Father's Day

We had Father's Day dinner at our house this year. Annalise had her last recital that afternoon so the grandparents came up to see the performance and afterwards had dinner with us. While I was with Annalise at the recital, Jeff ended up cooking the meal. What a good meal it was! Jeff's a very good cook.

After dinner the girls decided they needed to go swimming in the hot tub. Silly girls they may be, they did have a fun Father's Day with the family. Happy Father's Day Jeff!

Preschool Completion

This past week was Robyn's last day of preschool. She's going back to preschool next year but even so, the school had a little completion ceremony for the 3 year old class. It was really cute. Now Robyn's really excited about going to the 4 year old class in the fall. It's amazing how much older the whole class looks now then when they started back in September. Kids grow up so fast!

Our cow

In November, we bought a quarter of a cow. We bought it from a co-worker of Jeff's who has a farm outside of town. Every year she and her husband raise a couple of meat cows and this year they named the cows Sir Loin, Filet and Mignon.

So on Thursday evening we went out to the farm to see the cows and Annalise got to help feed them. She did a good job even though the cattle are a bit intimidating, especially when they are hungry.

The girls got a wagon ride after feeding the cattle.

They also have horses on the farm. We fed the horses apple treats (which really looked like small hot dogs) and the girls went for a ride. It was a really windy day but they had fun.

Water day

Thursday was a busy day for the girls. Annalise and all the fourth graders went to the Exploratorium in the city. I wasn't able to go with her on her fieldtrip but I was able to take pictures at Robyn's preschool's water day. All the kids came to school with their towels and in the swim suits. For half the day the kids got to play outside in the water. It was finally a nice day to do it. The weather has been unseasonably cool -- not that I'm complaining because it's nice not to have to run the air conditioning.

At the end of the day they had a "picnic" outside. The kids had a great time. Too bad next week is the last day of preschool. Robyn had a great time this year!

Reading together and a laundry mishap

With school is finishing in a couple of weeks many fun activities are happening. Since State testing was completed last month, teachers now have the time to do fun activities that they couldn't fit in earlier in the year. On Wednesday, Annalise's school held a "Reading on the Grass." It's an annual event sponsored by the PTA. It lasts only a half hour but the kids go outside and sit on the grass and read with their parents. We had a lot of fun and the weather was nice. I'm not sure how much reading was actually accomplished but I enjoyed spending time with the girls (because Robyn came along) and spend time with some of Annalise's friends at school.

Another thing that happened this week was that on Friday we had a mishap -- or catastrophe depending on how you look at it -- with our washer. Our 13 1/2 year old washing machine decided to overflow. It didn't just overflow, it managed to flood the laundry room and soak the carpet in the hallway. This was the second breakdown in the past few months so we decided to buy a new machine. This decision was done with heavy reluctance on my part but eventually I calmed down and agreed that a new machine was needed. We ended buying a Kenmore front loader washing machine. It gets delivered on Monday. Oh joy, just in time to do more laundry....

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend started off with a bang. Saturday was day of multiple activities that seemed to grow exponentially as the day grew closer. Well not really, but so many activities were planned for that day that we had to turn down a few. I've never understood this phenomena. Most days are activity free but periodically I get these days where everyone is planning fun activities that we want to go to. What we ended up doing was a birthday party (Annalise) in the morning, a dance performance (Annalise) in the afternoon, and then another birthday party that night. That was all I could fit in that day, anything else added would have put me over the edge. :) The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. We rested at home, visited with family and just generally had a nice weekend away from school and work.

The only pictures I took that weekend was of Annalise at her dance performance in the park. Three girls were supposed to dance but only two showed up. The teacher gave them the option to not dance, but they went ahead and did it anyway. I was pretty proud of them. They talked and decided (by themselves) how they were change the dance for two people. I thought they did very well -- but then I'm just a mom. But not a very good mom as I forgot the sunscreen. Poor Annalise had her first sunburn. It really wasn't that bad but Annalise doesn't (generally) get sunburns so I think she was surprised that it can hurt. She inherited Jeff's darker skin because if she had inherited my pale skin she would have learned that lesson a long time ago. Next time I'll do better -- I promise.

Spring Chorus Musical

On Wednesday, Annalise's school chorus had their spring musical. This is Annalise's second year doing chorus. It was tough for her because practice was before school. She is just not a morning person but I'm proud of her for sticking to it. Unfortunately this will be the last year of early chorus because the music teacher is retiring.

The kids had a lot of fun, and they did a good job. Last year they put on Alice of Wonderland. This year, because it was the last, the music teacher put together a medley of different songs they've performed in the past. Annalise was picked to be one of the dancers of "Land of a 1000 Dancers."

(Sorry about the quality of the pictures. My camera has a weak flash. I soooo want to buy a new camera -- one of these days I'll break down and get one. )