We spent Memorial-Day weekend down in Austin with a few of our friends to watch Daddy run in the Cap-Tex triathlon.

Saturday was arrival day and we met up with the Walkers and Boyers at Torchey’s Tacos for dinner. Sunday, we met up at church and then headed over to the Ashley’s sister’s house where we spent the afternoon and evening. The kids worked out some energy at the neighborhood playground.

Even though it was bright and sunny Sunday afternoon, Austin experienced a torrential downpour Saturday night and the rivers were all running high and fast. Because of this — and all the debris being carried down stream — the swim portion of the triathlon was canceled. Monday morning, the boys arrived at the starting line bright and early and hopped on their bikes. The kids and I took the hotel shuttle downtown and found ourselves a comfy bench along the bike route to watch. The bike course took Daddy right past us four times.

After he passed the final time, we walked down to the park to meet up with the rest of the gang.

Jordyn, Raine, Carter, Boston, and Cade

We cheered on all three dads as they passed.

These are the official photos from the race:

Here are his stats — not too bad for his first time. They were all disappointed that the swim was cancelled. Now they have to sign up for another one so they can say that they did a full triathlon.

DJ, Bryan, and James. (You’d never guess they didn’t go swimming with how soaked they were — it was very humid out there!)

The kids wanted a ride on Daddy’s bike as we walked back to the car.

Thursday was Carter’s preschool music program and preK graduation.

Waiting for the music program.

Each of the classes “sings” two songs during the music program. Then the parents of the younger classes leave and the preK class performs a whole bunch more songs.

This “Tooty-Ta” song was hilarious!

Here is an abbreviated version of some of the songs that the Pre-K class sang during the music program and graduation.

After the songs, each child received a graduation certificate.

Pastor Greg gave each of the kids a book.

Carter with Ms. Tricia and Ms. Rae Anne

Here is a video of Carter receiving his diploma — he is such the class-clown!

Carter’s preschool class.

Carter with his “best buddies” Jack and Brody.

Love this big baby!

Below is Carter’s Pre-K assessment and it is spot-on. But first, to put it in context, Ms. Tricia is not your typical lovey-dovey, everybody’s-a-winner sort of preschool teacher. She has high expectations for these kids and tells it like it is. For that reason, her assessment of Carter gave me a lot of confidence that Carter will do great in kindergarten this fall even though he will have just turned five. He is definitely a smart kid; when he sets his mind to something, he accomplishes it fairly quickly.

What a great day! I really love Mother’s Day, maybe even more than my birthday. It’s always a great excuse to take family pictures (a legal form of child abuse, if you ask Carter).

I definitely love all the presents. Especially the handmade ones…

and the chocolate ones…

and the photo ones!

But my favorite part of Mother’s Day is reading the surveys that the kids filled out in primary — they’re always so insightful!

“This is my mom. Her name is Kim, but daddy calls her Kim.
She is 35 years old and she is as pretty as a flower.
My mom is the best at making chocolate chip muffins.
She really loves me and Carter.
If I had a TON of money I would buy her godiva chocolate.
If my mom was an animal, she would be a bee.
When mom was a little girl, she used to watch tv.
My mom is scared of fire.
My mom looks funny when she is confused.
Something my mom always says to me is Hello.
I wouldn’t trade her for all the rocks sadness in the world.
Love Raine”

“This is my mom. Her name is Kim, but daddy calls her Kim.
She is 1 years old and she is as pretty as a flower.
My mom is the best at making pizza.
She really loves yellow and red.
If I had a TON of money I would buy her a dress.
If my mom was an animal, she would be a peacock.
When mom was a little girl, she used to climb trees.
My mom is scared of snakes.
My mom looks funny when she has no make up.
Something my mom always says to me is clean your face.
I wouldn’t trade her for all the chocolate in the world.
Love Carter D.”

Thursday, May 7 was the music program for 1st grade. It was fun… and cute… and most importantly SHORT!

Raine is on the back row, with the pink flower in her hair.

Here is an abbreviated version of the program:

Raine is awesome, she really is! She is a first-born in every sense of the word — over-achiever, controlling, rule-follower. She is also creative and passionate. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty . . .

Digging for worms with her neighbor-friend Riley

. . . but she also loves to be a girl.

I find this photo to be unbelievably disturbing. What happened to my baby???

Raine loves to read. She is currently working her way through the Boxcar Children Mysteries. She’s also obsessed with being a spy. She started a “Spy Team” with a bunch of her girlfriends at school and is always working on things for the team. I’m not sure exactly what they do, but she sure loves it.

Raine still loves rescuing animals. In fact, she and Riley built a sanctuary for those “poor worms” that they dug out of the dirt the other day. She also loves to “rescue” roly-poly bugs during Carter’s soccer games. I keep trying to tell her that the bugs are better off in the dirt, but she insists that they need her help. She argues that they could get stepped on in the grass and would be much better off on the side-walk. (Sometimes her logic is so flawed, but she believes it so passionately, that I get exhausted even thinking about trying to change her mind! And so, I just nod.)

Speaking of soccer games, here is Raine’s first corner kick. She really loves soccer. It’s too bad we’ve had so many games and practices cancelled this season because of weather. She has made a lot of progress and is really fun to watch.

Raine asked me to record this video of her riding her bike so that I could post it on the blog. She is riding in a spiral around the cul-de-sac.

And finally, here is a story that Raine wrote at school. (The paper she uses is wider than my scanner so the edges got cut off. I’ll type out the text below). I really love this story because it is sooooo Raine! Almost every line ends with an exclamation point and the jokes don’t really make sense but it has animals and princesses and a little excitement!

* * * * *

The Mean Mean Bat
Long, long ago in a dark haunted cave a flying bat swooped out of the dark looking for food and then frightened a little rat. The Queen grabbed the rat right before the bat ate him! The bat sihed [sighed]. The princess ran over to the queen and then pecky sqwacked [squawked] with alarm! It’s the King! Run! The rat squeaked with alarm! Pecky screeched with alarm again! Then something worse happened! The evil evil witch went after them! Run fast! But . . . the princess and the cat came up with the best plan ever! First, Oh no! The bat ate the rat! Wait never mind. First the princess snuck up on the bat and killed it. Then the cat bit the king and witch! Everyone was happy! The end.

This past Wednesday, Carter’s preschool class took a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. They use the zoo-phonics curriculum, and just finished all 26 letters, so they went to see how many of their zoo-phonics friends they could find.

Carter is second from the right.

Daddy went with Carter on the field-trip (it was his first field-trip) and I met them there for lunch.

Carter spent the entire time with his best friend, Jack. They were in the same primary class in our old ward and have become best buddies. As we were walking to the kangaroos they looked at each other and said “let’s hold hands!”

Here’s Carter petting the goat.

More of Carter and Jack.