The end of the school year is coming. It was a busy month!
Lincoln and Annika had a chorus concert. One of their songs was about clouds and Lincoln's cloud picture was one of 15 pictures chosen to display during that song.
Joseph and I went hiking one afternoon before it got too hot. It was nice and peaceful.
We had a fender bender this month that totaled our 14 year old Corolla.
Our old car being towed away.
We now have a newer Toyota Corolla that will hopefully last us another 10+ years.
Kimball received more information about his exchange year in the Netherlands. He will be in Franeker and he will attend the CSG Anna Maria van Schurman school which is a Christian school. The first picture shows Kimball's location in relation to Amsterdam. The second picture shows Kimball's school in relation to his host family's house. We learned that his host parents are Chris and Gea. They look really nice. They have two older sons living with them and they own a dog. Kimball isn't super excited about the dog part, but hopefully he'll be fine. Kimball's visa has been approved and he just needs to have a visit with the Dutch government within three days of his arrival to finalize his visa. Everything is coming together and we are just waiting on his travel plans from the travel agency.
Kimball made sectionals this year and had his last meet at home! I love that we have the biggest facility so we can host all of the "extra" track meets so we don't have to travel far. Kimball got a PR at his sectional meet in the 110 m hurdles.
I was able to be a chaperone for the 3rd grade field trip. I was assigned to Lincoln's class, but I still saw Annika and I was able to give her some hugs. It was a HOT day when we went to The Wild Animal Park, but we all made it through. I stuck to the shade as much as I could and the boys in my group wet their hair at every hand washing station we passed.
Lincoln's Class
Lincoln's group plus one friend.
Annika enjoys camping so she and Joseph camped in the backyard Memorial Day weekend. All of the local parks were full so they decided to use the backyard instead of driving out of Syracuse.
Joseph turned 43 this year! We had chicken enchiladas for dinner and cheesecake with blueberry pie filling for dessert. In the morning, Lincoln, Annika and Joseph went golfing. In the afternoon we all went to a park and enjoyed walking, playing on the playground and throwing the baseball.
Kimball received the French III award this year for being the top student. It was his first year taking French and I wasn't sure how he would do, but he did very well. He is well on his way to learning multiple languages which is his goal. He hopes to become proficient in at least four languages: English, Dutch, French and Spanish. He has also learned a lot of Arabic this year and can "get by" talking with his Arabic-speaking friends. Writing Arabic is a different matter.
Two of Joseph's brothers, Spencer and Jonathan, came to Syracuse for four days of golf. They literally golfed, ate and slept! Spencer did find time to share his "dad" jokes with us and he has some good ones. I believe Joseph said they played 99 holes of golf. That's a lot of golf!
Lincoln was THRILLED to be included Friday evening!
Rebecah had a band concert this month. She was able to play two songs with the band after not being able to play at all during the other concerts this year because of her concussion. As section leader for the clarinets she "tuned" the band at the beginning of the concert and she was excited to do that.
I had a nice Mother's Day. The kids and Joseph always give me nice things and I always make sure I have a nice dinner and dessert.
We have 3 1/2 more weeks of school!
