5th Grade Graduation

Leilani graduated from Yujin Gakuen last week. I can't believe that she is off to middle school in the fall.

Each of the kids got a paper flower corsage with a congratulations note in Japanese.

She loved her 5th grade teacher, Mori Sensei. She is a nice lady who was in my grandma's ward for a long time.
We were all there to celebrate with Leilani. (Alan has decided that he looks better when he doesn't smile :( So if you think he looks good smiling, please leave a comment letting him know, because I HATE this new unsmiling pose he has in all our pictures!)

Grandma and Grandpa Bevans were able to come to graduation with us.
She received her diploma from our principal, Allan Chinn. (a childhood friend of my brother, Todd)
Then all the teachers from k-4 were lined up to hug the kids and shake their hands. The kids did a cute musical program about the memories they had from grade school, and then we had cake and ice cream. It was a nice evening, and we are very proud of it.

Free Fishing Day

Every year they have a free fishing day for kids up at Leaburg Dam. They supply the life jackets and fishing gear, and the kids each get to catch 3 fish. If you want to take the fish home and eat them, the volunteers even gut them, clean them and provide a bag and ice to transport them home in. We have made this a yearly tradition for our family (grandpa and cousins too).
Leilani likes to fish, but she did NOT want to hold it for the picture!

Elisabeth ended up catching the biggest fish in our family.

Benjamin really had a good time.

Emily was the first one to catch all three of her fish.


We had a good time, and look forward to doing it again next year.

3rd Grade Train to the Zoo

I chaperoned the 3rd grade field trip to the zoo. We started out at the Eugene Amtrak station and rode the train to the zoo.

The kids watched movies, went to the snack bar, read, drew, played games and visited. The chaperones read, talked and played games. (We actually finished Phase 10)

When we got to Portland, we walked to the max station (electric train).

They divided us into groups at the zoo. This is our group with the two 3rd grade teachers.

Checking out the bear feet...

the new baby elephant...

the giraffe (Emily's animal she was doing a report on).

The 3rd grade class

After the zoo, we rode the max back to the downtown station.

When we got to the train station, we found out the train was going to be late. Mrs. Kelly is a master of keeping the kids entertained. She had them playing rock, paper, scissors and a hide the backpack game and a kind of duck, duck, goose. They didn't fun around the station at all.

We all got a Chinese meal (I'm not sure why it wasn't Japanese)

It was late when we got home, but we had a very fun day!

U of O Japan Night

Emily performed at the Japan Night held at University of Oregon. They had giant chopsticks and giant sushi as we entered into the festival.

We ate a bento meal while we watched performances by various groups.

The 3rd graders, recited a Japanese story, sang and played the taikos. The kids got to go in a haunted house afterwards. It was based on Japanese Anime, and it was very different from what you normally see when you go to an American haunted house. It was a fun night, and the kids did a good job with their performance. (Emily is 3rd in from the left)

Yujin Gakuen 20th Anniversary

Yujin Gakuen (our kids' elementary school) is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. They had a special (translate as expensive) dinner, program and auction to celebrate and fundraise. We weren't going to go, but then Elisabeth was picked to be in the multi-grade school choir (2 kids from each grade) that was performing that night. So, we kind of felt obligated to go with her :)

We didn't want to pay for all of our kids to go, so it was a special night for Elisabeth to be alone with her parents. (She definitely doesn't get that very often, so it was exciting for her) The dinner was nice, and the kids gave a great performance. We got out of there without purchasing any items - but not because I didn't try. I almost gave my husband a coronary when I bid on the wooden trunk that Leilani's class made...not because I bid, but because of how high I went. He kept asking me how high I was going to go, and then he kept listing all the things we weren't going to do if I won the trunk at the price I was currently bidding :) I admit, I was bidding purely for sentimental reasons. It was her 5th grade project, and it had all their thumb prints and pictures of them, etc. But the mother of the twins in Leilani's class wanted it lots more than I did...or could afford it more LOL! It was a good night.