One May-niac month - Ashlyn

Ash was offered the opportunity to go roadtripping to Phoenix with Grandma and her aunts by herself to visit her cousin Cohen.

All I can say is that it was terribly quiet around here without her. I guess I've never realized how much liveliness and energy she brings into our home. While she was gone, she lost one of her two front teeth and the other hung on for dear life for several weeks until her dad returned from a business trip. She's been singing "All I Want for Christmas" for a couple of days now.
During the last few months of school, the first graders are challenged to read 100 books by the end of school. I've never had any problems getting my kids to reach that goal. And Ashlyn was no different. In fact she went above what any of the others have done and reached her own personal goal of 300 books. I was one of the reading moms for the year where I went in once a week and helped the class with their reading. Ashlyn was definitely one of the better readers in her class. I could really tell a difference between students who had access to books at home and who didn't.

She begged me to chaperone her class on their field trip to Tracy Aviary. Those kids have so much energy . . . and I was only in charge of two. I came home exhausted and and in need of an immediate nap.
To finish up the school year Ash was asked to do an "expert" report. We decided to learn about the little rodents, or pets as Alex calls them, that we have living in our window well. She learned they are called voles not mice. They have small ears and tails and they love to climb. They eat leaves and foliage, and when desperate, will eat each other. They have chewed away at our window screens until there are several big holes that they like to climb through. She took a lot of pictures by herself and presented her report.