So Far, So Good

Oh What do you do in the summertime

when all the world is green?

Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream

on the banks as the clouds go by?

Is that what you do? So do I!

Oh what do you do in the summertime,

when all the world is green?

do you sit in the shade

and drink lemonade

or count all the stars in the sky?

Is that what you do? So do I!!

Well, we're a week into our "82 Days of Summer" celebration, and so far so good!!

Our week started with a great breakfast ~ cantaloupe, raspberry muffins, bacon and eggs

This next picture is very misleading ~ this was the morning when Schmemily Meeman was out in full force. Her grin here just shows the reflex reaction my children have learned for when the camera comes out. lol.

Schmemily wouldn't ~ no, REFUSED ~ to pick up any piece of food in front of her, preferring instead to fuss and whine and cry and fuss some more until finally she just gave up and melted completely. It was only after mommy picked her up and held her, hand feeding her bites, that she would eat any of the items in front of her.

The last day of school is sort of the honorary first day of vacation. Not much instruction goes on, and there are usually fun and special activities. Elizabeth was asked to sing the National Anthem for her Promotion Ceremony. She did a great job, eloquently clearing her throat in the middle with a quiet, "sorry". She picked right up though and was right on key. I think that will be one of those moments that everyone remembers happily about their time in middle school. Liz sure will!

I have to admit to tears the whole time during the Promotion. I consciously had to keep my mouth shut for fear that I'd make some embarrassing noise if I tried to breathe through my mouth. I just kept thinking to myself, as she was singing, that "she lives at our house!" "that girl up there ~ she comes home with ME!" We have surely been blessed with terrific people for kids. Elizabeth is working on developing her talents and we are so pleased with the decisions she's making for herself and the goals she has set. So many wonderful things ahead I'm sure!

We took a minute to look through the certificates the younger girls had brought home. Kathryn was the only one close enough to take a picture with all of them. She received a computer award for being the first student (ever!) to get through all 25 lessons of the "Type to Learn" program. She also received a certificate for her role on the student council. There's also an Honor Roll in there as well as a sort of "good kid" one that has a certificate for a free kids meal at Winger's. My assumption is that everyone got one of those ~ we have quite a collection that's built up here through the year! Have to get there one of these days..... :)

Kathryn had a GREAT 5th grade year and is so excited to get to be 'movin' on up' to the Middle School next year. The District has instituted a new Dress Code, so we'll be on the look out for great deals on solid polo shirts and khaki pants this summer.

The first rose of the year appeared on day #1. Isn't she pretty!!

At one point during the day, all of the chairs from the dining table disappeared. This is where I found them:

Kathryn and Melissa had built it, using all of the chairs and all of their blankets (looks like Missa's robe is in there as well). Then they pulled in a bunch of books, as well as Emily and Nathan for a while and played and played. Super summer fun!!

The week continued with cousins coming over for the day on Saturday so their parents could suprise them with a Total Room Makeover. The fort in the livingroom was rebuilt and there was lots of fun going on. Somehow we forgot to take any pictures!

I did snap a picture with my phone from the top of Table Rock on Saturday morning. The YW leaders went for a practice hike on the route we're taking the girls on next week. We had a great time!

Kurt spent Saturday in the middle of the intersection at Franklin and Milwaukee helping with the Fill the Boot campaign. The goal for the department was to raise $40k.... they were at $41k before the change was counted. Kurt was so impressed with people's generosity! All funds support the MDA.

Elizabeth and Kathryn rode their bikes to Maverik (about 4 miles away) and were thoughtful enough to bring back ice cream for everyone. Making the 4 mile trek back meant the ice cream was PERFECT for eating when they got home. Mmmmmm!

And yes, it's finally happened. I've started reading Twilight. I'm still only about 100 pages in, but Liz and I have a deal that if I read Twilight she'll read Anne of Green Gables. We're going page for page on this one ~ there are 9 books in the AofGG series and four big ones to Twilight of course. These are the kinds of sacrifices, aren't they, that we make as mothers sometimes? sigh.


Monday of week one brought the trash guys to our house. It's Nathan's favorite part of the day and nearly the best thing for him all week (next to Nursery!)

He's still a little timid, but our Trash Guy knows now that he'll always be watching and has started waving to him. What a cool Trash Guy!

Tuesday was Emily's workout day with her incredible, awesome, terrific and wonderful PT, Wendy.

We discovered last week that Emily would pull herself out of exhaustion to get to the cookies Melissa had made for Wendy to take home. So Elizabeth took a plain white onesie and made this for Emily to wear:

There are times when Em just isn't in the mood to work while Wendy is here, but our discovery just might mean we're able to pull a few more minutes out of her. Interesting to know where her motivation lies....

Kathryn made some terrific Snickerdoodles while Melissa pretended to help. She was a great "taste tester"

And lest anyone worry that we're too busy or doing too much....be comforted in knowing that there's PLENTY of lounging going on:

With breaks to come up with cool creations like this one:

And look at the difference a week makes for the roses! Where there was just one (that's her, in the very middle of the picture), now there is a whole bunch. So lovely that her friends have joined us.

Tuesday Kurt and I went on a "$10 Date Night" (patent pending, lol) that started at CostCo for a slice of pizza and a soda to share. We went home and changed our clothes and made it to the temple for our Stake's night. There were 20+ people from our ward in the session. It was AWESOME! More date nights like this one to come!!

Last night we took Sonic up on their FREE Root Beer Floats. We had a lot of fun and the floats were yummy. Nathan had already gone to bed and fresh from her bike workout, Liz offered to stay home with him. So we had just a partial family outing, but had a great time. We were just about done with our floats when one of the little guys on skates came over to the table behind us, having spilled one of the floats on his tray. There were three others on the tray that were now all sticky and he asked us if we wanted them since he didn't feel like he could really give them away. Um ~ sure!! So, we got two for the price of one. And since the first was free, we were doing pretty well! We met another FF family, who caught my eye because they had three girls and a boy (in that order). Looked very familiar! Turns out they live not too far from us. We ended up chatting with them for quite a while. Sonic turned the lights out on us in fact! But, our standing around chatting paid off ~ I'm not sure why but all of the sudden about the time the lights went off all of the employees poured out of the building with stacks of coupons in their hands. We were asked if we'd gotten our float and even though we said yes the guy handed us a bunch and said, "thanks for coming tonight. Be sure to visit us again." Thank you! We sure will!!

Amongst all of these activities, we've signed everyone up for both Caldwell and Nampa's summer reading program. The girls are devouring their books and looking forward to some fun rewards. Liz has been babysitting three different times (two in one day). I had a great time at my Book Club meeting in the park, even though the weather tried to rain us out. And I was worried about it being too hot!

We're looking forward to more summer fun with (free) AirShows, a (free) trip to Meridian Speedway, a (free) river floating trip for the girls, lots of reading, sleeping in and staying up, and watching our garden grow.

Hooray for Summer!!