Personal Stylist

Not everyone is this lucky, but I have my own personal hair stylist. She's pretty aggressive, and she usually fixes it when I'd really prefer she not...ya know, when I'm talking to a friend, walking through the grocery, times like that. She has a very specific style she likes. It's called All The Hair In Your Face All The Time.

Sometimes I get lucky and she brings her team. Two guys and a chewed up stuffed ocelot.

The worst part is that even when I actually want her to stop (see: in public) I usually can't stop laughing and she just gets more and more crazy as I do!

Memorial

This year we were able to volunteer with some girls from Anna's American Heritage Girls troop and place 15,000 flags at the waterfront.

The flags spelled out USA.

Just across the way they were having the Vintage Urban Market. So many cute things!

Noah had his last soccer game that morning, so he wore his uniform and medal all day.  :)

This nice man let the kids in to pet his alpacas. See how Kate is gazing at them lovingly? This was right before she leaned in and planted a kiss on the side of that black one. The man just looked down and said in a calm voice, "Well, you just kissed an alpaca". We were cracking up! 

It was a fun afternoon. We just love our city!

Wrap up

So many times I post pictures on Facebook or Instagram and never share them here. And that's okay, but please excuse me while I do an end of the year photo dump. After all, this will be my memory book when I'm old and confused.  :)

Those last few weeks of Anna and Noah's school had me very aware that my days with just the "babies" would be ending for a few months, so I tried to have some fun with just the two of them while I still could. Ben must have asked me 50 times in the last month if we could please go get some frozen yogurt, but I always said no because I didn't want to be unfair to the big kids. That's just silly! They got plenty of treats when they were little and not in school, so Ben and Kate should too. It made their day.

And mommy had far too many treats myself. I mean come on. I had to drive by it twice a day on preschool days!

Stopping by the park when they thought we were headed home made for some happy babies too.

And of course the much requested church play land, which Anna and Noah are really too big for now anyway. Kate's little sensory loving self adored this sit and spin.

On a warm evening we walked across the bridge with some friends from our adoption group and got ice cream on the other side.

Benji finished soccer for the Spring and is already asking about playing in the Fall.

Miss Tiny was able to dance and play in the rain for the very first time. Mama loves the firsts I get to have with her.  :)

Once school was out a breakfast in a restaurant was a treat. This was Ben's last day of school so he wasn't there. Shhhh.... 

But after his day was over it was frozen yogurt with daddy. Yahoo for no school! Yahoo for summer!

Many library trips have happened so far this summer...to the point that Ben has already asked, "The library again?". Sorry kids, that won't be changing any time soon.  ;)

You're not in 5th grade until I say so

Anna and Noah finished school a couple of weeks ago, which is still hard to believe. I've told them both that they can't say that they're in 5th and 3rd grade until they are actually IN 5th and 3rd grade!

About a week before school ended Anna had her awards ceremony for American Heritage Girls. She really enjoyed it again this year, and we will join again next year. Excuse all these terrible zoomed in iPhone photos.

The last day started with the Closing School Ceremony as usual. The K-2 classes were first, reciting their poems and memory versus and singing a few songs. Noah is in the back row, first one on the left.

And the 2 fourth grade classes did the same. Anna is in the back row, fourth from the left. She looks tiny here!

This is the last year (for a while) that Anna and Noah will have different end times on the ceremony. K-2 goes back to school after theirs while 3-6th grade stay and continue on with their recitations, and the older grades have theirs on a different day altogether. So Nathan took Noah back to school and I stayed with Anna and took some pictures of her and her friends before they went to class. Love these cute girls!!

The rest of the day was a regular school day. Another mom sent out an email earlier that week inviting the class to a new snow cone place to celebrate the end of the year. It was unusually chilly that day and I wasn't sure if we should go, but of course the kids wanted to in case their friends were there. I honestly thought there would be less than 10 kids there, but I would guess there were closer to 100! Luckily another mom is friends with the family that owns the snow cone shop, so she gave them the heads up that we were all coming!

Maybe we're just getting more accustomed to all of the end of the year busyness, but this year seemed to sort of ease out peacefully. Sure there were ceremonies and events and finals, but it just didn't seem as crazy as last year. Of course last year we were about a week away from leaving for China! This school year really flew by faster than any before I think, but I'm loving these big kids and watching how they navigate their own little lives!