Summer Fun

Still playing catch up with the blog.  Been too busy with summer fun.  Here are a few pictures from the beginning of July.

Yummy Fourth of July breakfast in Pasco.

It is hard to beat chocolate chip pancakes, especially when you don't usually get them that way at home.

Going to the parade.  Parades are such a great part of every summer.  They are probably my kids favorite things we do over the summer.  Except for Adam, who does not like the loud noises some of the trucks make.

Hannah shows off her Fourth of July outfit - and her tongue.  We went to a friend's house for a barbecue that evening.

And now Funfest - another Hermiston tradition for the beginning of July.  When we got there the clown was performing.  So we enjoyed watching his act.  Hannah did not look when he did the pie in the face routine.  It like really bothered her and she started crying.  Everyone else laughed though.

Will in the cash machine.  He caught two dollars.

Music and story time for the younger kids.

And there were lots of games to play to win little prizes.

A man was making balloons for all the kids.  Rachel got this cool guitar.

And on another day there was free miniature golf and hot dogs here in Hermiston.  That was fun but may be better when Hannah is a little older and doesn't chase after everything.

So far lots of fun.  We have also been doing swimming lessons and free movies and all that good stuff. 

Cherry Picking

So I feel a little guilty writing this after seeing Emily's post about her cherry tree.  But our family did go cherry picking for the first time.  It was here in Hermiston just about 15 minutes from our house.

Lots of trees with thousands of cherries on them.

Adam loved his cute little bucket. 

The cherries were so low that Hannah could reach them.  I thought I would be lifting kids all day to get cherries but that wasn't the case.

Megan shows off her first couple cherries.

We found a ladder and a couple of our kids wanted to try to get the higher cherries.  We ended up with 15 pounds of cherries, but they were much cheaper here than in the store.

And Hannah loved her cherries.  She actually got pretty good at taking out the pits, which was my concern.  Look at that cherry loving face.  Hooray for summer fruit picking.  Lots of fun.

Kindergarten Graduation

Rocky Heights makes a big deal out of Kindergarten graduation.  It was super cute to watch Megan graduate.  Thankfully, Will had the day off so he could come see it too.

There were a lot of really cute five year olds up there, all dressed up fancy.  Megan is right there on the bottom row.

Being directed on where to go.  All the kids had their names read and they received a "diploma".  We got to watch a slideshow of the kids progress through the year. 

After graduation we were invited to the classrooms for treats and to 'ooh' and 'aah' over the Kindergarten crafts.

From the infamous Dr. Seuss book "Oh The Places You'll Go".  The kids are taking off "for their next learning experience" - which is the motto for Rocky Heights.

Megan loved Mrs. Moore.  Actually, all my kids loved their teachers this year.  It was hard to say 'goodbye'. I hope we get so blessed next year. 

2031 still seems like a long time away but I know it will be gone in a flash.  Good job passing Kindergarten, Megan.

We went to get ice cream after the last day of school.  That helped somewhat with all the 'goodbyes'.

End of third grade

Rocky Heights Elementary third graders do a lot at the end of the year.  Whitney was busy and she loved it.

Try and find Whitney in the picture.  Third grade does a play on American history and it was amazing.  They practiced for months; I know because I heard the songs over and over.

This is a bad picture but it shows the four suffragettes together. Each suffragette had a speaking part and a two line solo in America the Beautiful.  I thought Whitney would be nervous about her part but she did great.

Standing with her friend, and fellow suffragette, to hand out programs to people as they walked it.  So it was a great play and I'm glad they were all able to learn so much about our history.

This picture is hard to tell but Whitney hit the 1 million AR word level this year.  So she read and passed tests on 1 million words.  She got to pick a prize - a book, of course - and go to a pizza party.

Another big third grade project is the animal zoo.  Each kid gets to pick an animal and they make a habitat for that animal. Whitney picked the red kangaroo from Australia.  It took several attempts to make this kangaroo but the salt dough ended up working out.

She had to make a powerpoint and give a presentation to her class.  She looked all professional up there with her microphone.  She currently wants to be a third grade teacher when she grows up.  So good job Whitney with all your big projects.

And Whitney and Rachel were two of the only five kids who were at school everyday this year.  They got a certificate and a big bag of skittles and a swim pass.  Good work girls.

Anyway, we finished school strong.  In a few days, I will put up pictures from Megan's Kindergarten graduation.

Going to the beach

We spent Memorial Day at the beach again.

Making sand angels, almost as cool as snow angels.

Whitney wanted to be buried.  That took awhile since we had so many "helpers".

Everyone playing.  The water was super cold but that didn't stop Whitney and Rachel and I from having a major water fight.

We lost our shovel but we brought some spoons.  Adam spent a lot of time digging.

Hannah has the cutest swimming suit.  She loved having as much water and dirt to play with as she wanted.

Megan - the dragon conqueror.

The girls made some pretty impressive castles and islands and all that fun stuff.

Rachel showing off the shells she found.  These remained at the beach without too much sadness.

Hannah consumed a lot of dirt. A lot of dirt.  It was really cute. 

Anyway, we had a great Memorial Day.  I'm glad we got to spend it as a family.