June-PHEW!

What a crazy whirlwind things have been around here the last 6 weeks or so! Lem finished up his school year, did graduation and the after party and had a little time off during which he worked as Ian's paralegal/secretary. Summer's in full swing which adds softball to our schedule and throw in a little Mrs. Alaska here and there, and you've got one busy household! Lem's teaching summer school-one section of Government and one of Economics and is already almost ready to start wrapping up the summer session. We've been watching him play softball and watching Uncle Ian play some baseball, going on lots of bike rides, playing outside in the pool, on the slip-n-slide and on the swing set, and bbqing with friends including the Gibsons, Bracketts, O'briens and Boutons, and whipping up s'mores about as often as the weather cooperates, and sometimes, even when it doesn't.

Sycely's doing a Nutcracker Primer ballet class for the summer session. It's a class for Kindergartners and 1st Graders, but as expected by Miss Theresa, Sycely is keeping up quite well. She may be dainty compared to all the other girls (measuring at LEAST a head shorter than anyone else) but Theresa is continually impressed by her precision and says she's never know a kid her age to have such great musicality and choreography skills. Sycely's having a blast with her class. They even started doing Barre works which really tickled Sycely who for a long time has seen that as being a real ballerina. Each week they choreograph a number to one of the pieces from Nutcracker, they practice the dance, add costumes and props, put it all together and wrap up with a Nutcracker coloring sheet for each dance.

Ella is...well Ella. Not really sure how else to put that. She pretty much talks and eats non-stop, unless she's sleeping. She's still a little love bug and loves to cuddle up with her blankie for a good long snuggle a few times a day. She's finally gained a little weight, a little over a pound, weighing in, on our scale at 20.2 pounds, which means she's legal to ride forward facing-just a month shy of her second birthday. She's constantly cracking us up with her long, detailed sentences. She was dipping her bread in her salad dressing the other night and took a bite and says, "mmmmm...that's really tasty!" She's always telling me, "there's my Charlie buddy; he's my best friend." She tries her best to keep up with all that Sycely's doing whether it's art, dancing, dressing up or playing princesses, animals and Little People. She's getting pretty good at her colors and can count pretty well up to 20. She loves reading books in her room and it's one of the many times every day that we hear, "I do it first" or "I wanna do it all by myself!" I just translate that as, "I'm two." :) We transitioned Ella to her toddler bed (with the rail) a few weeks back in preparation for spending the weekend with Nanny and Papa and our trip to Vegas. We figured it'd be easier for her to adapt to sleeping away from home if she was already used to sleeping in less of a crib and more of a bed. So we gave her plenty of time to get used to the idea and she's doing great and loving her "big girl bed" as she calls it.

We celebrated Father's Day with a extreme grill dinner. Lem's family was here and we enjoyed some scrumptious grilled steaks, salmon and scallops and asparagus with a side of crab and mashed potatoes. We had two yummy desserts, brownies and mint chocolate mousse pie. I'd made Lem a framed posted of the girls wearing matching Daddy's Princess nightgowns with a caption reading "Someday I may find my Prince Charming, but Daddy will always be my King." He really loved it, even more than his other present, a new backpack so he can bike to work.

Alot of my time has been spent focused on Mrs. Alaska stuff. I'm still doing skating lessons and am getting one student ready for a competition next weekend in Eagle River. And we're getting in our last few planning meetings for the Governor's Picnic (the day before we leave for Vegas). Add to that, appearances, events, meetings with sponsors, photo shoots, radio interviews fundraising, wardrobe shopping, thank you letters and cards and putting together an entire silent auction and you can see what the last month has looked like for me! We also had a garage sale and I listed a TON of stuff on Craigslist like baby items and maternity clothes and some household stuff. Between those two we made about $500 toward our trip to Nationals. Between the donations of all my generous sponsors and my two fundraisers I've been able to raise about $4200 towards my nationals expenses. For more details (and testimonies!) about my super successful silent auction and all my other Mrs. AK events, check out my Mrs. Alaska blog at http://www.mrsak2010.blogspot.com/.

The girls and I are enjoying having some down time around the house during the days and along with Daddy, our evenings are full of summer fun and activities. We're looking forward to the Holiday weekend and our trip to Vegas in less than three weeks!!! Hope summer is treating you well!