Kaili and Maren have both been looking forward to Summer! Except for that Maren always gets a bit emotional on the last day of school. I remember her last year watching the class dvd over and over again crying her “tears of joy”. During Maren’s class party the kids all got up and shared their very last journal entry entitled “My favorite memory of 1st grade” Most the kids said pajama day and recess just like Maren. Kaili got to wear her swimming suit for a little water party. She was very happy to leave with me and head to her 1st swimming lesson with Miss Shannon! The girls have both grown so much this year in every way. Marc told Maren she could pick a place to go out to dinner for graduating 1st grade. She picked Cheesecake Factory of course. So we went and split a meal, she got the cheesy mac and cheese then her favorite banana cream cheesecake! yum yum Kaili luckily just goes with the flow but she was pretty tired by the time we sat down to eat. I had even made a plan with my cousin and her family to meet up for the celebration of school’s out for all our kids but we ended up at 2 different Cheesecake locations.  Though we did meet later to eat our dessert! The girls had fun — so did our boys. Vaughn,and Ewan are both getting so big.

On with summer…. I feel a little less anxiety now that I have purchased 2 summer bridge workbooks and charts to keep track of chores, reading, and learning pages. I decided to keep it simple and assign a colored star to each task and when completed for the day they stick it on their calendar charts. By the end of the week they can count up the stars and get some reward if they have earned enough stars. Some structure is good for piece of mind but not too much. I have also set up a few simple rules: wake up and make your beds, no T.V. until after 10am (2-3 hours a day at most), complete assignments for the chart, and clean their rooms before bed. I know this won’t go exactly as planned each and every day but the #1 rule of summer is to HAVE FUN! I told the girls we will have so much more fun if they are helpful to me and be good listeners.

This may be my last post for a while

Maren and some friend from school

Last 1st grade journal entry. Her teacher told the kids once they walk out the door they are second graders!

Kaili’s class party!

Kaili loves Miss Shirley

leaving with her pillow

Kaili’s class

Kailis 1st swim lesson

dining out with the fam

Papa’s in town for a couple days just in time to celebrate with us!

Maren is such a sweetheart! (when she wants to be)

Kaili sat on Papa’s lap because she was cold and they made funny faces

Kelly, Ewan, Vaughn and I

the kidlets! Maren Alex Hannah Kaili and Mika

“whats this, a tooth?” Skittles were to blame!

Kaili and Mika (check out Kai’s earings?) daddy got them for her