Summer Catch-Up!

**I am finally finishing a post that I started way back in July!**

I can't believe it's the middle of July! In one month, Daisy will have her "back to school" picnic with the rest of the school.  I am not ready for summer break to end!!  We have been so busy this summer that everything has just flown by like a blink of an eye.  Since we have been so busy, I haven't kept up this blog like I would like to. So I will do a quick "Readers Digest" of the past summer events, if that's possible...

Daisy last day of kindergarten was a fun fair day at the school.  They had games, music, food, climbing wall, and a dunk tank where they could dunk their teacher and the principal.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to end a fun successful year of kindergarten.  Daisy will be entering first grade next school year which means FULL day of school not half like kindergarten was.  I don't know if I am ready to be away from my baby that long....but it may be easier to have her gone that long so I can do more home school with Clark.  Daisy is excited to have full day of school because that means an extra recess and lunch at the cafeteria.

Daisy's Kindergarten Teacher (Clark had the same teacher too when he was in kindergarten.)

Even though I homeschooled Clark this school year he was still able to get speech services through our neighborhood school.  She was awesome!  We are going to miss her.  She has accepted a new job somewhere else.

Clark with his Speech Teacher, Ms. Winn.

A new Taekwondo center was opening and was running an awesome promotion.  I didn't want to pass up an awesome deal so I enrolled all three kids in it.  Clark and Daisy were in the same class together and Kaeley was put with the younger kids.  I told my friends, Maren and Fawn and they enrolled their kids in there as well. The kids had fun being together and us moms got to chat too! The center tried to get me to official enroll them for long-term but to pay for it, I would have to take out a heavy loan and I was about to do that.

A mom from Daisy's school class told me about a free two week soccer event.  They taught the kids basic soccer skills and even game them soccer shirts and balls.

I got to visit with my dear friend Sarah Dover while she was in town.  She used to live in the ward and we became instant friends.  She later moved to Gresham, actually in my parents' ward and I saw her occasionally but not as often as I would like. When I heard she was moving to Florida, I was devastated that I didn't make more of an effort to see her more while she lived in Gresham. 

I received a new church calling.  I was released as the 1st counselor in the ward primary presidency and called as the 2nd counselor in the stake primary presidency (Portland Stake).  It already has been a whirlwind of events and things to do since my calling.  The first big event was the Stake Activity Day Girls Day Camp.  I was put in charge of food.  I had to feed about 85 people lunch and three snacks for two days.  It was pretty stressful putting together a menu, buying everything, preparing and executing it all but I did it and it was a good learning experience. The next big project I had to do was feeding the Scouts at Camp Helaman.  Camp Helaman was a week long Scouting event and I was in charge of creating the menu, buying the food which I delegated to the other presidency members and serving the food. It was quiet the project and so grateful so many people came to help because I wouldn't be able to do it otherwise.  I enjoy working with the stake primary presidency.   I will list their names just for history sake and not because I think my readers want to know.  President: Carrie Zabaldo, 1st Counselor: Tiffany Egbert, Secretary: Cheri Zornes.  They are all from Sunnyside Ward.

I babysat the Vance kids for two days while Ondalynn and Syndney were at Girls Camp and Gary was at work. The kids had fun playing on the trampoline, going to the park and playing games of hide and seek and lots of card and board games.  Bryson and Isaac helped me make cookies for all the company that are coming for Emily's wedding.

My kids love the 4th of July! They have been counting down since Christmas. Most of all, they love the fireworks! Few days prior to 4th of July, we went to the community center for a 4th of July celebration.  They had face painting, crafts projects, food and climbing wall.  The highlight of the celebration was the parade that the kids did.  They walked down the street and around the block to a retirement home center where the elderly were sitting and waiting for the parade of children to come by.  They waved and cheered as the kids marched around in front of them.  It was the funest and cutest thing ever! On the actual real 4th of July, Brett had to do some work training.  Later that afternoon, we met up with the Caudle Family at Cascade Locks Park.  We set up camp right next to the water.  We BBQ, swam in the lake, played games, painted faces and explored the area.  There were LOTS of people!  The firework show was pretty good.  It took us an hour and a half to get home.  We had fun but were very tired!

I am going to just end here and pick up on another post.  I really never want to get behind again like this!