When we talked about what all we wanted to do this summer while the kids were here, one of the first things Mason said was Make waffles. So yesterday morning we got busy on that. Everyone took turns loading the waffle iron. It was a good way to kick off the day

My friend Sherry brought her grandson Will over to play today, & they got the sprinkler hooked up. Good times.

Another good day today. As soon as we ate breakfast today, the kids headed outside to pick a bucket of blackberries to take to my friend Charlotte when we headed over to swim at her pool.

Evelyn’s grandsons are in town for the week, and we met them at the pool. It was a perfect day for swimming, and I hope the kids sleep as good tonight as I think I’m going to :-). Here is Mason taking a break & warming up before he got back in. Usually it’s just him and the girls, so he had great fun playing with Ryland, Brett, and Carson. They had a boys against the girls thing going on for a while, which Mase NEVER gets to do at our house :-). Good times…

Last night we had more fun. My nephew Greg and his family came home with us to spend the night, and my friend Charlotte had graciously invited us to use her pool. It was a great way to end the day. Greg is a big boy, so being thrown off his shoulders was huge fun for the kids. I never could get a picture of them mid-air – it just happened too fast :-). Just a good, good time.

Well, the day didn’t go exactly as we had planned, but it turned out to be a great one anyway. The kids & I had been planning an outing today for several weeks, to head to Edventure, the children’s museum in Columbia. Alas, when we went out to hit the road, the car wouldn’t start. :-(. After a couple of minutes of disappointment, though, we came in & started coming up with a Plan B. The kids were SO good about it. The #1 thing they wanted to do was walk to the playground at Bethel School at the end of our road. I told them if we were going, we’d better go quick before the day got any hotter. I had packed a cooler of water bottles and snacks for us to have to way home from Columbia, so we put it in the stroller and walked it down with us. One thing I’d packed was a mason jar of iced tea, figuring I’d need a caffeine boost when I started that drive after spending the day in the museum. So the kids & I just passed it around when they took a break at the playground :-).

Home for a good lunch, reading some library books, and fat naps, and then some serious sprinkler play.  Not a bad day for a fallback plan

Today I picked June and Mason up after their last day of school – at 10:30 in the morning! We made a library run, met Lindee & girls for lunch, & then had plans to meet my friend Sherry and her grandson Will at Hardees for milk shakes and malts to celebrate. They all three go to the same school, so had fun looking through their year book . Welcome summer break!

As hard as it is to believe, this morning Mallory graduated from fifth grade – she’ll be heading to middle school next year! The ceremony was very nice. Here are the fifth graders marching in. Of course I almost missed Mallory – she’s the one in the white sweater.

Mallory received several awards – we were so proud. Here she is when she received the Presidential Award for her class in math, language arts, and social studies.

In the photo booth afterwards with her buddies Karris and Ashley. Just a special day.