Last Day of School, First Days of Summer, and other Fun Stuff

Last day of school OOTD!

Pretty sure we were 2 hydros, 3 pairs of shoes, 60 mechanical 

pencils, and 540 sack lunches deep by this point!

I was in charge of the party in Lindi's class.

6th graders are heck of a lot easier to entertain than 1st graders!

Throw food at them and they are great to chill and chat the rest of the time!

I did have a couple of games we played.

Lindi loved having Penelope in her class this year. 

 

It was bloody hot outside, but they still loved the hula hoop contest!

3rd child to get Mrs Brown.

Crossing our fingers its a clean sweep with all of our kids.

She's the BEST!

Mrs Abbot has been at Franklin for many years, but we never

ended up getting her, until Della.

She was outstanding as well. 

We will really miss having her as a teacher.

In honor of last days of school...

somehow this gem surfaced.

I die!

My dad had DARK hair, and my moms dress looks like

she's a polygamist.

What really cracks me up is that they are the SAME age Casey and I are right now!!!

I swear I think I should be 25 still, ha!

Its trippy, super trippy.

 

I wonder what my kids will say about us when they look back 20 years from now. 

And long live my poofy bob haircut. 

In fact, that was my nickname, poofy:)

I always buy new pool floaties for the summer.

These were in transit, I suppose. 

Lindi BEGGED to have her friends over for a pool party.

My friend was sweet enough to offer up her pool.

It has a diving board, so I don't blame them for bouncing houses!

I introduced the kids to The Brady Bunch!

It seems that each Summer they get hooked on a show.

I was hopeful it would be this, but it didn't last past a handful

of episodes.

The girls went to Feed My Starving Children with the activity day girls!
This was their first time, and boy were they shooting off questions left and right

about what they were supposed to do.

I patiently tried to  describe what all was entailed.

Lindi finally caught on.

 Della, exasperated, asked...

"but why do we need to feed the kids?"

Oh sweet girl, she took it literally!

I think she was nervous about that responsibility, ha!

Not sure what was happening here.

Poor guy gets a beating working in the sun and comes home exhausted.

Rusty got his 2nd and final phase of braces on!

Casey released his 1st and 2nd counselors from when he first got called, and

got new ones!

Crazy to think he is half way through his bishop duties!

Nothing says welcome Summer like a broken AC unit.

Woof.

We only have one, and were white knuckling it the best we could.

Our neighbors caught wind and let us borrow their window unit until

ours got replaced.

BLESS!!!

They got pretty creative trying to stay cool!

I guess the fridge didn't keep Rusty's pillow cold enough.

So the deep freezer was his next best option!

Living room sleepovers fighting who got to sleep by the ac!

End of Year Recitals and an 8th Grade Graduate!

Spring Sing!

I feel like I blink and they are wrapping up the school year with song.

1st graders on the left, 2nd graders on the right.

 

Della wasn't on the top row for once!
A place all of my kids seem to be placed.

Lindi with her flowing hair I am envious about.

See, top row. Ha!

Her bestie, Scarlet.

They met in Kindergarten and have been inseparable ever since.

Even got lucky to be in the same class this year.

I love how Della is double her size.

 

Oh Mrs. Baxter and her fancy outfits she wears on performance nights.

She is the principal, and takes her job very seriously.

She is so kind to the children and has their best interest at heart.

Our last Tuck and Tumble performance.

They are building a new studio that is too far away, so we will

be switching to a new place next year.

BIG news!

Lindi got her backhand spring!!!

She has been working years (no exaggeration) on this.

She does things at her own pace, which can make me want to pull my hair out sometimes.

She is timid and cautious, which can delay mastering certain things for quite some time (sigh).

But she was thrilled to show it off!

Della is opposite than her sister.

We were a little worried she would get the back handspring figured out

before Lindi did!

She is close.

Rusty graduated from the 8th grade!

I was trying to remember Lanes 8th grade graduation.

Turns out he didn't have one because it was during Covid.

Actually, I think he said they did have one, but no parents could come??

Or he didn't tell me about it??? (on purpose, no doubt). 

Boy howdy, it was pretty long.

So long I needed to leave to grab Lindi from dance.

I thought for sure I would get back to it being over.

NOPE!

They hadn't even gotten to Rustys name yet!

He is an excellent student, got an award for having a high

GPA for both 7th and 8th grade.

So proud of him and can hardly believe he will be in

high school next year!

The Franklin bubble has officially burst for him.

Dancing at the Diamondbacks Game

No rest for the weary!

Luckily we got home the night before the girls performed at the

Diamondbacks game!

 

I don't think we have ever gone to a game with our whole family

of any sort!

Luckily the boys like baseball, so it was a win all around!

The Kids Had Fun, Too!

I love my village!!

It was a combined effort between my mom, 2 sisters, and the Whitmer's,

to allow us to take off like we did without a worry in the world!
May is a killer time of the year to disappear for over a week.
SO many ACTIVITIES going on!

I was stressing majorly wondering how the stars would

align to make sure each child was taken care of. 

Super grateful for the people I can ask and depend on!

It made me happy to receive so many pictures of updates on what

they were up to. Smiles big all around!

They got to do all the crafty things I always say no to!

Miche is a wizzard with kids.

Truly loves the mess of experimenting and creative minds.

And genuinely loves these girls like her own. 

She is going to be a grandma soon, and will be the BEST at it!

 

The best big "sisters"!

They basically adopted them for a week,

melts my heart!

Lane loved being an only child at my parents.

(I guess the girls got to share in being spoiled for a couple of those days).

Seriously, it's like being in a 5 star resort when you are a guest over there!
He would move in if I let him!

He said Grandma never kept him hungry, always asking what

she could pick up for him to eat.

He was a good boy and got himself to church.
And apparently made himself comfy in the bishops office. 

He had his baseball banquet that week.

Abbey was nice to send me this picture.

When I was thanking her through text, I mentioned

I was sad we had to miss it.

She said, are you really sad to miss eating
hot dogs and awkward chatting? 

Lol!!!!
You got me.

I guess I wasn't too sad after all!

I was thinking I would be sad to miss Lane taking Libby to prom!
However, he sneaks out of the door lickity split to avoid

pictures, so I wasn't missing much anyway. 

Once again, thank you to the mom's keeping me in the loop

with pictures!

Rusty was able to spend the night at the Bosens.

They are like his second family.

He also got to sleep over at the Evans, his best cousin buddies. 

It was Mothers Day, and she sent this saying she was happy

to celebrate with 5 children.

She is the best!