Oh, June...where did you go?! This month went by CRAZY fast, but it was full of great memories and family fun so we can't complain too much. We had several bbqs with family and friends, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows on the backyard firepit. We've had birthday parties and bridal showers. We even had a baby moose arrive in our next door neighbor's yard! Grandma and Paul have been here all month so we got to see lots of them and spent alot of time with the rest of the family as well. Lem's softball season is in full swing, including a weekend tournament on one of our sunniest summer weekends. It was so fun sitting around with the Gibson's, Julie and I with our coolers and snacks, the kids relishing the long stretch of time to play together outside in the dirt and sunshine. We spent the rest of that weekend (Father's Day) our at Uncle Gary and Aunt Lynda's with the extended family, camping out in their motorhome and enjoying lots of yummy food and family fellowship.
Big exciting news this month is our decision to buy a new vehicle. We are now the (very) proud owners of a 2008 Toyota Sienna. If you're thinking...isn't that like a mini-van? You are right, but it's more like a stretch luxury vehicle. It's got a DVD player with wireless headphones, a back-up camera, navigation system, voice activated phone system through bluetoothing with our cells, leather, heated seats that do all kinds of crazy configurations for more storage or more passenger capabilities, 4 CD changer, a sunroof and all kinds of other fancy features that are sooo super nice for our family, but our favorite is the "auto-magic doors" as Ella calls them. They open at the touch of a button on your key chain so they're ready for loading up kiddos when you arrive at your car, from the grocery store, for instance! It's beautiful, comfortable, spacious and a great fit for us so far!
We've been on some picnics at the playground, to Bouncin' Bears for inflatable family fun, done gardening, cooking, science and art projects, trips to the pet store and Tastee Freez and lots of other fun things. Lem taught summer school for 14 days. This year they offered full day classes for 3 weeks (and then a 2nd session later) rather than the usual 1/2 day classes for 6 weeks, Lem teaching 2 classes per day. So, he was done with his in person teaching in just three weeks of school! He's still teaching two online classes but it's been so great to have him home extra time this summer to enjoy fun with me and the girls.
My cousin Danny went to California for a wedding and took his two oldest daughters with him. I watched his youngest, 3 year old Scarlett, for the week. It was Lem's last week of summer school so the girls and I did lots of fun stuff to pass the time, and having an extra kiddo in the house helped keep our days full and time passing quickly. We made muffins, decorated canvas bags, went on a field trip to the pet store, did painting and tons of other fun stuff together.
Sycely's doing a 6 week summer session at ballet. One of her Sunday School classmates is in her class so it's been fun getting to know her and her family better at the studio and at church. There are only 4 girls in her summer class and Sycely's the only one with any dance experience so the first class Miss Theresa had Sycely be her assistant and help demonstrate at the front of the class. Sycely was just tickled and felt like such an accomplished ballerina getting to help teach the class.
I took on a new skating student for the summer that I'm teaching 3 times a week. Chloe is 11 years old and is from France. She's here visiting her grandparents for the summer and so far we're having a really great time working together. She's super sweet and her English is fluent (thankfully, because my french sure is not!) with only a hint of an accent and though the maneuvers have different names in french, we aren't having any problems communicating at all. I do throw in a little french vocab here and there just to keep her laughing ;) I really wish she was going to be here longer so I could keep enjoying her company!
Lem and I also celebrated our 10 year anniversary this month, but come on folks, it's 10 years, that's a big deal...of course it gets its own blog entry! ;)
Big exciting news this month is our decision to buy a new vehicle. We are now the (very) proud owners of a 2008 Toyota Sienna. If you're thinking...isn't that like a mini-van? You are right, but it's more like a stretch luxury vehicle. It's got a DVD player with wireless headphones, a back-up camera, navigation system, voice activated phone system through bluetoothing with our cells, leather, heated seats that do all kinds of crazy configurations for more storage or more passenger capabilities, 4 CD changer, a sunroof and all kinds of other fancy features that are sooo super nice for our family, but our favorite is the "auto-magic doors" as Ella calls them. They open at the touch of a button on your key chain so they're ready for loading up kiddos when you arrive at your car, from the grocery store, for instance! It's beautiful, comfortable, spacious and a great fit for us so far!We've been on some picnics at the playground, to Bouncin' Bears for inflatable family fun, done gardening, cooking, science and art projects, trips to the pet store and Tastee Freez and lots of other fun things. Lem taught summer school for 14 days. This year they offered full day classes for 3 weeks (and then a 2nd session later) rather than the usual 1/2 day classes for 6 weeks, Lem teaching 2 classes per day. So, he was done with his in person teaching in just three weeks of school! He's still teaching two online classes but it's been so great to have him home extra time this summer to enjoy fun with me and the girls.
My cousin Danny went to California for a wedding and took his two oldest daughters with him. I watched his youngest, 3 year old Scarlett, for the week. It was Lem's last week of summer school so the girls and I did lots of fun stuff to pass the time, and having an extra kiddo in the house helped keep our days full and time passing quickly. We made muffins, decorated canvas bags, went on a field trip to the pet store, did painting and tons of other fun stuff together. Sycely's doing a 6 week summer session at ballet. One of her Sunday School classmates is in her class so it's been fun getting to know her and her family better at the studio and at church. There are only 4 girls in her summer class and Sycely's the only one with any dance experience so the first class Miss Theresa had Sycely be her assistant and help demonstrate at the front of the class. Sycely was just tickled and felt like such an accomplished ballerina getting to help teach the class.I took on a new skating student for the summer that I'm teaching 3 times a week. Chloe is 11 years old and is from France. She's here visiting her grandparents for the summer and so far we're having a really great time working together. She's super sweet and her English is fluent (thankfully, because my french sure is not!) with only a hint of an accent and though the maneuvers have different names in french, we aren't having any problems communicating at all. I do throw in a little french vocab here and there just to keep her laughing ;) I really wish she was going to be here longer so I could keep enjoying her company!We had some special visitors this month. Our dear friends, the Johanneses came up for a couple weeks from Minnesota. Audrey and Erin were both in my pre-school class when I taught at Providence. Erin was Ella's age when I first met their family. They weren't just students, though. Lem and I babysat them regularly and grew close to their family, celebrating birthdays and going to the fair together. They moved to Minnesota (sadly for us) in 2004 and we've kept in touch with them since, watching (from afar) their girls growing up, sharing all our life developments via email, Christmas cards, blogging and facebook. It's been 7 years since we've seen the girls and they sure have grown! They may be growing up but they are still their same ol' selves that we fell in love with when they were pre-schoolers. The whole family came over for taco dinner and we had so much fun playing, reminiscing, catching up and making some great, laughter-filled memories.
Lem and I also celebrated our 10 year anniversary this month, but come on folks, it's 10 years, that's a big deal...of course it gets its own blog entry! ;)
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