June

You shouldn't have to go to school in June, but we still did.  Weston had another week of school, and Aidan and Brennan had two more weeks!  Elise actually had preschool until the last week of June.

After all the hard work, and great grades (all A's) Weston participated in some fun activities his last week.  They had a field day full of fun--face painting, cotton candy, games, etc (a bit extravagant, but I won't get up on my soap box about how schools spend money...).  There were also races and Weston won the 200 yard dash and the 4 x 100 relay.  Then, the next day there was a 6th grade 5k.  I got to sit along the route and direct kids and cheer them on.  When I saw them coming, Weston and a few friends were leading the pack.  Once the race was over and went to the finish line and found out Weston had won!  He ran it in about 25 minutes and 42 seconds.  He is such an athlete!  Once done with school, he started his last summer before junior high.  We have signed him up at the local junior high with high hopes that it is the best choice for him.  Luckily there are several boys from his soccer team that will be there.  From what we understand once you are on a competition soccer team it seems that those are the people you are friends with (thank goodness the boys on his team are good kids!).  He started practicing with his new team--they practice three times a week for 1 1/2 hours each time.  They have a few competitions coming up.  He did have to say goodbye to his old team and coaches, Chris Welch and Tyler Twitchell.  They will be missed!

Weston needs to earn money for his competition team and for scout camp so we did a yard sale.  Great way to make money...  Lots of work!  We asked people if they had anything they were getting rid of and they would bring it to us and we sold it.  Our garage was FULL of stuff for several weeks!  We labeled it all, organized it and set it out on a Saturday morning.  People came pretty much non stop from 6:30 am until 2:00 pm!  Weston and his friend Braden did a great job selling things.  Now they have earned enought money for this year AND next year's scout camp!

Aidan and Brennan got all A's in school as well.  Their school makes them help clean the school (love it!) and then they got to have a fun field day full of games (and they even got to wear "normal" clothes).  Aidan gets to take piano off in July, but in place of that went to a week long piano camp.  He learned about Edvard Grieg, Modest Mussorsky, Bedrick Smetana, and Aram Khachaturian.

Both Weston and Aidan celebrated their birthdays.  Weston, of course, is entering a pretty big year of his life.  He had a huge party with friends and they were planning on playing soccer, but there was a lightning storm, so we ended up playing "Werewolf" inside and watching the rain come down.  Not only were there 10 or so of his friends, but Aidan had a friend over, and our neighbors Halle and Luke were here as well with Brennan and Elise.  It was a FULL house!  For his birthday dinner, he wanted to go somewhere nice, with just us and Grandma and Grandpa, so we went to his favorite Tepanyaki.  Then we came home and opened presents--big kid stuff.  He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood the first Sunday of June.  Grandma and Grandpa, Omi and Opa, Uncle Adam and Grandma Nancy were all there.  After we had a nice dinner.  We are so proud of him and what a good boy he is.  At the beginning of the year, he made the goal to finish the Book of Mormon before he turned 12 and just a day or two before his birthday he finished it!

Aidan's birthday party was a Minecraft theme.  To the invitations to the games, everything Minecraft.  Except the Buffalo pinata of course...  I found a donkey pinata, but spray painted it brown, and it actually looked like a buffalo!  They had a great time.  He had several friends over, but one of them had become his best friend at school, Agni.  Unfortunately, he moved to the East Coast once school ended and we will miss him.  For his birthday we went to the local pizza place (we go every year for his birthday...) and then opened presents.  He received a lava lamp, rocks, and a shirt we made him that has a picture of his mythical buffalo "mr" that said, "Keep Calm and Love Buffalo".  What a kid!

Brennan is my reader this summer.  He has recently started reading the Magic Tree House books and so I bought him the first 15.  He had already read two, and then read another two in June.  He loves to time how much he reads daily.  He also got a summer workbook that he has been working in and does such a great job.  He and his friend Luke are always wanting to teach the other kids school.  They are so excited for Luke's little twin siblings to grow up so they can teach them!  Brennan also tried making brownies ALL BY HIMSELF for the very first time.  I didn't help at all!  They looked delicious.  Then he tried them.  Somehow he didn't quite get the instructions right and put in WAY too much salt.  He took a bite and at first thought it would be ok, but that didn't last long.  So funny and cute!

Elise finally graduated from preschool (so darling!) and is now preparing for Kindergarten.  She is about the funniest thing around.  We had SO much fun in Chicago together.  She was a perfect angel on the airplane. The only thing that was a problem is that when she got bored, all she wanted to do was eat and I didn't bring a full meal, just snacks!  She was very interested in all that was going on and had no problems flying.  It was great going with Heidi and Rowan as well.  I always get sick on planes, but at least I didn't throw up...  Scott met us (it is a good thing because I would have been totally lost in that airport.  It has been too long since I have traveled) and we had a great conversation with him on the way home (Beesley talk is always fun...).  We arrived quite late and went to bed.  Ali was so darling putting together the kids little Secret Agent packets.  They each got sunglasses, water guns, etc.  We had planned lots of water activities and then it ended up being rainy and wet, but we still made things fun.  The kids played with chalk, bubbles, and did lots of fort building.  Ali, Heidi and I played lots of Phase 10 though I got sick of it quickly since I NEVER won...  At one point Heidi had five wilds in one hand and I had only had one wild in eight rounds!  Nevertheless, it was fun (of course).  I had the opportunity to not cook or clean, but I guess I missed doing that cause I still wanted to make some meals--Heidi's famous white bean chili, cauliflower soup, french bread, banana muffins, etc.  Though I enjoy making food for others when they are appreciative and help clean up... ha h!  One of my favorite outing was the temple with Heidi and Ali.  I can't think of a time when we have been together to a session, so it was nice.  Then we had the best salad EVER (Thanks for sharing Ali!).  Ali really knows good food--we ate out at the best restaurants! And she knows how to shop.  I love shopping with both Ali and Heidi.  We have such similar taste.  The zoo was amazing and we could have spent several days there.  And the kids really did well there, and didn't get too tired.  It was a very restful and enjoyable time.  Ali is such a great hostess and a wonderful sister! The kids had a marvelous time playing together.  Elise especially loved being with her cousins and made a special bond with Noah. And fun for Elise, she lost her first official tooth while there!  The Tooth Fairy visits Chicago, too!  Main memories: Les Mis, X-Files, Laughter, and Love.  Hard to go back home.

But, I needed to get back to my busy life.  So much was going on!  The main thing was that I was busy getting old.  I have now entered my last year of my 30's.  Scott and the kids (and his parents) spoiled me with decorations for the basement and Omi and Opa gave me a darling olive oil can.  That night we went out to a huge celebration the city held in my honor.  Ok, not quite, but they did have a big celebration of their 150 years and the party happened to fall on my birthday so I had Alex Boye singing for me and fireworks to light up my night.

A few days later I packed up and went to girls camp.  Though I shouldn't call it camping because we were in a ginormous lodge with a swimming pool, hot tub, and maid service.  All the food was provided (cafeteria style) and we didn't even have to make our own fire for s'mores.  Some of the older girls planned the entire camp (DARE--Difficult Afflictions Require Endurance) and did a great job with everything. My only tasks were to pull jokes on people and prepare the devotional for the morning hike.  I didn't do well on jokes (I don't like mean things....), but the devotional went well.  Unfortunately, I was sick almost the entire time with a cold.  They told me to go home, but I couldn't imagine leaving a nice camp like that.  I can understand leaving if we were camping in tents, etc, but not when people were waiting on me hand and foot!  So I stayed and suffered through it (ha, really it was them that had to suffer me and my boogers!).  I am glad I stayed, and I just love my young women!

Scott has been seriously working in the basement.  By the time I came home from Chicago the walled and ceiling were primed and painted and the closets were built.  Now on to the flooring.  He is so handy.  He is also trying to keep up with the garden.  The peas came and went pretty quickly, the lettuce hasn't stopped, the basil is out of control and it is a lot of work to stay on top of things.  We are definitely keeping busy and happy as can be.  Looking forward to the time when we can FINALLY say the basement is ready for you folks to come visit!