summer kickoff

Our summer started with 2 birthday parties in one day.  Saturday morning Kerigan went to a birthday party for one of her friends from day care.  She had a great time!

I'm not sure she'd ever hit a pinata!  Now I'm confident she will want to at every birthday including her own!  Ha!

More of her sweet day care/dance/school friends.  These girls could not be any sweeter.

Cousin Jayden's birthday always kicks off the beginning of summer!  Andrew was so happy to celebrate at their house that evening.

Kerigan just loves her grandpa (grandma too!)

Playing dress up with her cousins and friend

She was having a blast putting on all of Evelyn's old dance costumes, especially since she just had her first dance recital this spring!

Evi put lipstick on her and she thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

The boys playing outside!

Andrew got to spend the night and go to Jayden's party with his friends at the Science Center the next day.  I had to stay home and get ready for our party that evening so Daddy went and picked him up and took Kerigan.

Does anyone recognize this mural?  Ha!  Craig texted me this picture when they were on their way home from the Science Center.  This is the mural from the Bachelor when it filmed in Des Moines last season.  I about died because I had been wanting to see it!  He texted me and said "I can't believe it's over" (meaning their relationship)- ha ha!  I think I laughed for 5 full minutes.

This is what I was doing, along with Ga Ga and Papa.  We cleaned the patio and scrubbed the outside of the house, got lights hung up and made everything ready for summer!  Daddy and Papa put together the trampoline for the kids as a summer surprise!

I've had it since the Black Friday sales when I came home with it about 1am!  Ha!  We always like to surprise the kids with something for the last day of school.  

They were so excited.  I said next year they aren't getting anything though!  We're running out of space in the yard!  Ha!  Next year we want to pull out the fence and expand it to enclose our whole yard, which is only about 1/16 fenced in right now (from the previous owners).

Last year their surprise was this water slide.  It has gotten so much use!  It's so easy to put up and the kids are entertained for hours.  We just put it outside the fence and pull our lawn games out there too.  But it will be nice when we can have one big enclosed area.

Each year we like to have a BBQ to kickoff summer and invite all our friends in town.  This year we added even more new friends we've made and everyone had so much fun.  It was almost too cold for the pool but we decided to put it up anyway and you can see the kids didn't care!

My favorite thing ever is being surrounded by our friends and family and just having everyone relaxed, visiting and watching the kids play.

And that's exactly what this night is.  Craig grills burgers and hot dogs and everyone brings a side and drinks and we all just relax and enjoy kicking off summer!

Kids are everywhere and having a blast!

It just makes me happy.  I always say I don't look at it as having "company," but rather being surrounded by friends.  I love it when people come over and I love to entertain.  Some people like alone time (don't get me wrong, I value that as well) but give me a choice and I'd choose "company" any day!

The trampoline was definitely a hit.  It was used constantly all.night.long.  I made a rule that only 3 people could be on it at one time.  Yeah that lasted about 2 minutes.  Ha!  We know about the safety and the risks.  The kids were all informed and everyone was really good.

Time to fire up the grill for s'mores!

Sweet friends

Marshmallow photo bomb!

Because why not roast s'mores in your pj's?

The kids found a frog!

Andrew and one of his best friends from school, Eli.  His mom was our realtor and we just love their family!

The kids wrapped up the night watching a movie as the adults still enjoyed the fire!  It was my definition of the perfect summer night.

first and last

We're up to the last week of school!

The last week of school!  The kids brought flowers to their teachers.  Kerigan was cheering because it was her last day of preschool.

She had field day on her last day.  Since she's a summer birthday she got to bring treats and celebrate.  She was so excited.

But even more because her daddy came to help at field day.

Eating her birthday popsicle

Her daddy is so special to her.  Here she is with her field day trophy and her favorite guy in the world.

I had to throw this picture in because it was so cute.  Dan Wardell from our local public TV station stopped at her preschool and the kids were all so excited.  

Andrew said "I wish Mrs. Friday could be my teacher forever."  He had the best year and learned so much.  We are so proud of him and thankful for awesome teachers!

A couple of days before school got out the whole school gathered on the lawn for a color run!

They all decorated white shirts in P.E. class and they couldn't wait!

They had to go through obstacles and then they got color on them as they ran through it!

This was so much fun- the kids and teachers all had a great time!

Is she a fun teacher or what?  I will always crack up because before Andrew even knew her he wanted her for a teacher because her name is Mrs. Friday.  Ha!  I bet now he'd pick her again for more reasons than that!

Some of his best friends in his class

We tried to get his class together for a picture!  Ha!

This is me and my class of 4th graders.  Yes, I opted out of running through the color!  But I'm pretty sure most of my students would still tell you I'm fun!  Ha!  I had the best class this year- I'm going to miss them!

Kerigan came too and my students all just love her.  They were on a mission to get her to talk to them, and today she decided to!  They were happy.

Andrew's class had a field trip the last week to Reiman Gardens on the Iowa State campus.  They have a butterfly house.  My mom was so excited since they were in her town she got to meet them there!  She had instructions to take some selfies of her with Andrew but this was all I got!

I'm sure they were very busy!  But Andrew thought it was so special to have Ga Ga join him!

And here are my precious kids on their last day.  They both just look so grown up to me.  I can't believe how much time flies.

How is he going to be a 3rd grader??  

I think his face has completely changed from a baby face to a boy.  His front teeth are both replaced by permanent ones now, which I think always makes such a difference in their grown up look.  He's definitely grown a few inches too!  I could not be more proud of him as he passed a 4th grade level reading test at the end of the year!  Going from below level in Kindergarten, to 2 grades above is pretty incredible.

Selfie on our last day!  School had just ended and we were happy and excited for summer!  Although Andrew did cry for the 2nd year in a row about missing his friends and not having the same class next year.  Sweet boy!

And this girl.  Oh my word.  How she has grown and changed I am just amazed.  She knows all of her letters and most sounds already.  I am already starting to work on sight words with her because I know she can do it.  She's a smart cookie!  We aren't sure if she'll have just one more year of preschool or two, since she's a summer birthday we have to decide if she'll go to Kindergarten when she's 5 or 6.

It's that fine line- do we want her to be the oldest in her class and first to do everything (like drive, etc) or the youngest... the one riding around in the cars with everyone else.  Sigh.  I'm certain that academically she'll be ready.  We'll just be doing a lot of thinking and praying about it this year!  For now I'm glad she has one more year with her awesome preschool teacher.

I loved having her wear the same outfit she wore on the first day.  Her dress is definitely shorter and her little saltwater sandals barely fit!  I love how long her hair has gotten.  She's just turning into such a big girl and she's just as sweet and precious as all of her pictures.

We've been having a busy and fun summer already and it is flying by!  More updates coming soon!