Alternate title could be How to have a quiet house. Because if you want a quiet car ride and a solid hour, at least, of uninterrupted quiet time, take my kids to the library!! Works like a charm every. single. time.
Eric likes to check out his own books. The scanner thing is fun! The kids had to get at least 1 book from the suggested reading list from the workbooks they are doing as well as the ones they picked. I'm trying to get Caroline to branch out of her fantasy only genre choice. Her choice from her reading list was Ann of Green Gables because she has only read it once! This girl will read the same book multiple times!
The summer reading program doesn't officially kick-off until Friday. But going now affords us the opportunity to hit the library up again in a few days. Can't beat 2 quiet times in a week!!
Will sat most of the afternoon reading. Some of the time he had a buddy. Nothing beats reading with your dog!
We have had lots of rainy days and storms roll through lately. It is spring in the mid-west! But the timing was just right for a beautiful rainbow one night. It was a full and almost a double full rainbow! One end was at the penitentiary and the other was the clock tower.
On the last day of school our neighborhood had bounce houses and water balloons for the kids. They kids always enjoy a bounce house!
And to keep the fun going we then met friends at the bowling center. It was boys vs girls. I went with bumpers this time and beat Eric! I still didn't break 100.
Then the boys had baseball games. So we got ready for baseball and went to the park to play before the games. The park was short 1 swing to fit all the kids. The youngest in the group was left out but not for long.
Then Friday Caroline bought herself a cell phone! She is paying for it all herself.
She is growing up!
The kids all had make-up ball games Friday night and then we went to the Cotovsky's for pizza dinner. Saturday we had a cookout at another friend's house. So Sunday and today we are relaxing at home!
Yesterday Caroline graduated from 6th grade. It was a nice ceremony and included a speech from a German student that has been in KS for 2 years and videos that the video club had put together. Now she will move on up to the junior high school (Patton) that's also on-post. She will ride a bus next year and that's about the only thing that's making her nervous about 7th grade!
Maddie Gee, Ms. Metz, and Caroline. Caroline has really enjoyed her teacher this year. Maddie is her best friend and will NOT be moving this summer. Actually she is moving but from off post to on post so they will only be a short bike down the hill from each other. Maddie's dad is a chaplain at the Major school and also preaches at the service we attend.
Caroline we are so incredible proud of you! You are growing into such a wonderful young woman.
Friday morning Eric had his kindergarten graduation!! The very last of my babies is finishing up his first official year of school. So exciting. He has grown and achieved so much this year. He still very much loves school and all the people there.
They marched to the stage and then all 4 classes sang a couple of songs. Then they were presented a little certificate.
The pictures aren't in order. But Dad came for a quick visit last weekend! We were pretty busy and had a great time. Friday I was subbing so Caroline skipped school to hang with her Grandaddy. She was going to be in the babysitting class from 8-1 so it gave her a chance to spend some time with him. Justin was able to leave work mid morning (it was his last day at that job, more later) so they went and played 9 holes of golf. It was a beautiful day and a delight to be outside. After school the kids had piano. So the after noon went like this.
3:30 home from school
3:50 leave for piano
4-4:30 Caroline piano then she walked herself to her softball game
4:30-5:30 boys piano
Justin dropped grandaddy off at the stoplight nearest the ball field so he could watch Caroline, then he came to relive me so I could go finish dinner and pack it up so we could eat in the car.
5:45 I meet everyone at the ball field
6:00 take Eric, Will, and Grandaddy to karate promotion and we eat in the car.
6:20 Justin and Caroline arrive at karate. Justin eats and Caroline changes into her Gi.
6:30-7:10 Karate promotions
Then we head home and the kids go to bed.
Whew!
Both advanced in rank! Grandaddy doing the honor of tying on the new belt.
Caroline wouldn't let me tie hers!
Saturday was another beautiful day. Caroline went to her class. Justin had a 60 mile training bike ride to do, so Grandaddy and I went on a 13.5 mile ride around post. So fun!
After our ride dad helped me get things knocked off my honey-do list!! Hanging shelves/curtains in Caroline's room and cleaning out the grill after it was stopped up and had fought on fire last week.
Late that afternoon we headed to go see the KC Royals.
It was a great time. But I think Eric had the most fun of all of us. He was caught dancing and made it on the big screen!! He was thrilled!
I also got the opportunity to go on a field trip with Will's class. It was the first time I have been able to go on a field trip of his. They went to the agricultural hall of fame in Bonner Springs. I didn't have high expectations. But it was really good and I enjoyed it and learned a lot! They had an old 1 room school house and for over an hour this lady "taught" the kids. They did spelling, math, and handwriting!
The kids also got to ride this mini train that want so fast.
They also did a presentation about bees ( this was where I learned the most) and took us out to the hives.
One day when I was subbing I got to go with the class to an environmental fair her on post. The most interesting part was the birds. The birds were all injured and can't be released back into the wild. This is a rough legged hawk.
Great horned owl
And an American Kestrel falcon
I lord the pattern under it's wings.
More from karate.
And this girl and her cat are 2 peas in a pod! Lili just cuddled up and fell asleep on her arm.
Walking to the stadium hand in hand with Grandaddy!
Oh man I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted! To say that it's been busy is an understatement!! But school is almost over, baseball and softball are almost over, and thing should settle down.
So what's has been happening? My sweet oldest child is rocking everything lately! Taking a babysitting class that includes a first aid/CPR training, hitting an RBI double in a game, promoting to a new belt in taekwando, and finishing the school year strong with a 100 on a 5 page research paper and winning the business world competition in her grade! She is also doing really well with piano. She is amazing me all the time!!
We had a rainy cold weekend (awhile back) so while Jusitn and I rode bikes the kids cleaned. They ended up with a huge pile of get-rid-of-toys and a trash bag full. Win! Now I just need to do something with the pile of toys!
The NFL draft was also a highlight for the boys. Even Caroline was asking when does football season start this morning. We like football in our house!
I went with Eric's class on a field trip to the Topeka Zoo. Not much to write home about. The most exciting thing was the hippo pooping while in his pool. Did you know that when a hippo poops that it swishes it's tail rapidly back and forth? So when it does that while in the water poop goes EVERYWHERE!!
My group of 3. The 2 girls were on Eric's basketball team and his class is short on girls (5 of 19) so they were putting them together.
Caroline loves to have flowers and I just can't keep them alive. So if I buy them, she plants and takes care of them. Win win for me as I don't have to plant them or take care of them, just enjoy how pretty they are!! A friend that's moving gave her a paw-paw plant and it is starting to sprout leaves!
My sister-in-law, Amanda, sent these scrabble letters for our anniversary (17 years!). Caroline and I enjoyed hanging them. Well I should say it was Caroline that did most of the work! I seem like such a slacker!
First Sunday in May we had a combined (gospel, traditional, contemporary) church service outside to "send-off" the folks leaving.
