Pump It Up

 For the last day of school there was a party at Pump It Up. The boys had lots of fun running around. Max did great and was so brave up the slide though he got a little nervous at some parts, but to be fair, there were a ton of kids.

  The class.

 More cake. Max insisted on sitting with Braden,

 and Levi with Garrett.

Graduation

 Preschool is over. It only feels like he just had his first day, now he's all graduated. Still can't believe it. Here's a really bad picture of the graduation. There was a screen behind the kids for the parents while we were waiting for them to walk in and was kind of still going when they finally walked in. Levi was so funny and turned around for almost a minute looking at the video. Jason and I were laughing at that one. What a funny boy.

 Here he is with teacher Martha and teacher Kim, they were SOOOO wonderful and I'm so glad he had them as teachers. As I was talking to teacher Kim she told me how much she loved Levi and how smart he is. She said that she would be teaching about a bird or something in simple little kid terms then he'd always  comment with lots of facts that she didn't even know and then she didn't even realize he was the youngest in the class. It made me happy when I hear he is doing so well.

 Cute boy.

 And this one is my favorite face. It makes me happy because it is so very Levi.

 Max was kind of getting what was going on. He's just excited that he gets to go next year, that is if we can get this boy potty trained.

 Oh and he did this for a good portion of the ceremony as well as twirling it on his finger. At least his best bud Braden was doing it too. I wonder who started it......

 Afterwards we all had cake and Levi hugged his friends, Garrett (Braden's little brother which Levi loves and insists on helping him everywhere and is usually very very concerned when he trips and falls which is all the time) and Levi decided to give Braden a hug despite his protests.

Congrats Levi, you are now a preschool graduate!

Books

Here's what I found the other day. Notice his half eaten apple.....that's how we roll.

Experimenting

 I've been wanting to do this with the boys for a while. I knew they would love it, I just had to get all the stuff together. Basically you put a bunch of baking soda in a pan, color some vinegar, give them some droppers and let them have at it.
They loved it.

The Big Three

 For weeks Max had been talking about his birthday when he would 'not e oow anmore'. All of us were pumped up for the big day. This year is a family year with no big friend party and we had a lot of fun keeping it pretty low key.

First thing in the morning he crawled into bed to which all of us started to sing 'Happy Birthday'. He screamed and wouldn't let us finish , which took a bit to calm him down. Maybe he just couldn't handle all the excitement. 

To begin, breakfast out, which we never do. I was even nice and let him pack around his lightning McQueen backpack filled with all his favorite stuff animals, usually it's just one animal and it has to stay in the car. He had a bear pancake (it was a bear face) which he refused to cut up and eat for 20 minutes but he finally did. On the way in to the restaurant he kept telling every one 'I not oow anmore, I free, I big boy now'. Toward the end they sang and brought out a crepe with ice cream. He was a little shy about the singing but ice cream for breakfast? Yes please.

 Then off we went (after a few errands) to play with friends. We played and then went for a picnic outside. I brought his favorite, watermelon which was a crowd pleaser. I think between us all we at the whole thing.

 A lot of running around and rock throwing.

 Did someone say cookies? Everyone brought a couple different kinds (I love how we all think alike) and let the kids have at it, at least for a bit. Max kept stuffing his face probably thinking I was going to stop him any second.

 Cool dude.

 And Levi wanted to be sure to get his picture taken.

 In the evening we showed him a strider bike we got him. We weren't going to get him anything but I caved and did. It took him a bit to get used to it but he loves it.

 On Sunday we had our 'family party' to which Jason and I presented him with his birthday cake. I like to do a fun cake on the family party years because I don't have time on friend years. Jason and I worked on it together late Saturday night, it took about 2 hours and turned out better than I thought. Jason was in charge of making the fondant and sculpting (he's great at it) and I did more details and stacked it. I think we make a pretty good cake decorating team.

 Max showed everyone his airplane cake the first thing when they came in. He was quite excited.

 Aunt Rose, whose b-day it was the next day, was a great sport and said she wanted an airplane cake and hot dogs for her birthday too, so it worked out well. What a nice auntie.

 Presents! He got some work gloves and tool belt thing from Jason because whenever we asked what he wanted he told us tools, got some books from Nesie, a Thomas the Train pillow pet from Aunt Ro (which he loves), and a little stuffed monkey from Miss Krista which is now one of his new bff's. His name is Anders.

To my dear Max,
I can't believe you are three years old. You are a 'big boy' and one of my favorite people in the world. You are such a sweet kind boy. Your smile is infectious and every time you giggle it makes me so happy that I get to be your mom. Every day I am amazed how much you know and want to learn.

Right now you love building. I mean love it. Your favorite is the big legos where you could build and build if we'd let you. You love to help dad build and work with him in the garage. Max the builder.

You love to help and always want to help with whatever I'm doing, cooking, putting away dishes, working outside. You are such a helper.

Favorite things: Spiderman, legos, your Thomas book, Hercules the movie (you laugh hysterically at Pain and Panic), slide of all shapes and sizes, and the color red.

We love you so much and look forward to another year with our fun, smart, kind and 'cool' little, ahem, big, boy.

Fort - Stage 3 (tired of looking at pictures yet?)

For FHE this week we decided to 'work' on the fort. By work I mean that mostly Jason was working on it while we tried to help as much as me and those two crazy boys can do like hand him wood, nails and such. We actually got to hang out in the top this time.

Levi showing off the door which is actually a really large window. Jason even got some carpet squares for inside.

You can't see him but max is hammering the wall. What a guy.

 He is actually quite the little helper with dad. I think we have a builder on our hands.

 The man himself. I still look out back and can't believe how much he's done in pretty much less than two weeks.

And here she is in all her glory. That was Monday and now Jason has the roof up. It is that clear wavy plastic. Yeah, I don't really know what I'm talking about but it looks nice and it will let light in. We were trying to decide what the front wall will be but I think we're going to put big windows in but we need to find some first. 

We're also looking for a slide, which is actually pretty hard to find if you don't want it already attached to a play structure. I wish I had one of these forts when I was a kid. Levi's insisting on sleeping in it when it is finished which I told him dad would be more than happy to do.

It's a big and kind of a crazy project but that is the Goodrich way and I'm pretty sure the only way we know how to do it.

Jog-a-thon

 Friday I was asked by one of my good friends to take some pictures for the Jog-a-thon she was in charge of at the school Levi will be going to kindergarten next year. I said yes so we woke up and headed out pretty early to get the first batch of kids.

Each grade ran for 20 minutes and had some time before and after to get pictures done, warmup and cool down. It was fun to watch all those cute kids. We recognized a ton of them from church.

We first saw the am kindergarteners and Levi and Max couldn't stop themselves from running too.

 They each ran 2 laps without stopping. After the first graders went they went off to play with the other kiddos who had shown up. It was fun hanging out with them and playing in between taking pictures. But by the end they were pretty tired of it all and ready to go home, which was understandable, 5 hours is even a lot for me.

Here they are watching the last group run before we run home. They were very tired from all the running and playing.But I didn't hear one complaint, my little troopers.

I'm Going There Someday

 Last Thursday we decided to go take some pre-mother's day treats to my mom's work before pre-school. She was very surprised and loved showing them off everyone. Since we were so close to the temple and had a little bit of extra time we thought we'd stop by. We even made it, very briefly, to the new visitors center. We'll definitely be going back soon. It's so pretty.