Summertime

 I hope you saw that and broke into song in a theatrical sense.. Like Olaf of course. 

Summer is here!!!!! 

And it's been grand already. 

I have been reading and digging and trying to search for some sort of inspiration to write some things for the writers league. I don't know why I'm having such a block- I'm never short of loud opinions and always happy to share- wanted or not- what is going on?! 

Super frustrating. 

I need to catch up!

Field day at school!

It was great!!! 

Field trip to the state park, and learning to play "the eagle game" 

I LOVED Brody's 2nd grade teacher. Mrs Moon. Nurse gone educator and a force to be reckoned with. She had high expectations, and was a pusher, she had zero tolerance for a lack of manners or disrespect, and she was old school. In the sense that learning needed hands in activities, that people teach better the. Computers or iPads, that human connection is required for development, and that sometimes you just need to do what you know is best and deal with the consequences. My kind of lady!!! It was such a good year, and I am genuinely sad that Brodys time with her is over. Can't thank her enough. 

Memorial Day weekend!!!

We went camping! 

So much stinking work- and had a few moments of total failure- but ended up being great. 

Loved it. Can't wait to go again!!! 

The last week of school was filled with more fun stuff- a walk to the cemetery to learn about Memorial Day, cemetery etiquette, learn some local Evanston history, then they walked over to the store and bought treats and learned about estimating taxes and looking at labels. 

The kids loved Pres! And she was pretty happy to be the center attention. They kept asking her to say their name and thought it was just the greatest thing.

Zane graduated TLC Preschool!!!!

I was pretty sure he wouldn't actually participate in the graduation- he has some serious stage fright (remember the Mother's Day program) and the morning of graduation was such a mess. With is teachers having to help me get him out of the car and me in tears of frustration by the end of it. He hates having people look at him or watch him. Hard thing to figure out how to parent. 

Anyways- thank goodness for great teachers who figured out how to make it work. It ended great.

Here he comes! In the cap and gown!!!! I was so so shocked that he was willing to do this!!!!!! 

Diploma...

Great teachers!!! 

His class

And then back to regular Zaney business of hating picture taking.

Poor Oscar!

About a month ago he had 8 teeth pulled. Well then last week his mouth was FULL of these nasty sores and he was drooling out the grossest smell ever and was just in pain. Back to the vet. First guess was he was in organ failure and I had a total meltdown. I don't even really like Oscar! (Cheeba is my perfect dog) but the thought of my poor kids losing Oscar was heart wrenching. Holy smokes. So forked out a fortune to run labs- good news. Liver and kidneys were fine. Forked out another fortune to have him put out and have the vet dog around and figure out what was going on. 

Jaw bone infection. Big time. So they pulled all his teeth on the left lower side, grafted back his gum and drained and scraped the infection out of the bone the best they could. Heavy duty antibiotics, and a mouth wash, with instructions to squirt in, then hold his mouth closed but don't cover his nose so he can breathe, for about 5 seconds. I really just broke into laughter. Ya. Totally do-able. Ya right!!! It's been more like pin him down, squirt the stuff in his general direction and have him spit and sputter it right back at me and then be ticked at me for the next few hours. It's gone real well. 

But he is getting better. I'm not putting another penny into this dog. I mean it. I think. 

Hard to say no- just die though. Zane really does have a connection with him. If your not a dog person I just sound crazy. 

I had a birthday!!! 

Had a fabulous park lunch party with one of my fave desserts from Allie! And some wonderful friends. And then that night had a suprise party!!! That was a first!! My friend Cynthia organized it and had Dev and the kids and Allie and Derek and kids all there. It was a total suprise!!! Didn't get a single pic. :(   Had cheesecake and a delish din. I have a big ol list of things I am so grateful for, and good, genuine friends is up there. It is definitely hard sometimes not having my mom or any fam right around the corner or in the same town- or state. But the fact that I have such wonderful friends enriches my life beyond measure. They are my 'sisters'-my support system, and such a help to me. There isn't drama or competition,  it is genuine love and kindness and concern for eachother. So grateful! 

That night Dad arrived!!! A really quick trip to get his rock hunting in- it was like a quick fix lol. They have a busy summer so he needed to get home, but we got out a few days and looked for rocks and went 4 wheeling. 

Waiting at the dentist- and 18 months no cavities for the family!!!! We celebrated with candy. Just kidding :) 

Lots of this happening...

And the boys caught a fence lizard...

First week of summer gone and we squeezed in craw fishing, rock hunting, science camp, kites, park dates, sprinklers, swimming, a lot of yard work and chores, reading, times table memorizing, walks, camping... 

We really love summer.

I smell smoke

I smell smoke! 

And what I mean is campfire smoke. And I love it. We had a full day of yard work and housework as a family and then roasted hotdogs and s'mores for dinner. Good day and summer is here!! Well almost. We worked on our bucket list tonight 

Brody: fishing, hunting, camping, boating,surf lessons, Canada,playing all day until midnight,flying somewhere and camping and sky diving. 

Zane: kayaking, riding his bike to bear lake, fishing, shooting birds (we have never done that), no chores ever, ice cream for breakfast, swimming in UT, going to the ocean, seeing cousins, fireworks, tye dye shirts, buy a horse, move to a farm, 4 wheeling. 

Preslie: go see the ducks, pet the ducks, feed the ducks, chase the ducks, see the baby ducks, swim and buy some new fancy shoes. (Totally my kid!) 

Zane had his Mother's Day tea at preschool and did this....

Are you confused? Well he did nothing. Yep. Practiced for weeks with no issues,

Come show time and he did absolutely nothing. Didn't sing a single word of any song and didn't do a single action. He told me a few days before that if people ever came to watch he wasn't going to do it. Don't ever call Zane's bluff. Stinker. 

We were nearly late for school one morning because this happened... 

No idea how he managed to do this- but it was so funny. I had to pull over and take pictures and laugh. So funny!! 

Game night. 

Field trip to the discovery gateway. 

Good times. 

Kites

I think I dreamed of the day my little girl would play in my high heels- I didn't think she would be obsessed and try to wear them everywhere- or have better heel skills than me. 

Cute 

Currently obsessed with "sunnies" and is the master of messes. Wow. 

Dev and I celebrated TEN years of blissful marriage. What!?! How and when did that happen. No idea. Crazy. 10 years. We had a super romantic exciting date at suds brothers brewey and then went to Walmart with no kids and drove around and looked at some property that was for sale- and got a bit depressed (again) that even though we are surrounded by nothing- finding property in the Evanston area is so hard! I don't get it. 

 

Walking to the park- with Minnie and a wand. Of course. 

I think that's a good catch up. 

Spring!!

Spring break finally came!

That was such a long haul between Christmas and now. 

We had the joy of farm sitting.. 

The boys were in heaven! 

We had a day of yard work... 

Notice the shoes :) 

Saw some dogs in sunglasses...

Headed to UT to see cousins.. 

Afternoon delight crafty-brownie party making quilt ladders! Love it!! 

We went to Lava hotsprings and I didn't get any pics :( 

Then we headed to Pocatelllo to see Grandparents! And make giant bubbles...

That was fun. Homemade bubble

Solution with dish soap and glycerin is the way to go FYI. 

We also colored eggs, played with cousins, celebrated Devs B day, flew kites, and went to the Disney nature bears movie- it was awesome. We love all of the Disney natures though. 

We had to head home Saturday because Dev and I spoke on Sunday. 

P in her Easter dress. She was not happy. And the boys can officially out run me, so that's why I don't have pictures of them. They really just hate having me take a pic! Why?!?!!! 

We keep seeing these guys around town. That's fun 

A few days later..

And it's finally starting to look like spring!! 

at least at Allies it is :) 

We are on the countdown to summer! Woohoooo!!!!