School's out for summer...school's out forever!

School is out for summer...school's out forever!  I wish...kind of...well, it's always nice to get back to schedules, but as of now, we're enjoying relaxing a little more and spending more quality time with each other!  As silly as it sounds, we're done with week one of summer, and I'm grabbing it by the reigns and already knowing it's going to cruise by fast, because it always does.

Before school ended, we were able to celebrate kid's accomplishments a bit.  I was able to go the elementary schools and help out with the final awards assembly.  Emma was kind of bummed at her assembly that she didn't win a kindle, though her name was in the drawing, but she was very happy for her friend Erika, who won it!  She thought it was fun I got to sit by her for part of it, though.  What a sweet girl!  We also got her report card back, and she got all top marks, little smarty!

Miley, the school mascot!  Emma thinks that's pretty great and loved dancing with her.

With her good friend Erika.

We had a little preschool graduation at home for Callahan.  This past year, we've done Mommy Preschool with he and Lucy.  He's a smart little boy and so looking forward to kindergarten.  I think he's ready!  We made a little handprint picture and attached a fun poem to present to him and he helped make a tassel out of yarn.  For the "ceremony" we had, we played Pomp & Circumstance and had him march around the living room, Emma read him the diploma and presented it to him, he sang a few songs and told us his favorite things about preschool ("science experiments!" he said).  Then he switched his tassel to the other side of his graduation cap and we ate graham cracker grad caps for a treat.  Proud of this kid!

The two older kids wrapped up their last soccer games.  They had a great season!  They are sad it's over and already looking forward to next year.  They were given trophies, which was pretty exciting for them.  Cal was especially thrilled about his trophy.  "My first trophy!" he kept saying.  He also kept kissing it and shining it.  Cute!  After their last game, we went to go get ice cream with the Websters to celebrate their good effort out on the field.    

To kick off summer, on the last day of school, we had a popsicle party.  Each of the kids got to invite some friends. It was a chilly and cold day, but the rain held out so we had the gathering at the park. We had popsicles to eat in every variety (next year we'll try hot chocolate...but the kids didn't seem to mind!  Always a good time for popsicles).  Then we had all kinds of bubbles, some ice chalk Em helped make, and water balloons with games to play with.  But mostly the kids enjoyed frolicking around with friends on the grass!

We also put in our little vertical pallet garden we put together.  We will see how it does!  :)  Emma enjoyed helping to pot and plant and doing everything, Cal loves watering, and Lucy liked poking the holes for the seeds.  I don't have much of a green thumb, let's hope something works!  We planted carrots, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach.

This summer, to keep us busy after we've gotten our work done in the morning, we have our summer fun days!  We decided to divide up our days  into themed days.  We are doing:

Make-It-Monday - make a craft, recipe, science project together.
Theatre Tuesday - we purchased discount tickets to a weekly kids movie at the local theatre here or we'll play movie theatre at home.
Wednesday Water Day - go to the pool, set up our slip n' slide, run through the sprinklers, water balloons.
Field Trip Thursday - go somewhere fun we haven't been to yet or have been and want to visit again.
Friend Friday - all of the kids get to invite a friend over to play

We started a clothesline and put up something from each day this summer that represents what we've done.  We also wrote up a bucket list of things we'd like to do, so if we accomplish one of these things, we put it on the clothesline.  That way, the kids can remember what we did and they are having a good time thinking of what to put on the clothesline for the things we did.  So far, we have an invite from our popsicle party we held on the last day of school, recipe card for homemade oreos, a bookmark from the summer reading program we signed up for, a ticket stub from Turbo, a business card from our new grill, water balloons from our water fight, pictures of classic cars we colored the day we went to the car show for our field trip, and a bobble and bait from fishing.  Here are some pictures from our first week of summer!

Nothing says summer like a barbecue in the backyard, and now we're ready! We purchased a picnic table and got a swanky new grill.  Dave has been saving for and researching grills for a while.  He decided on this RecTec smoker grill, which he was so excited to set up and use!  He really was like a little boy on Christmas while opening it, assembling it, and now he's putting his BBQ skills to good use.  The first night we got it, we made Whistler hamburgers and grilled corn.  Since then, we've done some other things with it.  My favorite was the ribs my pit master came up with, they were tasty!  But BBQ is complicated.  There was a marinade, spritz, sauce and glaze we made to give it that meaty perfection.  I thought of how much easier a casserole would've been for dinner.

We went fishing out at Seminoe Dam last Saturday.  The kids love, loved it!  It was a little chilly, and Lucy kept going to the car or wrapping up in blankets to stay warm.  They loved trying to catch fish, but we only ended up getting "bites" from rocks and plants in the water.  I think it may have had something to do with us being noisy and throwing lots of rocks into the water, maybe?  But it was good to teach the kids about patience and so great just to be together.  Besides fishing and dipping our feet in the water, we had a picnic lunch, ran into Toby & Shelley, played at the playground, and drove around the beautiful area.  

When I asked my dad if he had been there, he said of course he had!  What dam hasn't he been to?  :)

We have been having so much fun and getting so worn out, by the end of the day, the kids get tuckered out and fall asleep super quick, many times before dinner!  One night, Cal fell asleep at 6 and didn't wake up until 8 the next morning!  We are looking forward to this summer and all of the adventures that will come with it!

Memorial Day Weekend

We were so lucky to have Grandma Di & Grandpa Scott come up for Memorial Day weekend!  They came up Saturday, and we had lots of fun!

First, we went to the pool.  My parents were impressed how nice and big the pool was considering it's free for the public (small town perks!).  Then we came home for a while, got showered and played for a while, had dinner, and then went to play at the park and play frisbee golf.  We couldn't have asked for better weather this weekend!  It was perfect, and little wind, if there was some, it was a light breeze.  My mom said "I think this is the best weather I've experienced in Wyoming!"  Then, we went home and ate ice-cream and put the kids to bed.  My mom and I stayed up and watched some TV, which doesn't happen very often.  The only time I really sit down to watch TV is for our family movie night on Friday.  So that was fun.  And we chatted about cooking and kids and some other things that peaked our interest.

Sunday, we got up and went to church.  It was our first time in our new ward since the boundaries changed, we are now in the Ferris Mountain Ward.  It was nice and I think we will like it, but we do miss our friends in the other ward.  It's a young ward, which is nice.  And just when I thought I'd get a break for a while, I was already asked to be a sub in Primary for the following week and to play the piano at a fireside this next Sunday.  And I got a call before we even went to church or our names were in the ward directory last week to meet with the Bishop for a new calling.  After church, we came home, had lunch, and then played games, went on a walk, watched Veggie Tales, and read in the afternoon.  We then ate dinner and went to the local cemetery here to check things out.  It was a nice cemetery.  Whenever we live somewhere not near family, we like to go explore other cemeteries.  Even though I wasn't able to visit any family this year, I still feel love and gratitude for those who have gone before and helped to show the way for me to go.  I'm so blessed with a heritage of a faithful family! I also feel a debt of gratitude for those who have given their lives for their country when I see the American Flags on near some of the grave markers.  THANK YOU to service men and women and their families everywhere!  The kid's favorite part was this big rock platform they have with the flag on top.  They started playing King of the Mountain.  Cal ran up there and said "I'm the King of the Cemetery.  Here are my rules: No running, no stepping on the gravestones, and bow to me NOW!"  The way he said it was SOOOO funny!  My mom said it was a good thing she went to the bathroom before we left because she almost peed her pants when he made that funny comment.  Then it started raining a bit, so we left for home.  We had some dessert, played and talked some more, had a Google Chat with Adam & Meghan, and Grandma & Grandpa Ryerse, and went off to bed.

Monday, we woke up and had breakfast, Grandpa made us buckwheat pancakes.  Then we did some work around the house and outside a bit.  After that, we went to Anong's.  Best Thai food I've eaten!  It is soo good!  Dave's been there several times for work, but we haven't made it.  And the service and people were so good too!  We will be back lots for sure.  It's good to know this town has some quality restaurants.  Then we went home and the kids rode bikes a little.  Emma found a Robin's egg in the road, which she gently picked up and rescued.  We put it in a shoe box with tissues and put it under a light.  Unfortunately, Lucy found it too and we found a trail of egg remains on the ground and in the box.  Poor birdy, rest in peace.  Emma asked me to post it on Facebook, he he, but I totally forgot.  Then we gave hugs and kisses to Grandma and Grandpa.  Lucy kept jumping in their car, and Cal got into their trunk to try to stowaway with them!  :)  Thanks for coming, Grandma and Grandpa!  We always love having you!

That night, we did a luau (a tradition my mom started after we sold the boat and didn't have that as our Memorial Day activity anymore) with our friends the Hydes.  Emma decorated everything, and Lucy helped me cook, and Cal just ran around.  We greeted everyone with a lei and the kids decorated paper flip flops, made some palm trees.  We had Hawaiian chicken sandwiches or burgers, aloha baked beans, green salad with mango dressing, and a yummy Hawaiian slush they brought.  Then we played coconut skee ball, played around with some hula hoops and did the limbo, of course.  It was a blast to watch the kids and their facial expressions!  Then we had pina colada bundt cake with ice-cream for dessert.  It was so fun being with this great family and delicious food!  Our friends are actually heading to Hawaii soon, so this was a good way to get pumped for that.  Aloha!