School's Out, Summer's Here Trip to Indiana!

Thursday morning, the kids and I packed up the car and made our first trip of the summer to Indiana to see our family.  It was gray and rainy, but a nice drive.

We stopped in Huntington to see our boy cousins, and say Happy Birthday to sweet Simon!
He is 6 now!

Our first few days were a mix of cloudy, rainy, and cool.  But, we enjoyed relaxing inside, reading, watching Little House on the Prairie, Phineas & Ferb, and Python Hunters--an interesting mix, I know!  Caeden played a few games of Carom and Aggrivation with Gram and Uncle Travis, the kids rode bikes some, and I worked on a rug I'm crocheting out of blue jean scraps.  And, Friday, Miss Tessa was at Gram's house, so the kids played with her all day.  She has quite the fun personality these days!  She even went with us to the Quiet Corner Tea Room for tea and cream pie.

Saturday morning Aunt Erin took Sylvie with her when she went to get her hair cut and colored.  Sylvie loved that, and getting to go to Arby's for lunch too!  Thank you, Auntie E!  Krampa hung out with Annah and Caeden that day, while Mom and I went to a wonderful new fabric shop in Roanoke.  We found fabrics for a window treatment Mom is making for our den!

Saturday afternoon Great Grandma C. hosted the Memorial Day cookout.  Even though the grills got rained on, it was really fun to see lots of the family and get some playtime in the basement with cousins.
Logan and Corey vs. Annah and Caeden...  

Tessa, Sylvia, and Annah all wore the dresses Gram made them for Easter to church on Sunday.  They looked darling together.

On Sunday, the sunshine and hot weather arrived.  After church and lunch, the kids and I went fishing with Krampa and Uncle Travis.  The fish were biting like crazy!!  We could barely get our hooks in the water before we'd have a fish on!  There were lots of baby bluegills, but we also caught some big fat ones, and each of the girls caught a decent sized bass.

I caughted a shiner,  and I had never seen one before.

On Monday, Clayton came over to swim with us for a bit.  Then later Caeden went to play with him at Aunt Wanda's while my mom and I picked out some fabric at Wanda's shop.  Clayton taught Caeden how to poke spools.



Krampa found a new bike for the kids to ride while they are there, and the kids spent a lot of time riding up and down and around the driveways.  Uncle Travis even tested out the new bike and had a couple races with Caeden.



Monday evening, we met Grandpa & Grandma L. at DQ for some treats, and then they asked the kids if they wanted to go to Paige's Crossing.  The kids were SO excited!!!

First, we went mini-golfing.  Grandpa and Grandma were the best golfers,
and Annah had 2 holes-in-1 too!  We had a blast!



After golf, we played arcade games.  The kids were drawn to the games with "The Claw," like in the Toy Story movies, even though I tried to explain that you never actually get anything out of them.  They found out for themselves.

Grandpa was pretty good at the Hoop Fever game, and he and Caeden played several times to get tickets.  We also did ski ball, a game that was a cross between DDR and whack-a-mole, and the one where you shoot the clown's teeth down with the air-gun.

The kids all had several tickets to exchange for "prizes" at the counter.
It was a tough decision for Annah.

Caeden quickly spent all of his tickets...

...and begged Grandpa for more tokens.  Do you think he gave in?  YEP!

The teeth were apparently the coolest value for the price.



Thanks for a fun evening Grandma & Grandpa!!!



Tuesday morning we taught Gram how to play Skip-Bo, our new favorite game.

And, we did lots of swimming on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!  On Tuesday, we swam in the morning, again in the afternoon, and at night!  Krampa even set up the color-changing lights in the pool at night for us!

We played some Crazy 8's by the pool, and had a picnic.

We had a great week of fun and relaxation!  Thank you so much, Gram & Krampa for hosting us!  It was a wonderful start to summer!


 "He told them this parable: 'Look at the fig tree and all the trees.  When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.'"
-Luke 21:29-31

Last Day of School 2011!

The kiddos' last day of school was today, and it was Field Day for them--except that it rained all morning so it was watch-movies-in-the-gym day instead. ;)  They still enjoyed getting to do something fun and different with their friends!

We are so fortunate to have a great little public school with absolutely awesome teachers in every grade and subject!  Our kids all just love school and all their teachers, and are learning and growing so much, thank the Lord!!!

As a little thank you gift to each of their teachers, bus driver, principal, school counselor, I filled pretty jelly jars with M&M's and attached a card with this cute poem I found inside.  

 

When it was time for the bus to come, it was dark and raining!  Nothing like leaving for school in a thunderstorm!  

When they got home from school, it was beautiful outside.  Annah came running home.

She is excited for Summer!  

Sylvia dragged home, almost in tears, so sad for the school year to end.  Her teacher, our principal, and favorite music teacher will not be back at our school next year, so she is extra sad about missing them.

Caeden has also had mixed emotions about school ending.  His teacher told me last week, when they were doing their calendar time in class and counting down the days until the end of the school year and starting first grade, he just broke down crying!  When she asked him what was wrong, he told her he was going to miss her and his friends and thinking about it made him sad!
He was happy when he came home today though.

I had put together little summer gift bags for the kids with things from the Dollar Tree, and they got right to playing bubbles!

We're so thankful for a great school year, and happy to enjoy summertime!


"Honor is no more associated with fools
      than snow with summer or rain with harvest."

- Proverbs 26:1

Honors Assembly

Annah was honored in the school assembly today for receiving high honors this semester.  I don't remember what the requirements are for high honors, but she received all A's.

Her social studies teacher is shaking her hand, 

and her classroom teacher for all other subjects is behind her.

4th grade High Honors

Principal Jones talked about the elementary school's theme for the year--"Plant a Seed," and how many seeds grow a more beautiful bouquet when they receive what they need, just like a community working together works better than one where not everyone does their best. 

It has been a great year at Ridgeview!

Grandpa & Grandma Lopshire visit!

This weekend Grandma & Grandpa Lopshire came to visit and stay at our house!  It is a rare treat that they get to come stay with us, and we SO enjoyed having them here!

Hugs for Grandma when they arrived...

Jeremy's Dad brought us meats and cheeses from his butcher shop--YUM!!

We had supper together here at our house and celebrated Jeremy's and Grandma's and Grandpa's birthdays with a DQ Oreo Blizzard ice cream cake.  The kids wanted Grandpa & Grandma to see one of their favorite movies, The Princess & the Frog, so we watched it with some popcorn.  

Grandma read the kids some bedtime stories and tucked them in to bed.  

In the morning, before church, Caeden and Grandma played a little Mario Kart!  I was already at church, but from what I heard, Caeden gave Grandma quite a schooling. 

We had such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, and only wished they could have stayed longer.  Wewere so glad they could come stay with us for a night!

Summer's Comin'!

We can feel Summer coming, and are ready to get at it!  The kids wanted to ride their bikes down to the little park in our village today, so we all went together.

Races

We walked down to the village park today, and found some neighbor friends.  Jeremy got them started racing each other, and of course was bid to join them.  

Cheerful Cheerio Chompers

This is what we looked like enjoying our Cheerios for breakfast before school today...

Jeremy's 36th birthday

The kids each made a special card for Jeremy for his birthday today.  Caeden's was a pirate themed card which had a joke about Jeremy being a scallywag who should walk the plank!  Sylvia's was carefully decorated with sweet well-wishes of love written inside.  Annah's had a light-saber and said something about how Luke would teach Daddy to use "The Force."  He enjoyed the kids creative, hand-made cards very much.

Instead of cake, I made a peach cobbler.  Jeremy was annoyed that I lit candles on it and let them drip wax on the cobbler.  So we got upset with each other and he went outside to mow instead of eating some with the rest of us, and I went to bed early because I was tired and grumpy.  

Yeah...It's not always happy around here. And, I'm not always proud to share about the way I've acted.  I really felt guilty that I hadn't bought or made Jeremy a card or gift myself.  I really am thankful for my husband and all he does for our family, and I love him so much!

Caeden's Kindergarten Field Trip

We have a great Children's Museum in Bloomington-Normal, and it was super fun to visit today with Caeden's classmates on their field trip!

I rode the bus with Caeden and was the chaperone assigned to him and his friend Jacob.  We had a great day together--even after the alternator on our bus went out a mile down the road and we had to go get on another bus to get to the museum!  An adventure! ;)

When we first got to the museum, we had some time in the learning lab to experiment with our 5 senses.

We learned about the tongue and which parts taste the 4 tastes of bitter, sweet, salty and sour.  Then the kids tasted each without knowing what it was beforehand, to see if they could name which was which and where they tasted it on their tongues.

  

We painted "scratch and sniff" paintings with kool-aid!

Daddy was able to join us for part of the day!  Here, he and Caeden tested a tuning fork...

We played a game with a partner, and used our sense of touch and describing words to see if we could pull matching objects out of our bags.

A great new music and dramatic arts area has been added to the museum since we were there last!!  There is a big stage area with costumes, curtains, a light board, scene changes, a ticket booth...

Caeden and his friends running the ticket booth...

Daddy and Caeden playing Bert and Ernie puppets in the puppet booth...

Playing with magnetic shapes...

Running the light board for the stage...

Lights and music!

Caeden loves to BUILD anything!  These working magnetic gears totally enthralled him!

One of Caeden's classmates' mom played him in checkers--and beat him quite badly!  Thankfully, it's a game he still enjoys, even when he loses.

We all thought the Magna-Tiles were SO cool!!  

I would love to get some for Caeden, but they are pretty pricey!

The agriculture section of the museum is awesome, though the kindergarteners weren't really ready to understand the exhibits--just have fun playing.

Probably the most favorite thing for the boys was climbing on the big wooden sculpture!

Caeden and his friends loved painting and cleaning with the squeegee on the plexiglass walls.

Love this boy.

It's always fun to ride and watch Mr. Bones ride alongside you!

Playing in the water table was a blast too!  When it was time to leave, Caeden looked liked he had fallen in, even though he wore the waterproof smock!

What a fun time we had playing at the museum!

When we got back to school we went outside for recess!

Caeden has loved his teacher, Mrs. Tompkins, and we love her too!  She cares so obviously for each student.  She has challenged Caeden academically by providing extra opportunities for him when he needed it, and has helped him learn to set goals to work on things that are more difficult for him--like his handwriting and organization skills.  She has gently and firmly counseled him on behavior issues and inspired him to be a better student and person.  Caeden has grown, learned, and matured so much this year because of her!  What a huge blessing she has been to our family!!