I feel like a little kid. I am so pumped about summer! Avery is out of school now, we have some fun trips lined up, and youth group activities are in full swing.
Abby and I ended school with a fun little program. It was a little hard to have to keep my class under control and enjoy watching Abby perform at the same time. Oh well, that is part of the job. Abby did a terrific job! Her facial expressions always crack us up whether she is performing or just telling us some random thing. You can usually tell how she is feeling just by looking at her face. She has some pretty silly faces and then she has some scowls which let you know to stay out of her way. Unfortunately, Avery doesn't always pick up on the latter one.
I really did not get a very good picture. Luckily Wes caught the performance on video. Check out the girl in the front. She is digging in with two fingers! Abby is in the middle of the picture with the denim skirt on and a huge smile on her face.
A couple of weekends ago, Wes and I painted our bedroom furniture black. I had entertained the thought of painting it for a while. Now, I wish that we had done it sooner. Our night stands and chest of drawers were all light wood color while our
armoire was a darker tint of wood. We were both tired of the light colored wood and also the fact that all our bedroom furniture did not match. I was so proud of Wes. He jumped on the sanding right away the night before our big painting day. We were surprised how fast we accomplished the job the next day. We used
Behr paint with primer in it and only had to do 2 coats. By the way, I will only use this paint from now on. We used it on several rooms when we first moved into our house 3 years ago. It is a great paint and we only had to paint one coat. Three years later I can still open the old cans and use it for paint touch ups and it blends in with the rest of the paint on the walls beautifully. I love it! Back to the furniture - we were quite pleased with the outcome and have been enjoying our "new furniture".
Wes hard at work.
You got a little
somethin' on your forehead there...
And a lot of
somethin' on your butt!
The finished product.
The end of the school years brings our usual activities like Senior Sunday and attending graduations and graduation parties. Senior Sunday is always bittersweet. I am proud of our Seniors for coming this far and I am excited about their future college careers. But I will sure miss them, and I can't believe that it is already time for them to leave the youth group. This year is especially memorable because several of the seniors were members of my first fourth grade class at Hyde Park. Sniff, sniff... Anyways, at the Senior Sunday luncheon I always get to read a children's book. This year I chose
I Knew You Could: A Book for All the Stops in Your Life by Craig
Dorfman. I am always looking for new ideas for books for this occasion. If you have any ideas please pass them on.
Our graduating seniors. We love you!
The
Denison High School graduation was pretty cool. Captain
Sulley Sullenberger, (the pilot who glided the plane into the Hudson River), spoke and did an amazing job. Captain
Sulley grew up here in
Denison and graduated from our high school. They also had a parade for him and he spoke downtown. Have I mentioned before that this town has a parade for everything? The valedictorian was one of my past fourth grade students so that was pretty neat. The salutatorian is a member of the Western Heights youth group a group that we do a lot with. Both students mentioned God and one even read scripture. I was proud of them shining their lights.
On Avery's last day of school she had an awards ceremony. She got several awards for the last 9 weeks of school. They do 9 weeks instead of 6 weeks report card intervals. She received awards for being a good class citizen, hard worker, making all A's, and perfect attendance. She got two separate awards for the whole year. She was the Top Reader out of all the Kindergartners at her school.
Yay! I am so proud of her! I was on a high for days. Is that silly or what? I am thrilled that she loves school and enjoys reading. She also got a T-shirt as a reward for having perfect attendance all year long! That is right! She did not miss a single day of school. She was the only kindergartner who had perfect attendance all year long. I have been thanking God a lot lately for both girls' health and their eagerness to learn. It is truly a blessing.
Receiving her trophy with the Hyde Park tiger.
Her first trophy ever - and it is for reading! I love it!
Proud of her new T-shirt.
I have to brag on Abby too. She has been quite the little helper lately. She especially likes to help around meal time by putting the napkins and silverware on the table for us. She gets upset if Avery happens to be around close by, and I ask her to do it.
The nice weather has brought about fun outdoor activities such as bike rides, walks, and swimming at the water park. Last week, on one of our family walks in the neighborhood we ventured off the road down a path into the woods behind our neighborhood. It was so cool. It felt like we were way out in the country deep in the woods. The girls loved it, but we eventually had to leave our adventure because it was getting close to dark, and we were being eaten up by mosquitoes. As we were going up one particular slope I made the comment to the girls that this was like Wilderness Trek that Daddy and I went on where we climbed a mountain with a heavy backpack on. I asked the girls if they would want to do that someday. Avery immediately said, "Yes!" bounded up the slope, ran down it again and said that she wanted to practice for when she did Wilderness Trek someday. Ha!
The girls started swimming lessons on Monday at the indoor pool just a couple minutes from our house. Abby's group has three other students. They have been bobbing their heads under water, jumping off the side of the pool, and swimming above water and underwater (a very short distance) to the instructor. Avery's group has been swimming longer distances, diving for rings, and jumping in the water then swimming to the instructor. They are both doing great!
Last night, we had Sybil over to spend the night. I am just realizing that I forgot to take a single picture of this first sleepover experience with their good friend. They played, ate dinner, watched Heidi, and then hunkered down in Avery's room. I kept checking on them every so often, reminding them to go to sleep. They weren't playing around in the room, just whispering and moving around on their beds. At 10:15 or so I thought they were asleep. I hadn't heard anything while I was watching TV in the living room. At 11:15 I headed to bed and I heard whispering in their room. I couldn't believe it! All three girls had swimming lessons that day followed by a trip to the water park. You would think they would have dropped like flies. They are such good friends and have such a good time together, I guess they were too excited to go to sleep. I had warned them the last time that I had checked on them that if they did not go to sleep I would have to separate them. Keep in mind that I knew that all three had swimming lessons and a birthday party the next day and would be missing their usual afternoon nap. I kept my word and separated them. They weren't being terrible, but I knew that they had a big day the next day and I didn't want it to be miserable from lack of sleep. I thought about how my mom and my friend's moms must have felt all those times when we all stayed up so late talking and giggling. Despite the late night and being separated the girls had a great time with their good friend.
Today, Avery woke up with her first loose tooth. It is her bottom left central incisor. So how much money is the tooth fairy giving these days? Also, I noticed that her two permanent incisors are coming in right behind her baby teeth. Is that normal? I thought they were supposed to come in under the baby teeth. I plan to ask some friends at church who are nurses, and maybe I will even catch one of our elders who is a dentist.
See them coming in behind the baby teeth? Normal? - I am not sure???
