summer time

Hello sorely neglected blog! Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. I always thought it was funny how people talked about how busy the end of the school year was. It's like saying "I'll never let my kid ____" before you have kids. I have now lived through the end of my first "real" school year with two kids in school. I am that mom who had high expectations for a great, easy, crafty end of the year. And while it was great, it wasn't really easy or crafty. My hopes for gifts to be given to teachers that would be original and useful sort of fell flat on its face. My hope for having lots of spare time for friends to come over didn't happen. My hope for keeping up with my blog, laundry, housework and the extras that the end of school brings did not happen. While we survived, it wasn't as gracefully as I would have liked. And that's okay. It's a learning experience...as is most of life with kids!

The last week of school was a really fun time for the kids. They had their last and biggest recitation of the year. Greg and I helped out with field day for the Pre-K and Jr. Pre-K and then coordinated and led the Field Day for the middle grades (K-5). After field day we left town immediately for a "family" reunion 8 hours away. After returning from vacation I felt that I never really had an "end of the year" clean up! And I'm still in the process of putting all the school things away for the summer.

We made our summer bucket list and already crossed a few things off the list. We've enjoyed a picnic lunch and park, had friends over, cooked out, went to two zoos on vacation, have done some crafts and will have a lot of fun I'm sure. The list the kids I made holds lots of fun times if we get around to everything.

I'm not holding my breath but I am thinking that I am slowly breaking away from my "I don't like summer" attitude. I feel bad when I see friends status updates about how excited they are about summer break. They can't wait to have their kids home with them all the time. I have always felt the opposite...like, "what am I going to do with four kids ALL DAY LONG every day of the week?" I'm just not excited about being a referee all summer long. BUT here's where the change is coming...I don't have to wake anyone up in the morning. I don't have to make lunches the night before. I don't have to make sure everyone is in bed and sleeping before 8pm. Rules are made to be broken in the summer and so far I'm enjoying it. Yet, I'm not holding my breath because technically it's only day four for me since we were on vacation for a week following the end of school. But with a little bit of planning ahead of time we can make this a really fun summer. Plus my kids are getting to the age where they are really helpful so I'll have little slaves helpers for the summer. We may not have homework to do but we do have housework!!

Here are a few photos from the last week of school activities and our little vacation to Missouri!

 For the end of year recitation they have the kids and families dress up according to the History cycle that they had been studying. This year they decorated with a USO theme and had everyone dress up in 1940's era clothing as well as earlier times. I had fun making the kids costumes and will write a little more detailed post on those later. My mom and I wore things from both of my grandfathers who fought in WWII.

 Field Day...classic face!

My handsome guys!!

So our "family" reunion was with our good friends that are like family. My parents met Tom and Debbie about 40 years ago. Debbie is also my godmother. We used to get together with them a lot when we were younger but as time goes on people get busy and move away and it's hard to reconnect. We've had times where we've seen parts of the families but not everyone in one location for about 7 years. It was so great to hang out and reconnect. The kids had a blast, we laughed a lot and we hope to make these semi-annual reunions!

 The "original" six!!

Abi went to her first Major League baseball game. The Cardinals played the Royals while we were in the Kansas City area...and the Cardinals won! It was a great game!

We also got to go to the St. Louis zoo while we were on vacation with our cousins and their kids. We had a great time and I'll never pass up an opportunity to go to the St. Louis zoo. It is one of my favorites.

Brand new baby elephant!!