Making muffins
My kitchen helper (Shecklet #4) is busy today making muffins to share with her siblings.
40 years – COSP
Our church celebrated its 40th anniversary this summer, culminating in a parish picnic. I helped at the outdoor photo booth. These lovey ladies came by for a few pics.
Manhattan Visitor
Jake’s aunt from NY is in town this week. She is always so good about reaching out and visiting while she’s in town. She is like me and enjoys catching up with people in smaller groups – so you can have an actual conversation. She wanted to see all of us, and since the boys were at camp all week, we connected with her today.
One other thing she is good at is capturing photos of her time with people. We were able to ask our neighbor to snap a group picture after we got back from our walk around the neighborhood with her. Pretty great group of people here!
Nissedalen fun 2021 – 2
The girls and I (and a friend of theirs) took a mid-week trip to Nissedalen for a couple of nights. Tuesday was a little cool but Wednesday was perfect.
The girls packed a lot into a short time!
Swimming, kayaking, hide & seek, and a walk.
Turtle races and a visit to the Chocolate Ox.
And diner at Rafferty’s – Grandma Lois’ treat!
Checkers, chess, spoons, swinging in hammocks, throwing rocks into the lake, and lots of laughs. It was so good to see these three play freely.
The moon was full and bright on Wednesday night. I took a similar picture last year when we were at the cabin. It’s so peaceful here and time seems to slow down. I love it.
The time away made the week fly by. Tomorrow the boys come back from Extreme Faith Camp at Trout Lake Camp. I cannot wait to hear all about their week!
Visits before moving
The girls and I spent most of Monday making memories with our friends – making slime, going for a walk, playing at the park. They are moving out of state next month. Jake is helping them by driving with his friend in one of their vehicles. (I can only imagine the conversation that will take place over their two days of travel!) We’ve been given an open invitation to visit them once their house is built and they’re settled and and we plan to do so. They’re moving somewhere warm, so a winter visit sounds pretty irresistible.
We’ve watched these girls grow up – have actually known them since birth – and are going to miss them and their parents so much!
Off to camp!
Extreme Faith Camp 2021! Watch out, here comes this quartet!
There are seven boys signed up to attend camp at Trout Lake Camp from our parish. Just seven! And these four make up over half of that number! (In comparison, there are 18 girls going – that’s over a 2:1 ratio.) There are other parishes joining ours for the week, but due to covid, they will be limiting the amount of crossover between groups.
I hope this week is full of fun, growing in friendship, and deepening of faith for all of the kids, but especially these young men. See you on Friday, guys!
Father’s Day 2021
Celebrating this guy today.
And gathering with family to also celebrate Dave’s birthday. (Missing Aunt Bri – Uncle Jason made a solo ling weekend trip this time.)
Summer cut – #3
Shecklet #3 is the third kid in about two weeks to update their hair. She wanted to go short, but not as short as her sister. She trusted me to do the chop and this is what she ended up with! (Her last cut was in March 2020 😳.)
We survived distance learning!
What a year! Such an understatement.
It’s hard to sum up all of the thoughts and feeling I have about what took place during the 2020-2021 school year. The kids were resilient and grew in ways that Jake and I are so proud of. They tried new things, were flexible in numerous areas, and handled frustrations and challenges better than I ever expected.
Today was spent doing “fun” things – Shecklet #4 had a virtual dance lesson, award ceremony, and watched a movie. Shecklet #3 ended the day with making play dough. Shecklet #2 was effectively done yesterday because his teachers said he didn’t have to log in today. But I asked him to pose for a last day photo for me and he willingly agreed 😊
All three of these kids are looking forward to going back to school in person in the fall. I hope for their sake it can be as close to normal as possible for them. 💛
Final day of 8th grade
It’s the end of an era for Shecklet #1. He started at his charter school back in the fall of 2012 and finished (via distance learning) today, June 16, 2021. When he started as a kindergartner, it was difficult to imagine him as an 8th grader. And yet, here we are.
First day of school photos: K-8. 8th grade isn’t a uniform photo because uniforms weren’t required while distance learning. And I didn’t have them pose for a second round of photos with them on 😊.
Last day of 8th grade. No more covid hair!
Tonight was the 8th grade banquet. He finally had an opportunity to see many familiar faces in person and mask-free and put an exclamation point at the end of his middle school chapter.
The two teachers in the picture above were constants in Shecklet #1’s life these last two years. The teacher on the right was Shecklet #1’s social studies teacher in 7th and 8th grade as well as his homeroom/cohort teacher. The lovely lady on the left was his case manager for 7th and 8th grade. This past year she was also his math teacher and worked with him on grammar skills every day. It’s safe to say that she knows him the best out of all of his teachers.
At tonight’s program, Shecklet #1 was surprised by being acknowledged with two awards – the “President’s Award for Educational Achievement” and the “PBIS SPARK Award.” We are so proud of what he has accomplished, how he has persevered – especially when things were hard, and look forward to watching him continue to grow as he starts high school in the fall – online!