Last/First

During the first half of June, we had several last days and first days all clustered together:

• Monday, June 6th was the first day of summer swim team for the kids. They met in the evening for the last week of school, and it kind of rocked our world having an activity every night of the week on school days. It felt so so busy!
• At the beginning of the first practice, Amber took the swim test and made it onto the swim team for the first time! She had to swim the "short" way across the pool and back, which is quite a distance in our city's Olympic size pool. Amber was so happy after passing her swim test. She said, "I really wanted to do it." 
• Friday, June 10th was the last full day of school. Rose will join Jay in middle school in the fall. 
• Saturday, June 11th, I enjoyed my first solid ten mile run in at least 8 months that didn't hurt in any way. Getting in shape is hard work, and it feels like it'll never happen for weeks and weeks until it suddenly happens. It feels good.
• Monday, June 13th was the last day at school--a half day that was tacked tackily onto the end to make up for a snow day. The kids were instructed not to bring their backpacks at all. They had a great time playing and watching a movie!
• Monday, June 13th, Amber finished reading her first full length chapter book, the first book in the Wings of Fire fantasy series about dragons. I am not 100% sure she read and understood every word of this 4th grade reading level 200 page book, but she is so good at context clues and skimming over words she doesn't know that I think she legitimately enjoyed the story. For most of the school year, I tried to convince her to read the early reader chapter books we have, like Junie B. Jones series, and the Magic Treehouse series, but she never did until one day last week she came home and declared that she was going to read the Wings of Fire series. 1 book down, 14 more to go! Amber's reading improved drastically during first grade. 
• Tuesday, June 14th had lots of firsts: 

• First day of summer break. 
• First day of morning swim practice: Jay and Rose practice at 6:30-7:45am, and Amber practices at 7:30-8:30am. Nothing like getting up earlier during summer than we do for school! It was 47 degrees when the kids got in the outdoor pool in the morning! I don't love triple digit temps, but it has been a decidedly chilly June.
• First day of summer cross country conditioning practice. We meet at 7:30-8:30am (during Amber's swim practice). 9 runners showed up, which shows that we are growing this program little by little. Jay and Rose have started running with the team after over an hour of swimming, and I am in awe. We do have any swimmers run less than non-swimmers since they are pulling double duty, but still, it's a lot of exercise! I may need to go to Costco twice a week to fuel these hungry machines! Every summer we have our kids earn their screen time with outside time, and this summer the kids earn 90% of their screen time by 9am.
• First open track sesh: After summer cross country practice, Jeff goes to the high school track and holds an "open track" session for an hour, for anyone who wants to come use the track and field equipment (pits, pads, hurdles, javelins, etc.).
• We got our first ping pong table in five years! When we moved to our little Sunnyside country cottage five years ago, we got rid of our old rickety uneven ping pong table. Jeff has been wanting another ping pong table ever since, but we really don't have a room big enough to hold one in this house. So Jeff researched and found an indoor/outdoor ping pong table, and it arrived on Tuesday. Jeff set it up on our front porch. I'm not sure if having a ping pong table on the front porch makes our house more awesome or less classy, but we don't care! Eventually we will set it up in the garage when it gets hotter (or colder). 
• Tuesday night after dinner we had our first family scripture time/Come Follow Me lesson of the summer. We do family scripture at 7am before school during the school year, but had to carve out a new time to make it happen during summer, since two swim practices and a cross country practice take up our summer mornings. Jeff remembered during dinner, so we reviewed the David and Goliath story, then took turns standing on a chair menacingly while everyone else threw fleece snowballs at Goliath's head. Eventually it morphed into a dog pile of kids. Hopefully we can remember to have family scripture enough nights to make it a habit this summer!

Pretty canal view--it's so green after extra rain and cooler temperatures.

The only picture I took on day one of swim team practice. That little head right in the middle with pink goggles and no swim cap is Amber, working with a kickboard. We ended up making three separate trips to our dinky local sporting goods store to get swim caps that actually fit all three kids. Amber's independent fluffy hair required an adult size swim cap, which threw us off.

Amber, wearing the child size swim cap we initially got for her--that hair escaped right and left, and it wouldn't stay down over her ears.

Rose learned that swim caps cover about 2/3 of the ear. (I'm learning right along with her--Jeff is our resident swimming expert in the family.) How adorable are kids with goggle-marked puffy eyes and swim caps? Rose swam with the 11 years old and under group (she's 11) for the first week of practice, but then was given the option to practice with the 12-18 year old group because she's a rather sleek snazzy speedy swimmer. She made the brave decision to join the big kids.

Jay looked snazzy in his neon swim cap.

Art club topic: bird. I was inspired by my cute 80-ish year old neighbor Dale, who lives in the triplex behind us and feeds the birds every other day.

Cute new sunflower dress, because why not get new clothes at the end of the school year? All three kids wore out their shoes a week before the end of school, so we got new shoes, plus new dresses for the girls since they were on sale.

Amber, in her adult size swim cap. She managed to get it on all by herself and was feeling triumphant.

I will keep taking pictures of my kids crammed into swim caps because they crack me up with their cute skulls!

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL PICTURES:

Jeff wanted in on the photos: age 40, finishing up his 11th year of teaching! It's easy to remember because he was hired the same year Rose was born.

Jay: last day of 7th grade, age 13.

Rose: last day of 5th grade, age 11. Goodbye, elementary school. Hello, middle school!

Amber: last day of 1st grade, age 7.5.

Amber, reading Wings of Fire.

I took the "official" last day of school pictures on the last full day of school, but snapped this quick crazy pic on the last half day of school. Yes, Amber chose to wear cargo shorts under a dress.

Blurry through-the-window cell phone-zoomed picture of the girls getting on the school bus in the morning together for the last time. Sniff.

Coming home after the last day of school: hello, SUMMER!

Summer break is two days old and I am already in husband heaven. He is home so much! It's the best!

Front porch ping pong! It involves a lot of ball-chasing for these two. We constructed a ball barrier by hanging pool towels all along the porch railing, and it helped.

Taking Goliath DOWN to the ground. Strong girls/patient brother.

It's time for long mellow summer evenings where the sun sets at 9pm. This long-shadowed view out my bedroom window across the mind fields makes my soul happy.

Amber was warming up in the car after swim practice, waiting for us to stop talking with the runners, and she found my phone. It's hilarious that she doesn't know how to smile on purpose even when she wants to take her own picture, haha. This girl is so awesome. I can't even be mad about this brief series of selfies she took, because SWIM CAPS ARE THE BEST.