June 01, 2014

On Memorial Day we hosted our first neighborhood party.  We invited every family on the street - 21 households in total.  Including our family, we had nine families attend; I think we had around 50 people.  A lot of neighbors went camping for the weekend so we weren't expecting a huge turnout.  The number of people we had was just about right.  We set up three grills and had everyone bring their own meat to cook.  The trampoline and kiddie pool were a big hit with the little ones.  And the ice cold pop - trying to find ice in our small town on a hot afternoon was a challenge - and watermelon kept everyone cool.  We will probably try doing another one for Labor Day.  It wasn't too much work and it helped us get to know some neighbors we've never met.

Since Memorial Day we have had gorgeous weather!  It is sunny and warm all day long - but not so hot that we're miserable.  The kids are outdoors almost all day and all the neighbor kids love to come and use our pool and trampoline.  So far we've avoided serious sunburn and Tommy is more tan than all the rest of us.  His little hands are so brown.  It is too cute.

Now that the driveway is paved, the kids ride their wiggle cars constantly.  Tommy can even sit on one with Lily for a little while.  Eventually one of them forgets to hold on and Tommy falls off.  Annie is tall enough to ride Lily's bike.  She's pretty proud of that.

Lily graduated from preschool.  She is very sad to say goodbye to her teacher Miss Erin.  The little graduation program was so sweet.  The kids sang some of their favorite songs and taught us about the weather and the days of the week.  Each student was given a hat and a certificate of completion - which was wrapped in a sand bucket with a shovel.

Thank you for a wonderful year Miss Erin.  Lily is so excited for Kindergarten next year!

And now for some big news......we adopted a dog!  Just for the week.  Our next door neighbors went on vacation and we volunteered to dog sit their adorable golden named Rowdy.  He is tons of fun.  We played fetch and checked his food and water for him.  The kids even spent three hours in Rowdy's yard with him one morning just playing with him.  It is nice to have neighbors who share their dogs with us.  Lily is not afraid of dogs anymore and Mommy doesn't have to deal with allergies and keeping our house free of dog hair.

Our other favorite neighbor dog is Scooby Doo.  Actually her name is Lady.  She is the gentlest, kindest dog I have ever known.  She protects all the children on the street and is so good with kids.  She and Annie really dig each other.

We've been working hard on our garden.  Everything is planted.  Most of the transplants have survived and we're anxiously waiting for the seeds to sprout.  We are most excited about our sunflower playhouse we planted.  We set down some big boards for the floor and planted sunflower seeds all around.  Hopefully when the flowers grow up they will be a shady place in the garden for the kids to play.  Lily and Annie planted all the seeds for their house themselves.  Mommy is just hoping enough of them will grow to create the right effect.

 Friday night Mommy went with my friends Christen and Crystal to a Zumba masterclass taught by a Zumba celebrity named Lindsey Taylor.  She stars in quite a few Zumba dvds as well as Latin music videos.  She is a dancer, choreographer, and is the master trainer for all Zumba instructors in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado.  It was crowded and hot in the Zumba studio.  But it was a fun night.  If you look closely you can see parts of me in the photos below.

 I'm on the left.  I have a bright red shirt on.

 That's my blurry profile in the bottom left of the picture.

 My backside is showing in the center-right of this one.  I have the bright red shirt and gray pants on.

Half of me made it into this one.  I'm on the far left again.

It was a tough 90 minute workout.  We were all so tired by the end of class.  Lindsey was so energetic and fun to watch.  Couldn't have asked for a more fun mom's night out!  I love Zumba!

Sunday night Uncle Brady came over for dinner.  The girls wanted to make a chocolate cake for dessert.  Lily helped make the frosting and frosted the cake.  Annie did the sprinkles....lots...of...sprinkles!

To help work off the cake we jumped on the trampoline.  Brady was giving the girls a ride.  They flew so high.  It honestly made Mommy nervous so I had to go inside and not watch for a little while.  I love how crazy their hair looks in these pictures.

Brady brought his friend Madison again this week.  The kids just love her.  Our whole family thinks she's pretty neat.  Tommy was so sad when she left, he cried at the door for her.

That's all for this week.  We are excited for the lazy days of summer to begin.  No more school, gymnastics, dance classes, etc.  Hooray for summer time.