I went to the awards ceremony that they have every year at Jon's school. It's special certificates that the teachers make for each child. Since Jon's home room teacher is semi-partnered with his language arts teacher, the 2 classes had their awards done as one class. (The 2 teachers have to work together, in that they share students. Ms. Hillen had her own class for math and sciences, then switched classes with Ms. Mendoza so that she could teach them language arts.)

The kids were very well behaved while the first set of awards were handed out. Ms. Mendoza had to give the awards for Ms. Hillen, since she had gone home sick.
The kids had been instructed that they could clap, but no cheering. Jon's math award was the last one given, and Ms. Mendoza could not stop the kids from cheering.
I understood the cheering when I found out that Jon was the ONLY kid in BOTH classes to get 100% on the end of year benchmark! He had struggled with math all year!
Jon with Ms. Mendoza, his Language Arts teacher. Jon loved having separate teachers. It gives him a change that works well for him. Ms. Mendoza's award for Jon was "Super Star Speller!"
One of our neighbors had this motorcycle sitting in their garage. Her son outgrown it a long time ago, and the batteries were kaput. We put fresh batteries in it, and now Jon has his own PowerWheels motorcycle! (It has 4 wheels, btw.)

We did our annual trek to the Art Car Parade. This time, Jon brought his car and trailer. He got lots of great reactions from people. In fact, we've decided that Jon just might need to be IN the parade next year!



There's just something super cool about officers patrolling on horses.
Jon got to get a good look at one of his favorite cars in the parade. We let the owner know that his car started a fascination with low riders!
This one is in the parade every year. It's still cute.
This was a bus with chalk board on the side for people to write on. You could even write on the tires. Jon is the one that wrote "art" on the tire. He thought it was pretty silly to be using chalk on a tire.
I didn't even know they came up with that many bumper stickers for him!
Kinky Friedman was the Grand Marshal. Charlie couldn't resist yelling out his support for Kinky's next Governor run!
We always have to get this car! It was much better this time, I just went out into the street for a better shot! In fact, I spent a good portion of the parade out in the street.
This one's for you, Granny Smith!
Okay, so this one you have to click on to expand in order to read it. This is one of those silly examples of what people will do when their imagination is let loose!
On our way back to the van.
Going over a speed bump. There's just something about this picture that I really like. I want to practice to get the technique down to make sure Jon stays in focus.

Jon has already outgrown that red car. (Already?!? He's had in for 4 years!) Anyway, that's why Charlie made the race car for him. Don't be surprised if you see pictures of Jon in the parade next spring!

At the end of the school year, the 1st graders at Jon's school had a performance of Stone Soup. The play was cute, but the best part was watching Jon participating with his classmates!


That some enthusiastic singing!

Stirring the pot.
Laughing with a friend while stirring the pot.

Jon with his best bud, Kira. They became best friends last year in Kinder.
Jon taking advantage of an empty cafeteria!
Jon with the music teacher, Ms. Lynn.
Jon had such a great time in 1st grade! He can't wait to start 2nd grade!

Back home on Easter Sunday. Somehow, the Easter Bunny knew where to find us. Jon went for a little hunt in the front yard.

At one point, I made a comment to Jon that I was surprised he was still awake. Less than 5 minutes later, Charlie comes into the office to tell me to come look. This is what I find! Of course, I had to take a picture before he got carried off to bed!

So, in April we went to Fort Parker State Park. What a wonderful place! This is one of those parks that no one seems to even know exists.


We had just bought a set of walkie-talkies. Jon decided to try them out.
That handsome hubby of mine!
We went for a little walk. With the walkie talkies, of course.
There was a beautiful field of blue bonnets. Perfect for taking a few pictures!





This park has the best playground we have found so far at a state park. Charlie decided to give the slide a try.
That was a fast slide! Every time, Jon would get up laughing!

If you can't tell if Jon is having fun, check out the reflection.
Prepare for landing!
Climbing up the slide.
We went to the visitor's center. They had a little Easter egg hunt.
Jon's treasure hunt tradition.
Reading a clue to Daddy.
We went for a walk at the cemetery in the park. I saw this image as we were leaving, and worked to get the shot. This is one of my all time favorite pictures so far.
This squirrel must have been so sick of me following it around! It was worth it for this picture, though.
This was our view from the camp site. We had the perfect balance of being safely back from the lake, and still having a fantastic view.
Jon talking to us from the trailer.
Love this one!
We had replaced the camping fridge with a nicer one that has a freezer. We were able to bring Jon's M&M ice cream cones.
Took this one during an evening walk.
Saturday evening, the rangers came around to warn everyone that a big storm was due to arrive in the area in the morning. We got everything ready for a quick getaway in the morning, hoping to leave before it made it's appearance. We set the alarm on my phone for 6am, since the forecasts all said that the storm would reach us at around 7. Just as the alarm went off, we started hearing all sorts of noise outside. We scrambled to get out of there, getting very wet.