Evening and Morning

Move Up BBQ

It is move-up season! Hard to believe we've been helping with youth stuff for almost a year now - and all my 9th grade babies are sophomores now. Just kidding, they're definitely not babies!

John and Brian manned the grill.

Then we cooled off inside for a bit with games and a great welcome/what we're about from the youth pastors.

I'm excited to see what this next year brings for our youth!

Evening Fishing

This is the trip where we learned "boat rides" with kids are fun. "Fishing trips" with kids are a bit much!

The kids brought toys...

Fishing poles like Daddy....

More toys, snacks, and books....

But when it comes to being quiet for 2 hours on a boat, not really doable.

The kids were SO good... We'll just stick to "boat rides" with them for now!

Last Day of School Carnival

The last day of school, they have a big carnival type event. Games, candy, corndogs, water balloons, popsicles, more games... it was a great time!

Since it's our first year at school, we never have any idea what we sign up for, but they needed help, so the kids and I manned the candy-in-a-haystack station. (Pretty self-explanitory, right!)

The kids loved helping hide the candy AND diving in themselves.

I was busy timing kids in the haystack all afternoon. At one point I walked over to Nate and realized he was enjoying the piles of free candy.... a lot!

Popcorn!

This was a really cool event! I still feel like we're learning the ropes of this school and how everything works, but the carnival was such a great picture of what the small school is - Kids were running around playing games, dads took work off to be at the event with their family, there were even several grandparents who showed up to volunteer at stations and play with the grandkids. I talked to a lot of the teachers, volunteers and parents. It was a fun end of the year celebration for everyone!

James is looking forward to being in the Kindergarten class and Nate is so excited to be in Mrs. Benjamin's Pre-K class in the Fall!

Forest Park

Even though it felt like I spent most of the morning running kids back and forth to the restrooms, we had a fun time at the park with Ellie, Ethan, Hannah, Melissa and Sarah!

Mukilteo Beach Field Trip

In the last few days of school, James had his last field trip/class party at Mukilteo Beach. Unfortunately, we caught a cold, cloudy day!

First we did a scavenger hunt to find all sorts of things on the beach.

We saw lots of crabs and snails. We even saw a HUGE moon snail (egk!!) on the beach. Then the kids "collected" cool shells and rocks in their buckets.

At lunchtime, we talked with Mrs. Benjamin for a while. She got to hear lots of "Nate jokes". He can't wait to be in her class next year!

After lunch, we explored the beach for a bit then played on the playground.

It's hard to see, but this picture is of James and his best Sonic-playing, Lego-building, Frisbee-throwing, Pre-K buddies:  Ethan and Billy. 

 

Love Letter

I found this "scroll" on my nightstand when I went to get in bed and I remembered the conversation I had with Nate earlier in the day:

"Mom, I made you this letter because I love you so much! And if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't remember if I love you or not..... well, you can just open up the letter... and you can read all the hearts... and ...(shrug)... you can just remember that I love ya!"

Pretty Girl

The boys never ever tried this:

I'd say she nailed that mascara. Must have gotten her techniques from me!

Flowing Lake

I love this summer weather we've been having!

Ellie and I took the kids to Flowing Lake for the morning. All the other kids must have been in school still, because we had the entire beach and lake to ourselves. It was so relaxing!

It's still kind of weird to me that Bethy is a big kid now...  :-/

The boys

The first creation: A mini-lake - complete with a boat launch and an American flag.

Next creation: The river. I totally remember doing this as a kid! Pouring buckets of water down the "river" to see if it makes it all the way to the lake.

The girls

Lunchtime

I'm sure Nate wasn't sad, just very expressive in his story telling!

Sweet Bethy Boo

James working on the river.

I sure love this bunch of kids and the friendship they have. Right now, James is 5, Nate is 4, Ethan is 3, Bethy is 2, and Hannah is 1!