What a summer!!!! - Part One

That was the fastest summer I have ever experienced! Last time I checked it was Memorial Day and the pool was just opening. We have kept ourselves very busy and have had a great three months. I am going to have to divide it up into parts because there is just too much for one entry.

May started with the boys taking their end-of-year tests and doing VERY well. It was a great way to end our first year of homeschooling. I think it was a success. The kids have learned a lot and they are all getting along much better as well.

Nicholas got into some poisen ivy and I have never seen him so miserable. I didn't even take a picture because that would have been adding insult to injury, although the rash was pretty impressive. There was not much on his body that was not itchy. Poor kid. He is on the look-out for poisen ivy now and avoids anything with three leaves.

Naomi got her cast off in time for the pool opening and her final gymnastics lesson/performance of the year. I was so proud of her. She is really good and the teachers put her in with the older girls and she held her own.

We also went camping as a family with Jeremy's scout troop up in the Appalachian mountians. It was a really fun weekend, but I can honestly say that I have never been in such a rain/thunderstorm. It was right above us, really loud and dumping buckets. Thanks to Steve's forethought, we all came through relatively dry. On the one sunny day we were able to hike up to the falls that were not too far from the campground. It was really fun to watch the kids play in the water and enjoy the sun. All-in-all it was a great weekend getting to know the other families in the troop and watching Jeremy interact with the other scouts in his patrol.

Jeremy took archery lessons and loved it. He is really good at it as well. It is so much fun to see the kids find things they love.

We started our painting project over Memorial Day weekend. Little did we know that we had only seen the tip of the iceburg! Once I started painting I realized that we couldn't just stop now that we had started because I had make a clean spot and the other walls now looked completely dingey. Our small project grew overnight. How long could it possibly take to paint the hallway, stairs and front entryway (20 foot ceiling) and all the ceilings downstairs anyway?!!!?? Let's just say that it looks amazing now and we are blocking out the pain of 6 weeks of constant painting. I am concentrating on the fact that I no longer have hand prints going up the stairs. The orange crayon train track Nicholas drew down the entire length of the hall when he was 2 1/2 is gone. The bannister rungs, baseboards and doors are all white again. It is stunning and it makes me smile even on the worst of days!!

P.S. I tried to fix all the formatting issues, but they just don't want to be fixed - so enjoy in spite of the cranky blog formatting god.