Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime?

We really liked our summer plan last year, so we did it again for this summer.   For family home evening right before school was out we sat down and planned what we wanted to accomplish and the fun things we wanted to do.  We made goals and we revamped the chore chart.  We went over the calendar and set up a schedule.  Best of all, we made a big list of things to do that answered the question “What do you do in the summertime?”.  We divided them into four categories: We Go Places, We Do Service, We Eat Good Food, We Do Fun Things.  We’re excited to mark things off our list!  We put it all together and made command central.

Once the planning session was done we enjoyed a fun, summer treat. 

Don’t look too closely at the cups.  I accidently bought cook and serve pudding, and then poured it into the cups while it was still too hot.  I’m such a good mom to feed my kids melted plastic!

Of course we can be flexible with all our planning.  Summer is all about lazy days and reading good books as far as I’m concerned!  But, we like having a purpose and a plan.  We’ve already had to readjust since Emma was moved up a level on the swim team.  She went from practicing for an hour each afternoon to practicing two hours in the morning.  Kind of threw things after we had planned them, but we’re being flexible! 

Bring on the sun and fun!

6th Grade, Here She Comes!

Each school year seems to go faster and faster.  This one went especially fast.  It just does not seem possible that our Emma Mae can be done with 5th grade.  We started the year with lots of talk of this being her last year in elementary school.  She was getting excited and gearing up to head off to the middle school next year.  However, we got some unexpected news at the end of this year.  Due to budget cuts our district has had to close the middle school Emma would have gone to, and 6th grade will now still be in the elementary schools.  We are bummed that the middle school is closing.  Not only is it right by our house and more convenient than the one she will got to for 7th & 8th grades, but it also had some excellent programs.  But, we are thrilled that she gets to be in the elementary school for one more year.  Emma has been just fine with that development also.  She is excited about the opportunities they will make available to the returning 6th graders, and she can stay in her comfort zone for another year. 

The last month or so of school seemed to pass in a whirlwind.  Emma’s grade was able to go to Starbase this year.  They spent a total of five days at the Jackson Armory for the Department of Defense program that emphasizes math, science & technology.  She really enjoyed it.  Building a safe container to fly Eggbert in was her favorite activity.  We were a little bummed that parents couldn’t chaperone their session due to security concerns.

Since the beginning of the school year Lee and I had been fighting over discussing which of us would get to go on the Willamette Jetboats field trip with Emma.  It’s the 5th grade field trip that Emma has been looking forward to for a long time.  Lee graciously let me go on the Sternwheeler field trip so he could go on the Jetboats.  Yes, he won…this time. 

From what I hear they had a great time.

Their guide did a lot of 360’s, they got wet and saw all the pretty and interesting sights.  Watch out Lee, I’ve already got dibs on the next fun field trip…

The end of 5th grade also meant that Emma got to learn the recorder.  She did a great job learning her songs and was always trying to get the next “ribbon” as she passed each song off.  When her friends were over they were always playing those recorders.  I always knew when school was out because you could hear the recorders being played from miles away.  They were a little scratchy at times and quite often my ear drums took a beating, but I liked hearing them make music.  The babies and I went to school for the assembly when the 5th graders got to show off their new talent.  I was actually impressed with how well they did, as good as could be expected from recorders!  Unfortunately, Isaac and Grace also caught the bug and have enjoyed blowing as hard as they can into the toy recorder and whistles we have.  We may have to accidently lose those toys…

Field day was on the last day of school.  I got to help at the frisbee toss station this year.  It’s the 5th graders job to have kindergarten buddies to take around to all the field day activities.  Emma kept gushing about how cute her little buddy was and how lucky she was to get a good one. 

I got a picture of Emma and Mrs. Mardock.  Emma really enjoyed her teacher this year. 

Another 5th grade privilege that Emma had been looking forward to was the dunk tank at field day.  The top 5th grade runners for track club would be chosen to be in the dunk tank.  Emma ran a lot so she could be in that dunk tank.  There was a conflict with the tank though, and it wasn’t able to be at field day.  Emma was so bummed!  Instead the top runners were honored later that day by being attacked with water balloons and they got to take home water guns. 

Later in the day Isaac, Grace and I walked to the school to pick Emma up.  Grace was all ready to present Emma with some beautiful “flowers” she picked along the way.

Traditionally all the students form a tunnel and wave goodbye to the 5th graders as they leave school on the last day.  Well, tradition was a little different this time, but they still formed a tunnel and the 5th graders who would be returning as 6th graders were the last to go through the tunnel.  They will get to do it again next year!

To celebrate the last day of school we got Slurpee’s before Emma had to get to the pool. 

Then we stopped at the library to sign up for the summer reading program.  Isaac and Grace were excited to get their own papers and stickers since I signed them up this year as well.  Here’s to a lot of summer reading!

Emma had a great 5th grade year and we are proud of all her accomplishments.  Watch out 6th grade!

Me at 35

I’m getting old.  Moving on….

School’s {ALMOST} Out Party 2011

The end of the school year couldn’t come without a “School’s {almost} Out Party” with Emma’s friends. 

Ice cream sundaes were on the menu again this year.

It was a big group this year.  (In more ways than one, I can’t believe how much older they look than last year and the year before that.)

They went right to town building their sundaes.  Only a little candy was left by the time they were done.  Those girls really knew how to pack it down!

Isaac and Grace loved all the attention and were especially excited (despite the look on their faces) to get ice cream before dinner.  Little did they know I just needed to keep them contained in their high chairs while I dealt with the masses!

After the sundaes were eaten we played some games.  We tried some new Minute To Win It games (A Little Dicey, Stack Attack & Bite Me) and they played Oink, Piggy, Oink. 

They had fun playing those games, but not nearly as much fun as they had when I pulled out the bubble snake blowers.  I had made them for a playgroup activity that was postponed.  When I showed them to Emma she immediately said she wanted to use them at her party.  I was a little hesitant because, after all, I had made them with preschoolers in mind.  But boy howdy, those 5th graders loved them and had a ball blowing bubbles everywhere and all over each other.

I was shocked at how much they liked them.  Pretty easy and cheap entertainment if you ask me!  They made beards and hats out the bubbles, and they would combine forces and make huge bubbles, and then throw them.

The other major source of entertainment was the cute boy that lives kitty corner from us.  The girls kept peaking over the fence at him, and he was doing it right back.  Several times all of the girls were on the fence at once.  (I’m only hoping that my newly planted beans made it through the abuse, not to mention the fence that was already in sad shape.)

He finally ended up coming over only to be attacked by a giant bubble…

…and lots of girls.  He didn’t seem too sorry.  He’s a good kid and was a fun addition to the end of the party.

So, I learned a few things this year.   First, 5th grade girls can get really crazy, especially when you have 14 of them in one place.  Second, next time I have 14 5th grade girls together I need to have a helper.  Lee got home in time for the last half hour.  I needed more help than that!  Third, even big kids like bubbles!  Hooray for school almost being out!

Little Man Ties For My Little Guy

As I have mentioned before, Isaac loves ties.  I am always making cute girlie things for Gracie, so to be fair I thought I could probably attempt making Isaac some ties.  I found a tutorial here, that seemed easy to follow.  I may make a few changes next time, but for the most part I like the way they turned out.

Isaac helped pick out the fabric (well, he chose from some carefully pre-selected-by-mom choices!), and he has been really excited about them.  He especially likes the dinosaur tie and he was thrilled when I finished that one first.

He was even more proud to wear it to church.

He wasn’t as excited about the green one, so I was surprised when he happily wore it to church the next week.

My little guy looks pretty darn cute in his little man ties!  Actually, he doesn’t like it if I tell him he looks cute.  He always corrects me and says that he looks “cool”.  Yeah, he is a pretty cool dude!

Metal Mouth…Again

Emma’s brace-free mouth lasted for less than a year.  She started her second phase on June 1st.  At the appointment for her spacers the week before, Emma shocked me and her orthodontist by ASKING if he would pull two of her teeth.  We have been waiting for those teeth to fall out for a very long time and Emma was pretty adamant that he not pull them (she was going to let the oral surgeon do that while she was asleep).  Those teeth were bugging her enough to finally let Dr. Sessions do it.  He actually pulled out 2 1/2 teeth, she had a shell of a tooth that just didn’t want to let go.  A week later she was the proud owner of another set of railroad tracks.

Emma is such a trooper.  We have hardly heard a complaint out of her.  I think she’s lucky not to have to deal with this in high school.  Soon she will have a beautiful set of teeth.  She’s not looking forward to the oral surgery she will need later this summer, but she is looking forward to the end result once this is all done.  Here’s to a smooth phase 2 and hopefully she won’t break any more records at Dr. Sessions office this time around.

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was full of work and a little play this year.  Tenley asked if she could spend the weekend at our house, next time she may want to ask first what we are planning on  doing!  We took advantage of the dry weather (finally) and spent all day Saturday in our garden area to get it ready for the summer.  Our beds were all in terrible need of more dirt. 

Everybody pitched in to get them ready for the load of dirt that came later in the day.

That load of dirt was like a dream come true for Isaac.

Tenley tried driving the first wheelbarrow load, it didn’t turn out so well.

Lee took over the wheelbarrows after that, while Emma and Tenley loaded them up, and I spread the dirt.

Once we were done, the garden beds looked much better and we were ready to plant the garden…some other weekend.

Tenley went off to a dance that night, so we relaxed at home and introduced Emma to her first Star Wars movie.  She loved it.

On Monday morning Lee, Peter and my dad were able to sneak in a round of disc golf.  The boys were happy to be doing their favorite activity again.  Kaitlyn stayed the day with us and the girls made hamburger cookies.  They were fun and turned out cute.

The rest of the Sunderland’s came over later that afternoon.  We had a yummy barbecue, watched the kids play, and enjoyed the company.  It was a nice night! 

Then it was back to business as usual the next day for a busy week.  But we are in the home stretch now, school is almost out and summer vacation is getting closer.