First Day of Summer

We thoroughly enjoyed our first full day of summer break!  We started the day off by explaining to the kiddos the four things that we want them to focus on this summer: academics by reading, reading, and reading, chores, service and fun.  We have felt convicted lately that we do not focus enough on service as a family so we are looking for ways big and small to teach our children that we must give back.  We have been blessed and loved on by so many people and we have been encouraged so much this past year by kindness from others that we must teach our children the value of service.

We are also focusing on academics because this is going to be one of the longest summers we have ever had (yay!) but we must keep plugging along on reading for all and math especially for David.  David's reading is awesome, but he really struggles in math.  Hope is by far our most eager learner and she wants to "do her wetters" (letters) often! 

So after the hard work of chores and academics, we pulled out our water slide!!  The kids were so excited!  Sadly this will probably be the last time we can use it because after four great summers with it, it has some tears in some seams that cannot be patched.  Sigh.  They have loved that slide! 

David did not last as long as his siblings, but he had such fun!! We dressed him from head to toe and then liberally applied sunscreen.  It was such good medicine to the soul to see him enjoying the sunshine.

He love that squirter thing on top...

and kept Kyle and Hope hopping as they would run as he sprayed them!  Ha!

Hope is definitely a fish and loves the water. She and Kyle were on that thing almost four hours yesterday!!!  David did not make it nearly that long, but he looks cool in his big floppy hat!  He did not want to wear it, until Kyle told him he looked like Captain Pirate off of the Misfit Pirate movie we had just seen the day before. 

After some fun in the sun, we had a BALL playing with spray glitter hair spray and color boost.  We are preparing for a tiny little princess party for a few of Hope's friends next week. We bought supplies for the party and then had such fun experimenting with them!  Can you see the pink in Hope's hair and all that glitter?

Ashley was soooo patient and allowed my chidlren free reign with the glitter spray and pink in her hair!  They had such fun!  We laughed and laughed as everything was eventually covered in glitter. 

This is a better shot of Hope's pink and glitter hair! 

We ended the evening at the ballfield watching Kyle play a game. Kyle was blessed to have a cheering section of Jason, Ashley, Jonas, and Sheila!  David had such fun playing with some sweet classmates, and then he got a game going with Jason and Jonas.  This game was probably more interesting than Kyle's!  Kyle did not pitch and his team won by the slaughter rule. 

I love this picture that Ashley took of the boys playing ball with the stadium lights in the background.

We are ready for a fun and relaxed holiday weekend. We are in cleaning mode around here because next weekend we are having a huge neighborhood yard sale with some friends. Our house is way too full of stuff and it is time to clean out!  We have some fun plans tonight and we have a long "to do" list for our house.  After sitting in the hospital all winter we are actually enjoying working outside.  We even have a small garden with some veggies growing!  Happy Memorial Weekend!