Summer Update

Well, it has been far too long since we have sent out an official update for the fam. Lem is back at school now after a very busy and NOT A VACATION summer so Sycely and I are making our way back toward our normal school year routine. We've still got a couple weeks until all our regular activities start back up but we're staying plenty busy in the meantime.

So, let's see what have we been up to since May? Well, Lem rounded out the school year, I finished up my bible study, we got tons of fun play equipment in the backyard for Sycely-hooray for awesome garage sale deals! We spent Memorial Day weekend in Homer, Sycely has a blast playing on the beach and eating pizza. Lem took an Econ class after school got out and softball season started. That brings us up to June.

We had a rip-snortin' good time garage sale mid June which made us quite a little profit for some home projects we were planning, and got rid of a bunch of stuff we clearly didn't need, making more room in the house and the garage. Lem started teaching summer school at Service and I went to more than enough Governor's Picnic planning meetings! I also had a bunch of planning meetings for upcoming classes and trainings I'd be teaching. We went out to the Valley for an fun picnic with our Governor, Miss Sarah. It was just her and a bunch of our core team from the campaign eating burgers and hanging our round a campfire. It was nice to have some relaxed time with her and old friends from the campaign team.

So, July...Well, we spent fourth of July painting our bedroom a fabulously relaxing shade of green to match our bedding. We got to enjoy a visit with our good friend Kyra as well. We got to go to Family Camp with our church, which was a very fun weekend. Sycely had a good time playing with her friends Brock, Scarlett and Marissa, and of course, we had fun hanging out with their mommies and daddies :) and Sycely had her very first S'more. Sycely went on her first visit to the zoo on a gorgeous sunny day. She loved the "yowls" most. I started teaching the Reggio Emilia Intensive I've been dreaming up the last year or so. I also started planning to Child Development class I'll be teaching for New Direction's (they recently joined onto our church) High School Completion Program in the fall. We of course went to the the new Harry Potter movie on opening day and I read the last book in less than three days when it came out two weeks later. Lem finished up summer school, we celebrated our friend Brock's first birthday. The Governor's picnic was a real hit and WAY less stressful than I expected it to be. Everything went so smoothly that all I really had to do was make sure my volunteers had cold sodas and that Sarah and her fam had anything they needed. Lem took another class that was a ridiculous 12 hours a day (most days) 7 days a week. We replaced the window in our bedroom-which needed it VERY much-with help from Lem's dad. That rounded out July for us.

And finally, August...by far our busiest month of the summer. I've taken on a huge project from my school completing one of the classroom portfolios for a preschool classroom whose teacher recently quit as a result of her husband being killed in a plane crash. I'm getting pretty close with it now, but I'm not the least bit interested in keeping the word "criteria" in my vocabulary! My Reggio Intensive continues to meet every 2-3 weeks. I started teaching classes for providers and parents at Child Care Connection. I attended an all day retreat with my board to define our vision and such. And I started coaching skating more. I'm teaching group lessons now and will be taking on some private students in the next few weeks. We of course celebrated Sycely's birthday-with 2 parties this year! She had a fun time playing with her friends on Saturday and then we had our family party after church and her nap on Sunday (the 5th). My dad and Kate were able to come to town (with their new puppy Mayes) and my Grandpa was up for a three week visit from Idaho as well. Lem started coaching tennis the second week of August. We enjoyed another great visit with our friend Alaina. Lem went back to work last week and the students started back yesterday. We went out to the Valley last weekend to visit with some of my family. Most of whom we haven't seen since around the time we got married. it was great to get to see everyone and their kiddos, and introduce Sycely to them all. We've been able to visit some more with my Grandpa and had him over for a yummy dinner last night (I even made him a lemon meringue pie!) We took a picture of him holding Sycely under a tree in the yard wearing this adorable little dress I wore when I was 2. We have an identical picture of him holding me in that dress under a tree. So, I suppose that about sums up our summer. We will head down to Homer for Labor Day, and otherwise our fall will be full of Lem's regular school stuff, tennis and me teaching skating, the New Direction class and other classes for work. Sycely and I will be back to Mother Goose and the waterpark in another couple weeks or so.

Sycely continues to amaze us with her personality and abilities. We are daily awed by her sweetness and her adorable antics like singing in the car, about the most precious moments ever! She talks in sentence now and knows just about every Disney character out there, though she still prefers the Princesses. She likes to choose her own clothes and shoes and has become such a big helper, putting away her toys, throwing away her trash, getting her own dishes, helping with laundry and dusting.

She can spend hours playing with all her plastic figures and the fisher price castle, farm and dollhouse. She has mastered colors, most shapes and counting now. We converted her crib to her toddler bed with a rail about two weeks ago and she's been doing great with that transition. We've been having lots of tea parties and playing outside whenever the weather cooperates.

That's our summer update. Hope the new school year is finding you all happy and healthy!