It's a Wrap

It's here. The end. We're done! Today we are celebrating the end of several things:

Our oldest graduated from Elementary School...gone are the kiddie days...

onto the new, exciting days of Junior High.

Today was the last day of school. I decided to take a picture of them this morning so I could compare it to....

nine months ago, when they were just starting school! It went by quickly!!

Our daughter was pleased to receive an Eagle award for her hard work this year.

They also received the Presidential Physical Fitness Award today in a last day of school assembly.

And it is finally the end of installing our wood floor!! The entry was the last area to do. Tonight we reinstall the toilet and this little project is officially behind us!

Busy Days

It is the end of the school year and all the end-of-year activities are packed into just a few days.


On Thursday, our fifth grader participated in his Hershey Track Meet. He finished second in his heat in the 400m, made it into the semifinals in the 100m and anchored his school's relay team to 4th place in the city.


Our sixth grader finished his track meet the next day...since it was postponed due to the rain last week. He made it into the semifinals in the 100, just missing the final by one spot. He was the third leg on his school's relay team. They finished second.



Our two young athletes could hardly wait for the lollipop race!




The prize at the end was SWEET!





A lot of work for a sucker!!




We left the track meet and went to kindergarten graduation. We enjoyed a Hawaiian dance and some great singing, signing (sign language), and finally the graduates received their kindergarten diplomas.


It has been a great year and first grade will be fun next year, but we wish our teacher could come with us!




Summer here I come!!



We ended our busy day with the final dance performance of the year. Our daughter danced really well and especially enjoyed the slide show at the end with pictures from all the competitions. It has been a great year.

Piece by Piece

I finished under the bar/ door to the deck area on Thursday.


It was an all-day project.


Good to have done...the entry is all we have left to do!!

A Floor Update

Our floor is progressing! Slowly, but surely it is starting to come together.


We have installed the kitchen and hallway, but still have a ways to go...the bathroom, bar, and entry are patiently waiting for us...along with the molding and toe spaces.


Life is busy...it may be awhile before we are completely finished, but we are loving the new look! More pics to come as we finish the rest.

A Fast Finish

This morning was our city's Hershey Track Meet for all the sixth-graders.

The first event was the 800 meter run. Our oldest ran a smart race.




He ran the first lap conservatively...





and then slowly picked off the runners in front of him one by one until...






he was in the lead! He won his heat and got second overall...which means an invite to the regional meet. Good runnin'!!! (If you look at the sky in the third picture you will notice the imposing Spring downpour...it hit minutes after his race and the rest of the meet was postponed to a sunnier day.)

Dancing All Day!

On Saturday morning while the boys worked on the floor, the girls of our family headed to the high school for a big dance competition.






After a second place finish last year, the dancers have worked hard for the last nine months to really polish their performance.







They danced really well and had an awesome performance!






Another trophy to add to her collection!




Way to go!!

It's Another Birthday Boy!

Our baby boy is now a four-year-old! He had an event-filled birthday!

After helping me move the oven back into the kitchen, he helped me bake, frost, (and lick, of course) his birthday cake.

He waited and waited, not so patiently, for everyone to get home from school and work so he could open his gifts.

They were worth the wait!

His birthday also happened to be the very day that our next door neighbor missionary returned home.

So we had a celebratory hot dog roast in the backyard for dinner and listened to mission stories.

It was a real treat!!

Last, but not least....the cake was great! A great end to a great day!!

Our SMALL Project

We have taken on a tiny bit of a project...we are installing wood flooring in our kitchen/bathroom/entry.

My husband got a great deal on wood flooring and "tah dah" we have some work to do. The kids are pretty tickled about the whole thing. It's new...different...

and hey, the fridge is in the living room. They think that we should keep it there and they have come up with several convincing reasons why a fridge is a good living room addition. I am getting lots of extra exercise walking back and forth during meal prep. But... that's nothing compared to....

the inconvenience of no upstairs bathroom. The biggest bummer is when you have to wait in line to use our one functional bathroom. Our youngest peed off the deck yesterday...too long of a wait! No, I don't approve (and found out after the fact), but I understand his dilemma!!

Simple linoleum removal turned into some serious back-breaking work and a lot of sweating when we discovered a second layer of sub-flooring that had to be torn up.

Thank goodness for hard-working boys to help with the demolition!

Everyone joined in and soon the floor was up...and then...we got to pull out a million staples.

This guy was a great staple-collector! He loved running the staples to the garbage, one by one. It has been a lot of work. Tonight we start installing the new floor! We are sore, sleep-deprived, and living off dinners that can be cold or cooked in the microwave (aka cold-cereal and burritos/nachos). Oh, and we are reliving our childhood task of washing dishes by hand....my kids are thrilled to experience what dish washing was like in the "olden days," although the novelty of it has already worn off. Wish us luck!!

We may or may not fall asleep on the living room floor when we are done!

Sleeping Out

While the rest of us were rearranging, Dad and the older boys went on an overnight campout with their scout troop. Spring weather can be questionable and it certainly lived up to it's soggy reputation. They endured a rainy night, but assured me that all their sub-zero sleeping bags and waterproof clothing kept them snug and warm. They woke up to snow.



Their only complaint was that some of the other boys were up at 5:30 a.m. running around (supposedly to get warm) and woke everyone up! So much for sleeping in on a Saturday morning!!

Rearranging

I took the last several days off from my new hobby to address some space issues. I had conveniently been ignoring the problem by simply closing bedroom doors, but finally I could close doors no longer!! It was time for a change!



We have now switched all the boys (except our youngest) into the biggest of our kids rooms. Yes, it is a little squishy, but we ousted the toys to another space and I believe that the clutter issue is now resolved (as long as I can keep them making their beds!!)


Our daughter is thrilled at the new bedroom arrangement. She is now in charge of our youngest and has whole-heartedly taken on the task of book reading at bedtime and more! It has been great since she loves to mother and he loves to let her mother him. She tells me that he climbs in bed with her and she reads to him until he falls asleep and then she moves him into his bed. Voila!! Why did I wait so long to make this change??? Well it was a good move and a good project to have behind me!