Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

June family update

So I guess this family update thing will have to be a monthly occurrence on this blog. We started off our Summer with lots of activities. Both for the kids and I. We have been busy in the month of June and we are counting down the days when we go on our vacation. Looking forward to unwinding and being with the family. 

Anyways, here's how our June looked like so far...

School ended in the beginning of this month. But before then, the kids' school had their last pride assembly. This is when they give out awards and recognize the kids for their achievements for that year. The day before the assembly, I got a letter from the PE teacher and Sports club coach saying that Marcus will be one of two kids that will be getting a special award that he has never given out before. Marcus has been attending after school sports club since 3rd Grade and Mr. Brubaker was very organized and kept track of all of their attendance during this time. Well he counted and I guess out of all the three years that my son participated in this once a week after  school activity, he has only missed two days. This was one of the things that my son enjoyed and he didn't mind staying up one more hour after school once a week for it. Mr. B. thought that these boys deserved to be recognized for their dedication so he gave them a certificate. What a great way to end 5th grade!

Speaking of Marcus, he finished Elementary school this year. He is now officially a middle schooler. I still can't believe that! The collage above shows him on the first day of school (left photo) and then the right shows him with his certificate of completion during the "promotion" ceremony. I wanted to give him a little something as a gift for making it this far and I knew that flowers or balloons weren't going to be much appreciated by this boy so I made him a candy lei. He was very happy about that. The problem now is that I have to remember to make Maddie a candy lei too when she gets to this point or I will never hear the end of it. Ha!

And of course Maddie gets her collage picture as well. The image on the right shows her on the first day and the one of the left is of her on the last day of school this year. The one thing I noticed about these two images placed side by side is how fast she is growing up. I mean, piggy tales on the left and then a flower with hair down on the right! She definitely got the "preteen" bug this year and I'm not excited about it. Why are my babies growing up so fast?

During the month of May, I decided to do a major overhaul of my craft space. I went through ALL of my stuff and made a pile to keep and one to part with. After doing all the purging, I held a scrapbook yard sale in the beginning of June. I made some money and the kids even joined in with a table selling lemonade and some baked goodies. Marcus was a little disappointed that what he was selling wasn't flying off the shelf but it was a good teaching moment to them about working hard and paying your tithing afterwards.

The major home improvement project this month was painting the backyard deck. Mitch actually started this in May but with our afternoon rain showers, it was hard for him to find the time to finish it all. I wasn't able to help him out with the painting as I was afraid the paint fumes might be bad for the baby. But as always he did an awesome job after it was all done. He only did one coat though so he'll have to do it all over again starting in July.

As you can see from the photo above, our deck needed some major TLC. It was really looking bad. We suspect that the prior owners just did a coat of varnish when they were getting ready to sell it and that's why the color didn't last long (we've only been here for 3 1/2 years). This time we bought the type of paint that supposed to restore and protect the wood and that it should last for a long time. Crossing our fingers we don't have to do this again too soon. 

June also means craft camp for me. I snapped this photo of bags of craft supplies just before I pulled them out and made a big huge mess in my craft room. I'm holding the camp this week and I'm super excited about the projects we are making this year. I have a small group this time (which I don't mind at all) and decided to make some of the projects a bit more detailed since there's less kids to teach/help. I hope they like it. Maddie saw some of my samples and was already excited. :)

Of course June won't be the same without celebrating our favorite daddy! I let Mitch go with me to See's candy store so he can "personalize" his chocolate box. We are not into surprises in this home (at least the adults are not) so we don't mind knowing what we will get before hand. He liked the idea of picking the chocolates himself and now he says that he as a new favorite besides the Bordeaux kind. He also got a cool card from Amanda.

Marcus got to participate in another year of Cub Scout day camp this year. This is his last year and although, in the beginning, he was not too thrilled to be doing some of the Webelos events again (he got an early start with Webelos last year) he had an awesome time. When I asked him what was his favorite, he said it was the rock climbing. I was not there when he did this event but from what I heard from the other moms, he was fearless and was able to make it to the top. I was asked to photograph the events of the last day of camp (Webelos day) and the above was a shot I took of a boy focusing on his archery. I am always impressed at the amount of volunteer work that members of our church put in order for these boys to get their pins and requirements done. I am blessed to have such devoted leaders working with me and my husband so that my children can have such awesome experiences like this. 

And finally, a "baby bump" photo. This is me on Father's day so it would have been a couple days before my 29th week of pregnancy. I am now officially 30 weeks so that means 10 (or less) week to go. We are very excited for our little one and already have a name picked out. We even talk about our baby boy using this name so we can test it out and see if we like it. I especially adore it when the kids mention him by his name.I think it's so adorable that they already have this connection with him even before he's born. Oh and no I am not going to share his name in public (only with immediate family) as I'm worried I'll jinx it. I had a name picked out early on and then shared it with a couple of friends only to find out that my husband refuse to use that name for our boy. Don't want that to happen again! 

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by and keeping in touch with us.

Till next time,
Grace

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