all the confidence in the world that she can succeed at anything she tries. We walked out of there full of joy and pride and so thankful for the wonderful teachers Raine had this year!

Raine has lost four teeth in the past two weeks, earning herself the nickname of Toothless Lou!

The first one fell out the day before Easter (Saturday, April 19). It was hanging at weird angles until mid-afternoon when it finally gave way.

The second one fell out while she was brushing her teeth later that evening. At first, we thought it went down the drain. But fortunately, Daddy found it on the bath mat.

Less than a week later, on Friday (April 25), the second front tooth came out. We were very happy to see that little snaggletooth go!

The fourth one came out less than a week later on Thursday, April 30. Here she is on May 1 when all the kids got to wear their favorite college t-shirt in honor of college signing day.

The tooth fairy made a lot of visits to our house. (She almost screwed up one, but made it at the last minute.) Now Raine has $12 to spend.

Everything Raine eats now gets gnawed off with her back teeth and she talks with a noticeable lisp! Hopefully it won’t be permanent. This really isn’t the most attractive stage of a child’s life!

Wednesday was Jesus Day at Raine’s school. They dressed up in clothing similar to that worn in Jesus’s time and did activities representative of things people did back then, like making scrolls, sealing letters with wax and imprinting it with a ring, building a castle with blocks, playing with a fabric ball they made, etc. They also assigned each person to bring food that they would have eaten then, like grapes, juice, crackers, olives, etc. I made some delicious naan for Raine to take.

Thursday, was a half-day of school for Raine and they had their class Easter egg hunts. Carter’s class also had an egg hunt.

Friday, Raine was off school so we went to a playgroup egg hunt that was moved into the gym last-minute because of rain the day before.

It was more of an egg “gather” than an egg “hunt.”

Everyone brought snacks to share and I made balloon animals and swords to keep the kids occupied after the hunt — it was pretty chaotic!

Saturday, we went to the Easter egg hunt at Raine’s school.

Several weeks ago, Carter spotted the old inflatable baby pool in the garage. Ever since, he has been asking if it is warm enough to use it. Saturday afternoon he asked again and I distractedly said something about it possibly being warm enough. The next thing I knew, Carter was running toward me wearing his swimsuit with his goggles on his eyes. It was too late then to tell him no, so I filled it up.

Saturday evening we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner and we put together an egg hunt for them. We put things like post-it notes and hair clips in their eggs. I didn’t get any good photos because I had to keep an eye on the ham.

Sunday, the kids found their baskets and then headed to church.

The Easter Bunny obviously loves Momma the best!

Raine is a stretchy-band bracelet maker now.

That evening we dyed eggs, but Carter refused to be photographed.

Conference weekend we decided to take advantage of the lack of church responsibilities and get away for a couple nights. Since Carter and I were coming from Austin Friday night, we decided to meet in the middle in Waco.

The first order of business was to hit the pool. Since the outdoor pool in Austin was so cold, Carter was REALLY looking forward to swimming in the nice indoor pool at our hotel in Waco. HOWEVER . . . that water was like glacial runoff! Apparently they don’t heat it. We couldn’t believe it. The kids were not to be deterred, so I happily sat in the hot tub while Daddy suffered near-hypothermia with the kids in the pool! Raine didn’t mind the water at all and Carter was too excited to swim to care too much about the frigid temperature. Poor Daddy was the truly miserable one, but he was a trooper. He even went back with them again that night!

After listening to the first session of General Conference, we went to the Waco zoo. Here are some photos from our outing:

The zoo had a great playground.

It also had a neat aquarium.

Here is Raine coming down the slide that went through the otters’ pool.

They wanted to take a photo on EVERY animal statue in the zoo.

Here is Carter running across the chimes. Each little square played a different tone when you jumped on it.

We had a very relaxing — and much needed — little getaway!

The first few days of April, I had a trial skills training in Austin. Carter came down with me and Grandma Anderson flew in to keep him occupied while I was in training. I’m not sure where all they went, but they sure had fun.

Carter was set on trying out the swimming pool . . . even though it wasn’t heated. Grandma watched from the side!

The second day, they went to the Children’s Museum.

That evening we drove downtown to the Capital Street Bridge to watch the bats fly out.

Day three they played at Zilker Park and rode the train.

Carter had so much fun with Grandma. He loved having her all to himself! He was maybe even a little TOO comfortable with Grandma. One afternoon he had just wiped himself after a bowel movement and came waddling out of the bathroom with his pants and underpants around his ankles. He turned around, stuck out his backside, grabbed both cheeks and asked Grandma if he had gotten it all! Ahhh, the inhibitions of a three-year-old (or complete lack thereof)!

Raine and Carter took swim lessons during March at a local scuba shop. They made a lot of progress during the four weeks of lessons, going three times per week.

Carter is still a little fish who prefers to spend his time under the water. He only came close to drowning once so I consider that a success!

Raine is not a big fan of having water in her face, but she did really well with the back float. She could float unassisted by the end.

We spent most of spring break doing fixer-upper projects around the house, but Friday we went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies. The atrium was full of different species of Asian butterflies. They gave each of the kids a pamphlet of the most common butterflies so they could try to identify the butterflies they saw.

Outside, we found a nice patch of soft green grass to roll around on.

1/4/14 Raine’s first selfie (I found this little gem on the point-n-shoot camera that I hardly ever download)

10/18/13
Raine, coming into my room: “Mom, look what I found outside.”
Me: “Ew, gross!”
Raine: “Why? What is it?”
Me: “It’s a grasshopper leg.”
Raine, resisting the urge to drop it on the floor and move away: “Oh.”
She took it out back and in all seriousness yelled: “Carter, look for a grasshopper, okay. We need to give him his leg back.”

1/9/14 Bubble bath

10/19/13
Me to DJ as we were driving out of a parking lot near a construction zone: “There is a barricade at the end of the road so you will have to go out that way.”
Carter, from the backseat: “Where is a bear cage?”
Me, completely confused: “Huh? Bear cage? What are you talking about? . . . Oh! I said barricade, not bear cage!”
Carter, disappointed: “Oh.”

2/11/14 Playing horse

11/7/13
Raine, as we drove down the road after dark: “There’s the moon. It is only a little moon. Do you know why the moon changes shapes?”
Me, preparing to explain the mysteries of the universe: “Well, it’s because . . .”
Raine cutting me off (apparently it was a rhetorical question, meant only to lead into her explanation): “It is because the moon is full of magic glowy stuff and the glowy stuff changes shape inside the moon and that shows through and makes the moon look different shapes.”
My explanation seemed so dull and boring after that one, so I just said “Oh! I see.”

2/10/14 Raine, after the daddy-daughter valentine’s date

11/29/13
Raine, describing a card she wants to make: “… and then we’ll open it up and write in curses on the inside.”
Me, feigning shock (knowing that she really meant ‘cursive’): “We’ll write in curses on the inside?!!!”
Raine: “Yeah, we’ll write in curses so nobody can understand it!”

2/6/14 Carter was so excited to play in the snow that he drug me out there at 8:00 a.m. so he could throw snowballs at me.

12/15/13
Each year our Stake puts on a Christmas concert featuring a choir and full orchestra. We were there, seated in the last row of the chapel, as the tubas walked in. Carter’s eyes got real wide as he excitedly yelled: “Look at those BIG whistles!”

2/6/14 Captain America

12/30/13
Carter: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a BIG Superman!”
Mom: “Oh, yeah? You’ll be a good Superman.”
Carter: “Mom, when I’m a big Superman will you fly around with me and help me bam the bad guys?”
Mom: “Yeah, I would love to fly around with you getting the bad guys.”
Melted my heart!

2/15/14 Superman

1/8/14
Carter, running around in his Batman cape, itching his back-end: “Batman has an itchy bum.”
Daddy: “Oh yeah? Do you need to go wipe your bum?”
Carter coming out of the bathroom with his pants around his ankles: “Umm, Batman needs to change his underpants… he has a little skid-mark.”

2/10/14 Carter wanted to push his super heroes around the track on matchbox cars, but kept getting frustrated when they would fall off, so we rubber-banded them to the tops!

2/13/14
Raine: “I know about the food pyramid.”
Me: “Oh yeah? What’s on the food pyramid?”
Raine: “Good foods . . . like sugar.”

2/8/14 My birthday party at Rebounderz!

1/16/14 Monkey-bar injury

Raine has been learning all sorts of new things at school, including the monkey bars. She had been begging me to watch her do the monkey bars for months before we finally had the opportunity. As you can see, the pressure was just too much and it didn’t end well.

The only reason that I have a photo of the aftermath is because Raine wanted to see the scrapes. I didn’t have a mirror, so I took a photo to show her. We’ve decided that she should stay off the monkey bars for a while!

1/25/14 Artist

Raine still loves to create. She started Art Club at school and absolutely loves it. They meet after school on Wednesdays for eight weeks between January and March.

1/27-31/14 Star Student

Here is Raine with her poster for the week that she was the Star Student.

1/29/14 101 Dalmatian day (101st day of school)

1/31/14 Glasses

January 21 Raine had her eye exam to determine why her right eye was only seeing 20/70. The exam took FOREVER! It is no simple task to evaluate a fidgety five year old who doesn’t really understand what you’re asking when you say, “which looks better?” We had to go back to the initial evaluation room a second time so they could re-measure her eyes. It was comical. Raine wanted to look everywhere except at the little red light in the middle. The technician must have taken at least 25 photos of each eye.

By the time the doctor had settled on a prescription to correct the astigmatism, Raine was beyond ready to go to school. I tried to get her to look at frames, but she just pulled them off and threw them back at me. I knew there was no point, so I took her to school and said we would come back later.

Her glasses came in a couple weeks later but she was NOT excited about it. She wouldn’t even put them on so I could take a photo to send to Daddy.

It wasn’t anything that Baskin Robbins couldn’t fix though!

Getting her to wear the glasses at school has taken similar bribery. The problem is that she can see just fine without them. She doesn’t see the difference because they are only correcting one eye. Hopefully it will eventually become a habit, at least at school.

2/10/14 Father Daughter Valentine Banquet

Raine was extremely excited about this date with Dad. The school hosted it at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.

We asked Rashae Staheli to do Raine’s hair — she is one of those super-talented moms whose little girls come to playgroups at the park with intricate up-dos. Raine was starting to rethink the value of a cute hair-do after she had been sitting on a hard stool for an hour . . .

. . . but she loved the end result and decided it was worth it!

Raine loved getting flowers, too. She wasn’t as excited about wearing them, she just loved getting them!

This was the best photo that I got of them before they left. I figured that they would take a photo at the event, but Raine didn’t want to so this is all we have.

2/14/14 Valentine box

Before I get into Carter’s days as a superhero, I wanted to post this photo from his first day in Primary. He’s a Sunbeam!

Carter loves his teacher, Sister McCallister; she brings “loopty loops” (fruit loops) for them when they behave. Of course he’s an absolute angel in there — our kids always are . . . at church. That reminds me of something that happened the other day: Carter and I were out with a couple friends and Carter started throwing a fit because I didn’t do something exactly like he wanted me to. As I worked through his little melt-down, one of the other moms started laughing and said, “I’m so glad to see that your kids throw fits too!” I understand that other people only see our kids at church and think that they act like that all the time, but if you spend enough time with us, you will see AMPLE evidence that that just isn’t the case! But still, I appreciate the compliment. It’s nice to know that for three hours every Sunday I look like I have it all together!

Alright, on to Carter’s superhero obsession. It started back in December with Superman. He would wear one of his two superman t-shirts, along with his cape, EVERYWHERE we went! Everywhere except school and church. I talked him out of wearing it to those two places by reminding him that superheroes needed to keep their identity secret. So like Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, Carter goes to school as just plain old Carter. Granted, he still wears his superhero shirts, just not the capes.

Around the beginning of the year, he got into Batman. One Saturday night he was talking about Batman non-stop. So after his bath, I pulled up a classic Batman episode from the 1960’s and let him watch it. That was it, he was hooked! After church on Sunday he begged me relentlessly to make him a Batman cape. I kept telling him that I couldn’t make one right then, until finally, inspiration struck! I pulled out an old black tank-top and tied a cord through the shoulders to make a cape. I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond to my make-shift cape, but he LOVED it! He wore it all that day and the next morning.

Here is a video of Carter running around in his Batman cape.

First thing Monday morning, Carter and I headed down to the craft store so we could make him a REAL Batman cape! For under $5 we had a good looking cape and t-shirt.

Just for the record, Carter was playing with baby dolls the entire time I sewed his cape. At some point, in complete exasperation, I found myself saying, “Carter, do you want me to make you a Batman cape? Or put diapers on your babies? Because I can’t do both!” He chose the cape!

Raine needed in on the fun when she got home from school, so she whipped up this Batgirl outfit for herself using one of the logos that I had printed.

1/12/14 – Every superhero needs to learn how to fly!

1/13/14 – Superhero at the children’s museum.

1/29/14 – He kept trying to convince me to make a Batman mask for him that went over his head, but I assured him that that was way out of my league. One day he found this cardboard mask, left over from a RS activity; once he got it decorated, it was perfect for him!

1/31/14 – Superhero at the stock show petting zoo.

You know it’s a superhero-sized corn dog when you have to fully extend your arms to get it into your mouth!

Yes, it’s been a good month for this little superhero!