June Highlights

 We kicked off summer with the Saratoga Splash and Parade.  We sure love our community.  It's expecially nice that all the city days events are right by our house. 

 Happy Father's Day to John! 

 Slip and Sliding.  Matson loves it!

  

The girls went to day camp at Jeremiah Johnson and loved it!  They got to make rockets, shoot

bow and arrows, run obstacle courses, and more... :)

 Brothers at the park

 Water painting with Matson's new friend, Siri.  Water painting is our favorite summer activity.  Carter and Matson spend hours doing this.  Love it!

Kelsie's 11th Birthday

 

Happy Birthday to Kelsie!  I seriously can't believe she is 11 years old already.  Where does the time go?  She will be entering Young Women's in just one year.  I am not ready for that.  We are so grateful to have Kelsie in our family.  She is the best oldest child and loves to care for her younger siblings, babysit, make lunch, and she is extremely responsible.  She loves all animals and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her baby bunny in a few weeks.  She enjoys planning events, starting businesses, and putting on shows.  She likes singing, dancing, and performing.  Her latest obsession is the sitcom, "Full House" and watching all "Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen" movies.  I can't help but enjoy this little obsession--I feel like I'm reliving my childhood as we watch Full House together.  She is a sweet, loving girl who likes to find ways to help others.  Happy Birthday, Kelsie.  We love you!

Birthday outfit from Grandma

Ice cream cone birthday cake

Her gift this year was a snow cone maker!  She was past thrilled and very surprised!!!  To make it even better John bought her two big containers of flavor and snow cone cups so she can start making and selling snow cones.  She loves setting up stands to sell things and LOVES thinking up business ideas so she was thrilled!  It was hardly unwrapped before she was planning out her new snow cone business!  She kept hinting that she wanted a set of the Full House DVD's (all 8 seasons)  :)  Instead, John bought her this and told her she can use it to earn money to buy the DVD's or whatever she decides she wants most.  She loved the idea and so did I.  He's pretty smart.  Now she has something productive to do this summer to keep her busy and entertained. 

As soon as the gifts were opened Kelsie wanted to try out her new snow cone machine.  She was past thrilled with it!  When John put the last founded scoop on top, the girls were thrilled with how it looked.  They exclaimed, "it is just like the real snow cone shacks".  They were so excited about how "real" is looked.  They are pretty easy to please.  :)

The first samples of snow cones....and then the business planning began! 

Happy Birthday to my cute, funny Kelsie!  Her very best friend, Brianna, was in town for her birthday and got to stay with us.  That made her birthday extra special.  She spent the day with Brianna, they had pizza, made snowcones together, and then had cake and ice cream...and smeared it all over each other in a food fight!  These two cute girls are total goofballs and SO happy when they are together!  It made her 11th birthday an extra special day! 

Emily's Dinosaur Mural

Emily made this huge dino mural at school with some friends.  She bought it with her class money so she could hang it up at home.  She was thrilled!

Last Days

 I love the last few days of school when everything feels so carefree and the anticipation of summer is everywhere.  Here are Kelsie and her two closest friends from her class last year.  Holly and Brinley.  Their last lunch as 5th graders!

 Emily at lunch with her friend Sydney.  Sydney and Emily became friends in kindergarten when they were put in the same class.  They have been in the same class every year since kindergarten, even through school changes.  :)  I would love for them to end up together again.  She is always by Emily's side at school.  They are on to 3rd grade next year!

Matson loves seeing his sisters at school and can't wait to go to school one day.

Teacher Gifts

Here are the end of year gifts for the girls teachers.  I went in at lunchtime and had each student put their fingerprint  on the tree and I added their names over their print . I loved their teachers and appreciated how much they both loved teaching and you could just feel that when you walked into their classrooms.

Last Day of School

 

Ms. Decker and Kelsie.  We loved Ms. Decker and wish she could move to 6th grade right along with Kelsie!  She truly loves teaching and loves the kids.  She is always smiling and shows such respect for the kids.  Kelsie truly loved her class.  The whole 5th grade team was amazing and Kelsie had the best year!  The wax museum, Clear Creek Camp, Hope of America, Suessical Jr., hatching chicks, baby bunnies, and so much more!  Those teachers must be tired.  So grateful for all they did.

 

 Miss Layne and Emily.  We loved Miss Layne.  She is a very talented teacher who challenged Emily and also did lots of fun things along the way.  Camper of the Week, 100's Day, Pirate Day, Christmas Shoppe, Class Money and Auctions.  She was perfect for Emily and Emily adores her!

Hooray for the Last Day of School!  It's summer!

Surprise!!!

This was a surprise that had been in the works for months.  The Barker's planned to come down on May 23rd, but my kids had no idea.  They didn't tell anyone because Brianna wanted to show up and surprise Kelsie, and they wanted to surprise everyone at the school too.  How fun is that?  For weeks, Kelsie kept asking when she could see Brianna and it was killing me but I stayed strong!  :)  So the anticipated day finally arrived.  I told Kelsie to answer the door and I ran outside to greet the Barker's and get the surprise on video!  Brianna knocked on the door and Kelsie answered the door.  She was SHOCKED!  She gasped and started crying and hugging Brianna.  They were so happy to be together again!    This is the first picture I got of them.  I love that you can see how thrilled they are to be together again!

Love these two girls SO much!  They are the best of friends.  They were completely inseparable when they lived next door and this move has been extremely hard on both of them.  You couldn't wipe the grin of Kelsie's face all night.  She was so happy to have Brianna back!!! 

After a few minutes I rushed down because I wanted to see my other kids reactions when they saw the Barker kids.  I was way too late!!!  Emily and Amber were already in the basement playing ponies as happily as can be.  Emily was ready for soccer and quickly told me, "I'll skip my soccer game!"  She never wants to miss soccer but she was so happy to have them here.

The little kids had found my boys and they were jumping on the trampoline, just like the old days.  It was such a fun day.  It was SO fun to surprise my cute Kelsie with her best friend!  And it felt so perfect to have all of Mindi's kids running around the neighborhood again.  It felt like the old days..and I really miss the old days.  :(  It was the best feeling.  Like everything was back to normal and the Barker's were still our next door neighbors and had come to hang out for the evening.  We miss them so much!!!