School's Out!

Jacob and I were so excited to pick the kids up from school at 9:30am yesterday morning!

August, 2011

May, 2012



A few years ago, the girls started to wear the same alfit that they wore on the first day of school on the last day of school as well.

It's fun to see how much they've grown, or how much their alfits have shrunk in the wash. Next time I should take the picture in the same place so that it's easier to compare.

No matter how much they've grown in size, they've grown a lot from what they've learned, the friends they've met, and the experiences they've had. Emma was in tears when I picked her up because she didn't want school to end. She said she would miss her teacher, her friends, and she didn't want to forget anything that she had learned.

Tyler had a really good year in school. He has loved his junior high experience. The opportunities that he's had to get involved and to develop different talents have been great! For this upcoming year, he is going to do percussion on top of Jazz Band and Symphonic Band. He's taking summer band in all three areas right now, and he's really enjoying it - summer band started in March, and now he has it pretty much every day, all day in June. He also just found out that he made the science demo team for next year. He learned about this team and put in an application all on his own. This is his thing, and we're excited to watch him go for it.

Jacob and I had a great year at home with our own little preschool. He's ready and excited to start kindergarten next year.

I had to decide before they went to school yesterday that I wasn't going to make them clean their rooms and do chores right when they got home. For a day we weren't going to worry about getting anything done. Instead, they played outside, we played games inside, we got Sonic slushees at happy hour, went to the library to stock up our initial summer reading supplies, went to dinner at Chilis (the kids all had free kids meal coupons), and went to "The Secret Garden" at the Hale Center Theatre. That was an amazing show!

We wanted to award our children for all their hard work and for doing so well in school. It was a fun day!

Today is a different ball game. Bedrooms are now clean, and so are the walls, appliances, and cabinet fronts in the kitchen. Kaylee wanted to listen to some music with a beat, so I put on the Carpenters. (:
We were dancing and cleaning and laughing. Emma said that she wanted to clean the whole day long. Wouldn't that be great if our cleaning days were always like that?!

Tonight, after the kids were all ready for bed, we watched "The Long Long Trailor". All our kids loved it and were laughing through it. I love nights we can all relax together!

The kids have a performance at the Gateway tomorrow with their choir. Tyler and Kaylee both have solos, and this is Emma's first official time to perform with them.
We are excited to be at the Barlow's baby blessing on Sunday. We're looking forward to a great weekend!