May Is A Blur

 Anyone who has kids in school knows that May is just a crazy non-stop race.  I feel bad that this blog went completely updated the entire month but it has only felt like a few days to me.  Now that school is over and summer has begun, let's recap.

End of the school year brought the end of track season for Christian.  He did amazing this season and qualified for regionals in the 3200m and the 4x800m relay.  He raced well and got first in the relay.  Their school's team got third in the region overall. 

Peter finished Kindergarten.  They had a little graduation ceremony and in true Peter form, he looked miserable the entire time.  The graduation podium could have been the gallows as far as he was concerned.

A few days earlier they'd done an "exhibition" where parents could come in and participate in their various classes.  I'm not going to lie - I was not excited about this.  My personal time is sooo limited.  I need every minute that he's in school to get things done and being forced to use that time like this felt like robbery.  I only had one day of school left and then he'd be home for 4 months!  However, gym class was a lot of fun.  We played games with the kids and did races.  This one was cute - a relay where the kids had to push the mats from one side of the gym to the other.  Peter always liked this one and it was fun to see him do it.  He's a speedy, highly competitive guy.  He got pretty overstimulated during the course of class, though, and he started melting down every couple minutes at the end.  The day ended with a "field day" that involved a bunch of outdoor games.  We tried that but I ended up taking him home a little early and we got some tacos together and celebrated the start of summer in a little more calm way.

Peter also got to go to the farm with his class.  They got to ride horses, feed baby animals, go on a hay ride, and milk a cow (he wanted none of that!) .  I've been there with all my kids and he was by far the least excited, but still managed to have a good time.

With the start of Summer, also comes the reopening of Greenfield Village!  Who's more excited, me or Peter?  It's hard to say.

Summer also brings eating the back yard, playgrounds, library story time visits, drawing outside with chalk, baseball and soccer in the backyard (not pictured), end of the soccer season (not pictured), and the end of ice skating classes (he did great and got so fast!)

No matter the season, this is how every day ends: 

After 3 kids who hate reading, I finally managed to raise a reader!! Yipee!!

For Bella, May brought her 17th birthday, AP exams, concerts, piano recital, and her eagle scout project.

Bella and Christian both did beautifully in their recital.  It is always amazing how well they perform under such pressure.  Bella had been given some very challenging pieces to memorize and she wasn't' sure she could do it, but she put in a lot of hours at the end and made it so she only needed music on one of her pieces.  We were very proud of her.

Her eagle scout project was to build a backyard playscape in a neighborhood in Detroit so children would have a safe place to go play.  The lot is owned by a woman I met through volunteering I do with another church.  She lives across the street but owns both her property and the vacant one.  She was so excited that Bella would want to use her land for the project.  She and I and others from her church went prior to installation day and cleared the land.  It looked like this when we got there:

We cleared out tons of brush, trash, etc. and got it to this:

Bella fundraised and then bought a playscape from someone who was willing to reduce the price dramatically since it was for a good cause.  She and Kelly put in tons of hours planning the disassembly, transport, reassembly, repairs, etc.  Parents really deserve an award too when kids get their eagle.  Not too many people came on the big day but it was enough to get the job done in the time we'd estimated.

We had several neighbors come over while we were building and thank us for the project and express excitement at having a place for the kids to play.  I've since been texted by the owner with pictures of local kids playing and having fun.  She says there are kids on it every day.

We also acquired a cat for the summer.  That was NOT planned.  However, I made the mistake of saying to Peter, "I kind of miss having a little cat around."  The universe listened and not even 24 hours later, I got a text from a friend who was moving to California saying, "We have discovered we can't fit the cat in the car, could you take her for the summer and we'll be back in September to get her?  We have to leave right now because the new homeowners are coming in a couple hours."  WHAT??  So we drove over and got the cat.  I immediately had terrible buyer's remorse, but what could I have done?  Poor kitty had to where to go. So, let me introduce Pandora.

We all love her, but Peter, especially.  I'm not sure what September will bring.  It might be pretty hard to say goodbye.

 Pandora has settled right in and has been a remarkably good cat, except for the cat door she immediately made for herself in our screen on the first day.

Other happenings these last few weeks - I finished my first year of seminary teaching.  I was close to adrenal failure by the end so a break is very needed, but it was wonderful to watch all my amazing seniors graduate and move onto their bright futures. (many of them are not pictured)  I hope next year will be less exhausting since I'll have more time during the day to prepare while Peter is in school.  No more lesson planning after midnight.

Benjamin was transferred out of Kansas to Burlington, Colorado and received a new companion.  They are doing great together.  He drives hours and hours between visits and some of the people he teaches live nearly 2 hours from the church building, so attendance is difficult but he's always upbeat on the phone and we love seeing him grow and learn.

This week the kids (Bella and Christian) are at FSY down in Tiffin, Ohio.  I dropped them and all their friends off today - 6 hour roundtrip.  I hope they have a wonderful week.  What an amazing program that is.  What a blessing.