Technical Difficulties/Summer

I'm here. Just busy :) Summer has been a lot of fun so far and many activities are keeping us quite busy. For instance, today we started off dropping big sis off at school and then headed for morning coffee with some family.
We sunscreened up for some fun at the Jordan Valley Fountains with our summer MOPS group.
Straight from there,
we met cousins and big sis at Chuck-e-Cheese.
Then it was off to get some z's for the young princess and dr.'s appt. for the older one.
Caught a quick dinner and it was off to SAF (summer arts festival) at church.
We finished there just in time to read bedtime stories and off to bed.
Tomorrow will start all again with school for one and the zoo for the other and hopefully go swimming after nap. We are not always off and running, but seem to be just as busy catching up on housework when we are home. I will post pics soon of some of these activities. My keyboard just froze after deleting my entire last post so I will work on it again another day. As Alli would say to you, "have a nice summer!" which is currently her favorite phrase for the walmart cashier or the neighbor, whomever she seems to come in contact with really.

This picture is the second day in a row of Rachel falling asleep WAY before her typical nap-time. Notice the "summer knees" in their full bloody glory. Her legs are covered with bruises and bug bites. Poor thing!

(Almost) Last day of 1st grade

My BEAUTIFUL (almost) Second grader!!
Technically, there's one more 1/2 day of school, but today was the culmination of all the hard work they put into the school year. The day started with a talent show. It was cute and I was amazed how much talent these little guys have at 6 and 7 years old. More to come on that. The cafeteria was closed so the kids enjoyed a picnic lunch outside. The boy next to Alli is her best buddy, Pete.
Alli completed her first research project for their Organism unit. She chose house cats. If you know anything about Alli, she is obsessed with cats. They are cuddly and cute according to her, but mostly, I think the obsession stems from knowing we will never be able to have cats due to allergies in the family.
Ok, so Alli's been talking about the talent show for a couple of weeks now. She signed her name to the list, but just couldn't decide which song she was going to sing. 10:30 rolled around and I was a proud parent sitting in the back waiting for her name to be called...it never was. She was crushed!!! I'm not one to cry, but I broke down today. I felt so INCREDIBLY bad for her. Another friend/parent ran ahead of me to catch up to the teacher, after all, the kids were late for lunch as it was. She explained the situation before I got there. Mrs. Lamb is a very caring teacher who said it was no problem if Alli wanted to sing for the class after lunch. The parents were sticking around anyway for the presentation of the research projects. This seemed to settle her down.
Alli was the second student to read her book, so we waited for the other 20 to go. Finally, here was her chance...but it was almost recess now. She quickly went to the teacher to remind her she wanted to sing. That is one determined girl!!! Everyone settled back down and Alli sung one of her favorite songs from the Children's Choir she was in this year, "Star Light Star Bright." She did a great job. I didn't hear a single waver in her voice. In fact, she inspired other kids who didn't participate in the talent show to get up and sing. This quickly filled the 5 minutes before recess. From slumped shoulders, to standing tall with pride, today was an emotion filled day.

Fly free, fly high and achieve your dreams, Allison!!