school is O.U.T.

The last day of school was Monday

I made these for the kids' teachers and the school office staff - they've helped me a lot this year. I got the popsicle idea from eighteen25. The "write-on" idea was my own. The "stay cool" label gave me the idea for a popsicle party.
So while the kids were finishing up their last hours at school I was setting up popsicles and cookies and lemonade - I felt like I was a kid on a corner setting up a little lemonade stand. I tried to make it fun and festive...it was windy and my decorations blew all over the neighborhood. Nice try, I told myself. I picked up the kids from school and we had a fun little "bon voyage" school party. It was fun. The kids were happy.

Last week was quite the week; every one in the entire city of Mountain Home, it seemed, wanted to squeeze every possible thing into last week. I'm serious, it was exhausting, BUT a lot of fun. {Besides all the last minute school stuff, Cameron and I were in charge of our ward BBQ - I cooked 80 pounds of BBQ pork plus a lot of other stuff for Sat. I also decided that it was a good week to can pickles - glad I did it, they are the most expensive pickles I've ever bought :) but now I know I can do it. We packed in FIVE baseball games and I did my visiting teaching. All of that on top of the extra gluten-free, etc. stuff I had to make and bring with me to all the activities we were in.}

Here's Isaac with some kids from preschool. We went to the zoo. He is shooting Rhino's with his "gun scope". I let Austin miss school so he could go with us. A trip to Sonic for slushies on the way back to Mountain Home made it a GREAT day.

Later in the week, I spent the afternoon with Austin. I loved loved loved his Kindergarten graduation. He was adorable with his arms folded, the way they make the kids walk down the hall, singing his graduation song. And he is so so happy to be going into first grade. He is ready, that is for sure.

The next day I spent the afternoon with Landon's class. He wanted me to watch his play (standing behind a mask, reading lines from a book - but still fun to watch) It was his turn for birthday treats, so I got to eat the donuts I brought in for the class with him. It was also Field Day, and Family BBQ day, so I got to hang with him all afternoon. It's fun watching him with his friends.

This week has been nice. Sleeping in. Hanging out. No one's "bored" yet. We just finished Landon's last baseball game so our evenings are a little more quiet (but don't worry, Austin starts baseball on June 7!) And we had a little Family Council this morning (minus Cameron - he was at work) and came up with some ideas of what we want to do this summer: Friday Fieldtrip Days, Science experiments, visit our Grandparents. We also made up a little schedule and decided on summer chores. The boys decided what order they would do their chores, workbooks, piano practice, and screen time in. Hopefully, this will make it so I can remind them less, we will see.

They're already working on their chores (and they're happy about it!) And, I'm not the slave-driver it might seem. We are working on this little patch of dirt together and then we'll do some planting. It's going to be a psuedo-garden. The boys each picked out their own plants; I'm hoping we will be reaping the rewards of our hard work later in the season.

Aside from this little disaster, that resulted from a fight over the step stool, we're getting along well and settling into summer vacay just fine.

Here is a little video clip from Isaac's preschool celebration. I forgot my camera but had my point and shoot video. He loves loves his preschool songs and his teachers both tell me how much they love when he sings.