First Days of Summer

Picture highlight of the first days of summer vacation:

Two girls wanted to play tennis, so I signed them up through the park and rec. It was only four days, and it was at the park down the street, so we walked, rode bikes and made the most of it.

 We spent some of Memorial Day weekend at the cabin with family.

 Sadie and Kaleb mowed together.

They put in the window air conditioners.

We organized and cleaned the grouts. Believe it or not, the girls were excited to do this!

We flew kites with cousins.

 

Like always, I took Caramel for a walk/run.

This particular day she was super ambitious to get that squirrel.

 Maisie helped me plant my garden this year. It is a smaller, scrawnier garden, but I loved planting it with Maisie.

 We continued the tradition of painting flower pots.

 The girls helped me pick out new sunglasses. Don't worry - I didn't get those.

 I put together the summer chore chart. Old school and maybe old fashioned, but it's been effective! They have done a nice job and knew there were no screens until their jobs were completed. One of favorites was kitchen helper. One night a week on of the girls would help with the dinner prep; it was great 1-1 time together.

 I had Sadie label something for me, and it was too cute. Can you guess what is inside the container?

 And a beautiful rainbow reminding us of God's promise.

Children's Music Academy

Maisie and Sadie were involved with Children's Music Academy again this past year. We met on Monday nights for an hour of piano, ear training and music. I'll be honest - it's not their favorite, but they do like to be with their friends, and their teacher is great. They are learning skills that will stick with them forever, and maybe, just maybe one will learn to sing on key. :)

They had their music program in May, and it truly was a riot to watch.

 

Doesn't she look thrilled to be there? 

She has a little more spunk when it comes to music.

They both did well on their solos.

By the end of the night, they were both in smiles. 

Maisie's Dance/Gym

We let Maisie participate in dance, along with gymnastics this year. Something I thought we would never do. (Honestly, I never thought we'd have a dancer in our family.) She had loved gymnastics the year before, and if she ever wants to proceed with more advanced gymnastics, she needed to have dance as well. So this past year, she took a combo class. Forty-five minutes of gym, and then forty-five minutes of dance, learning tap, jazz and ballet.

 

In May, Maisie had her in house gymnastics meet, where the parents could come watch. It was fun for us to see how she improved this past year.

Maisie with her good friend, Kadi. So thankful they can be in the same class.

Maisie had her first dance recital in early June. This was a major learning curve for me - from the cost of costumes (ouch!), the schedule, pictures, expectations and more. In fact, I kind of mumbled about  it and was pretty sure we wouldn't do it again. Until...

She went to dress rehearsal. She was in full costume, with excitement about wearing simple make-up, and I watched her dance. I almost had tears in my eyes. She enjoyed it, seemed confident, and she did really well!

I don't have many pictures from her recital night since we weren't allowed to take pictures. But she looked beautiful, and she beamed with joy.



The recital was three hours. She danced in three dances, one of which was to the song "Gold" by Britt Nicole. I was thankful for that. I still have my personal thoughts on dance, but we have signed her up for another year of dance. And I think we're both excited.