Finger Lakes State Park

We drove 30 minutes up to Finger Lakes State Park last week (and also today, but no pics from today). It was very nice, and the water seemed much clearer and cooler than Stephens Lake. 

We were there 3 hours - from about 9:30am til 12:30 - and we were the only people at the swim area the entire time! I even called Sam and asked him to check the water levels online and he let me know they were tested & found acceptable on the 1st. We did see several folks canoe past us, including a mom with three young kids right after I told my 3 kids that I couldn’t take them on a boat  without Sam. 

James collected several small seashells and we saw lots of fish in the water.

James was breakdancing in the water:

He tried breakdancing on land, too: 

After a while, Amelie found a shady spot to read her book.

She also took this photo of us, and managed to be in on it as well, with her thumb. 

Mountain Biking Course

 I saw that Columbia has a mountain bike skills course on the parks and rec website so we added it to the list of things to do this summer. We went out (on a weekend, so Sam could come, too) and took all three kids' bikes but Amelie was the only one who wanted to ride - the other two just played in the playground area and then Leah watched some biking from the fence. I didn't actually take pictures of that outing, but there's another bike obstacle course up at Finger Lakes, too, which we did a few days later, and I took a bunch of pictures then. 

The one in Columbia says "beginner to intermediate" but it's definitely not beginner - I was really proud of the way Amelie kept at it even after falling off. She scraped her forehead and elbow pretty good. The one at Finger Lakes is probably also intermediate but the outside loop seemed a little bit easier. I just packed up Amelie's bike since we went to all that trouble cramming the other two in the back of the van last time & only she rode & they claimed that they weren't interested. 

Working up some courage: 

There was an inner all-concrete loop, too, which James and Leah spent a fair amount of time just running around on foot. We were the only people there. 

James was not very patient waiting for his turn with the bike: 

James tried the outer wooden loop and the inner concrete loop on the bike - he only fell off once - and then he rode around in the empty parking lot some. 

Stephen’s Lake and 1st Day of Summer Break

I took the kids out to Stephens Lake to celebrate the first full day off of school (and also Friday, but I didn’t take any pics then!) Not a ton of photos from our first visit of the year, either, because it was 3 kids vs one parent. 

James woke up in the 5 o'clock hour, so excited for the first day of summer. He came to our room and wanted me to read a chapter from The Disappearance of Emily H., a book featured on the TV show Ghostwriter, which I'd been reading to him at night, but I told him was going to have to give me until 6am. Since I wasn't reading, he wanted me to teach him how to do stop-motion videos, but I explained that had to wait until 6 as well. So he fed the dog and brushed his teeth and entertained himself until 6:00 on the dot when I read the promised chapter, ha!

After that, I downloaded Stop Motion Studio, we watched a tutorial together, and he was off. He made several stop-motion videos, which he then sent to Sam. 

I like the beard monster, who first insults Sam’s beard and then eats the message:

There are several more cute ones, mostly of toys moving around. I’ll try to make a separate post about them. James is also signed up for a one-day stop-motion animation class in July.

We ate a big breakfast and spent an hour and a half or so out at the lake, which has a big nice splash pad and a small to medium algae filled swimming area (not pictured). Leah’s “swimmin hat” is getting small!

James's swimming shirt is snug, too! He has more :)

We didn’t bring any toys, so Leah was forced to use her hat to scoop the water.

James pretended the fountain was bars trapping him. 

James and Amelie got to press the button to re-start the water fountains (they go off automatically after 20 minutes). James remarked that he never used to be able to make it before the big kids, but now HE was one of the big kids. 

Before and after the outing, Amelie spent a lot of time reading in her room and playing outside in the front and backyard - making clover chains. 

This is what I was most proud of: Amelie and James rode their bikes all the way around the big loop in our neighborhood! Amelie said the “big hill” was terrifying but fun. I assisted Leah around the block, but she's not yet up for the whole big loop (which is over a mile). 

Finally, we weeded the garden and talked with the neighbor over the fence. We also made a a list of several other activities we’d like to do over the summer and talked about continuing with the math curriculum - Amelie is just over halfway done and James is about a third finished with the ST Math app that they’ve been using and then we have several blank pages left in their workbooks if they’d like a break from the app. They had a full first day of break, I'd say!

Party Dress

Nana Jana bought Leah a party dress last year - and I guess I never published the pictures and now she’s outgrown it. Here she is from last summer. Her hair is so much longer now (not that you can 100% tell, because it curls up). And even her face looks different. 

Bootheel trip

Leah, Nana Jana and I made a trip down to the bootheel for the first time in a loooong time! It had been a year and a half - since Thanksgiving 2019. We’d planned on coming in February of 2020, but that was the month we had rolling illnesses and all 5 of us came down with flu and strep right after each other, so we had to cancel that visit. Then in March everything shut down.

It took us 7 hours to make what Google tells me is a 4 hour, 15 minute drive down! Memorial Day weekend traffic was atrocious and there were at least 3 wrecks, plus we had a meal, and 2 of our passengers had to make frequent bathroom breaks. 

I should have taken more photographs! In fact, most of these are from Aunt Lana’s phone. Playing piano: 

Leah threw a bit of a fit one day when we were there and had to sit in time out. This was on top of some sympathy tears and crying about her cousin going home. Closer to bedtime she told me “I’m embarrassed about my day,” and then after a pause, “I do my best.” 

We also got to see Uncle Jeff in Kennett, who fixed us up with bottles of water, pocket knives, and an apple for a snack for the road.

This series reminds me of the best series of photos from 3 years ago. 

And Grandma Doris with Leah on the porch swing: 

I did several rousing versions of The Gruffalo

You can see Nana Jana's reading it, too. 

We got to look through some boxes of photographs of my Uncle Robbie and Aunt Jewel. I took a few of me, mom, and Holly home, and then took pictures of photos of others just to have them on my phone. (I very helpfully sent my cousin Kendra her old school pics when I came across them when she was at the lake with her family. Ha!) This is my Grandma Doris and Grandpa Leroy, I'm not sure what the occasion was, but possibly my Aunt Lana’s wedding in 1987 (at first I thought it was maybe my sister’s wedding in 2005! Obviously Grandma has good genes!)

Here's my Grandma Doris as a young woman: 

She thought this one was from her sophomore year: 

Her sister, my great-aunt Jewel, in uniform. 

And all three of her older siblings - Bill, Jewel, and E.L. I asked where she when the picture was taken, but she didn't know. 

5th grade graduation & last day of school

The kids had school all the way through June 3 this year. Needless to say, they were VERY excited about the last day of school. In fact, on the day AFTER the last day of school - the first day of summer vacation - James woke up at about 5:45am excited to squeeze all the fun possible out of the day. He wanted me to read him a chapter out of the chapter book that we're on (The Disappearance of Emily H., as featured on Ghostwriter), but I told him he had to give me until 6am.

Last day of school pics. Here's James on his last day of second grade. 

This was Amelie's last day of elementary school & last day at Ridgeway. Elementary school in Columbia just goes through the 5th grade and then middle school is 6th, 7th, and 8th. 

Quite the difference from her first day of Kindergarten & first day at Ridgeway (also the photo quality from Sam's phone has improved quite a bit, as you can see): 

We attended Amelie's 5th grade graduation ceremony in the morning. It was outdoor with a bring-your-own-lawn-chair situation due to COVID, but it was so pleasant that I hope they just continue that way. 

Everyone sung the school song & then the kids sang "This Land Is Your Land." 

Amelie's teacher took a family photo for us & my friend Shauna's farm venture provided the lovely bouquet. Some of the kids went home with their parents after the ceremony, but I thought Amelie would have more fun doing the last-day-of-school things and I had to go back at noon to pick James up anyway. 

Several of the online-only kids came to the ceremony as well so she got to catch up with them. Her teacher, Ms. Williams, said before they announced everyone's name that her class attended more than half the year online and once they finally got to come back (limited, masked) in-person that they were just so glad to see each other that they were all best friends, and that continued throughout the year - she'd never had a group of kids who all got along so well. It probably helps that the class size was so small, too, with just 14 students. 

They also came home with report cards, which looked different due to COVID as well - there were no academic evaluations, just teacher comments and the info that they'd been promoted to the next grade. 

I thought this selection of comments from James's were funny (just an excerpt): 

Trimester 1: "James is a joy to have in class. He shows good listening skills and uses his worktime appropriately." 

Trimester 2: "When prompted, James is willing to volunteer ideas and perspectives during classroom discussions." 

Trimester 3: "James needs to continue working on listening to directions and completing classwork." 

It seems like things might have gone downhill as they moved in-person 😂

I thought this was nice from Amelie's teacher (again, just a small excerpt - it was a whole page of typed comments for both kids): "Amelie is a really cool kid! She has very interesting thoughts and great ideas to share about a wide range of topics." 

Dr Visit

Amelie had her 11 year old well-child visit today. I had to pick both her and James up 40 minutes before school was out because of the timing of the appointment — I’m sure I wasn’t thinking about school still being in session when I made it! CPS had never gone into June since she started school.

Stats

Height: 4 feet, 5.5 inches (12th percentile, using the CDC chart at infantchart.com)

Weight: 71.6 pounds (23rd percentile)

Shots: 3 (but not COVID vaccine eligible yet!) 

Amelie wanted me to ask if she could ride in the front seat of the car, and Dr. Swofford said it was legal in a pinch, but safer to stay in the backseat one more year.

The 3rd shot she got seemed painful, so we drove through Dairy Queen afterward, where she requested a Thin Mint blizzard. 

Here’s the link to last year’s appointment for comparison purposes: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2020/07/well-child-dr.html?m=0