First day of summer vacation

Today officially marks the first day of summer vacation. You could probably count yesterday as day one, because Emily finished out her school year on Tuesday - but TODAY, everyone in our school district is on summer vacation. So, I am counting today as day one...to make it fair.

And today is total crap. It's cool - 67 degrees, cloudy, and rainy. Yuck. We were supposed to go to the beach. That has been postponed until tomorrow. So, this morning, before it rained, we played outside.

Actually, the girls played. I took 1,368,658 pictures. Here are just a few....

Paige spent the majority of the time outside this morning just sitting in the wagon, or whinning/crying about any little thing. So, I mostly took pictures of a more willing subject.

I absolutely LOVE two pictures that I featured here. Can you guess which ones? I know, if you guess, you may just have to leave a comment. Have no fear.....If you guess correctly, I'll give you a prize....... :)

Happy Summer.

The Graduate

It's official - Emily is now a first grader. Of course, she has a few months before she starts her actual first grade curriculum. But one thing is for sure - she is done with Kindergarten.

Her Kindergarten Completion ceremony - they don't call it graduation because sometimes, some children do not actually go onto first grade, and they don't want to leave them out - was very cute. I was video-ing the ceremony as well as watching it, so I was pretty much occupied and did not really have a moment to get very emotional. So that was good.

The kids did not speak up very well during the Kindergarten poem, so with all the talking around us, we didn't really get to hear Emily's part - but after hearing her recite it for the past few weeks, I feel that I got the gist of it. In case you are wondering what it was - "R is for remembering everything we learned". Well put sweetie!

Her teacher - Ms. Hollinsky - is an awesome teacher. She always had a smile for everyone - and all those kids just LOVE her. Not to mention, one of the most organized teachers I have ever seen - and I have seen quite a few in my time around the classroom. She even puts me to shame.

Emily at her cubby - all cleaned out and ready for next years class.
And they do the cutest thing - the teachers read each students name, and their current career of choice - click to hear what Emily wants to be when she grows up....it's shocking...not.

(In case you were wondering - more than half of the girls had the same choice. But my personal favorite was a little boy who wanted to be a JEDI when he grows up. Now that's awesome.)

And SUMMER has begun. I think the high for tomorrow is 63 - with rain. Aren't we lucky.  

***ETA: We have been blessed with a BEAUTIFUL day. Sunny with a high of 79.  Yay for us!!***

busy little bees

We have had a busy few days around here. Nothing much that we have been doing, just staying busy around the house. Apparently, there are babies that need to be taken care of.

They need to be walked in their strollers.

And walked in their wagons.

Some of us are just content to lay around and watch others be busy. Max is perfectly happy to do just that.

There are flowers EVERYWHERE. These peonies are freshly cut from my friend Ginger's yard. I covet her peonies - which she knows - so she was nice enough to share hers with me. I will definitely be planting some peony bulbs in my own yard this fall.

There is an outside world to enjoy.

Nothing like swinging on a Sunday afternoon.

Especially in brand new flip flops. 

I know I said I would not buy her any more shoes, but she LOVES Emily's flip flops so much. She often steals them, tries to wear them - and fails miserably. I saw these on sale at Target this weekend - could not resist. And they are brown. Such a great color for summer shoes.

We like to take time to smell the flowers.

These are my most favorite - EVER. They just make me happy.

What do you mean we have to go in and eat dinner?

This morning - watching TV Paige style.

And finally - last lunch of the 2008-09 school year. Emily's Kindergarten Completion ceremony is tomorrow morning. I am already fighting back the tears. Her first year of elementary school is over. It's almost too much to bear. This time tomorrow she will no longer be my little Kindergartner. Okay - I must stop now - we are running out of Kleenax.

**Sorry for the lack of Emily pictures. Miss Social Butterfly is never around anymore. This, I am afraid, will also be the story of the summer.**

2007 Slideshow

I have been working on moving the remaining picture files from my old PC to my Mac. In doing so, I realized that I have some pretty good ones from 2007. So why not another slideshow movie? I will also be working on a 2006 movie later this month. I am afraid that 2005 and earlier will have to wait because those years are not fully digital, and it would involve an immense amount of scanning - something I am not over fond of...

Anyway, enjoy a look back at 2007. The song is another tune by Jack Johnson - Constellation.

what's in bloom

Summer is fast approaching - although with the temperatures we have had lately, you would think it's still early Spring. And, no, I don't want to hear it about Michigan being cold. I know, I LIVE here.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorite blooms that are going on around our yard. Forgive the crappy, slightly overexposed, mid-day crap lighting pictures. I wanted to get these taken before the rain comes.....

I only know some of the plants names. Sometimes I just get what I think is pretty, try to remember the name so I can get it again next year, and them promptly forget it after I plant it. Oh well. Above - the reddish flower is an Ivy Geranium. Below - no clue. But it smells pretty. It attracts butterflies.

Below is allesyum. Yeah, no clue if that's how it's spelled. But it's teeny-tiny, and spreads like CRAZY.
Below is a mini-petunia. The one's I planted last year did not fare well - hoping they do better this year. Went with the same color as the first year I got them.
My transplanted Iris - courtesy of my friend Ginger.
One of the pots next to garage - geraniums, petunias and vinca vine. A VERY classic Michigan combo.
My personal favorite - some variety of daisy. This has already taken off. I am thinking I will be doing more pots of this next year. LOVE IT.My FREE marigold from the Tons O'Trucks. Emily helped plant this one.
More allesyum in a smaller pot - complete with Emily Flower stick. A mother's day gift.
Pink geranium on front porch.
AND - coming soon - blooms on my Hydrangea. Very excited about that.
Have a BLOOMING good Tuesday.  Haha. I made a funny.

weekend adventure

It's that time again - time for Macomb Township's annual TONS O'TRUCKS. Oh, what fun we had. It was CRAZY noisy with all the sirens and horns honking. Paige was NOT a fan. And it rained. So, this year, we only stayed an hour. But we had a pretty good time for sixty minutes.
Where else would you see a cow this big?

Look - there's even a picture of Mommy. I would like you also to note the "bracelets" on Paige. They are those linking rings that are for infants. Paige - like her big sister - thought they made very nice bracelets.

Emily totally dug the hat. She has about 20 of them from the past three years of fire safety taught at school. And now she has 21 of them.

In case you could not tell, this is an ice cream truck. Poor Emily, this is as close as she has gotten to one this year. Our neighborhood ICT always comes when I have empty pockets...or about five minutes before dinner.

Emily riding the short bus. It was the highlight of her day. She got to go up and down on the wheelchair lift - would not allow us to leave until she did it.

After Tons O'Trucks, we went home, ate lunch, and Emily and I went to her dress rehearsal for her dance recital. But before we left - we had to get "dressed".

She got to wear make up - and a whole can of hair spray - which STILL did not hold up that hair. I may have to use a gel/hairspray combo for the actual recital.

She did just great. She loved watching all the other dancers  - and is pretty much sold on doing both tap AND jazz next year. Uh-oh....

These pictures are from yesterday - Eric was working on adding floorboards to the attic, so the minivan was out in the driveway. Paige really wanted to drive.

And, yes, that's MY hat.