The last post I have here was from the last month of school LAST school year.

Now summer’s over and it’s back to the books!  And the chaos.  And the early mornings.  And the __________.  You fill in that blank!

But I want to hold on to summer for a little bit!  It was way to short, and it was just jam-packed!

School got out and that very next week, Aryn was in Culinary Arts camp!  This was a day camp/career exploration kind of deal put on by a local schools districts career center.  During the school year and even during the summer this place is busy, training young people – mostly high schoolers for careers in a variety of fields from welding and mechanics to early childhood education and culinary arts and hospitality.  Anyway – Aryn attended the Culinary Arts Summer Career Exploration Week that was held for middle and high schoolers.  She had a grand time and even got a chef’s hat and really cool apron to boot!  But most importantly she gained some knowledge and got to cook a lot of really cool dishes that she brought home for us to try!  And the price was SO right!  Take a guess at how much I paid for this camp!

I signed Zoe up to attend a local summer youth program that is an outreach of the three churches in our community.  They host this program every summer in place of each of them hosting a Vacation Bible School or doing their own thing!  Each week on Tuesdays she would head out to the church and enjoy a morning of crafting, games, bible study, singing and much more!  Then on Thursdays they’d take the kids on a field trip to a nearby destination.  One week it was to a horseback riding facility, another week it was roller skating or bowling or one of several different things!  This went on for 6 or 7 weeks!

The last week of June and the first week of July, found Ty back at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo for his 4th summer as a volunteer!  This year he spent his entire two weeks in the Zoo’s kitchens learning the ropes of what it takes to feed many of the zoo’s thousands of animals!  One of his jobs was to prepare the fish for the sea lions for the entire day.  He also learned how to make bird mush for our zoo’s scarlet ibis population as well as other birds!  While he was there he stayed with a good friend of ours and biked back and forth roughly 12 or so blocks everyday, rain or shine!  Thankfully his first week was beautiful.  The second week – not so!  I do believe he’ll go back and do another year next summer unless he finds a paying job!  That would be nice!

Ethan also had something to do this summer – his first year at BOY scout camp!  That was the last week of June – likely the most beautiful week of the entire summer!   So it was a good week to sleep out in a tent, IF you made it through the first night which I guess was a stormy mess that had them huddled in the storm shelter for a couple of hours!

And would you believe I don’t have a single picture of any of that stuff!  Well that’s not entirely true.  Ethan did take a camera with him and took some photos of scout camp, but the rest of the kids – well there adventures are going to have to be remembered in words only.

But we did do plenty this summer that I did take pictures of!  Like these:

In June school was technically still in session for a few days but they were filled with things like -

Field day!

Yep Brian and I had a station with water!  And Brian took advantage of it!  But not a single child complained of being wet and only one child went to get a dry shirt from the nurse!  She really needed to so I approved!  And we only let the 4th and 5th graders get soaked to the gills!  That’s really what field day is all about anyway right?

And on the afternoon of Field Day — Talent Show!  Zoe did a really cute monologue entitled “The Audition.”  We tweaked it a little to fit our school and our circumstances!  She was so cute!  Now it would have been a lot better had she had a wireless mic!

And I took plenty of pictures of this little monster -

Don’t let that sweet face fool you!

And a few of this guy -

I also took some great pictures of my flowers and throughout Fort Wayne while waiting for Aryn to finish her camp.  Here are a few of them-

And here are a few shots of Boy Scout camp – Courtesy of Ethan –

And then something very special happened right around my birthday!  We got a very special visit from my Auntie Phyllis and Uncle Miles!  They were passing through on their way back to Massachusetts and came by for supper and a visit!  One of the best birthday presents EVER!

It was SO nice to be able to sit and talk and catch up!  This visit just made me realize how absolutely precious family relationships really are and that we need to take every advantage of the time we have with the ones we love!

Oh and of course the Zoo!

And on to July!  In July we had the joy of getting together with my parents, my niece Robyn and my nephews Miah and Kevin at Six Flags Great America!

Just a few photos from that weekend!

And my mom delivered the kids their Christmas quilts!

Aryn’s quilt!  Each of those butterflies is embroidered and there was a matching pillow with this one.

Robyn’s quilt.  Again lots of emboidered patches and lots and lots of Grandma love!

Ethan’s sports quilt.

Zoe’s sweet little patchwork quilt that is just the right size for her!

Ty’s music quilt!  This quilt – in material alone was the most expensive quilt my mom did this summer!

And just because she asked – Ty’s girlfriend Kelli got a Grandma quilt as well!

Isn’t that gorgeous?!  and just look at her reaction when we gave it to her when we got home -

On our trip to Six Flags – we decided a side trip to the Jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin -

And the kids did a bit of bonding with their cousins in the pool!

BUT I recommend you check your kids heights before going and pre-buying your tickets online!  Buy tickets based on height and NOT age.  AND the coupons offered on cereal boxes are NOT good with pre-purchased tickets.

ANYWAY!

On to August – the last 15 days of freedom before the school year starts!

This is Ty on pretty powerful pain killers!  If is face looks swollen it’s because he had just had 3 of 4 wisdom teeth removed.  He was miserable for several days!  The 4th one is scheduled to be removed in December.

And then swimming!  Lots of time spent Swimming!

And we attended a family reunion featuring the families of these four goofballs!

The sweetie in yellow is Brian’s Mom and the other three are her siblings, Brian’s aunts and uncle!  I love ‘em all!

So that brings our summer to a close!

But quite honestly the best part of this summer was when Brian decided to give me the best gift ever!  He hasn’t smoked a cigarette since June 27th, my birthday!  As of this Friday it will be 2 full months without a smoke!  There have been tough moments, but I hope he can see past those moments and to the future and how much it means to me!  I love that man!

In a few days – I’ll have a post on the first day of school and I toss in some pictures of some of the creative things I’ve been doing lately!

til then . . .  Take care.

Fine Arts day!  I didn’t get to see or do much as I was teaching a class this year but I did get to enjoy a performance by a local baton twirling team and a great mini-concert by Elephants in Mud.  Jared the lead singer, (the one in the hat) is the boyfriend of our art teacher Sachi!

The kids earned free tickets to a local baseball game featuring the Fort Wayne Tincaps!

A bit of time at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo on Ethan’s birthday!

Speaking of birthday!  Ethan turned 11 on May 16th!  WOW!  It’s off to middle school next year!

Zoe’s Girl Scout Bridging ceremony!  She is now a Junior Girl Scout!

The 5th graders staged a GREAT performance of The Jungle Book!  The best part tho was that in attendance was a much beloved former teacher Mrs. C!  Ethan was ecstatic!

And a couple of last photos of the month.  The first is the first blossom on my peony bush!  It’s taken 5 years but I finally got this thing to blossom!!  And then Zoe getting on the school bus.  For some reason, unlike the rest of my kids, Zoe enjoys riding the bus!

That’s my May.

Take care!

Artwork created by some pretty talented 4th graders at our school!

A great display in honor of our great volunteers at our school!  The butterflies and caterpillars were created by some of our wonderful 1st grade friends!

A trip to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.  The painting here was created by a young man that attends Homestead High school – Ty’s school.

Easter Sunday!

Ethan at the shooting range for Boy Scouts.

My kiddos!  Yes that is Ty driving!

Spring Flowers!  My favorite time of year!

Our dogs!

And Meepo!

My kids at the Zoo!

A couple of cute Capchun Monkeys at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo!

And that’s a glimpse at our April!

Take care. . .

Zoe’s chalk art!

Ethan finally bridging from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

Zoe at Science Central’s elementary school science fair!

Learning to sew with Mrs. Tina.  Working on her Brownie Try-it for sewing.

That’s my little pirate there in the yellow head scarf!  The 3rd and 4th grade musical Pirates!

Zoe with Bubba and Lola looking all sweet and innocent!

And a few creative shots for good measure!

The local FAME festival took place March 13-14.  This is a festival of Art and Music in Elementary and Middle School Education.  Schools from all over our region participated by either bringing artwork to share or performing musically.  There are performances of choirs, dancers, bands, bell choirs, and many other groups and individuals – But the focus is on the children.

Here are some photos I took of that day!

And then a few days later we had special visitors to our school all the way from Poland!  The Children of Plock, Poland, a scouting and dance troop, came and shared a little bit of their culture and art with us!  They were here as part of the FAME activities and schools could invite them out for performances in the week before and after the festival.

More photos!

These dancers ranged in age from 9 or 10 to 20.  Very enjoyable and hopefully both groups of kids learned something!

take care. . .