Last Day of Kindergarten, Second, and Fifth Grades

Last Wednesday was the last day of school for the 2017-2018 school year. 

Our day started out with Kindergarten graduation for Ben. All the kids processed in and sang a couple of songs. Ben looked like he was going to cry a couple of times. He had cried at school the week before because he didn't want to go to first grade. 

Singing their song

Receiving his certificate

Ben and his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Butcher

After graduation, I signed him out of school and we took him to Tim Horton's for a donut treat! 

A couple hours later, we headed back to school for the awards assembly for grades 1-5 and for the 5th grade clap-out (where everyone lines the halls and clap while the 5th graders take one last walk through the halls.)

Jacob received a couple of awards: Bookworm award and a merit award for having all As and Bs throughout the year. We are very proud of him! 

Jacob and his 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Jemison

Rebecca received several awards. These included participation awards in Battle of the Books, Safety Patrol, Morning Announcements, Tator Tot Day (they helped with the little kids at recess time). She also received awards in math, and an academic excellence award for achieving all As throughout the year. Her dad and I are so proud of her! 

Rebecca and her 5th grade homeroom teacher Mrs. Tripp

Rebecca and her gifted math teacher Mr. Bohland

After their ceremonies, we met up with my mom, brother and his girlfriend at Fiesta Mexicana for a late lunch! All in all it was a nice way to end the school year. I can't believe that I have a First Grader, Third Grader and a Sixth Grader (who will be going to the Middle School in the fall!). Now it is on to the adventures of Summer!  

Nature Scenes for June 3, 2018--- FLOWERS

Happy Sunday! Well May has come and gone and we are now into June. What can I say, we survived May. Now hopefully things will start looking up for our family with Summer. Things are still really hard around here. This past week has been really busy with Memorial Day and the end of the school year. I didn't get out for any walks this week. However, I did take the kids out to the Children's Garden on Friday for a picnic lunch and I got to enjoy some of their pretty flowers, so I thought I would share those with you today.  

 

Photos from June 1, 2018--- Children's Garden

For more nature scenes you can check out my other nature posts: 

January 7, 2018

January 14, 2018

January 21, 2018

January 28, 2018

February 4, 2018

February 25, 2018

March 4, 2018

March 18, 2018 

March 25, 2018

April 1, 2018

April 8, 2018

April 15, 2018

April 22, 2018

April 29, 2018

May 6, 2018

May 12, 2018

May 20, 2018

May 27, 2018

I hope everyone is having a good Sunday and if you get a chance check out the nature scenes around you! 

Bill's birthday, Graduation, and Memorial Day

I am slowly playing catch up here on this here blog....

Last weekend was pretty busy as we had things scheduled everyday. 

Last Friday, May 25th, was Bill's birthday. He spent the morning at orientation for a part-time job at Kroger. I took the kids to school then headed to a friend's house who had a job for me to do that day. I spent the morning scraping paint off of her front deck as she is trying to get her house ready to be put on the market. It was hot, tiring work, but it made me $50. After Bill, was done with his orientation he came over to help. Then we headed home to get the kids from school. After that, we took ice cream over our friend's house as she used to be Ben's preschool aide and we wanted to celebrate Bill's birthday.

After ice cream, we headed out to Newark to take Bill to dinner at his choice of restaurant, Rooster's. Dinner was very yummy.

We followed that by coming home for chocolate pie and a couple of presents. 

Saturday was spent doing chores and laundry.

On Sunday, we got to attend the high school graduation of my baby brother. I am so proud of him as he graduated with honors! He is headed off to college in the fall to play football and to major in education. 

 We also got a picture of all the graduates of this year. My sister, Mary, graduated from college. Josh graduated from high school. Rebecca graduated from 5th grade and Benjamin graduated from Kindergarten.

Monday, was Memorial Day. We got the day started off with our hometown parade. Rebecca walked in it with her American Heritage Girls troop, while the boys and I were spectators!

That afternoon, we headed off to our good friends' horse farm for a cookout. The kids had a blast running and playing! 

Then it was home to get ready for the last couple days of school! Overall, it was a good weekend.

Girl's day out exploring our county

Thanks everyone for your comments on the post about Bill's job saga. We are still in the beginning stages of the transition and things have been very hard. We are taking things day to day and just trying to move on. I am trying to make sure that I focus on the kids, especially now that it is summer break. Again, thanks so much for all your comments and encouragement. This is just a hard time, but I know that we will get through it. 

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Last Thursday, my mom, sister and I decided to take a "Girl's Day" and explore some places around our county. I wanted to take my mom and sister out to Honey Run Waterfall and to the Bridge of Dreams. We also wanted to hit up some local bakeries, amish type stores, etc. 

We started out our day with having breakfast at the Café on Main Street, a local eatery. It was super yummy. 

Then we headed out to our first stop... Troyer's of Apple Valley. This is a neat shop, where we got some treats. I bought a couple candies that reminded me of my grandmas and a small loaf of rhubarb bread that is really yummy. 

Then it was out to the waterfall. It was gorgeous out and the waterfall was flowing pretty heavy as we have had a couple storms recently that dumped a lot of rain. My mom loved it and was climbing up on the rocks, etc. I did fall on my behind on the rocks near the falls! 

It was a lovely time. After we left the falls, we headed out toward the Bridge of Dreams, making a stop at an Amish furniture store that also had a bakery attached. My sister got a homemade soft pretzel that was super yummy! 

Then it was time to stop at the Bridge of Dreams.

After the Bridge of Dreams, we headed to another country market that was a dud-- it ended up being a bent and dent store and it was awful. 

After that we headed back towards our town. On the way, we discovered an amish bakery called "Raber's Country Bakery" that I will definitely be going to again. They had super yummy crème donut sticks and they were so good! The store smelled so good! Apparently they are also a produce stand in the summer. When you walked in most of the building was their ovens and there were Amish women making pies and cookies in the back. It was a really neat place. 

Once back in town, we stopped at a local farmer's market where I picked up a couple of locally grown tomatoes-- our first of the season. Then we headed to a craft store, before picking the kids up from school. It was a great way to spend a day with 2 of the favorite women in my life. It was definitely good for my soul.