tree frog

It seems like every summer we get a visit from a super cool little frog.  When I think tree frog, I tend to thing South America, or Rain forest, but evidently we have tree frogs up north here too.

This  little guy was waiting out on our deck the other night. I thought he was just a leaf, but the kids discovered the truth. (likely making his night more scary interesting)

We played with him for a while, and then decided to let him go back to his family. It sure is neat to see the kids interact with animals with such curiosity and interest.

piano recital

The girls had their first piano recital last week with their new teacher, Tiffanie.  They have been with her for about 6 months now and are both making wonderful progress.  Both are quite motivated to play although Cassidy's frustration can occasionally get in the way.  Lucy is just cruising through new music.  She catches on so quickly - it pretty well amazes me.   This is Cass's first experience with piano and she is steadily learning the notes and associated fingers.  She also seems to have natural talent.

I was proud of the girls as they each performed 3 songs.  Lucy has played in front of crowds so this was not a huge scary deal for her.  She played very confidently.  Cassidy looked a little white before it was her turn, but she got up there and played without making any mistakes.

All the girls who performed at the recital with their teacher Tiffanie.

Links to Cassidy's piano pieces can be found here and here.

fairy gardening

The girls and I took a fairy gardening class at the local gardening center last week.  We had so much fun looking through the plants and fairy accessories.  I let them make the majority of the decisions (because it is all too easy for me to take over when crafting is involved!), simply providing some pricing guidelines.  They chose to wear some fairy wings to channel their 'inner fairy' as they gardened.  They included some really neat touches in their pot, including rocks, crushed glass, a lady bug, mushroom house and a few bottles of fairy dust.  We all had a nice relaxing time and decided we needed to make girl's night out more of a priority.

a visit to great grandma

We went to see great Grandma Lehman and brought along one of her favorite dinners.  We used some more fish from Andy's stash and had a lovely little meal after a day full of swimming, row boating, fishing, and a little softball.  The water was still a little cold if you ask me but it never seems to really bother the kids.  Jack hit the jackpot because he got to spend the night over at Great Grandma's house.

twinsies!

freckles

I am not sure what it is about freckles, but I just get all giddy for them. And it seems that each summer, Jack's nose adds a few to its stash. This year they popped out in full force, and got pretty dark quite quickly.  I have been oogling them for some time now.  After a little swim left him looking for a snack, I found myself offering a little ice cream bribe, in exchange for a few close ups of his fabulous freckles.  It worked.

saying goodbye

The last day of school is full of goodbyes.  Goodbye to your current grade level--- on to bigger and better things!  Goodbye to getting up early for the bus.  Goodbye to early bedtimes.  Good bye to homework and boring planners.  Goodbye to structure and sitting still. Mostly goodbye to things you don't really care much about.

This year however Jack had to say goodbye to someone very important to him.

His best friend, and our neighbor Elise moved with her family.  And they left the evening that school got out.

He knew it was coming, but it has been difficult for him.  They got together to play minecraft, or built forts, or have nerf gun fights and ride bikes at least a couple times a week.  They had a genuine friendship.

With her being 7 hours away now, things will be different for him.  I hope we can keep him busy so he doesn't miss her too much.

Best wishes to you Elise!!

Memorial Day

We spent a relaxing (project filled for Andy) day with family out at the lake this Memorial Day.  It was a gorgeous mild day, warm enough for the kids to take their first dip in the lake (but not for the adults to even consider!).  They also had fun building castles and sand forts and making little channels to run the water along.

We munched on a wonderful fish fry for an early dinner.  Andy supplied the fish from his last trip to North Dakota with the boys, and it was just delicious.

I guess I had forgotten how nice it was to be able to go set up for a day and relax in the warming sun as the kids froliced in the sand and water.  I am looking forward to this summer!