Last Day of School

I thought that I should put this up for future reference.
The kids last day of school was the 5th. Brianna couldn't wait. She only went to her first class and then to an end of year assembly. She was home before way before lunch. She's definitely ready for high school.
Tom's last day was a fun one. He went to school by himself, but I joined him before school was done. We got some neat books of work he'd done during the year and a neat picture that shows how much he's grown over the school year. He got to decorate a Frisbee and then his teacher gave out grade cards and a books. She had a really hard time letting them go. I can't believe that Tom's going to be a first grader. He's become such a good reader and really likes spelling and reading things to all of us. I'm so proud of his learning.
Next school year will be a big one in the Rolf house. Brianna will be a sophomore in high school and Tom will be going to school all day. Now if I could just ship Charlie off for a few hours each day I might be able to get something done.

Super Star

Tom's had a GREAT week so far this week. When he went back to school on Tuesday we got a call before he came home letting us know that during school he'd earned the "Wahoo for you" award. He had earned it because he was such a good helper cleaning the room and picking up books. I was so proud of him for being a great kid!
The next day, Brian and I were at a function for my work and I got a call on my cell phone from Tom's school. I always get worried when the school calls, so I answered and the vice principal told me that Tom had been chosen to pick a key and try it to win a bike. It is with the reading program they've had for the year. The principal told me that even if he didn't win the bike Tom would win a great prize.
We showed up at the school for the assembly a 2:00pm and we were able to case out the prizes.
This is the bike that we were trying to win. Tom was a little nervous that it only had 2 wheels, but I told him it would be okay and if he won it, we'd take care of that.

They had so many prizes that he could choose from if he didn't get the bike.

This is really dark, but shows how many surprises they could get.

When the K-3 boys went up, Tom didn't even need to try his key because the first boy got the bike. Tom had to pick a different prize instead. He hadn't really prepared himself for this, so he just picked the SpongeBob Sorry game. He was excited about it.He wasn't the only one excited about the game. Charlie was ready to play too. We came home and immediately opened up the game and played a couple of games.

We're so proud of Tom for his time reading. I hope that he continues to love to read so he can have another chance to win the bike next year.

Ninth Grade Advancement

Last night was Brianna's Advancement night. They recognized the students for their accomplishments. Brianna could have easily gotten those awards, but with moving to Utah and only being there for 9th grade, I don't think the teachers really knew her potential.
They had the advancement ceremonies in the gym and it was packed. It was fund to celebrate Brianna and her hard work over the years!

Way to go Brianna! I think she's ready for High School.

Memorial Day Traditions

On our way up to Ogden to begin our Memorial Day Celebration. This has potential to be the best picture, but someone always has to pull that face. See if you can spot it somewhere else.

Our first stop is the best part of the Memorial Day tradition--Farr Better Ice Cream. Everyone got to pick out their favorite ice cream flavor and get a scoop. This little shop is still in its '50s glory it looks so cool. Some of the best flavors that we liked were: chocolate peanut butter (Brian and Brianna), Brownies on the Moon (Rachel), Root Beer (Tom), and a not so favorite Play dough (Chuck--story to follow.)

Here's Tom eating his Root Beer ice cream cone. It tasted like a root beer float that was all mixed together. You can tell he really liked it.

Here's Charlie eating his play dough ice cream. I know my son, and I knew that there was no way that he would eat the entire ice cream cone. I tried to convince him to pick a different flavor because I knew I, or someone else, would have to help eat some of it. Notice in the above picture Sam's ice cream cone size in comparison to Charlie's ice cream size.

Now in this picture, look at the ice cream flavor--Charlie's Play dough. Poor Spencer got stuck with Chuck's left over cone. He said that it wasn't good.

Here are the kid's sitting at the window. There isn't a picture of Brian, Brianna, or me eating our ice cream cones, because we don't mess around. We just eat our ice cream and get on with it. By this time Charles was "done" with his ice cream, Tom was still working on his, and Mary had completely forgotten about the candies that she had chosen rather than an ice cream.

This is Emily, Brianna, and Dan waiting on Dan to finish his treat. Everyone else was outside trying to keep the children under control.

After our ice cream trip, we went to the cemetery to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Cawley. This is Tom looking a little special needs, but he's definitely not. We were waiting for my cousins to show up, while playing with the pine cones, taking a walk, and of course hearing how we are related to the other people's headstones by our families'.

We ended our day with a barbecue at my Mom's house. I love our Memorial Day traditions.

Baseball Practice

The other night Brian called me outside to check out Charlie's baseball stance. Mind you, this bat is not even 12 inches long, but the boys love to play baseball. Chuck came up with this one all on his own.
I love how his elbow is all up high, and his face is really great too.

This an up close view of his funny face and the bat up so high. He loved it, and has a really good swing too.

Of course we had to get a picture of Tom. This one is him talking smack to his brother. I don't think he knew I was taking this picture, but I love it!

Garden Update

This was from last week. The garden is doing well or maybe I should say it's well done. I think the watering it's working, we should plan something else.

Here's a full view. With the sprinklers makes it feel like it's getting watered.
This is our 15 or so tomato plants. We will have so many tomatoes if they end up growing I don't even want to think about what we're going to do with the extra. I wish we could ship them to you in Ohio.

This part is where the pumpkins will be. I just hope they sprout soon.

Dan, Amanda's husband, says that it doesn't look like much is growing, but it doesn't look like it's dying either. I'd rather have them grow instead.

Little League

Yesterday was the last game of the season, so I wanted to put up some pictures of Tom's team this spring. Tom's team was the Dodgers, which he was really excited about. He loved that he had a cool uniform just like the big leagues.

Before the game playing catch with Brian, Pete, and David.

More catch. I love this one 'cause it has all of them in it.

Charlie didn't want to play catch, so he was running the bases. David wanted in on that action and they had a race. Here's David holding Charlie back.

But this time Charlie won.

Here Tom's on first.

He had the best swing and could field the ball the best. He must get that ball talent from someone.

We had a good time this year. I won't complain about the cheaters that had their three year-olds play in the 5-6 T-ball league, but I had to get over that, because Tom had a super fun time playing with the boys. Next year is machine pitch.