A better week :)

Bella had a blast at camp. I love that the camp website keeps parents up to date on what the kids are doing with pictures. I asked Bella if she wanted to write me emails and i could email her while she was gone. She said no, because she didn't want to waste the time. lol

We worked on redoing part of the basement while Bella was gone. While i worked, Max played with his train table. It holds so much more then just trains and tracks

We also moved the Monster trucks out to the living room. I love how he can play with his toys. He has such an imagination, also he's so resourceful and creative with toys and non-toys.

We got to go to National Night out with friends. It was humid, but the boys had fun until the mascots showed up. It was just nice to go and hang out. The mom's enjoy it also :)

Max was able to do some fun stuff with out his sister around. He really wanted to do this dino kit. So i let him go at it. He realized it was a lot of work! but he was so proud when he got done.

we got the carpet laid out and the ball pit set up. Max was in heaven!  Though

he has grown a little bit since the last time he was in the ball pit 

One night while Bella was away,  I got a girls night out. It was bittersweet as we were saying good bye to a dear friend who's changing jobs. It was a the perfect night though, yummy food, perfect weather, bug free and a band playing!

I spend all day Friday in Madison for work. Then i got to head up to Camp Grey to pick up this sweet girl. We had missed her!

Once she got home, things returned to normal. ;) Playing with the fairy gardens

finding baby birds while garden sitting

and making silly faces!

Sisters day.. Tracey and I made it to the new ikea. We came home with a a full car! I was happy to find stuff we needed to help organize the basement!

One of Bellas classmates had a birthday party at the beach. It was kind of chilly, but the kids didn't care ;)

Father Day?

 Carmel  has decided she's part chicken and won't leave the coop. Sometimes i feel the same way. Only i'm stuck in the past and don't want to leave the safety of it.  Since the high of the gradation parties and being with so many friends, i figured the next weeks would be a low, ending with the father's day weekend.  I threw myself into working at school as much as i could with having the kids with me. They were troopers and coming in when it was so hot and sitting in the library while i worked to move books around, weed out books and clean.

 WE did go to visit the farmers market and get our beach passes . Then we spent a couple hours with our friends.  We kept on our toes , which doesn't always work out so well.

 Friday we headed to Lancaster. We stop by Grandmas for a bit before we made it in time for chores. It was so nice to just sit in the A/C and chat with Sheri. She can really help me put things into perspective along with help me to understand that I need to do what's best for my kids, even when it's a hard choice.  She also knew Josh so well that its nice to talk about him and the old times.
The kids also just love being on the farm and being farm kids. I'm so happy they can continue to get that "farm life" even after we lave moved from the farm.

 Saturday morning, since we were up early anyhow, we decided to take the ferry over to Iowa. We haven't rode it since Josh was alive and max was a tiny baby.  It was a pretty warm day, but the breeze felt good on the river.

 We headed to Iowa to see these sweet boys and meet their new baby sister.

 It was a nice visit. Then we found out that my debit card had been frozen and the only money i had to get us home was my kwik trip gift cards. it made for not so good ending to our trip.

 Sunday was father's day. This was the first year we didn't really do father's day. I never had a dad growing up, so it was just another June Sunday for me. Josh always enjoyed father's day.He loved spending the day with his dad, fishing with him and the rest of his siblings. It was a chance for everyone to come together. Not everyone enjoy the fishing part, but everyone seemed to like the being together.  When Josh became a father, we still trying to spend the day with his dad fishing, I think we only missed two year and Josh was in the hospital for both of them.  It was his thing.  The kids enjoy that time fishing and we continued that until this year. The stars didn't align and i totally spaced on the date when I signed Bella up for camp.
So our Father's day was making pancakes, which was always a family favorite.  then we went to visit Josh. The kids love being compared to the corn. It was a bit buggy and hot but the kids still hung out for a bit. Then we went to get the car washed and ice cream treats (remember still only have a kwik trip card :()

 We picked up my mom and headed up to drop bella off at Camp Gray for the week. She was so excited to go! I will admit it was sad to leave her, as it always is, but I knew she was going to have a great time. We came back home and Max and I just chilled. Read some books, he played and then it was off to bed. It wasn't my favorite day, but we made it through.  It helped me realize that we don't have to do anything big and we will all survived. The kids seemed ok about our lowkey day.

Graduation time

So on the same day that my school was done for the year, my goddaughter/niece was graduating from high school. Not sure where 18 years went.  Also hard to think that its only been two years since we were here for her sister. Time is just flying by! 

 Getting her diploma

 My nephew is in the band :)

 They got to play together for "this is me"

We had to get a picture with all of us in our matching colors :) Congratulations Elly!

The next day we went back for the party. It was an afternoon affair, so it was supper, and fun outdoors. The weather was really nice so hanging outside was the best. 

The kids got to play all the games. I was thankful that Drew was willing to play with them for while. They also made a friend too, who played with them for quite awhile . They were bummed when we had to leave. 

 Sunday was such a gray day, but it wasn't a sad day because i got to spend it with some fun people. First the kids and i headed to school before church, because i'm struggling with staying home in the morning. It doesn't seem right to be home in the morning since either we are off to school or choir practice on sundays. There we met up with my coworkers and all went to church together.  After church , we caught up with my boss and coordinated for the afternoon.
We all headed to another coworker's daughter's graduation party. It was so nice to catch up there. There was a mist and a bit chilly at the party, but my kids were so in love with all the games and play areas.

 THe Katie's :)

 So this guy has really taken me under his wing this year. He's given me a lot of encouragement and guidance. When we first met I was thinking, this going to be a long year, then over something very silly we figured out a great working relationship that made the year fly by.  I'm glad I can call him a friend now and going to miss him at school next year.

There were more fun games, so the kids got Mr. T to play with them, while I play bean bags with friends.  

It made for the weekend to fly by!  Congratulations to all the graduates this year!

End of the year

So like that it's the end of the school year. I didn't think it would come and i'm kind of sad to have the school year over.  My last week of school was super busy, which is kind of how i like it. Keeping on the go and busy makes for time to go fast, also i couldn't stop and think about what was happening. 

We started out the week with fishing. Uncle Ben came down and took the kids fishing, on his own :) .  I was able to get the lawn mowed and start on the garage. That two hours of alone time was heavenly. It's something that i miss the most.. is getting time without the kids and not feeling guilty about passing them off to someone else.
Then Sunday we had a cookout at Courts house.  While i haven't spent as much time there, it still is such a familiar place, a 2nd home. Charlie then took the kids fishing on the pond. It brought back lots of memories. As a kid i would go play in that lake and all the fish my mom didn't want to keep anymore ended up there too. When Court moved in we would hang out down by the lake or in the paddleboat, if there wasn't too many spiders.  Then before Josh's first major surgery, we were able to go fishing as a family there. One last fishing trip since we had no idea how long until he would be able fish again.  The first summer without Josh, we invited over to fish at that same spot. I was still not ready to deal with fish yet, so it was perfect for my kiddos. So this trip fishing really hit home. It made me realize how much i missed this family, lake and time together. 

Monday rolled around and it was my last day of teaching for the year. It was fun to see how far the kids have come in the year.  Then i got to take on the fun task of helping with our awards ceremony and the end of the year picnic. It was fast paced and created some crazy days, but i wouldn't have traded it for anything. That kind of stuff is my type of stuff.  I also got to work with my boss and one of my good coworkers. (we totally rocked the picnic)  It was also 8th graduation which is sad to see the kids leave our school. 

 suddnely it was the last day.. They went to school as a 4th grader and kindergartener and came home a 5th and 1st graders!