May…wait, WHAT!?

So, it has been crazy days! I can’t believe they have gone by so fast. When I last left you, Kelby had gone off to camp. It was a science camp through the school district. I had been worried about letting her go, but she came back safe and sound, though very dirty and tired.

Then it was time for Easter. We enjoyed a Good Friday service at our church and on Saturday we had fun dying eggs. On Sunday after church we went to Debbie and George’s house. The girls found eggs and I created a scavenger hunt with meaning for them too.

Mike got to see our new nephew, Zane, for the first time.

For our Junior/Cadette Girl Scout meeting we got to go on our fieldtrip to the glass blowing studio.  It was so awesome. This was the first activity that we could all agree upon to spend part of our cookie sale money and it ended up being great! The glass blower guy was super good with the girls, fun, and hip. Each girl got to help make her own glass piece by blowing into it. They could choose to make a bowl, float, or ornament.

The guy also made the larger bowl during his demonstration and then gave it away via lottery. Kelby won it! So pretty!

The following Saturday the younger troop got to go to the Horse and Pony farm for their Girl Scout field trip. Anika loved it! She got to ride a cute little pony.

She really enjoyed it when I let got and she got to direct the horse herself.

It seems that Girl Scouts is what has us the busiest these days. I have been working on the Encamporee planning team to get everything ready for our camp in June. I am in charge of the kitchen and cooking for the 150 people for the two night camp. Yikes! Outside of my comfort zone for sure. At least it is in a lodge with a full kitchen!

Then there was Kelby’s major illness. She ended up with a serious kidney infection. We think now that maybe she had issues with her bladder even at camp, but it turned into major pain and a fever over 10 days later. Poor thing. She was wiped out for a whole week.

On Saturday of that week I got to go on a Race Date with Michael. This was my first 5K run (Haggen to Haggen Run). It was in Bellingham in the pouring rain. I was so happy though because I ran 9:30 minute miles which was far better than I was doing in practice. I smashed my goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. At the end of the race there were a ton of freebies that we got to go around and gather. Then we had to wait for a bus back to our car. We nearly froze waiting there, but it was a fun race none-the-less. Now I’m looking forward to our next “race date” which will be a 7 mile race in Bellingham.

That night I took the girls to the local high school production of “Beauty and the Beast”. It was a play version of the Disney movie. We felt very “cultured”.

Then on Sunday it was Mother’s Day and Tegan’s birthday on the same day. We started out by being served homemade Eggs Benedict by Michael…my favorite. He made Tegan an Egg McMuffin. Then we went to church and I taught Sunday school.

After church, Tegan opened her birthday gifts and then she and I went out for a day to ourselves. We went out to lunch together and then to the mall.

What made the day extra special was that she decided to get her ears pierced! She got cute little crystal daisy earrings. We had a fun day. I felt bad since she had to share Mother’s Day with me, but in the end we had a great time together.

We went home and watched a movie with the family and had birthday sundaes for dessert.

We saved her actual party for the next weekend, so she would have the fun all to herself. She invited over three friends from church and two from school. We had a “Despicable Me” party. (If you haven’t seen that movie, you should watch it…it is cute!") For all the fun crafts/activities, we made “minions”.

I made Minion cake pops.

We sewed up some stuffed Minions and had pizza for dinner.

Then we decorated our Minion cakes…Twinkies decorated with candies and rolled fondant.

The girls all spent the night and we watched “Despicable Me” and “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. They stayed up late into the night and seemed to have a great time.

The sun came out for a couple days this last week and on Thursday I worked in the yard until I was exhausted. I got my garden pretty, pulled weeds, and mowed and edged the lawn. My muscles were SO sore the next day. I guess I haven’t used any of those muscles since last summer! We have had such a cold and dreary spring this year, that I knew I had to take full advantage of the nice day.

On Friday I got to go to the zoo with all the 1st graders. Anika and I had a lot of fun and the weather was  absolutely gorgeous. I had one other little girl that I was in charge of and she had never been to the zoo before. She LOVED it and wanted me to take pictures of everything. I’m printing them up for her.

This little girl, Nylah, is one of my Girl Scouts and a good friend to Anika.

 

On Saturday, the rain came back so we didn’t get too much accomplished around here. It was a nice lazy day…although I still had to run 6 miles that day. Yes, I am still running! It always feels like an accomplishment!

Sunday was our pastor’s last day. We are a little disappointed about that. Who knows what is going to happen to our little church now. We were just getting settled in when he broke the news that he was retiring. We’ll see what the Lord has in mind and hopefully someone will take on our church and become our new pastor soon. I’m afraid that they won’t find anyone. We’ll see.

We are all doing great! We have two weeks until our Girl Scout Encamporee weekend and only three and a half until school gets out. I don’t know what we’ll be doing for summer, but I imagine we’ll be camping. We don’t have any road trip vacations planned, but we hope to get to do something. My goal for next weekend is to get my tent trailer up and ready to roll.

Love you all and hope everyone is doing great!

Shawna