June

Our month started off with Eden's preschool graduation.  My last child is finally finished with preschool.  Part of me says "it's about time", but the other part of me is sad that all of my kids are growing up.  Eden loved preschool this year and made some good friends.  A lot of these friends will go to the same elementary school so that will really be nice.  Graduation was short, but the kids sang some cute songs and Eden got to stand next to one of her besties during the songs.

Final class picture.

Kimball had his last Orchestra concert.  He doesn't plan to continue with the bass even though he is so talented.  He says he wasn't enjoying it and doesn't have room for orchestra in his schedule. 

Kimball also went to the Semi-formal dance at school.  He looked very nice in his suit and he had a lot of fun with his friends.  

Kimball and I went to the Awards Convocation where Kimball received a Scholar Athlete award for being on the Honor Roll and involved in 3 sports throughout the school year. 

Joseph and some of the kids went to another baseball game.  They had box seats this time and better food.  Lincoln loved being included with the older kids!

Joseph and Kimball participated in the Tour de Cure and rode 40 miles on their bikes.  

Annika and Rebecah went mini-golfing with their friends and had a great time.

My friend Mandy and I helped with the 1st grade Fun Day at school.  Lincoln and Annika were so excited to have me there.  I had heard about so many classmates this year so it was fun to put some names with faces and the kids always got so excited when they found out I was Lincoln's or Annika's mom depending who I was talking with at the time.  

Eden felt left out that she couldn't attend Fun Day so Joseph took her to McDonald's, a rare treat!

Soccer ended and the the kids had a great season.  Rebecah had to miss a few of her games for various reasons, but she did great this year.  She is considering trying out for the school team.  (I didn't get any pictures at Rebecah's games, but took more videos, so I don't have any of her playing.)

Lincoln became the star of his team scoring the most goals for the team.  He is a really fast runner.  Lincoln and Annika's team went from losing every game last year to winning every game but one this year.  They were so excited.  It was fun to stick with the same team and see how the players improved  from last year.  They have a great coach and Kimball was a great assistant coach.  

Kimball got out of school a week before everyone else.  In NY state, the upper grades have to take Regents exams each year for various subjects, so the 8-12 grades get out of school a week before the other grades.  The Regents exams are given that last week of school.  Kimball had two Regents to take this year--Geometry and Physics. Kimball didn't want to pose for a last day picture, but everyone else was willing.

To celebrate the last day of school, Joseph took the three little ones camping, while the big kids opted to stay home with me.  The kids had so much fun camping!  They got to bed too late and woke up too early so we had a few grumpy days after the camping trip, but memories were made.

Sweet Frog frozen yogurt treat for the girls!

Lincoln had another trip to Dave and Busters.  He had a great time, again.

Annika wrote out a family tree showing 4 generations. She worked so hard on it.

Now that summer is here, Joseph has started taking the kids to the beach.  The big kids always opt to stay home, but the little ones enjoy it.  I'm glad I don't have to go anymore!

Kimball just got back from a week at FSY conference.  He had a good experience there and made some new friends.  He didn't really want to attend the conference, but now says he'll go again willingly.  I consider that a win! 

While Kimball was gone the other kids had their first week of swimming lessons.  They could definitely use more practice time, but it's hard to find access to pools, so the kids can practice outside of lessons. 

May

 The month of May was rather eventful.  The month started off with a bang, or should I say a bite!  Kimball and I were taking a relaxing Sunday walk and we paused to let a car pass us in the neighborhood.  While we were paused, a small white dog ran out of its yard, bit me, and ran back to its owner.  I was so stunned that I had just been attacked by a dog.  We walked home and Joseph said I needed to go to Urgent Care since dog bites get infected easily.  I'm grateful that my bite was more of a scratch and not deep bite marks that required stitches.  My calf is still tender almost a month later if my bite area is tapped.  I think it's safe to say that we will never have a dog and I'm even less fond of them now!

Trip to Washington D.C.

Joseph and I decided that it would be a wonderful opportunity to take the kids to the Washington D.C. temple open house.  We usually don't let the kids miss school, but we felt justified having them miss one day for this important event.  We decided to make it extra fun and see some sights at the National Mall.

The weather was not in our favor, but we made the most of it.  We had a nearly constant drizzle/sprinkle the two days we were there.  Thank goodness we all have windbreakers which do a great job shedding water.  I will admit that even though I didn't love the rain, I loved the temperature!  It was in the low 60s the entire time.  It was perfect where we didn't have to worry about sunscreen since we were all covered up.  We all agreed it was better to make this trip with the cooler temperatures and rain than in the heat of the summer when we would have been sweating and surrounded by other tourists.

Capital building.

Inside the botanical gardens where we took a break from the rain.

We took a bus to the Lincoln Memorial and then walked to the Washington Monument.  This hour that we spent was wonderful because the rain stopped completely and we could truly enjoy these two spots.

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech from the top of the Lincoln Memorial.  This is the view from Dr. King's speech location.

I loved the Lincoln Memorial.  It just felt like we were standing on sacred ground. I am so grateful when I think of all that Abraham Lincoln did for our country and ending slavery.

I really loved the 50 flags surrounding the Washington Monument!

The true highlight of the trip was taking the kids to see the Washington D.C. temple.  It is a beautiful building with such a wonderful spirit inside.  I love the peace that the temple brings.  Since it was a rainy day the lines weren't very long and moved quickly.  We waited maybe 10 minutes to get into the temple for the self-guided tour.  

The next day we walked around and visited a souvenir shop.  We also stopped at the Natural History Museum.  We tried to look at some things that we didn't see when we were in NYC at that museum.  It was a nice way to escape some of the rain. 

Our last stop before leaving for home was a quick visit to Ford's Theater.

Mother's Day.  

I sure love my kids.  The little ones were so excited to give me the cards and gifts they made at school.  Their homemade crafts are always my favorite.  Rebecah and I were both asked to speak in church for Mother's Day.  It was Rebecah's first time speaking in church and she did really well.  

Kimball's sports have FINALLY ended.  He managed to go from sport to sport all year long!  Joseph went to two of Kimball's track meets and I went to one.  Kimball stayed home from our D.C. trip to be in a meet, so we missed that one.

It was fun to see Kimball try so many events this spring.  His main events were the 400 m hurdles and long jump, but the last week of track he decided to take up discus and steeplechase.  Without much training he managed to throw 74' 10'' at the one meet he competed in for discus.  He was told that was good for a Freshman, especially one who was untrained.  Steeplechase was just something Kimball wanted to experience and no one else on the team wanted to compete in that event. It doesn't seem like a fun event to me!

Rebecah had her last band concert for the year.  She was invited to be in the marching band next year.  We will attend a meeting in a few weeks to learn the commitment that is required, but she is seriously thinking about it. 

Joseph and I went with Eden and her preschool class to The Wild Animal Park.  It was such a fun visit seeing Eden interact with her friends.  The weather was perfect!  It was about 65 degrees and the animals were very active. 

The other girl in this picture and the tiny boy in the corner, Juliana and Rowan, are two of Eden's besties at school.  She talks about them all of the time!

Joseph showing Eden that feeding the goats was harmless.  

Joseph and the three little ones went on a waterfall hike one Saturday afternoon.  The temperature was close to 90 degrees and I had already sat through two sweaty soccer games so I stayed home, as did Kimball and Rebecah.  Everyone else had fun though.  They don't look too hot!

We celebrated Joseph's 41st birthday.  He just wanted root beer floats for his birthday dessert so it wasn't a fire and candle friendly dessert.

Present time with Dad!  The little ones love Joseph's birthday

 because he lets them open some of his presents.  

We upgraded our bathroom vanity.  I forgot to take a picture of the 

old counter, but it needed to go.  I love the new look!

We have a neighborhood fox!  Actually, as we have been fox watching over the last few weeks, we have discovered that we actually have TWO foxes that roam our neighborhood.  They are fully grown and fun to watch if you get a chance to see them.  We usually see them early in the morning or at dusk. One is a pretty fox and the other one is darker and more mangy looking. The foxes have definitely helped to limit the rodent population in our yard.  We have fewer squirrels, no rabbits and the vole that was in our yard is gone, too!  Hooray for foxes!  One of the fox DID scare Eden one morning when she was by the garden.  The fox walked near her and she was scared. I turned the corner just in time to see the fox run off and Eden running in the opposite direction!  We learned that foxes rarely attack people.

A family friend had tickets to Trolls Live that they didn't need anymore. The show had been rescheduled multiple times because of Covid. Joseph took the girls to the show and they enjoyed it.  

Rebecah had her Covid booster this month.  Now that she's twelve she had the adult dose and it packed a punch.  She didn't feel very well the next day.

Rebecah, Lincoln, and Annika are all playing soccer this season.  We are halfway through the season and the kids are loving it. Lincoln scored his first two goals at their last game.  Kimball is the assistant coach for Lincoln and Annika's team. It's a good experience for Kimball.

Three more weeks of school and then our summer begins!