Alrighty, let's get to it!
Besides September, June is, I think, THE busiest month of the school year.
There is just so much going on and it's all jam packed into three short weeks.
First up in June was our PTA's Volunteer Appreciation Night where I had to stand in front of about 100+ people and talk on a microphone.
It was horrible.
While I was addressing the crowd, Mikey was hiding behind me tugging on my pants.
On the one hand, I thought he was going to pull my pants down in front of everyone and on the other hand it was a bit comforting to know he was there with me. It was a weird feeling.
Anyways, it was a good thing that there was cake there to help with the decompress.
The next day there was a Mikey field trip to the zoo.
I chaperoned Mikey and two of his pals.
They were the best behaved 1st graders ever. And they were boys.
If you've been on a field trip with boys, you know why this is incredible.
They stayed with me, listened to me, we had conversations about what we were looking at....
Maybe it was because they were 1st graders?
Maybe next year it won't be so easy.....I hope not.
"He better not poop on me...."
They got to see the usually-hiding-way-in-the-back-so-you-can-never-see-him jaguar!
Class photo time!
Sigh. Cute. He fell asleep on the bus ride back to school.
It was second-to-last soccer game time.
Mikey spent some more time in goal.
Go, Mikey, go!!
Halftime!
If you've noticed, Mikey's hair is pretty long.
Long enough that he can put it in his mouth, which he does when he's bored, or thinking, or just standing around.
We decided to break out a head band to help combat the hair distraction.
He actually didn't mind it at all.
Next, it was time for Katie's game.
Most of my pictures are from far away.
She ran a lot.
See. Mikey liked the head band so much he started wearing it at random times.
He wants to grow his hair down to the floor.
Long enough that he doesn't have to wear a blanket at night, he can just wrap his hair around himself.
Yeah.
Speaking of hair. We're moving on to facial hair now.
Huzbend decided to shave off his winter face hat.
He had some fun while doing so.
I like this one the best.
I thought he could pull this off with the addition of some moustache wax and a newsboy cap.
Maybe a top hat?
He said no and blamo it was gone.
The second week of June was downright hot (or what we PNW'ers consider hot).
It was close to 90.
Ralph was happy.
Another pool day!
So were the kids.
Ralph says, "Room for me? Don't leave a canine hangin'!"
That second week of June also brought with it MORE events at school.
An all-school BBQ along with The World's Longest Recess and then field day right after.
I love volunteering at field day.
It's fun to watch the kids do all the whacky activities.
Except that you have to yell instructions at them all day.
You end up with no voice by schools end.
Here's Mikey participating in the "Flying Pig Relay".
Pigs carried in lacrosse sticks.
Hilarious!
This year I did both shifts - K thru 3rd graders in the morning and 4th thru 6th graders in the afternoon.
I took a break for lunch and went to eat with Mikey in his classroom.
They also had face painting.
This is a dog.
That second weekend of June was ultra-busy as well.
That Saturday, Katie had her school drama club performance on an actual stage at a performing center.
The big time!
The kids did great.
They were able to go with the flow even with a few mess-ups and forgotten lines.
Never in a million years could I have stood on that stage like they did.
Wow!
Drama pose!
Her character was Calamity Jane.
Fitting.
Talk about total opposite activities, Batman!
That same day happened to also be the kids last soccer games of the season.
This was the only time that Katie and Mikey had games scheduled at the same time at different fields.
Huzbend went to Mikey's and I went to Katie's.
I was bummed.
She looks so calm and happy in this picture.
The total opposite of me prior to my co-ed indoor games.
It was a hard and aggressive last
game, but Katie did great.
She hung in there and tried her best.
We were so proud of both of them for getting out there and playing.
I think it might have helped watching their parents get creamed every week at our indoor games and not quitting.
Really.
The Unicorns on Ice lost every game, except one.
As if our weekend wasn't crazy enough, Sunday brought with it morning swim lessons and then the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America's Take Steps fundraising walk!
It was a beautiful day for it too.
Katie really loves these CCFA events.
I think it makes her heart glow seeing all the support.
Mikey's favorite part is not the walk, but the bounce house.
The WHOLE family was there.
Even Ralph.
He had to be there. He's our team mascot.
Yayyyyy! We did it!
Now, where's that bounce house?
The bounce house visit was postponed to let Ralph sniff ducks.
The kids could not resist the call of that waaaaaterrrrrrr.
Mikey got out pretty quick.
The rocks were owee on his feet.
Katie would've actually gone swimming if we didn't call her back.
Another hour or so in the bounce house, which was actually a bounce obstacle course, and it was time to go.
This doesn't happen that much anymore (except on zoo field trips).
The last week of school was here!
Time for 1st Grade Puppet Plays.
Mikey's guy is the brown one there in the middle.
His play was "The Tricky Garden".
It was about a grumpy bear that won't share berries with a coyote. The coyote tricks him into growing a garden and promising to eat either the tops or bottoms of certain veggies. Bear always picks the wrong part to eat. For example for celery, Bear agrees to eat what grows below the ground while Coyote gets everything that grows above the ground.
You get the picture.
By the end, Bear learns his lessons and shares all the garden food.
"My name is Mikey and I played Bear."
He did a great job.
It was really a stretch for him to play a grumpy bear.
Not.
The rest of the week flew by and before we knew it, it was the last day of school.
Wow.
Here's Mikey's 1st/2nd grade class celebrating.
Katie's 4th grade class celebrated by blasting The Village People's YMCA.
And a conga line.
And, just like that, school was over.
And, because I am "so mean", I scheduled Katie's IV infusion for the Saturday after the last day of school.
I've explained to her that I can't control when the 8 week deadlines come, but she still sighs and tells me that I have the worst timing.
The lazy days of summer were here.
And lazy they were.
We really didn't do anything.
Watched TV, played video games, took Ralph for walks, went to a friends house to play....stuff like that.
We released some ladybugs.
I found them in a local store.
There were like a thousand or something in the bag.
We let them loose in the backyard and the kids got to play with them.
At first, Mikey didn't want to help.
He didn't want to feel the tickle of their little legs.
By the end, he had a bunch crawling around on him.
And there were a bunch!
We paid a visit to a local pool that's free for city residents.
Yes. I had to swim this time.
The kids rode bikes.
That is not a clown bike. It's Mikey's old bike.
Not sure why she wanted to ride it.
It looked pretty silly.
Even Ralph was amused.
And then it was time for something Katie had been looking forward to for about a year, Camp Oasis.
Camp Oasis is a co-ed residential week-long summer camp established by the CCFA for kids with IBD.
It allows them to spend a week doing all sorts of cool stuff, meeting kids their age with the same problems, and having an all-around great time.
There's also the added benefit of having trained medical staff on hand at all times to help with issues that may arise and to make sure the kids get their daily meds.
We got our paperwork in super early back in January and when we found out she was accepted (sometimes kids are too sick to go) she just about passed out.
In the Northwest, Camp Oasis is held at YMCA Camp Colman about an hour and a half away from us.
She said that she had a fluttery feeling in her stomach. She chalked it up to being a little nervous but also because she was SO excited to be there.
She was really excited to see the lake with its swim docks and slides.
At check-in, all the kids were given a quick exam to make sure they weren't sick or (ew) had lice.
The doctors asked us about any recent symptoms or concerns.
Once we passed that, we moved on to visit the nurses and discuss medicines.
After we went through the check-in process, we walked her to her cabin.
It was nice digs.
It has a big deck out back that was overlooking the lake.
There was a bathroom with two sinks a toilet and a shower.
Fancy shmancy.
Katie selected a top bunk and we set up her bed for the week.
She was excited to get to work making new friends, so we decided to take our leave.
How awesome is she?
I mean, really.
I like this picture.
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad"
It was really, really weird not to have Katie at home.
We all missed her.
We took the opportunity to visit some eating establishments that are decidedly un-celiac-friendly.
Guess that was the high point of our week.
I spent the week obsessively checking the camp photo website to see what was going on.
We were also able to send one-way communications to her.
I couldn't wait for her to get home and share her experiences with us.
In the meantime, we got to spend a bit more time focused on Mikey.
Which he thoroughly enjoyed.
