Saturday, June 14, 2014

End of school festivities


Megan's 3rd grade class held a musical program at the end of the year.  It was the musical/comedy "E-I-E-I-Oops!", and Megan was a pig and got to tell a joke in between songs.  It was fun!

Megan's the pink pig in the middle

Whole 3rd grade class

Celebrating afterwards at DQ!

One day after school, I took the girls to "the beach" for an afternoon of fun.  We almost had the place to ourselves!  So peaceful and so fun!




University Hills Elementary had a very fun field day.  Jessica's grade went in the morning.  The fun included...
a bouncy house!


relay races


pass the hula hoop while holding hands

using a sponge to fill up a bucket full of water

snacks and a class picture!

Megan's grade went in the afternoon.  I helped out at one of the stations, so I didn't get to see her the whole time, but I got to see quite a bit.
relay races

bear walk

instead of a sponge to fill up a bucket, her grade had to use a toilet plunger!  Ewww!

This was my station - the shoe catapult!  Kids had to kick off one shoe as far as they could to win a point for their line.  All of the kids in all of the grades loved this one!  I had to spend all afternoon picking up stinky shoes all over the field, though.  :(

Katie had three half days to finish out the school year, for finals.  On Wednesday, she had a half day when Meg & Jess had a full day, so we took advantage of the alone time to go shopping together.  We went to Nordstrom to buy her long awaited Sperry Top-Sider boat shoes, to Lululemon to buy her a long-awaited headband, to PF Chang's for lunch, and to Dicks for new running shoes.  What an expensive - but fun! - afternoon!
Our delicious lunch!

On Jessica's last day (Thursday), her grade held a party with fun stations and games.  It was drizzling, so it all had to be held inside, but we still had fun.
Jess whacking a piƱata

Jess signed a pillowcase for each member of her class

Isn't this the sweetest idea ever?!  Jessica absolutely treasures it!

spoon race

sack race

crab walk relay race

Jessica with her amazing teacher!

Megan's grade held "camp" the last day and a half of school.  They made their room into a girls cabin and a boys cabin.  They had camp-themed snacks, crafts, activities, story time, etc.  They even wrote a letter home to their families!  It was a super fun way to end 3rd grade.
Megan with her wonderful teacher

Katie getting on the bus for the very last day of school!

I brought home a surprise on the last day of school - a tarantula!!!  Katie's school library had some pets that needed summer homes, so I volunteered to take the tarantula and three huge goldfish (in the pond).  Her name is Fuzzbutt, and she is about 9 yrs old.  She loves crickets and walking around her home, and we all love her!  We checked out lots of books from the library about tarantulas, so once we learn a little more, we might even get brave enough to take her out to walk around.  Katie said some of her teachers would walk around with her on their arm, or put her on their desk, so I know she's pretty tame.
Fuzzbutt!

Also on the last day of school, we met up with Mom & Dad C and the CCs to go to a Tigers game together!  What a super fun way to end the school year!
carousel ride...all the animals are tigers, of course!

our crazy group

Very cool sunset illuminated the skyline

Cute girls!

The Tigers lost, but we had lots of peanuts, nachos, and ice cream.  Plus, there were fireworks after the game!


Today, Jessica had a pool party at a classmate's house, which was essentially a class reunion!  The kids got along great, and their teacher even came for about an hour!  Jessi was a little water bug for three hours straight!
I forgot to take pics while she was in the pool, but snapped this one before we left.

We went to the community garden tonight, to water, and found three banana peppers ready to pick!  Our first harvest from here!  We were very slow to get things in the ground, but it was a cool spring, so hopefully everything will catch up quickly.

Also tonight, we had a bonfire after doing lots of yard work and cleaning the garage.  Megan is modeling her new shirt from the CCs.

Let the fun of summer vacation begin!!!


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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Memorial Day in Wheaton


We drove out to Wheaton for Memorial Day weekend, and were so happy to see our family!
The girls LOVE the dogs, especially Lucy.  They wanted to bring her home.  Seriously, they wanted to hide her in their luggage and bring her home!!


The girls were thrilled to find tadpoles in the pond, so they spent tons of time in the back yard.


Don't fall in, Megan!!

They also found toads, of course.



We went to St. James Farm with Erin/Chad and Joe/Nancy/Bram for the annual farm open house.  We got to see lots of farm animals, went through some cool barns, enjoyed BBQ from a Sweet Baby Ray's food booth, went on a hay ride, and the girls got to go on pony rides!




There was a tractor, so the girls had to climb it.  Of course!

Cousins!  Bram was a huge hit with the girls, and vice versa!  They played so well together the whole day!  We had a delicious dinner, and the best chocolate cake ever!

On Sunday, we visited Great-Grandma Postorino in her new home near Wheaton.  We timed our visit with the daily ice cream time, so we all enjoyed ice cream together in the courtyard.  Then we found this cool swing, which had a drive-up area for a wheelchair.  GGP loved swinging with the girls!  She was pushing so hard to get it to go higher and higher!

Whole gang
We also took a walk down to the pond and gazebo.  The girls ran around the pond, and Megan came back with a tick.  Ewww!  Fortunately, it was just on her shirt, not her skin.  But we all went right inside to do tick checks after that!

Later Sunday we went to Cantigny, the gardens were beautiful.  We just missed the tulips, but enjoyed lots of pansies, snapdragons, and other cool/weird flowers.
The girls wanted a new picture by this pond.





Horse chestnuts were all in bloom.

Cantigny also has a WWII Museum, but we skipped that this time.  We just played on the tanks!



Brave/crazy little Jessica climbed up most of them all by herself!


We did a good job of wearing out the kids.  We had a very quiet and peaceful drive home on Monday!

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