Summer Bucket List Days 8-14

Our second week of summer included our first trip to the Farmer's Market, more trips to the library, movies with a friend, golf, water balloons, swimming, and a birthday celebration for Josh. Summer was shaping up to be lots of fun! 

Day 8: Bike riding to the farmer's market for some fresh blackberries, jam, and peaches and then seeing Angry Birds with Eli's friend, Hayden, later that afternoon. 

Day 9: Rode our bikes to the library again and while I was browsing for some books for me, this kid finds his books and checks out all on his own. He is getting so independent! 

Day 10: Eli cashed his checks from his lawn mowing business (Eli's Tiger Mowing Service), played Legos and other games, and donated old toys and clothes to the shelter. 

Day 11: Celebrated Cooper's 7th birthday with a swim party at his house and then got a treat from the ice cream truck later that afternoon. 

Day 12: My two favorite boys decided to go play a round of golf together.

Day 13: VBS with Hayden and Stephen, more treats from the ice cream truck, and water balloon games in the backyard. 

Day 14: We celebrated Josh's 37th birthday by baking him a strawberry cake (his favorite) and spending the day with him. 

Memorial Day Weekend with Grandpa E

This year for Memorial Day weekend Grandpa E came in town to visit us. Eli and I had been out of school for a week at this point so we were already in full summer mode. The first thing we did with Grandpa E was go out to dinner with him at a local restaurant. Eli loves spending time with Grandpa E when he comes in town and always has lots of fun when he's here. 

Grandpa E loves fishing (so do we), so we made sure to take him fishing at our local community pond one day while he was here. He lives in the big city so he doesn't get to do things like this very often and we all had a great time. 

The fish weren't very big, but we enjoyed catching them no matter their size!

Eli caught the most this day out of all of us. He was a machine!

After a morning of fishing, we were all starving so we washed up at home and then headed to the Malt Shop. They have the best milkshakes in town (and the crunchiest ice) and we couldn't wait to have a cool treat. It was a great end to a fun weekend with Grandpa E!

Summer Bucket List Days 1-7

Each summer Eli and I make a Summer Bucket List of all the things we want to do while we're on summer break. Most of things we list aren't elaborate or even expensive but they give us purpose while we're home for 2 months. Each night he crosses off the things we did on our list that day until we're all finished. We count up how many days we're out for summer vacation and then try to list something for each day. This summer I chronicled our adventures on Instagram and I loved looking back at all the collages I made of the summer fun we had. 

The night before summer break started Eli and I sat down with our markers and made 

Our Summer Fun List for the summer. It was as long as our refrigerator! 

Day 1: We visited The Sno Co., a local snowball stand that sells THE BEST

snowballs around! 

Day 2: We rode our bikes to the library to do some reading and 

then came home and spent some time by the swimming pool. 

Barkley even joined us for some fun. 

Day 3: We took Barkley for a walk, played basketball, got ice cream at the 

coffeeshop downtown, bought some new books from the local bookstore, met Grandpa E for dinner, and had frozen yogurt for dessert! Whew! Day 3 was a BUSY day!

Day 4: We went back to the coffeeshop with Grandpa E (his favorite place when he visits) and then shopped a little downtown. Eli found this How to Build Paper Airplanes book and Grandpa E bought it for him. 

Day 5: We went fishing that morning at our local pond. For lunch we took Grandpa E to the Malt Shop and then came home to do some swimming. 

Day 6: (Memorial Day) Grandpa E had to leave but before he left he and Eli did some science together. Eli loves doing science experiments with him!

Day 7: We met Zue-Zue for lunch at Johnny's and then went bowling with the Atkins family.

Yay for the program "Kids Bowl Free"! We all had a blast! Eli asked Cooper to come home with us and these boys spent the afternoon swimming in the pool.

Wrapping Up the 2015-2016 School Year

I've always felt like May is like the warmer version of December because of how busy it gets, especially with teaching school and having to wrap everything up for the year. Not to mention the last minute field trips, end of semester tests, parties, performances, buying teacher gifts, making vacation plans, etc. By the time the end of May rolled around, I was DONE, my students were DONE, and Eli was DONE. It was time for summer break! 

I'm proud to say that Eli met or doubled his Accelerated Reader goal each nine weeks in 1st grade and was reading above his grade level. Josh and I were very proud of all the progress he made in 1st grade. We also found out that Eli was chosen by his classmates for the Good Citizenship award. His class voted on the person they thought had the qualities of someone who was a good citizen and it made my heart so happy that they thought of him. To me this is a greater honor than his academic achievements. I love knowing that more than anything Eli treated his classmates with kindness. He's a pretty great kid and I love his gentle heart. 

Last A.R. Test in 1st grade. WOO HOO!

The last week of school we have early dismissal days for our students, but the teachers have to stay until normal dismissal time. If you're a teacher's kid, this means you get leftover popcorn and a movie in the classroom while your mom finishes working.  Eli and Cooper didn't seem to mind having to stay at school a couple of extra hours.

On Eli's last day of 1st grade we took pictures. As you can see from the comparison photo below, he lost some hair and gained some teeth in 1st grade. (If you're wondering about the hair, Josh convinced Eli to get a summer haircut. I cut it and regretted it immediately. He's still cute as can be, but I love his beautiful hair. No more "summer" haircuts for this kid!)

I ended my second year in 4th grade with my best friend and teaching partner. This year we both felt much more at ease and like we (kind of) knew what we were doing. We were also so happy that our friend Torri was able to join us this year too! We had a great year at school, but we were all looking forward to a long summer break! 

Door Hanger Mania

If you're friends with me in real life, you know how much I enjoy painting and being crafty. These are just some of the door hangers I've created for friends and family this year. Most of these ideas come from Pinterest so they're not original, but I still enjoy making them :) I just tweak each one a little to make it work for me. Josh keeps wanting me to do "real art" and not "cutesy art" but for now this is what makes me happy.

I started doing all this with customized birth announcements for the hospital door. I still love doing these and making them special for each new little baby :) 

Reversible basketball and baseball door hanger

Reversible softball and baseball door hanger

Personalized baseball ornament

Personalized softball ornaments

Personalized basketball ornament

Mason Jar with flowers

Matching mason jars for double doors

Reversible mason jar for spring/fall

With the holidays approaching, I loved making reversible autumn and Christmas door hangers. Doing them this way allowed you to get more use out of one door hanger. 

                                                            

 That's just some of the ones I've made this year. I love making these for my friends and family :)