The latest happenings

It has been awhile since I blogged. The last year has been kind of a blur for me. I have been doing a graduate certificate program at the university here and so everything else has seemed to slip through the cracks. This summer I am teaching swimming lessons and also starting a research project up at school, as well as studying to take the GMAT (Graduate Management Assessment Test). In between all that stuff, I am busy taking care of my kids. We are doing our own summer reading program and it has been really fun. They are also helping to take care of the garden and the yard. So here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately!

We had a piano recital! William and Marissa both take piano lessons and they are really doing well at it. Marissa plays all day long and she picks up songs very easily. She is hard for me to keep up with! William plays beautifully and he really enjoys sight reading from his book.

Here is their teacher, Sue Knutson. I think she is a great teacher!
Some reading time with our cat. I will often walk in and find the three of them together reading. Though, Owen is not reading so much as listening.

This is from last month when we went to the park to shoot off a rocket. It was a great success!

Marissa has been busy losing teeth the last couple of months. I told her to stop, but she said she can't help it.

We have been attacked, well sort of, by cicadas this summer! They are harmless, except for the tremendous noise they make. Apparently they are one of the loudest insects on the planet and when you combine their noise with thousands of others, it is really very loud. They covered the trees for a couple weeks. For several days they were even more packed on to the trees then they are in this picture. It was crazy! Marissa has been picking up their wings all the over the place and she gives me each one to put in her journal. I might have lost a few of them. She actually asked me if I would go pull the wings off the ones that were already dead, but I had to decline.

We also went fishing for the first time ever! William was so excited. He caught so many fish, it was a very successful fishing trip!

We have also had sports camps this summer. William went to a baseball camp. He had fun, but it was really very hot that week. It was a long morning for him.

William and Marissa were both really excited to do soccer camp. Here is Marissa dueling with this kid. It was a great camp and they both learned a lot. The first night they had their shin guards, they slept with them on. And William had his soccer ball with him in bed also. He hasn't stopped kicking it since the camp ended. He loved it.

It was really hot this week also, they had to take water breaks every 20 minutes. We went home everyday and ate a popsicle or two. This is the last day when they got their shirts!

William was really into this one on one scrimmage thing they did. He won this one.

Also this month, I entered two of my paintings into an art show! It sounds way cooler then it really is, but I am still proud of me for doing it. It isn't juried or anything, it is just for show. In the picture, my paintings are the two on the right.

Well, I do have pictures with a baby snapping turtle and us waiting for the International Space Station to pass over our town, but the pictures aren't loading and I have run out of time. Hopefully I will get those ones up soon. Thanks for reading!