Time to play! It's my goal every summer to do something fun each day without spending too much money. We began our summer vacation with a trip to a swimming pool on Saturday and the Science Center today. My next blog post will be after our trip to visit family in Idaho. FUN!!! We love summer!!!
Fourth and Fifth Graders get awards in our school, not second graders. Erin Joy was feeling a little left out after posting so many pictures of Rachel. Here she is with her Perfect Attendance Award. She really didn't have perfect attendance. We missed one day while Grandma and Grandpa were visiting. Maybe her teacher forgot to mark her absent.
What a silly fortune. I wish my wallet would grow. It's more like, "As the wallet shrinks because insurance keeps going up and the state keeps taking money away from teachers' salaries, the needs grow." Something like that would be more accurate. Why can't it say something like, "YOUR SALARY WILL GROW." Now that would be a nice fortune!
We have really enjoyed staying with our friends. My girls will miss the llamas, the dogs, and the stairs when we move into our new house. If we ever move into our new house....
Here is a little video of my girls demonstrating their stunts. (By the way, the girls were told NOT to jump from the balcony to the bed below. Erin Joy was being sneaky and had been doing it for quite some time before she confessed. Rachel just watched, but didn't tattle. I'm glad nobody has broken any bones yet.)
Erin Joy really doesn't like to perform in front of people and didn't want to try out for the talent show this year. It's funny because she isn't shy at all. My shy daughter, Rachel, is the one who likes to perform. Anyway, Rachel did a great job performing in the school talent show today. I didn't have my camera on when she started playing. I came really close to shouting, "STOP!! WAIT FOR ME TO TURN MY CAMERA ON AND THEN START AGAIN SO I CAN POST YOUR PERFORMANCE ON MY BLOG!!" I refrained from opening my mouth so I wouldn't embarrass her in front of her peers. Even though I missed the first part of the song, the remaining 49 seconds of piano playing are fabulous:) The school choir sang a song and I recorded that too even though it is already on my blog at least two other times. If you watch long enough to see the school choir, notice the student on the right dancing while he sings. I love his enthusiasm:)
Rachel is holding our fourth grade "author's quilt." The students wrote to their favorite authors and gave them a quilt square to sign. Jan Brett didn't follow directions very well and made a huge quilt square. Hence the bigger squares in the bottom corner of the quilt. It was such a fun project. I loved getting quilt squares from authors who are also illustrators such as Mercer Mayer and Patricia Polacco. Henry Winkler's letter to the students was really inspirational. He really is a good guy. He talked about how hard school was for him because of learning disabilities. He talked about working hard to overcome those disabilities. Jan Berenstain's quilt square arrived a few days after she passed away from a stroke. When we heard she had died, the other teachers and I said, "guess we won't be getting a quilt square from her." We were wrong! How neat to have an autographed quilt square from her knowing it must have been one of the last things she did before she passed away. Very special indeed.
This is Rachel's book project. In case you can't tell, it is a classroom. The students are all lying on their backs because we couldn't get them to stand or sit properly so we gave up. I should have taken a close up picture. The names of the characters are on the desk and the title of the book is on the little chalkboard. She did a great job!
The girls fell asleep on the way home from their last day of school. I'm exhausted too. I would have been asleep if I wasn't driving. I had to take pictures while I drove. When the car stops, they wake up. It's hard to take a picture behind your head and drive at the same time. My first attempts looked something like this.....
Did better on these....
My poor dirty car....full of things that we will move into our new house if we ever get a new house...and full of our dirty laundry. We celebrated the last day of school by going to the laundromat and eating milkshakes and french fries while we waited for our clothes to dry. I'm tired of the laundromat. Can't wait to have our own washing machine in our own house.
Introducing....
A 350 AR point reader...
And an "Outstanding Academic" achiever with a pin and a certificate signed by President Obama....
And a 375 book club reader...
And an outstanding AR reader.....
Still an amazing reader...
And a master jump rope jumper....
And a presidential fitness award winner also signed by the president....
Erin Joy and Rachel borrowed the puppy downstairs. They have been playing with her all night. Erin Joy made a "Puppy Show" which required a ticket. The show was closed until I showed my ticket.
She wrote down my important information....
Name...
Address and cell phone number...
Then she explained the rules:
I was finally allowed to see the puppy.
Thank-you Hodapp family for sharing your puppy. Even if my children beg, we really don't want to keep her.
Reader's Digest quoted Harley Rotbart in his book No Regrets Parenting as saying that there are only 940 Saturdays between the day your child is born and the time (s)he turns 18. "The phrase might serve as reminder to cherish the time you have with your child and to use it wisely."
I really cherish every minute I have with my girls. It was such a journey to adopt them that I never want to take a minute for granted. They are growing so fast. I can't believe my oldest is already 10 years old! 940 Saturdays to play....we better make the most of it!
Our Saturday fun yesterday began with our new tradition of getting pedicures/manicures during the last week of school. We are so excited to be starting our last week of school. We wanted beautiful toes for wearing flip flops this summer. The last time we got pedicures, Erin Joy giggled and giggled when her very ticklish feet were being touched. This time, I was prepared with my camera. Unfortunately, she didn't giggle, but she pulled some great faces. Here is a little video--Rachel first, expressive Erin Joy second....
This was my attempt at making a watermelon shark for a friend's graduation party. It didn't look as good as the picture off the internet (last picture). Next time I will make the mouth longer and next time I will use an oblong watermelon instead of a seedless watermelon. The little grocery store I stopped at didn't have seeded oblong watermelons. Too bad. We'll try it again sometime:)
I began my birthday weekend with a visit to the Pacific Science Center's King Tut exhibit. I have been so excited to see this exhibit. I must have been really excited because I was pulled over for speeding. I told the nice state trooper that I was celebrating my birthday by going to King Tut and he let me off with just a warning. What a great birthday present! You'll have to watch the movie for pictures.
Well, this version is blocked for some people because of music copyright issues. It works for me when I am signed in, but it doesn't work when I'm signed out.
If it doesn't work for you, try this version (different version of "Walk Like An Egyptian...not as good as the Bangle version...)
Well, apparently that version doesn't work either. I'm just a little frustrated with YouTube and copyrighted music. Here is a third version and not as good. If this doesn't work, I'll post the video with no music and that will be really boring.
How about this version? Kids Rock will sing "Walk Like an Egyptian" instead of the Bangles. I played Steve Martin's "King Tut" in the background instead of embedding it so maybe the music police at YouTube won't notice.
I had another great birthday present. My house is closing this week!! Yippee! I will soon no longer own a house in the flood zone!!
Another great birthday present, I went to dinner Friday night with two friends who share June birthdays with me.
And still another present...my friend came with us to the exhibit and brought me chips and salsa! What more could a person ask for!
We ended the evening with a barbeque at my cousin's house. They have a swimming pool and my girls had a great time in the pool. What a great way to end a fabulous day.
Rachel and her school choir did a fabulous job at "Music in the Park Festival." They were judged on two songs and received 96 out of 100 points for a superior rating and 1st place in the Elementary Choir division! Excellent job!
A nice picture....
A silly picture....
The best part of the music festival was playing at Wild Waves Theme park after the concert.
Rachel's turn with the trophy.
I moved the last song they sang to the first of the video because it is my favorite and I predict most people watch 5 seconds and are finished. For those of you who just watch the first part, you'll hear my favorite song first. Rachel has a two word solo in that song too so that makes it extra good:)
Erin Joy and Rachel had a piano recital at the same time. We had to make a hard decision today. We eventually decided Rachel and I would go to her choir festival and Erin Joy would go to her piano recital with her piano teacher who also babysat her for the day. I am hoping her piano teacher uploads her piano recital so I can post it here. I have watched it and Erin Joy did a fabulous job! Great job today by both girls!
