Hello Summer

 This has been such a fun week.  The week started with a holiday (Juneteenth).  I spent the day catching up after our Father's Day weekend tournament and the kids all went off to play with their friends.

Tuesday was the big day everyone was waiting for, the last day of school!  Well, truth be told they actually all had school on Wednesday but only for a couple of hours and no one wanted to go so I didn't make them.  I personally felt like it was ridiculous we were in school at the end of June anyway.  In any case, my kids wrapped up the year on Tuesday.

Wednesday, we met some friends (from both Carrigan's and Elsie's schools) at the park for a playdate.  Merrick had to come along too, much to his extreme disappointment.  The big excitement for the day came much later that day when Jeremy showed up and met us at the church BBQ with his parents in tow.  All the kids were super excited and surprised to see them since we had kept their arrival a secret.

Since Wednesday it has been a nonstop party.  Thursday we went to Dave and Buster's for some video game fun.

Friday, Jeremy took the day off work and we all went to Oak's Amusement Park.  The older kids had a great time, as was expected. Elsie was the big surprise.  She was a little slow to decide she was having a good time, but once she decided, she was all in.  She would go on ride after ride and immediately call to go again.  She loved one ride that Carrigan only decided this year that she liked.  Turns out she is a little adrenalin junkie.

Merrick really liked the big roller coaster.  He, Jeremy and I rode it a few times before Jeremy bowed out and left Merrick and I to keep going.  In the end, he rode it 14 times and I rode it 12.  I never get to be the fun parent so it was a nice change to be the fun one going on all the rides with Merrick.

Yesterday we had a party at the Ioapo's house to celebrate Kalani's graduation.  They had a water bounce house and, of course, tons of food.

We still have two days until Grandpa and Lollie go home.  Not sure how we can top what we have done so far, but we are definitely going to have a blast.

Preschool Graduation

This week was the beginning of the end of school wrap up.  On Thursday, Elsie and I celebrated preschool graduation.  Truth be told, this isn't really her graduation because she has one more year of preschool before heading off to kindergarten, but we celebrated just the same.

This year's graduation followed the same pattern as all the previous years.  We invited all the parents to come at the end so the kids could perform some songs for them.  Then we handed out certificates, graduation hats, and gifts.  After that, we had treats to round out the day.  We had a great group of kids this year and everyone really hit it off so people were in no hurry to leave.  I think people stayed for about an hour after preschool typically ends, pretty sure that's a record.

One down, two to go on the school wrap up.  Merrick and Carrigan are both off from school tomorrow and then have a full day on Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday.  We'll see how the week plays out but I think at least Merrick will probably sit out the half day.  We are all SO ready for summer to start.

Beach+Baseball

This weekend we were at the coast at Newport for Merrick's baseball tournament.  It was a super fun, but I am exhausted so this is going to be short and sweet.  We arrived in Newport about 5pm on Friday night.  The weather was really bad but the kids enjoyed the time at the indoor pool and dinner out with a special stop for ice cream so it all worked out.

Saturday, Merrick's games weren't until 4 and 6 so we had the whole morning/early afternoon to play.  The weather was a tiny bit better so we spent some time walking along the beach and then hit the pool and hot tub again.  The games on Saturday were a mixed bag with one win and one loss but the girls kept themselves busy with making rock art.

Today was ALL about baseball with games most of the day.  We won both of our games today and Merrick did some lights out pitching.  He pitched for four innings and let in just 1 run (it actually was a home run on the first batter he faced in the first inning-gahhh! but he didn't let it rattle him and moved on for a great outing).  They ended up winning their division of the tournament.

We just got home and, like I said, we are all exhausted.  It was a great weekend though and now we just have to buckle down and make it through the last full week of school.

School Vs. Fun

This was another fun-filled week with more fun than school for some of us.  Everyone was off on Monday for Memorial Day.  We spent the day on the baseball field for the end of Merrick's Memorial Day tournament.  The tournament was a mixed bag.  We had one inning where the coach left in a pitcher that he should have pulled and we let in 10 runs in one inning and subsequently lost 10-5.  Because of that we didn't get to play in the championship game and took third in the tournament.

The weather was really good mid week and at least some contingency went swimming Monday-Wednesday.  It's early days but I can tell we are going to get our moneys worth out of the pool this year.

Friday C.C. didn't have school again for a teacher grading day.  She, Elsie and I ran some errands in the morning, then we got together with Brown cousins for a fun day.  We went to lunch at Panda Express, went to Wunderland arcade, and got slurpees.  Merrick spent Friday afternoon and evening playing for Kai's team again (his second game of the week for them).  He's really enjoying the fun time (less stress) baseball he gets to play on Kai's team.  He will play for them again tomorrow and probably would play Wednesday too if we didn't have family pictures.  At this point he is playing more for Kai's team than for his own.

This weekend was super rainy.  We didn't do a whole lot but did go to Elsie's friend's going away party (they are moving to South Carolina soon).  We also got to go to church as a family for the first time in a while thanks to our baseball free weekend.  The girls and I all got dresses and ended up matching in navy so that called for a Sunday selfie.

Two more weeks of school for me and Elsie and two and a half to the big kids.  The countdown is on!