School's Out For Summer

The kids were kind of excited this Monday since it meant they only had two more days of school left. I went ahead and had the kids take their teacher gifts in that day instead of messing with them the last day. I helped in Lincoln’s class for the last time.  We brought the bubbles I got for the kids and they got to save them for recess. They had beach day in the classroom and Mrs. Banner had it all decorated with beach decorations, including an inflatable pool that they each took turns sitting in while they read. They got to bring in a towel, their favorite book and stuffed animal. They also got to take turns reading individually with me and it was amazing how many kids actually wanted to do this. They had other activities, but I didn’t get to check them all out since I was out reading most of the time. They did get to make leis and Lincoln made his for Tadbit.

After I was done at Lincoln’s school, I ran by my mom’s to get some stuff we still had left over there, including some food. I guess my dad did decide to have a bologna sandwich with Jackson’s bologna, but my mom wanted me to go ahead and take it home. That evening we ate an early dinner since Andrew and I had a K-Life meeting. Ellie and Lincoln had soccer and I was set on sending them even though it was cool and cloudy with a chance of rain (it had rained off and on during the day) but decided at the last minute, not to mess with it since it looked like more rain was on the way. Molly watched the kids for us while we went and it was an interesting meeting. Our two leaders, Laura and Wade, both had their first year this year and didn’t know each other before. But, I guess over the course of the year, they had grown fond of each other and were interested in dating. But K-Life has a general no-dating policy among leadership, but there can be exceptions if brought before the president and the board. So the poor things had to endure the awkward conversation that ensued about how it would be great if it worked out, but there is a lot of risk and it needed serious consideration. I think it ended with the boards blessing, but they really needed to think and pray about it, which I think they already had.

Tuesday was the big day…the last day of school. After dropping of the kids, I got a quick ride in and then did grocery shopping before going to the twins’ school. They were supposed to have a picnic with McDonalds at Jaycee Park, but it was another rainy, overcast day, so they canceled that. They ended up using the bus they had already paid for, to take the kids to go see the Weinermobile at Adair Foods. I think they really enjoyed it. We met them back at the school and had their McDonald’s lunch on tablecloths in the foyer of the church. It is kind of hard to believe that after 9 continuous years of our kids going to Faith Lutheran, we are done. I usually don’t get too sentimental about all of that, but I told Andrew that my eyes did get a little misty. It has been a wonderful school for our kids to start their education and we were so blessed to be able to have them go there. I wanted to get a picture of the twins beside our butterfly on the fence of the playground, but it must have fallen down at some point, because we couldn’t find it.

Back home, I packed up a cooler for our ballgames that evening and then I decided to do a last-minute surprise for the kids. I made a SUMMER banner and hung it up in the car and then while we waited on Ellie, I blew up some balloons to put in the car. I think they had fun with it. Ellie was excited to show me the gecko shirt and necklace Miss Hix got for her for her help with Bindi over the year. I also contacted the girls from my bible study about meeting up at TruYo after school and we weren’t the only ones with the same plans. We had quite a fun crew there. Lissy was in town and brought Charlotte, so they also met up with us.

But then we had to get home and get ready for games. Some of the fields were closed, which included Ellie’s field, so that left us with three games. I packed some food for us to eat while we were there for dinner and we actually completely avoided the concession stand. Jackson’s game was first at 5:30, then I had to take the twins for pictures at 6 and their game started at 6:45. Lincoln had a game at 7:30 in Novinger and Andrew took him. Jackson played second base and he had an awesome play where he caught a fly ball and then ran it to first to get the guy that had been on first out. He got on base with a walk and stole home, although he didn’t slide in so he got a little ribbing about that. My dad took the twins over to their game, so I could watch a little bit more of Jackson’s and then I made my way over there. He said they had both had good hits and good plays in the field. I got to watch them bat a couple more times and Lissy stopped by too. They kept making faces at us when they were out in the field. Then Miles needed to go pee, so we ran over to the port-a-potties they have at their fields and decided to just pee on the side of it instead of going inside. We went by my parents’ house afterwards and hung out for a bit. Jackson and Charlotte bonded over Jackson’s burps. She thought they were hilarious. Ellie ended up staying the night while the rest of us went home. Lincoln and Andrew got home a little before we did and Andrew said he had a good game too. Jackson and I then went around putting out trash and recycling cans for the next day. We had ours and then we also did the LaBeth’s and Vincent’s since they were all on vacation. I scared Jackson when I went over to the Vincent’s though. He was pulling theirs out of the garage when I was walking up the driveway and since it was dark, he didn’t realize it was me and was wondering who was coming up at him.

The next morning everyone actually slept in pretty well. We went through backpacks, lunchboxes and cubbies and cleaned things out. Ellie and Lincoln had their grade cards and Ellie got all A’s and Lincoln got all V’s, which is awesome. Jackson’s grade card is going to be mailed later (which it did and he got all A's too). Once they cleaned out their backpacks, we saved any supplies that could be used the next year and I washed all of them along with the lunchboxes and winter coats and got it all put away and then tackled the closet in the office and cleaned out broken crayons, dried out markers and items that we didn’t need anymore. It was a cooler day and rained off and on throughout the day, so we didn’t really get outside. They did put together some puzzles and Lincoln and the twins played with Josh for a while and Ellie decided to dance in the rain for a little bit. Others wanted to join her but decided it was too cold.

We ended up renting A Dog’s Purpose and watched that in the afternoon, then I made dinner before Ellie and Lincoln had soccer practice. I ran a quick errand before going back to pick them up and Andrew had some batting practice with the others in the backyard. Then he and Jackson watched Shaun of the Dead after everyone else had gone to bed. The twins and Lincoln were up early the next morning so they got ready, I made their breakfast and I got on the bike. Once everyone was up, I gave them their chores for the day…collecting the trash around the house and picking up, dusting and vacuuming their bedrooms. Then Lincoln went to the office with Andrew for a couple hours. Later that afternoon, I cleaned out the garage and my car while the kids played outside. Ellie decided to use my old Garmin watch and try to run a mile around the neighborhood but decided she didn’t like the hills and gave up early and went to Faith’s. In our mail, we received a letter from Jackson’s school stating he had been chosen as Student of the Week for the last week of school which was awesome.

Since the Cardinal’s won the night before, I ordered Papa John’s for dinner since we could get 50% off and we ate early since we had an evening full of ballgames. The twins were up first at 5:30 in town, then I had to get Lincoln to a 6:45 game in Lancaster while Jackson had to be in Novinger at 6:30 for his 7:30 game. Not quite sure why his coach wants them there that early. Molly came to the end of the twins’ game so that I could leave and then she took them and Ellie to my parents’ afterwards. The twins game was against Luke’s team, but I only got to watch ½ hour of it, then we were off to Lancaster. There were several missing from Lincoln’s team-not sure if they just didn’t want to make the ½ hour trip to Lancaster or not. He is an entertaining boy to watch though and he had a mouth full of gum the whole game. He got hits for two of his three at-bats and he made them home runs since he was the last batter. He did a good job in the field too, especially at first base where he got a couple outs. He was a chatter box to and from the game and had all sorts of questions. We went to my parents and picked up the others. When we got home, they all got showered up and then Bennett was complaining about his leg hurting. He did have a bruise on his shin, but he was almost inconsolable. And then when he was sitting on my lap and I was rubbing his head, I noticed he had something sticky in his hair…it ended up being poop and I have no idea how it got there. So we went back to the shower and I helped him wash his hair a couple times. Andrew got home soon afterwards and I was telling him about it. He smelled his hair and decided that it still smelled like poop, so we washed it with some stronger shampoo. He was still crying about his leg though. And he had a weird mark on his back. He complained about it the day before and I put some hydrocortisone cream on it because it looked like a bug bite, but then it kind of looked like a dark abrasion. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, so I had him sleep with me and he slept fine all night and woke up a different kid.

I spent a lot of Friday cleaning around the house and delegated the basement to the kids in which they all had different jobs. They were in and out the rest of the day and missing some of their friends who have been on vacation since school got out. We ate an early dinner and then I took Ellie to her game in Novinger since she had to be there early and then Andrew brought the boys around game time. My parents ended up coming to the game too. It was a nice night and thankfully the mosquitos weren’t out at the ballpark yet. Ellie had a great game. She got a hit each time at bat and ended up with a triple one time. She started out on first and did well there and then went to short stop before pitching the last two innings. She was so nervous about pitching but we all thought she did a great job for not practicing at it too much. My dad and Andrew have worked with her a little bit. She struck out three batters and they won the game. Andrew took all the kids home and I made my way to Wal-Mart. I figured a trip at 9 at night would hopefully not be as busy since it was Memorial Day Weekend.

Saturday morning, Andrew and I went out for a ride at the lake. He was hoping to go for a longer ride, but we didn’t get as early a start as he had hoped and the younger boys started waking up. All the boys were up when we got home and Ellie was still in bed. I got ready and headed to Aldi. Then Ellie and Lincoln had soccer games at noon for the club soccer. Lincoln was playing against a team from Moberly, but they didn’t have a team for Ellie’s age group, so they just did a 3on3 scrimmage against each other. She was the only girl out there until they brought in her friend, Ella, from the next team down along with another boy to give the kids a little bit of a rest. It was fun to watch both of them play. Lincoln held back a little his first game but really went after it at their second game. We finished up around 2 and headed home.

Andrew went to the office for a little while and when he got home, he took the training wheels off of the twins’ bikes and started them out back like he did last time. We were unsuccessful when we tried last fall, but they took off without any problems this time. So, they quickly graduated to trying in the street and it went really well. It was a good time to do it since most of our neighbors were out of town and there was no traffic or other kids riding around. The twins loved it and wanted to keep at it and their siblings were very encouraging.  That evening we grilled hamburgers and ate outside before going out to the ranch for Andrew to put some mineral out. The kids do enjoy getting to go out there and since I don’t get out there that often, they like showing me stuff.

Andrew went for another bike ride Sunday morning before church and after we got home, I took Ellie out to the lake to meet Ella and her family for some camping. She was so excited to join them and got to bring her bike so they could ride around the campground and they also planned to go hiking and swimming. I got this pic a couple hours after dropping her off.

I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and got a few different bushes to replace some that had died and planted them later after I got home. The twins kept wanting to go outside to “train” on their “two-wheel bikes”. They loved being able to ride without training wheels. After getting the bushes planted and laundry caught up, we headed over to my parents. Andy and his family and Caroline and her family were in town and the kids were quick to get out to the pool. It was a beautiful day, but still just in the 70s to the kids only last for not quite 2 hours in the pool, but they still had fun enjoying it again. We just hung out there all day and had dinner. The twins decided they wanted to stay for a sleepover and I brought Jackson and Lincoln home with me.