A busy week

We have had a week full of fun! It started off Monday with swimming at a friend's house in their backyard - jumping off the trampoline into the water :) Tuesday we went to the park with friends and had a picnic. Wednesday we went down to the river here in town and played on the sandy shore - I can't believe we have NEVER done that before - we have lived here for 6 years! It was so fun - the weather was hot and the girls loved playing in the river.

Thursday we went to Leavenworth - a small Bavarian town up in the mountains. It was even hotter there. We went with the Mayor's mom and grandma, and uncle, aunt and cousins. My girls loved playing with their cousins - they really look up to Katelyn and had so much fun with Jared! Thanks guys!

On Friday, we got up at 5 am, (well, one of us got up a little before 5am and the other well after that), picked up PawPaw and headed over the mountains to Royal City to pick cherries. Oh my goodness - we have so many cherries! I wish I would have taken a picture of all that we picked! Bing's, Rainier's and pie cherries. YUM!

Saturday, Marmar and Booboo and I canned cherries. We made 6 quarts of super yummy cherry pie filling, the lighter red bottles (that's all???? I picked those things forever!) and 42 quarts of bottle Bing cherries, the darker bottles. Boy were we tired and hot! In the evening, the Mayor grilled some steaks and we had a great spread for dinner and then went to a friend's house to watch some fireworks. The girls didn't go to bed til 11 and were so exhausted! Little Dude fell asleep as soon as she layed down, Little Bit took a little convincing.

I decided we needed to try a cherry pie with the Rainier cherries and well - it was just ok. Not nearly as good as the bottled pie filling we made. I think I will try again, and alter the recipe a little. Today we delivered cherries to a few friends and we still have oodles of cherries left! What else can one make with cherries????

swimming lessons

Little Dude seeing a friend at the other end of the pool

Kick those feet and SPLASH!

Waiting her turn to swim with the teacher

the girls started swimming lessons yesterday and Little Bit loves the water. She wasn't hesitant at all to get in, and out and in and out and in and out and in (you get the picture!) she loved "swimming" with her teacher - she put her head under water without reservation and is just a little fish in the water. Little Dude also enjoyed it, she is a bit more reserved (the teachers had to pull her into the water), but once in, she did just fine.

School's out!

Froggy cupcakes for the class birthday party. (the classroom is decorated with frogs)

Playing on the monkey bars - those are the same kind I fell off of in 5th grade and broke both of my arms. Be careful!

Little Dude getting her award from her teacher.

Getting off the bus. (She has a new grin since losing that tooth!)

with her candy gram poster - so fun!

Oh what fun! School is out for the summer! We are so glad to relax on our schedule a bit! But we have lots of fun things planned to do this summer around town!

Camping?

the weather has been so nice - we headed out to Sultan to the "ranch" and camped out! the girls roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire. They slept outside in a tent with Pawpaw - got up way early and headed out on a super long walk with Pawpaw and the llamas, came back and had eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast! What a fun way to start the summer!

FINALLY!

it finally happened! She's one happy girl! We are now entering the toothfairy world...one in which i'm not all that excited about. Her friends at school have told her what the toothfairy leaves, what if the toothfairy leaves something different at our house? will she be teased? Or will it be cool? I don't want to compete with the monetary amounts that the toothfairy leaves at some houses. Granted the first tooth is a special tooth, but really??? the amounts i'm hearing are CRAZY. I'm thinking something other than money - got any ideas?

Jump-a-thon

Way to go Little Dude! her goal was 40 jumps in two minutes - she jumped 170 times. I'm talking twirling the rope over her head each time--a lot of the kindergartens were able to lay the jump rope on the floor and jump back and forth - not this little girl! forwards, backwards, one foot, arms crossed - we are so proud of her! Her rope was little longer than the one she uses at home - ignore the commentators!

Happy Birthday!

We had a geat time last night with friends and family for the Mayor's birthday! The weather was perfect! the Mayor used his new grill for the first time (even tho he's had it for a year) and made us yummy burgers and halibut wrapped in bacon! It was delish! so fun! It was fun to see friends we haven't seen for awhile! I feel more bbq's coming on this summer! It was a little windy when I brought the cupcakes out so he only got to blow out - um - maybe two! but they were yummy - yellow cake with chocolate frosting with a chocolate covered sunflower seed in the center! Love ya Mayor!!!!