life skills 101

the first week of summer at our house is called life skills 101. i didn't plan any lessons or camps and we are learning some basic life skills. lesson #1: laundry. we spent a day catching up on laundry--teaching the kids how to run the washer and dryer, including all the cycles and temps. the kids actually enjoyed themselves and i consider it a success because i have caught both sadie and abe rotating the laundry all by themselves. next on our life skills list: cleaning a bathroom, fixing lunch, and deep cleaning a bedroom. yeah for summer!

missing

(i know this picture hurts your neck)

i found this poster after our water dog/salamander got away. made me smile amidst the heartache of another pet that didn't work out for the tullis'.

saltair

scout camp

today is abe's first scout camp. being the hovering mom that i am, i sent dave along too just to help out with the bb guns and swimming in the lake. they left bright and early. abe is way more excited about scouts than i am. i even overheard him teaching the motto to a friend at school. i am glad that abe and dave get to have a day together. max, with his sad little face, is next on the list for a day with dave!

schools out!!

schools out!! today was the last day of school followed by party, party, party! i dropped sadie off at a friend's and before i finished talking to the mom she was hanging out in the hot tub with girls and boys from her class. what ?!
this year went by fast. i feel happy that summer is here and we can have some down time but also sad because the kids had amazing teachers and such a positive, happy year and i'm sad to have it come to an end. their teachers had a lot of confidence in them and it is such a blessing to have a teacher that thinks you are capable and believes in you.

ms. velvick and abe

sadie and mrs. mccann

talent show

today was the elem. school talent show, which is on my list of favorite days. it is just so fun.

abe and three of his buddies aka "the boomwhackers" performed. they played a song by hitting different sized plastic tubes on their heads. what could be better for eight year old boys? with their t-shirts that said "boomwhackers," and the way the sixth grade announcer introduced them, you might have mistaken them for a famous band. highly entertaining.

sadie also performed. hers was a little more serious. she sang a song called 'someone needs your star'. this year her class headed a couple service projects for their school to help children in afghanistan. i took photos of these projects and mixed them with photos of children from afghanistan (thanks to our good friend justin who is serving in afghanistan and his great wife, sue, who sent me copies of some photos) we made a slide show that went with her song. i thought it was pretty neat. sadie was the first to perform. her teacher said she lost all of her mascara....even the student council pres./sixth grade boy told sadie she made him cry. i was just so grateful that the projector worked and i was able to get my laptop charged since the cord broke on me. i was also grateful that dave happen to be post call for the dress rehearsal so he was able to watch them perform, even if it was just a practice.
all together it was a lot of work, but well worth it. it was rewarding to see them come up with an idea, work hard at it, do a great job and feel good about what they did.

no photo because i was too busy setting up and helping them, but i am going to try to round one up.

ps~ (thanks juliette for tending and giving my children blue otter pops...they love you! all i have to do if i want maxwell's attention is say, "baby delilah".)

the wedding dance

sadie performed the last two nights at the center for the arts here in town. it was a small, cozy theater. sadie said it was her first time ever performing on an eyeball shaped stage.  she has really enjoyed her dance class this year and the girls did a beautiful job. not to mention they all looked so grown up. crazy!