The first week of summer

Summer in Texas means hot, which means camps are scheduled as early as possible, which means Scout Camp, High Adventure, and Girls Camp were all the first week after school.  Ben's troop went to a camp that offered High Adventure as well, so Scott was able to go to that.  Here are a few pictures Ben provided of the week:

Scott with friends Keith and Brigham, who went to the scout camp part

 

 and with Alex and Peyton, who went to the High Adventure part.

 A little friend they found roaming around their tents

 Fun at the shooting range

 The camp provides tents.  This was Joe (the other leader) and Ben's tent

 They got a little break from the heat during meals

Scott, Alex, and Keith bought hammocks to sleep in

 

Scott only spent the first and last days at the camp.  The other days were the High Adventure, where they backpacked up a "mountain" and did adventure-y things.  Ben said he really missed having Scott around this year!  His other scouts were pretty good, but it's different than having your own boy there.

 On Tuesday, I sent off my Emma to Girls Camp.  She was so, so, so excited to go--and I was so nervous for her!  (Scott has always had Ben to camp with, and Ben even went with Emma on a pre-camp they had, to teach cooking to the girls.)  There was no need to worry.  She had a wonderful time.  (I gave her a camera to take some pictures, but I haven't gotten them downloaded yet, so--all I have is this and one I "borrowed" from a friend from Facebook!)

Ready to go, with her friend and fellow first-year, Julia

Crafting, crafting, crafting!

And that leaves Momma home with  the four youngest!  Don't worry--we found enough things to keep us busy.  One day we drove to Dallas.  Caytie had waited two weeks since her birthday to get her new scriptures, and we had a free day, so we went to the LDS bookstore and bought some for her!  They engraved her name right then, and she was so pleased.  Since the bookstore is right by the Dallas Temple, we drove over and took a little walk around the whole thing.  These kids hadn't been this close to this temple that they (or I) could remember, so it was fun for us all to get a close up view.

 (Yes, they were instructed to NOT pick the flowers.)

We also started swimming lessons for Gracie, Caytie, and Tessa.  Caytie and Tessa were just on the verge of swimming independently, and needed someone besides mom to get them brave enough to try some strokes.  They got it quickly, and are now little fish. Gracie just needed some refinement on her strokes and a little work on endurance, and she also did a great job.  I let them take pictures of each other one day, and this is what we got:

We were happy to have our campers all return on Saturday to our big, noisy family again.

Last week of school

The end of the year comes with end of the year awards assemblies!  Caytie's was on Tuesday.  She got an award for science (her favorite subject, for now)...

... and for being on the A honor roll.  Good job, Caytie!

 In our school district, fourth grade is the last grade in elementary school, and they had a ceremony on Thursday for all the kids.  Their class is special, because they were the first to start kindergarten in the new school, and have made it all the way through now.  They called each student up and had a slide with all their recognitions from the year.  I liked seeing the school pictures from Kindergarten to 4th grade!

 Then they walked over to get their awards and shake hands with their teachers and with the namesake of their school (who is the white-haired man at the bottom right, in front of the door).

 This is my first child to go all the way from start to finish in one school, so Gracie has made lots of good friends, like Kylee, Jenna, Peighton...

 ...Emily and Brooke.

 They didn't have Mr. G as a teacher, but he taught Scott and Emma, and is a fun, fun friend of all the students.

On to Tessa--she finished Kindergarten, and they had their cute graduation program on Friday (the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!), after which they hugged their Kindergarten teacher...

 ...and crossed the bridge to shake hands with the Principal and a 1st grade teacher.

 We then all went to the classrooms, where the teachers gave out individual awards.  Tessa's was for writing, because she always made lots of books during her free time.

 We love Mrs. E (who also taught Emma and Caytie)!  She's already reserved Benson. :)

In other award news, Scott was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society (but we had a conflict that night, and he was just fine missing the ceremony) and got an award for Algebra.  Emma was invited to have lunch with her Science teacher with a group of students who he felt worked the very hardest during the year.  She also got the "Grit" award for never giving up.  I think this mom has a lot to be proud of.

 That evening, once again proving that we have awesome neighbors, our friends across the street hosted a "foam" party, with a huge foam making machine, along with the ever-popular inflatable waterslide.  We contributed homemade rootbeer to the potluck feast.

Let the summer begin!

Unexcused absence--hooray!

We did something a little out of the ordinary on Monday while Grandma and Grandpa were still here--we let the kids skip school and went to the Perot Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas instead!  (It was the last week of school for the kids.  I am positive they learned more this day than they did during the next four days combined...)  Only Scott and Gracie had been there before on field trips, so they showed us all around.

The museum is five stories high and packed with things to see and do.  Here's a sampling of some of the things we did:

Emma controlled the flight of this eagle with her movements

We watched a tornado form

We tested our reflexes

We created works of art on the computer, and then displayed them in a wheel of colored light

We controlled Lego robots

We played with instruments connected to computers

We played in the glow-in-the-dark frog garden

We posed...

 ...and posed...

 ...and posed!

It was great.  We ended up getting season passes, so expect more reports soon.  (I'll try to keep it to new material.)

So let's root, root, root for the Rangers!

Saturday afternoon game: perfect weather and perfect company.  (Just missed having my parents there, too, as they had to leave that morning for a meeting in Arkansas.)

We didn't get peanuts or Cracker Jacks, but we did get lots of cotton candy, and the Rangers won!  Hooray!

Caytie's baptism

Thursday at 5 pm.  When you mesh our crazy life with the travel schedules of two sets of grandparents, that is when you hold a baptism for your new sweet eight year old.

(A couple more events that happened during the three days my parents were in town: I had my last day of teaching preschool for the year, complete with a water party; Scott had a jazz band performance during lunch, so Ben and the grandparents went to watch it [he got to do some drumset solos during the Rocky theme song]; Gracie was in her 4th Grade Talent Show, so we all went to watch that [she played "Let it Go" on the piano, while a friend sang part of it--and she did a great job!]; Caytie had a big book report due; Scott had a field trip to Six Flags and Ben went as a chaperone; and Scott, Benson and I came down with bad colds.)

 We were so glad that the grandmas and grandpas could all make it.  (Don't let the fact that we forgot to take pictures with them make you think any different!)  Caytie wore the dress that Emma and Gracie both wore on their baptism days.

 Caytie is blessed to have a worthy Priesthood holder for a dad.

 A shot with dad and mom!

 The baptism service was sweet.  Caytie asked Grandpa D to give the talk on baptism (and he gave his "famous" three bears talk), and Grandpa R to talk on the Holy Ghost (where he told about recently cutting off the tip of his thumb).  She asked Grandma R to play the piano, and me to conduct, and Grandma D and Scott gave the prayers.  She wanted to do a musical number of "When I am Baptized."  She decided to have all our kids (minus Benson) sing the first verse and chorus, and she sang the second verse solo, and the other kids joined in the chorus.  They sounded so beautiful--like angels.

After she was baptized, I went to help her dry off and change.  Her eyes were so sparkly and bright.  I asked her how she was feeling, and she said that when she went into the water, she was cold, but as she was being immersed and brought up out of the water, a warm feeling came all over her.  I asked her what she thought it was, and she said it was the Holy Ghost, because she was doing the right thing.  She had been so bouncy and excited before the service, and I was happy to hear that the importance of the evening was evident to her.

After the baptism we did get a couple more pictures.  Here's a family shot, with our uncooperative 3-year old:

 And here is our friend Misty, and her kids Kylee, Kate, and London.  (Max, her son, was wandering, and Luke, her husband, was working.)  We were so, so happy that they could be there!

Caytie was scheduled to have a late soccer game that night, but it was cancelled due to rain and mud, so we let her choose to have dinner anywhere she wanted.  She chose...Wendy's.  Though we offered lots of suggestions, and she even changed her choice a couple times, I could tell that it was really Wendy's that she wanted, so to Wendy's we did go.

I had to be extremely careful to not let the details of a busy family and church life overshadow the importance of my child making her first covenant.  Caytie does not demand much, but she does deserve much.  It was nice to have this evening to reflect and renew my commitment to my fourth angel child.