Leaving 6th grade

Today was a big day. It was the last day of school! And not just any last day, the last day of sixth grade for Matthew. I love that our school makes a big deal of graduating elementary school. Matt had had such great teachers this year, not to mention having had a great elementary experience I think even he was a little sad to see it come to an end.

 

Theirs was the first group of kids to start at Ellison the first year it opened and go all the way through. Very cool, even if we weren't here for the beginning.

These teachers hugged every one of their students. I don't care if it was politically correct or not, it was awesome. Those kids know how great these two teachers think they are. Even the stinkers.

 

Grandma came for the big day, everything is better if Grandma is there.

 

One last picture with Mrs. Madsen and Mrs. Robison and it was over. Such a good year, so proud of this kid!

P.S. Brittany also had her last day of junior high but there was no ceremony and I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. Proud if her to though!

Joshua's Soccer

Joshua has also had a good season of soccer! He isn't as intense about it as Matthew but he was a little more engaged this year. He even tried playing keeper like his brother!

Wasatch Soccer

Yesterday was Matthew's last game of the season. Happily it was a win! This year he joined a new team and a new club, Wasatch Soccer Club. It has been a great year.

The team, a great bunch of boys who have improved a lot.

 

With the assistant coach, John Kennedy and the head coach Chad Smith. They have been great with the boys and have taught them a lot. 

A couple of shots at the beginning of the game yesterday and some of Matthew in action as keeper. We aren't sure what the next season of soccer will bring, which team Matt will play on but we are grateful for a good year this year!

The Dress!

 

A month or so ago Brittany came home and told me that she had some big honors English projects coming up. One of the things she could choose was to make a historically correct dress from Elizabethean times. I was kind of excited, I love that kind of thing.  Then she told me I couldn't sew a stitch, it had to be all done by her.  Yikes!  Of course because it had to be accurate she chose the hardest pattern we could find. Luckily I had a bunch of fabric in my stash that we thought would work nicely. In fact I had enough that I decided to make a whole dress myself in an effort to work out any bugs and make it easier for Brittany.  So I kind of became a sewing coach. Brittany did a great job,  she followed instructions and sewed very carefully.  It turned out beautifully. Part of the assignment was to wear it to school and if you wore it all day you got extra credit. Of course she wanted to do that.

 

 

Her friend Tristan also did this assignment and I begged her to get a friend to take their pictures and she actually did! 
It was a tough project but fun. Brittany did a great job and learned a lot. As tough as it was I would rather do this again any day than make another one of those Rube Goldberg machines!

Dig it play video

I have to put this here just for me. Matthew is on the far right, his cool speak singing part comes at about :32. The whole thing just makes me smile!

Department Award for Math

This week we also had the awards night for Legacy Junior High.  Brittany and I  have always gone alone because it is a neat night but kind of long.  She especially wanted to go this year because she had friends performing.  Turns out I should have made the whole family come because she received the department award for math!

 

 Let me mention her that this is an example of nature versus nurture. I hate math and haven't been able to help with her homework in as long, long time.  She obviously got her math talents from her dad who told me on our first date that he thought calculus was fun. I'm still surprised I went out with him a second time, just proves how cute he was. William has helped Brittany a time or two when she has really been stuck but really, that is pretty rare. She has done it all on her own.  With the help of a couple of good teachers.  So I am really proud of her. Especially when cute Mrs.  Willis included among her reasons for giving her the award her willingness to help teach others around her who needed help. 

She also received awards for  4.0 High Honors , citizen ship and the President's award for educational excellence.

Brittany and Mrs. Willis who chose her for the Math department award. 

The Dig It Play

May is such a busy time!
Last week was the 6th grade Dig It Play. It is a fun play our school does every year with the 6th graders. It is all about the ancient civilizations. Matt surprised me when he decided to try out for a larger speaking part. Well of course he got it and was fabulous! He and his friend Jack were Pharoh and his friend Imhotep. 

 

Of course my video of it isn't working but trust me, he was great! I was so glad our whole family was able to go, that doesn't always happen these days. Even Grandma and Grandpa came.  Unfortunately Dad and Grandma aren't in the picture because Grandma got sick and Dad didn't know we were taking a picture.  It was such a fun night! 

The Marvel Family

If you had told me when my kids were little that someday we would become the family who went to certain action films the first weekend they came out I would not have believed you.  But that seems to be what we have become, and the truth is it is fun!  My kids have become big fans of the Marvel movies over the last year or so.  So when the new Captain America movie was set to come out they were dying to be the first to see it.  Now that would be all three kids, the boys and the girls.  That is a rare happening these days. So that is how we became a Marvel Family.

 

We got tickets way ahead of time so we could see it in the really great theater with the reclining seats.

 

These boys are killing time before the movie

 

  We even went to dinner to make it a big event!

 

  Then it was so much fun we did it again when Spiderman 2 came out! 

 

 I'm just grateful we can still find fun movies to go to together!

Easter 2014

This year we were able to resume our long loved tradition of attending the Dopp family Easter egg hunt. It is always such fun! Circe and I have been friends so long I really feel like her family is my family! 

Easter Sunday I really wanted to take a picture with my good-looking family. Unfortunately Brittany woke up with a fever. So this cute picture is incomplete.

Happily she was feeling better later in the day so she did make it to Grandma's fabulous Easter egg hunt.  It is always a blast and one of our favorite memories.  No one is showing any sign of out-growing it either!

Teen author boot camp

I haven't blogged in so long! But now William has helped me find an app on my phone so there will be lots more from here on out!

 

I have been meaning to blog  about a very cool thing Brittany did months ago. She has a friend, Emme. They have been friends since they were two. Even though our families have moved apart they have remained friends with a lot of common interests. Months ago Emme  invited Brittany to go with her to the Teen Author Boot Camp held on the Utah Valley University campus. They both enjoy writing a lot and she had gone last year and thought it was really fun. So the two of them spent the day in workshops learning different skills they could use in writing. They had such a great time! I got to spend the day with my sister and Emme's mom Jen. So I had a great time too!
Part of the boot camp is a first chapter contest. 
Each participant submits the first chapter of a potential book. Brittany and Emme had both work hard to write a chapter. Then they emailed them to each other, then edited them for each other. Jen and I went together to pick them up and were wonderfully surprised to see them both caring trophies! Trophies that were made by the same guy who makes the iron man suits, by the way.  Out of all the kids that were there, and they were a lot, Emme had won first place and Brittany had one second! It was an ending we couldn't  have written better!

Fitzgerald Family Vacation Winter 2014!

A few weeks ago our awesome dad brought up the idea of a quick trip to visit the happiest place on Earth. When I say quick, I mean because we planned it quickly. I have to say it was fun not to have to wait very long for such a fun trip. This post has way too many pictures so probably no one but our family will read it, but I want to document our fun trip.

 First we made it to St. George and spent the day there. William had found us a slot canyon to hike, our first. It was very cool.

 Fun places to wiggle into. If you are smallish like Josh.

 The next day we got up and made it to Little Corona Del Mar to find some tide pools.

 We love tide pools, these had a lot of little crabs, sea urchins and star fish.

 We had almost given up on finding any star fish when Josh said, "what is this weird thing?" and it was a star fish! It is upside down on that rock ledge behind him.

 The next day we finally made it to Disneyland and the much anticipated Radiator Springs! We were so excited we were at the park by 7:15 even though it didn't open to us until 8. I went up to get a map from a lady at the gate and she asked me if we were staying at one of the resorts. I said no we weren't to which she responded, "well let's see if we can get you in anyway". It was one of the mornings they let people staying at the Disney resorts in early and she let us in too! So of course we ran straight to Radiator Springs Racers. The line was much shorter than it would be the rest of the day. And it is so cute we didn't mind waiting anyway.

 That is our family after getting new tires from Luigi! We went on this ride as many times as we could over the next three days. It was so fun!

 Resulting in this classic picture. Who hit me in the side of the head? The family voted this  my best hair ever!

 It was such a great time, riding everything in sight!

 

 Let's pretend Josh is much smaller on that big fish. I love pictures at Disneyland, they are always so colorful and fun.

 Don't know why, we always try on a lot of hats while we are there. Brittany and her dad in sparkly hats.

 Matthew and Josh in tire hats.

 I love the parade! We got there right as it was starting and found an awesome spot.

 We discovered a fantastic exhibit in the Innovations building. They had all of the Iron Man suits.

 They also had a place where you could put on a virtual Iron Man suit. See the screen? That is the suit going on Matt. Then once it was on it did everything you did. Very cool.

 Josh becoming Iron Man. Maybe Iron  Boy?

 Then there were fireworks. Gorgeous, fun fireworks!

 More time on Main Street in Radiator Springs.

 Followed by World of Color. So very pretty.

 You have to meet a few characters, my big kids are almost old enough not to be to interested but I made them, it is only fair that Josh get to meet them like they did. Donald and Daisy are Brittany's favorite so we ran over to meet Donald. He insisted on linking arms, which is why we are laughing.

 Love this picture of Josh and Pluto. Josh has always loved dogs so this is really fun.

 When did I become so much shorter than even Mickey Mouse? I love this picture of all of us, especially William. Doesn't he look like he is having fun?

 We decided Space Mountain was our favorite ride as a family, after Radiator Springs. We all love how fast and smooth it is, and Matthew and I like how it is in the dark so we don't know how high we are. Unlike California Screamin'.

Speaking of California Screamin', which William loves and is usually forced to ride alone because the rest of us are chicken, this was the year that changed. You have to look hard because of the glare on this picture, but that is Josh sitting next to William. He loved this ride! Did it over and over with his Dad! Then they tackled the Tower of Terror which the rest of us hate. He loved that too! So now he is officially his dad's scary ride partner.

When Brittany was little meeting a princess could totally make a trip. This was her princess moment this time. We went back to the Iron Man display one night because they also had Loki's helmet and Thor's hammer and we wanted to see them again. They were also supposed to have Thor's throne. So I asked a guy were it was, he said to wait in line it would be about 10 minutes. We had no idea what we were really in line for but got in anyway. Turned out they took us into a room with a lot of the Thor artifacts. It filled with smoke and lights and one wall opened up to reveal Thor and his throne. Disney doesn't do anything half way so it was very cool! Even Matthew and I were super impressed.

Love this picture!
No trip to Anaheim is complete without a trip to the Lego store!

 

 

After we left our favorite hotel, The Candy Cane Inn, we headed for Laguna Beach. What a fun beach town. Spent the day being lazy at the beach. The only thing better than the beach is the beach when it is cold and snowy at home.

Josh loved chasing waves. He was pretty good too. Notice the surfers behind him. There were a lot of them out that day and a few were really good.

Matthew dug two holes, one for each leg. Brittany spent a fair amount of time reading in the sun like me, one of my very favorite things to do but no picture of that.

All in all, a very good week. Wish they could all be like that but eventually we had to returned to real-life, but lucky for us that is pretty good too.