Memorial Day

We honor those...
...who served our country...

We appreciate the sacrifices you and your family...

...have made on our behalf...

...protecting us and our freedom.

God bless America!

Considering that I took about 200 pictures today...

(and I am not even joking about that), I consider it no small feat that I narrowed it down to post only 34 pictures tonight. Are you proud of me?

It was one of those days where there were so many family memories being made, where everytime I turned around there was something else that needed to be captured on film. So I just kept my camera on me at all times and snapped pictures left and right.

Look at this...Aunt Debby staged a picture of Great-Grandma with almost all of her great grandchildren (except for the 2 newborns) on a slide in the lake. Dave and his cousin, Jude, carried Great-Grandma out to the slide,

helped her up,

and then we got this fabulous group shot. Is she not the coolest Great-Grandma ever?!

The kids cooperated beautifully, so when we were done, we rewarded them with popsicles. :)

Then many of us got to work peeling corn.

Evan was so very tempted to eat his raw. :)

Everyone else got to work putting in the pier,

even some of the kiddos. (Way to go, Charlie!)

Evan mainly supervised. Note that this fine young man is quite confident in his masculinity. I would venture to say that not many boys could pull off wearing pink water shoes. :) (They were the only ones in his size at the lake.)

Then some very strong family members put the boat lift in.

We did have some time for play. Uncle Ron gave many boat tours...

Bless him!

The kids swam,

floated,

boated,

squirted and giggled,

ate with their cousins,

gave bunny ears,

ate sweet corn with very few front teeth,

agreed that cooked sweet corn is preferrable to raw,

caught caterpillars,

shared said caterpillars with Uncle Ron,

posed for pictures,

rode sharks,

played pirate ships,

fended off enemy attacks,

cruised,

sunbathed and giggled some more,

did oar tricks with their daddy,

watched their daddy balance an oar on his chin,

boated some more,

soaked up as much water fun for as long into the evening as they could,

and then promptly fell asleep as soon as they got in the car (holding a treasured tomato plant from Grandma).

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...SUMMER AT THE LAKE HAS BEGUN! :)

My little girl is a LITTLE excited...

about a certain other little girl that is joining our family in 15 days! She made up this sweet countdown calendar that I just found in her room. She's trying to keep track of how many days until we get our puppy. There are a few too many numbers on it, but that's OK. We'll sort that out tomorrow. ;)

15 MORE DAYS!!! (I'm a little excited too!)

Sailing on...

...to FIRST GRADE!!! That's what this fine group of Kindergarteners are prepared to do.
I swear, it WAS just yesterday when I dropped Caroline off for her first day of Kindergarten, and here she is, celebrating one of her last days of Kindergarten.

How did that happen?

Her AMAZING "set the bar extremely high" teacher had a beach party for the kids yesterday. I was able to be a volunteer for the day, and it was so much fun!

Caroline's teacher set up about 10 different beach-themed stations for the kids to visit.

They even had beach-themed snacks...

...and table decorations! (Seriously, Miss Pierson thought of everything!)

Caroline had a fabulous time with all her friends.

She even managed to do a little surfing!

We spent Friday afternoon there, and then went home to prepare for Henry's birthday party. It was a busy day, but I am so glad that I am able to enjoy these special times with my children!

One more school day until Caroline is officially a FIRST GRADER!