Memories of a Very Fast Summer

Memorial Day - so long ago, it seems in some ways, but so quickly it has become the end of summer as we know it.




School started yesterday - it seems impossible that the three months of summer vacation went so quickly. Feisty has a very nice new teacher, but she's having a hard time weaning herself away from kindergarten and the awesome teacher she had last year - the one who came and took her out to lunch and to the park just because Feisty missed her and was afraid she'd never see her again. Last night she told me that she did not like the new kindergarten class. When I questioned her some more, I asked her if she thought maybe she was just suffering from envy that they were in Ms. Logan's class and she wasn't any longer. She had to agree. She then prayed to Jesus that there would be someone in that class that looked like her so Ms. Logan wouldn't forget her. Awww.

First day of first and third grades.

Last spring, at the end of school, I mentioned that Care Bear's teacher had told me about the haiku she had written (I couldn't believe they did haikus in 2nd grade - I think I was a sophomore before I knew that word!) The teacher kept a copy so she could use it as a teaching tool for the kids this year to understand how to write one. I finally got a copy myself. Here it is:

Haiku

Syllables are cool
Syllables go with haiku
Haiku can be fun

I had the 4 girls a lot, and as I've said before, in the math of summer, 4 is much more than 2 times 2. What better way to spend many mornings than going to VBS? As I mentioned before, the big girls went to VBS at six different churches and enjoyed each one. One of them had a carnival and program on the Friday night - the littles enjoyed the activities as much as their big sisters. In fact, it was the first time we saw them actually interact and "talk" to someone other than each other.

They really didn't like cotton candy after all.

There was a lot of dirt and a lot of baths ---

Throw in swimming lessons, camp, Girl Scout camp-outs, library time, the county fair, swimming for fun, sleep-overs with friends and they've had quite a summer.

Then there was helping Grandpa get the dirt off his truck ---

Helping Grandpa in other ways --- picking up sticks from the wind the night before, then "helping" mow the lawn. BTW, their "twin language" has finally given way to our language, and what fun it is to be able to converse with them a bit - and know what they need a bit more easily!

There was the day that they got to my house really early because I had an appointment to get their pictures taken - wouldn't you think a place that photographs kids all day long would have a better way of keeping a schedule? Or at least have some toys to play with?? I chose this place because it had appointments. If I'd wanted to take a chance on ever getting in, I would have taken them to Wal-Mart and sat all morning. You can imagine how much fun it was to find out they were already behind - one hour after they started. We left. Still haven't had the pictures taken and now school has started.

We headed on up to CSU to get my free parking pass (one of the perks of retirement - free parking on campus for life - not a bad perk, when parking costs go up there every year!) They had some fun climbing on one of the less attractive sculptures (or whatever it is!) Their colors matched.




The fun thing about living in the same town with lots of relatives is that when they get company, it's usually someone you want to see too. Such was the case this summer with my sister when her kids came to visit. Second cousins can be a lot of fun.




The little train in the park with more second cousins was great - the cattle car was such a fun place to ride.







The parks in our town are full of sculptures - Katie wasn't quite sure if she liked this one or not.

But we had some fun at the park by the library -

Care Bear couldn't resist a bit of dramatic acting!

Then there was the day we went and got this beautiful bouquet of flowers for the church nursery attendant's birthday - Sandy is our favorite person! Turns out she was gone for the week - so we ended up enjoying them at home and she had to settle for a nice picture!

Then there was FINALLY losing a top tooth --

What's wrong with this picture? My next door neighbors - nice folks - but they don't seem to get the concept of a BACK YARD. Big back yard. But everything sits in between our house and theirs - I have to work at not looking. DC works so hard to make our space beautiful, and this is such a mess. Especially the compost dealie-bobber - what's up with that??? Don't they have a door into the back yard??? And before you ask, no, we don't have covenants. Oh, my. I guess if that were my worst problem -- but it's not.









Have a great week-end!