Wildlife Camp

This is Evy's third year at Wildlife Camp and Charlie's first. This is Evy's absolute favorite camp and the only camp the girls are doing this summer. They spend all day, every day outside doing things like catching snakes and turtles, canoeing, paddle boarding, hiking and fishing. Evy touched a snake this year and learned how to go to the bathroom in the woods.....that's a funny story!!! The girls come home wet, dirty, and tired every night. 

Charlie is in the Merlin camp with friends Jack and Conor. She makes new friends easily and has three new friends that she tells me about each night!

The morning routine includes packing lunches and getting sunscreen and bug spray applied. We are carpooling with two other families and pick up time is 7:50.

With a lot of coordination we were able to sign Evy up with three of her very best friends. This crew is having so much fun. Love hearing their stories at the end of each day. 

Summer Bucket List #4 and #9: Picnic and Raptor Center

The kids originally told me that we had to go in order of our list but they let me work #4 and #9 into the same day! We had a great time at the Raptor Center today. They've added a few new things that were fun to explore. 

Picnic. Check.

Everyone is getting a little better at hiking so we were able to hike for a bit down a trail. 

We discovered a trail that leads to the lake....we've never been down this trail before.

Will ran out of gas so I had to give him a ride. The girls took turns trying to take our picture and they all turned out blurry which does not surprise me since this group is full of wiggles. 

Everyone measured their wing span and they thought it was hilarious that my wingspan was that of a turkey vulture. We've all agreed for a long time that the turkey vulture is a disgusting bird. 

It took some coaxing to get Will to measure his wing span.

The majority of our time was spent down at the lake. Will loved throwing rocks in and the girls were digging for fossils. I was exhausted by the time we left....it takes A LOT of energy to keep everyone from falling into the lake. 

We've never before noticed that you can go into the flight cage. It was cool to see the two bald eagles.

I didn't get a picture, but we had the coolest experience--getting to see two fawns up close. We were in the butterfly garden when the two fawns came out of the woods. They were not with their mother, they were adorable with white spots and got within 10 feet of us. Amazingly all three kids were quiet and still so we got to watch the fawns for awhile. So cool!

8 Year Old Soccer: ISC

Evy started playing soccer at age 3. When she first started she stayed away from the action. She ran up and down the field with her teammates but did her best to stay away from the ball! By age 6 the girl was scoring multiple goals each game. At age 7 the options for leagues changed and we haven't found a good fit since then and Evy's excitement for the game has waned. The 7 year old league through our Rec Center was a bomb last year so this year we decided to try out a private club. Unfortunately the practices were at 7 p.m. on Friday nights--not exactly how anyone wants to spend their Friday night! This league teaches skill and technique which is important to learn, but when you really just love playing a game it's not exactly the perfect fit. Evy did great, was always enthusiastic, mostly because she was in the same group has her very good friend, Laela. She won the "top dog" award a few times. 

Summer Bucket List #3: Bike Ride on Trail

The girls wanted to go for a trail ride and since this is another activity that I cannot yet master with all three kids we enjoyed this activity on a day when Will was otherwise occupied! Our neighborhood is very hilly so it takes a kid with a lot of stamina to make it through much of a ride. Evy rode her bike and Charlie rode the tag along behind me which means I did most of the work :-) We rode to the Coffee Shop where the girls had some juice and a donut and then we rode around the pond and back home where we were met with the most miserable hill of the ride. We managed to walk the bikes up the hill and make it home in once piece. This is an outing that will only continue to get easier as the kids master their bikes and build stamina. 

Summer Bucket List #2: Ice Skating

These girls love to go ice skating so this activity landed itself at the #2 spot on our Summer Fun! List. There is no way I can take all three kids ice skating by myself so we had to wait for a morning when Will was otherwise occupied. Luckily he is going to Ms. Lori's house for 5 days this summer so we could sneak a big kid outing in. 

The girls are doing great with skating. Both of them can skate around the rink and into the center without holding on to the walls. 

We had fun playing follow the leader. 

Will: Turning 3

Will celebrated his 3rd birthday with a Bob The Builder party at home on Sunday, June 4. Grandma Joan and Papa Jake, Grammy Sherry and Papa Dick, Mom, Dad, Evy, Charlie, Aunt Cathy and Cousin Kate all joined in the party. 

Will got some new trains!

Bob The Builder cake.

Choo-Choo

The girls are obsessed with making slime. 

This kid loves the pool so he took a birthday dip to play with his new boat. 

He posted so nice for his picture....

but.....

when we started singing.....

he lept out of his chair so fast that I thought he fell. And he hid under the table with a very sad face. 

When the singing stopped he recovered nicely for a piece of cake. 

THE BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW

Q: What is your favorite color?

A: green

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: pancakes and waffles

Q: Who is your best friend?

A: No one. 

Kate (his cousin) 

Ellie (Ms. Lori’s daughter)

Q: What is your favorite thing to do?

A:  go to the children’s museum

Q: What is your favorite song?

A: Uptown Funk

Q: What is your favorite treat?

A: Minion Chewies (just purchased at Costco today and he snuck 3 packages)

Q: What is your favorite drink?

A: apple juice

Q: What is your favorite show or movie?

A: Bob The Builder

Q: What is your favorite toy?

A: Trains

Q: What is your favorite thing to do with your family?

A: Go to the park

Q: Where is your favorite place to go?

A: Go to the zoo and see the octopus

Q: What is your favorite book?

A: Octopus (I have no clue what the octopus book is and I don't believe we own a book about an octopus???)

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: Construction Worker

Summer Bucket List #1: Zoo

The girls made a list of things they wanted to do this summer and they said we had to do them in order. So, #1 on the list was Zoo! We scratched that off the list on the 2nd day of break. 

Giraffes

Train ride!

It was hot for early June!

Charlie: That's a wrap on Kindergarten

Charlie had a great year! She started off the year by coming home exhausted every day after school, by the middle of the year that was no longer an issue. At the beginning of the year she did not want to walk the trail to school by herself, by the end of the year she was thrilled if she got to do it without Evy! Her reading took off this spring and she is reading at a first grade level. There were three Charlies (another Charlotte and a Charles) in her class this year so she was called Charlie C. all year long. It still cracks me up when we are out and she sees a friend....the friend yells "Charlie C." to get her attention. She may be known as Charlie C. for the rest of her elementary career. I think Charlie is a social butterfly because she rattles off 4 new names every time I ask her who her friends are. She plays with different kids at recess all the time and I can't believe how many kids we run into every time we are out....they all know Charlie C. Charlie said she knows she had a good year because she never had to sit in the thinkspot. She is ready to rock 1st grade!

Back to school night. 

1st Day of Kindergarten

Charlie and her teacher, Ms. Schieltz on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Party

Last day of Kindergarten

Evy: That's a Wrap on 2nd Grade

What a year this girl had! We've been watching Evy's school performance since her reading scores were just barely keeping up with benchmark at the beginning of first grade. She is very bright so it wasn't making sense to me that her scores were just barely at benchmark. In February we did some private testing and found out that Evy has mild dyslexia and ADHD Inattentive type. Bingo! Evy was fantastic during this entire process, we had lots of appointments for testing and follow up and she had a positive attitude during it all. I could not be more proud of her. By the end of 2nd grade her scores shot up and I know she is ready to crush 3rd grade! 

It was so fun to watch Evy develop more friendships this year. Her crew includes Kathryn, Laela, Addie, Hadley, and Keelin. Evy's teacher, Mrs. Schintler was very helpful this year and says "Evy is a joy to teach. She is always prepared and ready to listen and learn. Her overall behavior in class is excellent. She is a tremendous role model in the classroom." That's our girl!

Brain Break at School

Valentine's Day Party at School

 

Science

On her birthday she got to bring a book to school and read it to the class. She picked Giraffe and a Half.

This school year Evy was on a basketball team. She had so much fun with these girls. It was a really positive experience. 

Last Day of 2nd Grade