I can't believe June is over already, but here it is the first of July and Aidan has begun counting down in earnest to his 11th birthday. Shocking, no?
Jim and I were both able to attend Aidan's 5th grade awards assembly at school on June 9. He received awards for perfect attendance, perfect high honor roll (all As & A-s the whole year), and for being a finalist in the spelling bee. He barely missed receiving a high academic award (he had one A- with the rest of his all As), and also barely missed receiving an award for the mathematics competition - by one point! We are super proud of our smart hard-working kid.
Also on June 9, both kids had their recitals. Margie, Mark and Marcia joined us for a whirlwind tour of southern Kent County. We started at Hope Reformed Church at 7 pm for Esme's piano recital, and as soon as Esme performed, we lickety-split drove back to Byron Center and Nickels Intermediate School for Aidan's recital.
Aidan and Tyler played "Home on the Range" and "Amazing Grace" together for their guitar recital, and then Aidan played the melody of the Beatles' "All My Loving" while Tyler played the chords and Mr. Shepard played the bass line. It was awesome. :)
Our deck has hosted a family of robins for five springs in a row now, and this year we managed to catch one of the fledglings on film - from this year's second batch, I think.
Esme played "Flopsy and Mopsy" for her piano recital this year. She is taking a few lessons during the summer to stay fresh, and will start up full-time again in the fall. She'll be taking part in the local sonatina festival in November, so we are really proud of how far she's come in just one year. She's awesome. :)
Both kids took summer courses at the zoo this week. Esme's was called "Aquatic Adventures" - they studied all the aquatic animals at the zoo, including those from freshwater and salt water habitats. She had an awesome time, and made a puffer fish sculpture and a "triorama" (triangle-shaped diorama) with sea animals.
Aidan's course was called "Photo Safari" - they photographed almost every animal in the zoo and learned a lot about photography techniques and display options. He took some awesome pictures! This is just a small sample, as he has only unloaded the pics from the first day so far.
This sheep is ready for her close-up. :)
A goat collage.
Aidan's teacher called this picture "professional grade". He is very proud of his turtles. :)
Jim and I went to see Huey Lewis and the News at the Frederik Meijer Gardens on June 8, as a belated birthday gift for Jim. It was SO much fun. We thank Grandma Margie, who stayed with our kids while we were out having fun!
Mini Pep went in for her regular service, and we got this car for our loaner. The kids were thrilled, they felt like movie stars. :)
We spent the Saturday before Father's Day with Papa, who naturally had a project for us all to do! We helped put up poles for his bird feeder town - of course he can't have just one bird feeder, and each one has to have a gauntlet of squirrel-resistant obstacle courses. And again of course, he won't use just Quikrete, he has to mix his own concrete. I managed to get a photo of all my boys in one shot - brother, husband, son, father. :)
On Father's Day we took Jim to the zoo just for fun. Here are all my peeps saying "who?" at the owl exhibit. :)
My big girl still sleeps like she did when she was a tiny baby. What a sweetheart.
I reached a major milestone on June 21 - 100,000 people in my family tree file. Amazing!
