June

They have a 5th grade promotion here in San Antonio for your goodbye and graduation from elementary school. Jansen's principal, Ms. Keairnes, retired after finishing up the year at Scarborough. She was a good principal for Jansen and will be missed. She took notice of him the first time she met us, and I know she worked hard to meet his needs. He often completes standardized testing early, and on at least one occasion she took him out to get some exercise after he had finished.

I adored Jansen's teacher Mrs. Martinez, and he really liked her too. I think they carefully chose who they thought would be a good fit for him. It can't be overstated how much a great teacher can change the whole school experience. She was positive, accommodating, and caring.

Jansen and his buddy Nolan

One of Jansen's friends had a birthday party after school on the last day. His mom also took some fun pictures. Jansen went to part of the party, but he ended up needing to come home before bowling because a storm blew in that scared him. I felt bad for him, but everyone was understanding and I was thankful for that. 

Natalie finished up another great season with I9 in June.

Now this made me laugh. Emmy dressed up two pool noodles as a boy and a girl and they are engaged - notice the gold ring.

Rubik's cube mania continues 

The missionaries (understandably) love Nate. He IS a great example of someone who goes out of his way to support and reach out to people. Sometimes I even have to reign it in a little. 

Fire ants are still our big enemy at the park. They are the sneakiest and nastiest little things. Gone are the days of the harmless little ant crawling on your shoe.

We love Bahama Bucks. It's so nice to be at a stage of life where for the most part, no one is running around the store. We can sit and eat and enjoy. 

Sometimes to keep busy in the summer we attend the Peter Piper Pizza activity days. There are some crafts, and then I let the kids play some of the arcade games.

Natalie loves to go shopping, and she really loves to go shopping with me. She has her own purse full of all sorts of things. I think she even has some emergency snacks and entertainment for Leah. She is going to make a prepared and great momma.

Our friend let us have half of her jackfruit. This thing was STICKY and not very tasty, but it was a fun way to add some excitement to our morning.

Happy Father's Day! I could certainly go on and on about the incredible father that he is. The girls had some heartfelt gifts for him this year. 

We were so lucky to have another visit from the Nelsons. Our kids have always gotten along great, but it seems like the older they get the more fun they have together. We had crepes to celebrate Brinley's birthday.

I hope these girls realize the dreaminess of having crepes in a hammock.

We have 1 pm church right now. Although it means Leah misses her nap, I like being able to put her down at 7 at night. She is doing great at nursery. She seems to have a moment of hesitation every time I drop her off, but then she bravely just goes for it. I'm so thankful it's not a fight. Emmy has been having a hard time going to Primary lately. I think it mostly just stems from wanting to be with me rather than not liking Primary. She definitely takes up the most of my energy right now.

Natalie has started to love Garfield. I was a HUGE Garfield fan around her age. For one of my birthday parties my friends contacted everyone coming to my party and had them wrap and bring a can of Garfield Spaghettios for my gift. They brought real gifts as well. It was so funny. I remember feeling amused at first, and then as I kept opening cans I was so worried that all I would get was Spaghettios for my birthday.

Leah loves to paint. Thankfully her high chair makes for a safe place to put her while she does it.

Emmy is still not swimming independently, but all of my kids have been slow to learn to swim well. She still loves the pool. 

The kids had been begging to have a lemonade stand. We decided to do it one Saturday when Nate was working or something, and although it got a little rainy, it was a big hit. I posted about it on our neighborhood page and people were so supportive. It ended up being a fun morning, but still something I only want to do about once a year!

One of those, well, we will never do that again moments. It's wet sidewalk chalk.

Natalie took some sewing lessons over the summer. She happened to have a friend in the class, so that made it even more fun.