Summer Afternoon

"Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon....the two most beautiful words in the English language." --Henry James

Fun with Grammy & Pops

Grammy & Pops came to visit the first weekend in June and we had a great time with them! I can't believe it's been 6 months since they've come to visit and the kids talked their ears off! We thought it would be fun on Friday to take them to the Gentry Animal Safari. It's a really cool place in our area that is great for families. And, we could not have asked for a more beautiful day! It was June 1 and the high was in the low 70s and it was clear and sunny. My kind of day!

We started out in the petting zoo part. We saw goats, pigs, chickens and kangaroos.

 This lady was feeding the baby monkey. It was going to sleep as it was eating -- so cute!

 The drive through it the neatest part! It has all kinds of animals and the roam free. The kids climbed up in our laps during the ride. Charlotte was fascinated through the entire thing.

That was pretty much all the pictures I took. Saturday we went to Madeleine's softball game and then Grammy and Pops came and had dinner with us. We said goodbye to them that night since they were leaving early Sunday morning. Can't wait for their next visit!

May Mayhem

I've never been so glad to see a month end as I was the month of May and thankfully June seems to be going much better! There were several things that contributed to making May just nuts for our family.

* Car trouble. Matt's car basically spent the whole month in the shop and we became a one-car family. So not fun. Normally, it would't be such a big deal, the kids and I could just hang at home during the day. But, that month was packed with end of school fun events and Matt was doing lots of going between schools at work. I felt like I spent 1/2 of the month in the car.

*Job stuff. This actually started back in April. Matt was approached by the superintendent and asked to consider taking a new job in the district as well as asked to think about getting his principals license. Well, after much discussion, he decided to get the license but go back to his old job at Ramay next year. We thought it was all settled. Then in mid-may the superintendent called and asked him to reconsider. And, when the superintendent asks you to reconsider, you do. It's going to be a great job for him but he'll be busier than if he'd gone back to Ramay. He'll be the Middle School Math Supervisor next year and will be traveling between the 3 middle schools. It all worked out in the end, but not knowing what he'd be doing next year was rough. :) In a years time he's had 4 positions in the district -- teacher, instructional facilitator, interim math director, and now middle school math supervisor.

*Illness. We ended the month with the spring/summer cold hitting us. First, Madeleine got sick, then Charlotte, then I got it. Hopefully that is over and we will be healthy the rest of the summer!

So far we are living it up this summer! The kids are sleeping later, and staying up later. We are ending most nights out in the yard playing Wilson Family Baseball which is so fun! Matt is making the most of his Friday's off and taking the kids fishing. I'm excited for July when Matt is off for an entire month!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! It was absolutely perfect! We started out with a visit from Mimi & Grandad on Friday and Saturday which was a great start to our fun weekend! Matt had to work on Friday, but the rest of us hung out and enjoyed Madeleine's first day of summer. :) Madeleine had her first trip with us to the flea market in Prairie Grove and found lots of "treasures."

After softball on Saturday and saying goodbye to Mimi and Grandad, and then church on Sunday, I was ready for a nice relaxing Monday. And, it turned out to be the most perfect day! We spent almost all day outside. I'd been eyeing a big blow up waterslide for awhile. I'd priced them out and thought it would be such a fun thing to get for the kids. Well, our Aldi put them on a great sale so we got one! I was all set to give Matt the hard sell on why we needed one, but he was all for it too! Yay! I was thrilled that they still had one in stock and the kids were soooo excited to play on it! It's going to give us hours of fun this summer and hopefully summers to come. 

First thing Monday morning, we blew up the slide and off they went!

 Charlotte had to give it a try as well. She didn't like the sprinkler on the top, but loved climbing up there.

 I love this picture of my two girls. Madeleine was having a tea party with Charlotte. She is such a great big sis!

 We took a break for lunch and the kids watched a movie while Charlotte napped, and then they were out there again.

Charlotte discovered that she loved jumping into her little pool. She did this over and over again! Her poor little knees were red by the time she was done for the day!

 At some point we grilled out some yummy dinner and the kids worked on their biking without training wheels. It's slow going, but we are getting there. Matt is such a great teacher and hopefully they will be riding by the end of summer.

 We ended with more swimming and finally, ice cream cones. Perfect end to a great day! I had such a wonderful time watching them enjoy their new "toy" and having fun outside. We all played hard that day and were ready for bedtime that night.