School's Out for Summer!

Thanks to my dad and a little Alice Cooper, "Schools out for Summer" has been permanently scarred into my brain whenever the first of June arrives. I've been sure to carry on the tradition by repeatedly singing it to my kids-- so all together now! Schoooool's (boom) Out (boom)  For (boom) Summa!! 

 Miss Leah was sure cute a couple of Sundays ago rocking her new summer dress to nursery as an official 18 month old. She wasn't so sure about joining the circus that is our ward's nursery (16+ kids every week), but after about the third Sunday she confidently walked right in and never looked back. She's Queen Bee now. She looks so old to me in this picture!

 Believe it or not, this is a fairly common sight. It never ceases to amaze me how an 18 month old can figure out how to work an iPad (kudos to Apple for making it literally that user friendly!) and then go on to be entertained for several minutes at a time. Technology is amazing.

 The whole month of May part of our enrichment activity was to meet at a local reservoir park and walk the 2 mile trail in the mornings (the theme was fitness). Leah love, love, loves her stroller and was a very eager walking buddy. She also liked to visit the ducks!

 The last week Zach joined us on our walk since preschool was finished. Let me just tell you, pushing 70 pounds of children on a sandy trail was quite a workout, but it was sure nice to get outside before it go too hot.

 Zachary recently discovered the many treasures the Dollar Tree holds, and has been pleasantly surprised at how much I've been willing to buy as bribery since it's all just a dollar! I have to be at the gym twice on Mondays, so that day especially has become a "bribe day" so I can talk him into staying at the Kids Center twice without complaining! Spoiled! But worth it...

 Speaking of Zach, his spring little league season has come to an end. He did great! He definitely improved as the season went on, and got some really good hits towards the end, but most importantly he had fun. They had a little awards presentation after the last game.  

 Here he is receiving his trophy for being the best kid on the team (at least that's what we told him it was for)!

And Miss Leah, his favorite little cheerleader, dusty, dirty, and HOT.

 Lucy Goosey finished fabulous first grade with style on June 6th. She wore the exact same outfit she wore on the first day. It's become her tradition. Thus on to second grade!

 So here's my brogging (blogging + bragging) moment for the week: Lucy received her reading test results back and she did AWESOME! Since about March she's been consistently reading chapter books, primarily Harry Potter books (1-4), which aren't exactly easy. She's powered through with very little supervision or help from me, other than pronouncing hard words or comprehending certain concepts. Anyway, her reading scores were literally off the charts! I'm so proud of her and impressed! On phonics the "goal" to pass first grade was 58, she scored 141. On accurate and fluent reading the goal was 47, she scored 179. On reading comprehension the goal was 15, she scored 46. BOOM.

C Cups Cupcakery in So. Pines offered free cupcakes for kids with straight A's so the Luce got hers on Friday.

She also started swim team for the summer and has practice twice a week. Her coach told her she has really improved since last year and she's super excited for her first meet next week!

 To celebrate the last day of school we invited our friends the Durtschis over for ice cream sundaes. Yum!

 Jon had to work in Fayetteville that night, so we had a blast eating ice cream, playing, and reveling in the fact that school was finally over (it went a week longer than scheduled because of ALL the snow make-up days)!

 Saturday we figured would be a great opportunity to head to the beach for a little maxin' and relaxin'! 

 After teaching an early morning Body Pump class we headed straight for the beach and soaked up as much sun and sand as we could!

 The kids had a blast building sand castles, playing in the waves, and enjoying a picnic lunch on the beach. The weather was perfect, and it just goes to reiterate how much we will miss the beach when we move next summer!! Sigh. I wonder why you can't have it all??

 Anyway, after a couple of hours at the beach we peeled ourselves off the sand and headed over to the Hawaiian Rumble mini-golf course for a little fun... And were greeted by these creepy parrots!!

 Leah was SO excited when we first saw them, but as soon as we walked over they stuck their sharp little beaks out and tried to bite her fingers off! It was horrible! Those poor birds looked absolutely miserable. I felt so bad for them-- I think it rubbed off on Zach and Lucy. As we were leaving they wanted me to unlock their cages and let them go!

 Somehow Leah ended up with everyone's complimentary leis. Baby Monster! 

 Cute Lucy nailing her put!

 Zach and Lucy about to walk through the "live" volcano that erupted every 20 minutes. Zach was really terrified but tried to put on a brave face for Leah. She's no stranger to erupting either!

Just so you know, Hawaiian Rumble is home to the mini-golf US Open every year, so yeah, pretty much we've visited integral parts of both important golfing events this year!

 

After golfing we headed over to the Steak and Shake for some din-din, then a little shopping at the outlet malls before heading off into the sunset. Leah sneaked a selfie before conking out, and I'd say that's one happy, satisfied, beach day face!

 (Here's the sunset mentioned above, on the lake right by our house)

Lucy and Zach's dream came true when one day this week Luke and Josh invited them over to hold a lemonade stand! They featured "Light Saber Lemonade" in three different colors for .25 cents and sugar cookies for .5 cents. We don't live on a busy street at all, so sales were slooooow going!

 Leah and I decided we'd better visit, and this face says the light saber lemonade was pretty good! They had a few compassionate souls stop and buy lemonade in the four hours they were out there, and all in all, thanks to their dogged determination, they made a couple bucks to share four ways. Not bad! 

Later that day the Durtschis came over again to play in the sprinkler! That's about as exciting as it gets for us in the South since there aren't any local pools or splash pads, and the US Open was going on so traffic around town was madness!

And last but not least, this about sums up how I feel so far having all three kids home 24/7. It is EXHAUSTING! I feel like we're going 100 miles a day trying to get everything done, keep the house in a livable state, make it to play dates, keep three kids entertained at three very different stages of development, keep me sane, work on church callings, teach classes, keep hungry children fed, clothed in clean laundry, and most importantly ENJOY the summer before school starts back up! Phew!