A Very Busy Summer

I can't be sure without going back and checking, but I may have a post or two in the past that was titled the same way – a Very Busy Summer. It seems that each year as the summer draws to a close, I have to put up a post detailing everything that we did the past summer because I was too busy during the summer to post. I would just like to confess that in the past years, when titling my posts, I LIED. I know this, because this was the busiest summer that I have ever had, and whatever I thought was busy in the past, that wasn’t it.

First, we had the end of the school year for the girls. This was a big year for Maggie. She had an end-of-fifth-grade party, and I manned the concessions. It was really interesting to see all these kids that she’s been with since second grade, and how much they’ve grown up.

Next in the fifth-grade lineup was a talent show. Maggie and a friend had decided to do a dance routine from the Wii Just Dance game. They got together and practiced, but they needed the music to play on the sound system at the school, so I went out to Amazon to download the song. Well, I hadn’t realized that the song on the game, which is rated E-10, had been heavily sanitized to maintain that rating. I felt a bit uneasy seeing that the song was offered in two versions – explicit and radio edit. I thought that the radio edit would be the one that is one the game, and after previewing the 30 second snippet available, I downloaded it. Well, IF it was sanitized at all, I couldn’t tell. I had to call the other mother and let her know that our girls would NOT be dancing to that song. The girls had to pick a different song – one I knew its entirety, and learn it quickly the morning of the show. Maggie was upset, but we explained why the song was unacceptable, and she seemed to understand. I hope that when it comes time for her to control what goes into her ears, she will remember these lessons.

Gracie finished out her year with the third-grade’s mini-society. Her group made decorated flip-flops, pencils, and bracelets. They sold out quickly and counted it a big success. She and Sterling manned the table first:



The last fifth grade activity for Maggie was graduation, which Jerry and I attended. Here she is getting her diploma from her teacher, Mrs. Bradley:



They also had an autograph party that afternoon. I showed up for that too, but Maggie told me that I did not need to stay (I think I was embarrassing her) and so I watched the all-school sing along at the end of the day at Gracie’s invitation, and then headed home. Here’s Gracie’s grade – they sang “Surfing USA” by The Beach Boys.



My summer vacation didn’t last long – I started school on June 14 – but Jerry and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a relaxing vacation to St. John before summer school started. While that was going on we started swim team, practicing four days a week in the morning, did Girl Scout twilight camp, VBS, Gracie’s birthday party, church camp, and finally, a mission trip. In short, a very busy summer. Let’s see if I can catch everyone up!