Last weekend we camped at Twin Lakes and made a trip into Yosemite. Bears go through the camp where we stayed (isn't that the case with everywhere we camp?) We are extremely careful about keeping any food things and smelly things in the car - even so much that we put the dirty laundry in the car (in case kids got sticky marshmallows on their shirt or anything). We even covered our ice chest in the car so a bear wouldn't see it and try to break into the car. The first night we heard the bear banging on the dumpster and pulling it to try to get it open. The second day we were in Yosemite and we were of course vigilant before we left but when we got back after dinner time we saw our bucket of pots, pans, paper products, and other kitchen supplies dumped over and spilled about in our camp. The bear had already been through and I guess our large plastic bin looked a little too much like an ice chest. The lid was ripped off and torn and our paper towels and paper plates had nice claw marks through several layers. While the kids stayed in the car (we told them we needed to get their sleeping bags and the tent ready so to just wait), Tim and I put all the stuff back. We didn't tell the kids about it until the next day - no need to freak them out. Although we were a little frustrated and mad that the bear wrecked our bucket and some of our paper things, we were very fortunate it was just some stuff. Oh, the joys of camping
Here's all the boys showing off all their hard work.
A friend of mine has a baby lamb and she invited the boys over to see it. Baby T. thought it was great. They were fascinated with the lamb but also just as fascinated with her dogs.
On the same day my boysmade a giant snake out of
Big T. got to choose whatever cake he wanted. He changed his mind several times and then saw a "money" cake on the internet. That sealed the deal. His little brother wanted to help out though so here is Baby T. (or little T. now) "helping" with the cake. (I didn't purposefully give my one year old son a bowl of frosting, he climbed up to the table when I wasn't watching and tried to polish off what was left in the bowl).
The "money" cake.
This is little J.'s "game face". When he is into the game he is really into the game. He gets a very serious concentrated look on his face and he gets very focused.
Big J. was a good forward this year. He really seems to have improved a lot over the last year. 
Both the boys worked really well together on the team. They were good at passing to each other and working together to score. It was fun to watch their games.
Big T. was on a different team than the older boys and he really had fun playing with some of his friends. He is pretty good and he is only in Kindergarten.
Big T. playing soccer.
My older boys acting silly. They were both chosen to be on the all-star team. I'll do another post about that wet, fun game.
After learning about volcanoes each kid in his class got to build a volcano (paper mache then painted over a water bottle - ie. magma chamber). Then they all got a chance to erupt their volcano in class.
At the end of the year Big J. did a book report. They had to choose a chapter book with at least 100 pages. He chose Eragon which has 500 pages and he only had 3 weeks to read the whole thing. I was so proud of him when he finished that huge book! (I don't think I've ever read a book that long - for sure not in 3 weeks.) As part of his book report he made a word search, filled a box with items representing things from his book to tell about and made a model. Here is his model of "The Varden" from the book. It's a city in a mountain area with dragon lairs nearby (the holes). (Hope I didn't mess that up since I've never really read the book.)
Then they did a reverse dog pile. My boys LOVE playing with their Dad.
